Parken Brailsford Family Tree
Created; 2001, Revised; 19/10/2022, 20/10/2022
My Grandparents, Edgar W Parken and Dorothy Francis (Brailsford). I believe it was taken about the time of their wedding, which was in December 1919? (1916 it may have been their wedding photograph) Edinburgh, Scotland.
Jean Lohmann (my mum) gave me most of the information.
Elizabeth Parken has given me a little more or correct some detail.
I have periodically received email corrections that have inspired me to ask mum a bit more, thank you too;
See earlier generations on these pages; Brailsford Family Tree Parken Family Tree
My grandparents and many of my aunties, uncles and cousins are or were photographers. Those businesses closed in Canada in about 2000 when film photography was largely displaced by digital photography. Having said that, some of the children of my cousins do have some training in photography. The business which had been purchased by my grandfather in about 1910, Talbot Studios, Edinburgh, had started up in the 1850s. Moved to Leven, Fife in the 1920s until 1979, I think, as E.W and D.F Parken retired and my uncle and auntie John and Flossy continued until they also retired.
Family Tree - Parken Brailsford.pdfPicture; Family Tree - Parken-Brailsford PDF
Edgar William 1885-1969 {Photographer} married Dec. 1916 to (Dorothy Frances Brailsford [Queenie])
Children;
Edgar Francis Parken Dec. 1919-2010 married to Pluxie
Children;
Phylis
Alice
Jean
Florence Mary Blasiak June 1922 - 2016?, married 1941 to John Blasiak
Children;
Helen Parken married to Errol Manook - Mum told me that Helen came to her granny's in her teens and was brought up like a younger sister of mum's (Jean). Mum says that Helen's secretarial skills are good, and they could both read each other's shorthand (Greg's) having been schooled at the same Madras College, part of St Andrew's University.
Children;
Errol
Veronique
Victor Parken 1945?-195? Married to
Children
Caroline
Samantha
Eva Parken married to Martin Cutler
Children;
Jenny Blackpool, married - one son.
Nicky, to be married to Richard in June 2019
Arthur William, June 1923-2008
Dorothy Winifred Dec. 1924-1988, married to Roger 1919-1971 (ancestry.com died Graves End and Greenwich, Greater London respectively)
Wilfred Charles ? Apr 1926-2009
Tom David, Dec. 1931- 2015? Married to Elizabeth Mc Phie 1935-2021
Children;
Anne Alvi, 1955?, married to Jay (John) Alvi.
Children;
Andrea Alvi-Moskop married 2014 to Chris Hinkel
John
Linda Stevenson, 1957?, married to Bob Stephenson 19?? - 2021.
Children;
Melissa, married to Blaine Rollins
Michael
David Edgar Parken 1966, married to Sherry.
Children;
Amanda Stewart, married to Dave Stewart.
Matthew
Phyllis May Parken 1940, married to; Gilbert Anderson 19??-2017?
Phylis
Susan
Peter
Robert
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Photographer and Photographic business
The Parken photographic business was established in many shops and located in Cobourg, Ontario in about 1955 till 2000.
More detail see; Parken Family Tree
About the time that grannies children went to Cobourg a few weeks before she died there was an argument between the sisters. Phyllis was quite annoyed about her mother making her go to Canada, carrying her mums' money, I don't think the other sisters minded doing that because at the same time granny was looking out for them. The point was that they had no choice in the matter. I think my mum, Jean, was lined up to be the new head of the family, but it was Elizabeth who earned that duty, which she took on without complaint. My cousin Anne has inherited that, and she is there for all of us, and my mum at least did impose. Granny then died within a week of her children returning home.
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Edgar & Pluxie Parken;
Edgar Frances Parken (Ted) immigrated to South Africa in the 1950s.
Served his national service as a SAPPER (engineer) in South Africa - building pontoons for example.
He designs a road in South Africa, which he showed mum when she visited some time in the 2000'
Florence Mary and John Blasiak
Mum said her photography was very good, the picture of my Grandfather was probably taken by Flossy in the 1950s. Flossy gave me the photo, the compositing and the printing are excellent.
Flossy was a professional photographer, and she expected every photo she took to be correct, she told me. That is, 36 good pictures from a roll of film, she said.
Uncle John told me you could pay a model to take off her clothes to be photographed on the beach, say write a story and sell it to a news-paper.
Arthur William Parken;
Art (name used in Canada) but also known as His father gave him the nickname Titus after a Cornish poet. His father apparently liked giving people nicknames, my mum says.
King's own Scottish Boarders, seconded into the Palestine (mounted) Police until the formation of Israel in 1948. After that, served in the Hong Kong Police.
