Cars, people and license plates
The old snapshots (above) were sent in initially by Pat Angel, St. John’s, for our Sept. 16th. column. He wrote in part, “My genealogy hobby is evolving into a local history hobby and the pictures and stories in your column help with that.”
I am hoping your readers can help me here. While working with the Clarke’s Beach Information Centre this summer, Ross Boone of South River brought in this object. All I know is that it was attached to a vehicle licence plate. It was not unique to Clarke’s Beach. After posting it to Facebook, I read posts indicating that the towns of Cupids, South River and South Brook had them, as well. Apparently they were also issued for bicycles. Were they intended as souvenirs? Or was there some greater purpose? Any additional information your readers can provide would be appreciated.
Burton Janes, Bay Roberts
For the past several columns we have been analyzing old snaps in order to identify the cars and the model year. One thing leads to another. We now have license pate numbers, family names and several addresses (so many years ago) in St. John’s.
Hi Paul – I went through the info I have and there was a John Angel and Fred Angel both living on Hamilton Street in 1924. They both drove Studebakers at the time. John’s plate number was 5540 while Fred’s was 5111. Studebakers were sold at Studebaker Sales and Service on King’s Road.
In 1939 there was a John Angel living on Hamilton Avenue with license plate number 1339. There was also a James Angel living at 140 Hamilton Avenue (possibly related) with plate number 2068. There were was also two other Angels at the time, Stephen and Herbert at different addresses.
I hope this information helps Pat.
Shawn Auchinleck, Torbay
May thanks, Shawn. Readers should know that Shawn is a collector of license plates and other motoring memorabilia.