Ringing of the bells
Official ceremony on Canada Day, 9:30 a.m. to 10:30 a.m., at St. Dunstan’s Basilica
I am very pleased to learn that the bells of St. Dunstan’s Basilica will be returned to their rightful place in time for Canada Day.
A little over a year ago I read an old issue of The Guardian and learned that my grandmother, Helen O’Shea McCarey, and her brother, Thomas O’Shea, donated one of the bells in memory of my great-grandfather, Martin O’Shea. Martin O’Shea had bought the properties at 66 and 68 Great George St. directly opposite the Cathedral as it was then called.
My grandfather later bought a property at Great George and Dorchester streets. My mother, Edna McCarey McDonnell, the youngest of four girls, was born at 66 Great George St., directly opposite the Cathedral and remembered the Cathedral fire of 1913 as they were afraid the heat from the flames would cause the windows of their home to shatter.
My grandfather, Joseph McCarey, was the postmaster of Charlottetown and president of the Anti-Tuberculosis Society. He retired after 40 years with the Canadian Postal Service and moved with my grandmother, my mother and her three sisters to Baltimore as my grandmother was in bad health and it was believed that she would not survive another Canadian winter.
I tell my friends that my family members are the only people on the face of the earth who moved to Baltimore for the climate.
My one aunt, Claire McCarey, had come ahead to Baltimore to train as a registered nurse and the rest of the family followed. This aunt, along with my oldest aunt, Florine McCarey, entered the Congregation de Notre Dame in Montreal but was always stationed in the U.S.A.
They joined my great-aunt, Rose McCarey, who had been stationed at St Joseph Convent in Charlottetown and died in Montreal.
It was only in checking family history online that I learned that my Aunt Florine was the “proprietress” of a news and variety store on Great George St. at Sydney which I believe is the old Wellington Hotel at 68 Great George St.
I suspect that my greatgrandfather had a business in that building. He is listed in some places as a grocer and in other places a liquor dealer. I am inclined to believe that he was the latter.
My mother and her three sisters attended Notre Dame Academy. I met two of my cousins, Josephine Blake Tidmarsch and Maureen Blake, when they came to Baltimore in the mid’50s. Several people from the Island have lived in Baltimore. My first dentist was Dr. Arthur Bell from P.E.I.
My grandmother did not survive long after the family moved to Baltimore and my grandfather spent much time traveling returning to P.E.I. whenever he could. During a trip to Europe my grandfather sent a box of heather from Edinburgh to the editor of The Guardian which was duly reported.
Aside from the family names already mentioned I am related to the Blake, McRory and Grimes families.
The second daughter of my grandparents was Helen Winifred McCarey Hannum who was married but had no children. She enjoyed acting as a grandmother for my brother, Michael, and me as all of our grandparents had died before we arrived on the scene.
My aunt Winifred was the one with the strongest emotional connection to the Island. I have been surprised that so much of what I now know about my McCarey family is new information. My mother and her sisters did not provide a lot of details.
I think people of this time in history are more interested in family history than was the case in the past.