I was also talking to mum about the Israel situation, many people say that the conflict was a problem primarily created by the British. I told mum about speaking to a chap who had served in the British forces throwing Arabs out of their home in 1948 delousing them and manhandling them on to tramp ships – he hated what he had done for his country. Mum told me that just prior to that her brother Arthur was in the British Armed Forces protecting Palestinians from Jews come in to the Country in ship loads. – The British ~
Arthur immigrated to Canada in 1957/8?
Dorothy Winifred Parken
Dot married to; Roger Arnold;
Her father bought her a house in Gravesend, Kent, UK she never moved from because she was the black sheep and should never do photography. She was a WAAF photographer with her husband Roger. Roger was killed at a road junction on his bicycle by a car in 1971. He had worked at the Paper Mill near the dockyards in Gravesend, Kent. He was teased for his posh voice at work at first, but later was well regarded. Mum tells me her sister Dot was sent to her in-laws in Graves End, Kent because she was not liked. Her Father told her to pack her case, and he went with her on the train to Kent and set her up in her terrace house where she always lived.
Roger had a twin brother named John, and his older brother Leslie was the Bishop of Manchester. My auntie Dot was loudly critical of Roger's brother Leslie because he was, she believed, to be gay. Dot was very loud, generally about everything, and had a powerful voice.
Uncle Tom often recalled that as children, Dot balling out to her brothers and sisters in the cinema audience to come and get their oranges, that she had for them. My aunt had a powerful voice and would speak very loudly to people a long way down the street when mum and I were with her as a boy.
Wilfred Charles Parken
Wilf. Farmworker before emigrating to Canada in 1952, drove lorries, and lived under the counter of his photographic shop on baked beans.
My uncle joined up to fight in World War 2 when he was underage (15). He fought at El Alamein (the film A Bridge too far) deeply shocked to find himself left beside his dead serving mates in a crater then found wandering around three days possibly the sole survivor of his regiment. He saw the bodies in Belsen piled up. He saw the survivors who stank but feared being washed, being put in the river. This was of cause very risky those survivors being so frail but the soldiers were young and terribly in shock. He told his mother, who told mum, who then told me. Wilfred started to tell his family when he was very old, I understand.
Thomas David Parken
Tom Parken married to; Elizabeth
Immigrated to Canada in 1966.
Jean & John Lohmann;
Jean Helen Parken (My mum) went to Canada in 1955 for a year and worked in many places, travelling light with her Hudson Bay Company reference. Prior to that, mum had a year in hospital treated for TB using antibiotics, which were quite new then. This beautifully engineered at minimum cost Radio was given to mum for her 21st birthday by her dad in 1954 (cost £16).
Cruise to Canada for £60.
I asked how mum got into Canada in 1955 having had TB?
Jean was not allowed to immigrate, so she went in on a visitor visa, though she was not allowed in to Canada under any circumstance. But after that entry to Canada at the end of April 1955 mum was on the list and that is why she had to come back the immigration was so close (4hr.s travel away). Mum returned on The Empress of Scotland for Glasgow at the beginning of November 1955 this was an old ship to be scrapped which did not dock at Glasgow and was not scrapped but sold.
Two of mums brothers, Arthur and Wilfred, met her at Port Hope, Ontario at 8pm. The ship had taken two days travelling up the St Lawrence. Mum said the ship, Empress of France, carried immigrants and was a luxury, ship not like a bus which I was asking about the trip cost £60.
Although mum was not supposed to work, she did not say anything. Secretarial work was well paid, and she moved on and worked for the Hudson Bay Company in Winnipeg for Three months. She also worked in Calgary, but by September she got to Vancouver, but there was no work. People came into the towns to work in the winter.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Empress_of_Scotland_(1930)
RMS Empress of Japan (1930) - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
I found the passenger list, it recalls mum sailed on 29th April and returned at the beginning of November. Mum also recalls that the ship had previously been called the Empress of Japan. When mum returned to Brighton she was offered work for £3/10s a week but negotiated £5 a week.
The ships were at that time owned by Canadian Pacific. Mum remembers the banging on the side of the ship by the ice as the outgoing ship travelled up the St. Lawrence. The train to Cobourg was also Canadian Pacific, the other company being Canadian Nation used to run the rail line in parallel, but now both companies are replaced by VIA Rail.
Phylis May Parken 1940, married to; Gilbert Anderson 19??-2017? (possibly born 1935 according to passenger ship record of a single passenger, ancestry.com)
Phylis emigrated to Canada in 1954. From my auntie's perspective, she was sent to Canada by her mum in order to carry money to invest for her mum. Quite telling this statement as it quite accurately illustrates how my granny controlled things for her and the family's good but not by their consent.
Gilbert Anderson died when they were on a cruise, so the costs were all picked up by the insurance/holiday, and my auntie continued with the cruise home.
Live in; Vancouver, Canada.
Children;
Phylis *
Susan *
Peter *
Robert