The drive from Hebron, Connecticut, to Prince Edward Island was pleasant
and uneventful except for having received a speeding ticket on the Maine
Turnpike for going 78 miles per hour in a 55 mile per hour zone. It was
easy to do in Norm Graham’s Volvo SUV that, fully-packed with our luggage
and bicycles, rode so smoothly over the highway that there was no
sensation of speeding at all. Cycling PEI has been on my to-do list for a
long time, and when I mentioned it to Norm one day at work, he said he
wanted to visit PEI because his Grandfather was born there and he would
like to find his roots. Both of us really enjoyed a cycling escapade in
Brittany together two years ago, so we dispatched to PEI on a cycling
genealogical quest.
Rather than cycling around the whole island, which
would be over a thousand miles, our plan was to drive to specific points
on the island and then bicycle loops. The cycling was wonderful. The
terrain is fairly flat and hilly parts can usually be avoided by following
the system of rails-to-trails cycling routes that extend across the whole
island from the western North Cape to East Point. It’s an island of farms
and fishing villages and little else. The scenery of farms, fields,
rivers, ocean and islands is absolutely beautiful. Every turn reveals a
new idyllic scene. Conversation on the road became a vocabulary test in
adjectives and
superlatives for peaceful, serene, quiet, pretty, lovely, gorgeous,
wonderful, awesome, spectacular, and all of the synonyms for each being
repeated again and again every day.
It was raining the day that we arrived, so we took
advantage of that to visit the Eastern end of the island. We knew, from
internet genealogical sites, that some early Graham settlers lived there
in the late 1700’s. We were armed with nothing more than Norm’s
grandfather’s name and the knowledge that he had worked as a fisherman in
PEI, emigrated to do whaling out of New Bedford, Massachusetts some time
at the end of the 19th century, and was “in his eighties” when he died in
Hartford in 1940. We visited a museum in Montague. The ladies working
there were eager to help solve the puzzle. They poured through their
local records and telephoned local genealogists. They couldn’t find a
connection, but, they gave us the name of a lady who is the area guru on
Grahams and who could be available to talk to the next day.
After an invigorating bicycle ride along the southeast
coast the next day, we called the lady, Almira (Graham) MacLure and she
invited us to her house in Murray Harbor, North, where we were treated to
tea with fresh strawberries and vanilla ice cream while we discussed
possibilities with her and her husband, Weir, who also has Graham
lineage. We learned about Wier’s work as a fisherman; and, about their
children who couldn’t find work in PEI, so left the island to work in the
oil business in Alberta; but, we still could not connect Norm’s
grandfather to that area. We cycled the Northeast peninsula and the
north-central region, ever on the lookout for Grahams. We met two Graham
brothers who operated deep-sea-fishing excursions for tourists in New
London and Stanley Bridge. They were wonderful and supportive people.
They gave us another local expert contact; but, we still couldn’t confirm
a connection.
It’s quite hilly in the central region, where we
overextended ourselves a bit. So, we took a rest day from bicycling and
visited Summerside, one of the two real cities on the island. We saw the
tall ships that had arrived for the 10th anniversary celebration of the
“Confederation Bridge” linking the island to the mainland and took a walk
around the historical district. We were helped by three enthusiastic
people in a Summerside Museum who eventually telephoned Allan Graham in
Alberton. Allan is without question the world’s most informed person on
Graham genealogy and history. We arranged to meet him at a genealogical
museum in Alberton and he took us home to research his personal records.
He spent hours with us that afternoon.
When evening came, we didn’t want to let him get away; so, we took him and
his family to dinner at a local seafood restaurant on the docks where we
learned volumes about Graham history.
We cycled the North Cape the next day and went to
Allan’s house again that night. It turned out that Norm’s grandfather was
a “lost sheep” that Allan had not been able to resolve for many years. An
additional surprise was that there was a Graham Family Reunion planned in
a nearby town on Saturday afternoon and we were
invited to attend. About
30 people attended. There was a pot-luck dinner, fiddle, banjo, and
guitar music, and presentations of information on Graham families.
