Remembering...

Longhurst family - timeline


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This is a timeline for the period of 1925 to present, with information on Theresa Mary Burke and Alfred Thomas Burton Longhurst, their marriage and life together, and the lives of their children.

On January 21, 1925, Alfred was born in Belleville, Ontario. His parents were Archibald Thomas Longhurst and Alice May "Lulu" Squires. Fred was the third of six children - Stanley, Archibald, Alfred, Harvey, Ruth, and Lorne. He was born in the house where the family lived at that time.

Theresa Mary Longhurst was born four months later, on May 27, 1925. She was the 11th child of 12 children born to Fred Damien Burke and Ellen Jane Thibeau. Her elder siblings, in order of age, were Lillian Marie, Suzanne Angeline (Angela), Frances Emmeline (Fran), Arthur Oswald, Garvey Vincent, Marie Marguerite Cecilia, Donald Alfred, Anna (Eugenie) Jean, Bernard, Joseph Herman, Helen Jeanne (died as a three-month-old infant), John Bernard (pronounced Bernerd), and Gerald Louis (Lou).

and Theresa was born in Louisdale, Nova Scotia. They met in Halifax after the Second World War, in which they both had played parts – Alfred as a sailor aboard the H.M.C.S. Meon and the ________ in the Canadian Navy and Theresa as a civil employee in the dockyards, handling office and administrative work pertaining to the supply and movement of the troops and ships involved in the war effort.

Alfred had a strictly English upbringing and heritage, his ancestors having arrived in Upper Canada in 1832 from the south of England. Theresa's ancestors on her father's side (Antoine Bourg and Antoinette Landry) came from France in 1632, arriving and settling in Port Royal, on the west coast of what is now Nova Scotia. Theresa's ancestors on her mother's side (Thibeau) were also very likely Acadian, with both sides being affected by the Expulsion in 1755 that saw many Acadians, or "Cajuns", forced from their homes and shipped off to the southeastern States. Theresa's direct ancestor was a fisherman who avoided the Acadian fate by staying out of the area and returning to Cape Breton after the war.

By the time Theresa was growing up in the 1930's, both French and English were being spoken in her household, with English predominating. French was still being spoken at times around them, and by Theresa herself on rare occasions, and Theresa could certainly understand French spoken to her in a colloquial manner at a conversational rate. Alfred had no interest in Quebecers, after many avoided joining the war effort in WWII even with Germany's occupation of France.

Colleen was born on Thursday, December 18, 1952 in Halifax, Nova Scotia. She was the second child, first girl, born to Alfred and Theresa (nee Burke) Longhurst.


Contact: email address sounds like cam at longhurst dot ca.

This web page was last modified 9/25/2013...

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