Family Pat and I have been married for over 45 years.  We enjoy traveling in our little trailer and have been all over the west.     The picture shows us on the beach south of Tofino on Victoria Island, British Columbia, Canada.   More photos and information can be found below on the Old Family Photos Pages.

Genealogy

My wife, Pat,  has Irish origins, but as of this date not much on her family tree has been documented. Pat was born in Kansas City, Missouri. Both her grand parents were born in Ireland, but they didn't meet each other until they were in the U.S. Other surnames related to Pat are "Duddy", "Clements" and "Isham".  I have done some research at the LDS center in Logandale.  The family name Yells' has a very small population. The name hardly shows up anywhere in any genealogical data base.

My great-grandfather Josiah, homesteaded in Canada at a place called Dagero.  Dagero is listed on old railway maps as a location.  It seems the location, now in present day Ontario, was in dispute with Manitoba as Provincial boundaries were not settled at the time.  This makes it difficult to trace.  Josiah is buried in Winnipeg, Manitoba but little else of  record is known at this time. Descendants of  Josiah live in Washington State, California, Nevada and British Columbia, Canada.

Humorous Stories

One day Nan (Nan was his wife, my grandmother,  that all us kids called Nan) and George had been fighting.  Not in a physical sense, but nattering back and forth at each other all day.  Dinner was the stew and dumplings.  During dinner when everyone was sitting down eating, Nan got in one last word.  George exploded and threw his plate of food straight up into the air until it hit the ceiling.  Stew and dumplings and broken china showered everybody.  Mum said it was really funny but nobody dare make a sound.  When they moved years later the stain on the ceiling was still there and some quick explanation had to be made up to cover it.

One day outside Daimler cars, where he worked, was a mat mender.  He was sitting on the grate right outside the front door.  The boss was furious, as this could be bad for business being people had to go right past him.  George said he would get rid of him.  He when down into the machine shop and sharpened a point on a long piece of shafting, using a grinder .  He then climbed down into the coal cellar and over to underneath the grate where the poor mat mender sat.  "Move along you bum" George said as he poked him in the rear with the pointed shaft.  The boss told George afterwards that he liked his end result but disapproved of his methods.

It was quite common for George to get a chauffeur assignment which would be a one person multiple day tour.  When up in Scotland while touring the British Isles with a doctor they found a very old abbots tomb inside an equally old church.  Being that there was apparently nobody around, the doctor and George decided to see if they could open the tomb.  George got a pry bar from the motorcar and they both started to try and pry off the huge stone cover off the tomb.  Then they were caught red-handed by the church custodian before they got the lid off.  "We just wanted to see how he was holding up after all these years" said George.

An additional story about George during WWII is on the Old family Photos Page 1.