Family mystery
Beaded artifact discovery in Glovertown prompts family research
GLOVERTOWN — While cleaning out the family home in Glovertown, Carole Rose Webster unearthed a mystery.
Overlooked by her siblings and tossed into a pile of trash was a piece of beaded fabric with two baskets attached to the front. Blue beads near the bottom spelled "1907."
Turning it over, Rose Webster read on the back: “Presented to C.E. Rose on his first trip to Labrador. 1907. Age 11 years. C.E. Rose. Made in Labrador by Native people.”
The discovery of the small artifact launched Rose Webster and her family into genealogical research, along with attempts to identify the beaded fabric.
Cecil Edward (C.E.) Rose was Rose Webster’s paternal grandfather, who was born in Toronto in 1896. Rose lost his family early. It’s believed that his mother was badly injured or died in the Great Toronto Fire of 1904. Family lore tells the story that the maid was supposed to care for the children until the father was located. However, the maid dropped the children, including C.E., at the police station. They were eventually sent to live with C.E.’S grandmother’s family in Eastport. At that time, Newfoundland was a self-governed, independent British colony.
C.E. Rose grew up in Eastport, later marrying Cybil Francis Way of Glovertown. The couple settled there and raised a family, which included Rose Webster’s father, Lewis Rose.
“My father grew up in Glovertown and then joined the air force at 17, travelling and living all over North America,” said Rose Webster. “My mother, Phyllis, grew up in Glace Bay, Nova Scotia. They retired to Glovertown in 1985 and my father passed away in 2010.”
After her mother, Phyllis Brown Rose, moved to a retirement home in Gander, the family gathered to clean out the house where her family had lived for over 100 years.
This small beaded artifact now offers questions but no answers for the family.
“We’re piecing together family stories over the years. My father was a great history buff, especially anything to do with Newfoundland, so he definitely would have kept this, but we don’t know the story behind it. There’s no family left alive that knows anything,” said Rose Webster.
The fabric appears to be a kind of canvas beaded in brown-coloured beads, Rose Webster said.
“It looks like it was designed to be hung up, but I have no idea what the baskets would be used for. There appears to be some kind of cardboard beneath the fabric,” she says.
“We have more questions than answers. We have the family Bible, with birth dates, but that’s about it. We don’t know how my grandfather got to Labrador in 1907.”
Rose Webster posted pictures on Facebook, hoping for answers, but has found none. She has searched genealogical sites, looking for more family information, and hopes to visit The Rooms in St. John’s next year.
“I didn’t grow up in Newfoundland, but when I visited, people knew what family I was from just by looking at me. It’s interesting to go back to your roots when you don’t know them,” said Rose Webster.
She is hoping to find out more about her roots as she uncovers more information about the beaded fabric.