Prince Edward Island, Canada

I am in love with the Anne of Green Gables books and I own the whole set. I read them over and over as a teen and we have the movies which are absolute perfection IMO. The movies are not short and just within the past month or so I decided to try watching them with Y to see if she liked them. She LOVED them and we spent quite a few hours (in segments) watching them together.

I am just a teeny bit obsessed with Prince Edward Island, Canada, which is where the fictitious heroine of these books was supposed to have lived. This obsession with the place is compounded by my love of doing genealogy research on both sides of my family and the knowledge that my ancestors on my Mom's side came over from Bradworthy, Devon, England and settled in PEI in 1833. Through doing this genealogy research I also discovered that we are very distantly related to Lucy Maud Montgomery, the authoress of the Anne of Green Gables books! So it all ties in together very nicely, doesn't it?

In the past I have done extensive genealogy research into my Mom's side of the family. I was assisted in this by a cousin who sent me the documentation that she had. I took what she sent me and carried on from there. I haven't touched my Mom's side of the family at all for about 13 years but lately I've been bored at work and just last week went online and re-visited a few of the genealogy sites that were so helpful back in 1999 when I was doing my research.

I was thrilled and awed to stumble upon this photograph last week that someone else had posted, of my great-great-grandfather's sister-in-law, Effa "Effie" MacArthur. What a treasure! Effie MacArthur married William Dyment whose brother, Moses, was my g-g-grandfather. (Funnily enough, my son's name is Effie - short for Efrayim!)

She was born in PEI in 1815 and died there in 1909. It was written about Effie: "This lady was quite blind and yet was very particular about her dress and the dress of her granddaughters. She would ask them to stand out before her, so that she might "see" as she explained it, whether or not they were properly dressed for Sunday School or church, and she knew every little cap and apron apart. She travelled to the United States to visit several different members of the family every summer and lived an active life and also a long one, passing away at 96 years of age. Her children were John, George, Harriet and Maria. Another daughter passed away quite young."