Jim and Barbara's Genealogy Trip Day Three-September 10
 
Day three was the official start to our genealogy work. We began the day by driving to Utopia, Ontario, Canada. Utopia is on highway 90 about 20 minutes west of Barrie. We went to the home of Rhea Sauvé Burjoski.  Rhea was married to my first cousin at the time of his death. My first cousin Robert Samuel Burjoski was affectionately known as "Bobby".  I am sorry I never got to meet my cousin as he apparently was very interested in the Burjoski family genealogy and accumulated quite a store of information including old pictures and documents.  Bobby was the second son of my Aunt Sarah Burjoski.

Prior to the trip, I purchased a HP-Scan jet 4370 portable scanner.  The idea was to scan any available pictures into my laptop.  This allowed the owner of the pictures to keep them while I had the digital information I could use in my website.  The use of the scanner paid off in dividends.  Thank you Rhea for your kindness in allowing me to copy dozens of Bobby's old photographs.

I also want to thank Lou Sauvé, who is Rhea's brother.  Lou put together a large number of pictures on a CD for me to carry back to Kearney.  Lou is quite a character.  He builds his own computers from parts he buys at garage sales.  His operating system on his main computer is Windows 98.  When I asked him why he still uses Windows 98, he said a number of software programs that he uses will not work on later versions of Window OS including XP so he keeps 98 as his OS and does downward compatible adjustments.  Lou is also an outstanding wallboard and mud man.  In fact, Lou knows a little about everything.  It was a pleasure meeting you Lou and thanks for your help.  See the picture below of Lou sitting on his home built trailer where he was welding the supports for carrying supplies like lumber and wallboard.

Back to Bobby Burjoski!  Bobby visited my mother a number of times in Florida, the last two times were with Rhea.  I came to know about Rhea through my mother and she provided me the telephone number and contact information.  That was how I was able to plan my trip and have a starting point.

Bobby had several significant documents concerning my Aunt Nettie Burjoski Van Loon. He had her birth certificate and her baptism certificate. Her birth certificate shows that she was born on May 11, 1918 in Espanola, Ontario Canada as Naskaha Buchowski.  A copy of her Baptismal Certificate from May 13, 1918 confirms the spelling of the name Buchowski and the spelling of her mothers name Mary Dubiniewicz. I believe all future research will have to focus on those spellings.  A side note here!  I will still have to deal with the spelling of my mother's name when she was born in 1921, which was Mary Theresa Bechoski.

In any event, I spent the day scanning photos and Lou put them on a CD after he got his computer working again. We made our plans for Sunday the 11th of September and Rhea called my first cousin Billy Burjoski in Niagara Falls. I was able to talk to him and we made some plan changes and agreed to go over to Niagara Falls on Monday. We had a nice dinner out in Barrie, came back for more scanning and called it an evening. Our next day plans called for a side trip to Kitchener and Guelph, Ontario, Canada to meet more relatives.

 

Rhea Sauvé Burjoski, at her home in Utopia,  Ontario, Canada.  Rhea was married to  my first cousin Bobby Burjoski at the time of his death. Click on the image to see a larger picture of Rhea.
 

Rhea's brother Lou Sauvé sitting on his reconditioned home made trailer.  Lou was doing some welding and stopped when we drove up. As noted above Lou is quite the computer whiz and knows a little about everything.  Click on the image to see a larger picture of Lou.
 
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