Matrilinial Monday – Mary Dunlop Bordewick



Name: Mary "May" Dunlop Park

Called by Grandkids: Granny
Birth: 1891, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA
Death: 1982, Des Moines, Washington, USA
Spouse: Bjarne Bordewick
Marriage: 1917, Vancouver, BC, USA
Children: George & Henry
Parents: Robert James Park and Elizabeth Curran
Siblings: Jennie (unconfirmed), Helen (unconfirmed), Robert Curran, Elizabeth, Rhoda, Margaret, George, Florence
About: May Park was the fifth child of Robert and Elizabeth Park, born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, as all of her siblings were. Her parents had immigrated to the US shortly after their marriage in Northern Ireland (somewhere around the county of Antrim, possibly Belfast), and settled there in 1883 or so. She grew up there for the first ten years of her life, before things became too difficult for her father to continue do business as a cabinet maker, so they returned to Ireland. They lived there for five or so more years before one of their eldest children moved to Canada, and wrote back glowing letters about the country, so the family moved again, this time settling in Vancouver, BC.

In Vancouver, May met the man who became her husband, Bjarne Bordewick. He was a recent immigrant himself, having made several stops between Norway and Vancouver, and soon the couple married. Their eldest son was born a year later. They settled in Vancouver and raised two boys there before the war broke out in Europe. Both sons went to war. Only one returned. But George, their eldest, had married before heading off to the front, and they had a new grandson to console them while he was away. After his return, the Bordewick clan grew again, two daughters born to George and his wife. May doted on them all.

Unfortunately, after a move in 1950, Bjarne was struck by a car, and died, and May was left alone. Her younger sister Marge moved in with her, and the two kept house together until both grew too frail to live on their own. By this time, George's family had expanded by another son, a daughter-in-law, and two sons-in-law, not to mention May's first great-grandchild. George and his family had moved to Washington state in 1960 when he'd needed a new job, and so he moved her down to be closer to the family, and so that he could keep a closer eye on her. He got a place for her in a Masonic Home, and she lived there until her death.

Merle, May, and May's granddaughter and great-grandaughters ca 1977

0 comments :

Post a Comment

About this blog

This blog is maintained by two sisters who have had a life long interest in geneology.
Mika writes here mostly about our family (Hansen, Hillinger, Bordewick, Park, etc), and her search for more information.
Shannon mostly uses this space as a place to make the many stories written about and by her husband's family (Holly, Walker, Walpole, etc) available to the rest of the family, present and future.

Our blog is named Oh Spusch! mostly because Shannon is bad at naming things. The first post I put up includes a story about the time Walker's great grandfather took his whole family out to see a play and the littlest kept saying "Oh! Spusch!" No one ever figured out what she meant by that.