Norman was presented to his family by Allan. There was great joy on both
sides that the lamb that was lost is now found. Everyone was excited to
meet their cousin from Connecticut. There was a second cousin who
remembered when Norm’s father visited PEI in 1937 and another 2nd cousin
who offered us a room at the “Seaside Cottages” that he owns and operates
in Cavendish, the site of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s “Anne of the Green
Gables” stories. It was a heartwarming event even for a spectator who is
not a Graham at all.
There were other high points and a few low points on
our trip. There were events like stopping on a bridge, seeing an eagle
take off from the side of a river that meanders through tall grasses,
silently soar
overhead, then out over the calm-as-glass harbor looking for
prey. Every dinner was an event. But, the best dinner that we had was
one that we prepared ourselves with raw oysters and raw quahogs on the half-shell with steamed mussels,
Stilton blue cheese and crackers. On the
dark side, Norm went over the handlebars one morning when I stopped
unexpectedly to tie my shoelace and he braked to avoid running into me. It
was fascinating to see him, as if in slow motion, going over the
handlebar, down to the pavement and bounce. It was in progress, then over
so quickly. And, there was nothing that one could do to stop it. He
suffered contusions and abrasions of elbows and knees. It’s a week later,
and he still has large black, blue and yellow areas; but, no broken
bones. He got right back on the bicycle, unfazed, after applying a few
bandages. I also fell and wasn’t badly hurt while negotiating an illegal
entrance to a bicycle path that was severely rutted by ATV’s using the
trail. The only other annoyance that I can remember were the times when
we had planned lunch at a certain point on the map only to find out that
there was no place to eat because the restaurant “went out of business” or
is “closed today”. Since PEI is so small, this wouldn’t be a problem for
most people who travel in cars. But, another 20 miles on the bicycle,
when your hungry isn’t much fun.
having received a speeding ticket on the Maine
Turnpike for going 78 miles per hour in a 55 mile per hour zone. It was
easy to do in Norm Graham’s Volvo SUV that, fully-packed with our luggage
and bicycles, rode so smoothly over the highway that there was no
sensation of speeding at all. Cycling PEI has been on my to-do list for a
long time, and when I mentioned it to Norm one day at work, he said he
wanted to visit PEI because his Grandfather was born there and he would
like to find his roots. Both of us really enjoyed a cycling escapade in
Brittany together two years ago, so we dispatched to PEI on a cycling
genealogical quest.
ing
the system of rails-to-trails cycling routes that extend across the whole
island from the western North Cape to East Point. It’s an island of farms
and fishing villages and little else. The scenery of farms, fields,
rivers, ocean and islands is absolutely beautiful. Every turn reveals a
new idyllic scene. Conversation on the road became a vocabulary test in
adjectives and
superlatives for peaceful, serene, quiet, pretty, lovely, gorgeous,
wonderful, awesome, spectacular, and all of the synonyms for each being
repeated again and again every day.
invited to attend. About
30 people attended. There was a pot-luck dinner, fiddle, banjo, and
guitar music, and presentations of information on Graham families.
Norman was presented to his family by Allan. There was great joy on both
sides that the lamb that was lost is now found. Everyone was excited to
meet their cousin from Connecticut. There was a second cousin who
remembered when Norm’s father visited PEI in 1937 and another 2nd cousin
who offered us a room at the “Seaside Cottages” that he owns and operates
in Cavendish, the site of Lucy Maud Montgomery’s “Anne of the Green
Gables” stories. It was a heartwarming event even for a spectator who is
not a Graham at all.
overhead, then out over the calm-as-glass harbor looking for
prey. Every dinner was an event. But, the best dinner that we had was
one that we prepared ourselves with raw oysters and raw quahogs on the half-shell with steamed mussels,
Stilton blue cheese and crackers. On the
dark side, Norm went over the handlebars one morning when I stopped
unexpectedly to tie my shoelace and he braked to avoid running into me. It
was fascinating to see him, as if in slow motion, going over the
handlebar, down to the pavement and bounce. It was in progress, then over
so quickly. And, there was nothing that one could do to stop it. He
suffered contusions and abrasions of elbows and knees. It’s a week later,
and he still has large black, blue and yellow areas; but, no broken
bones. He got right back on the bicycle, unfazed, after applying a few
bandages. I also fell and wasn’t badly hurt while negotiating an illegal
entrance to a bicycle path that was severely rutted by ATV’s using the
trail. The only other annoyance that I can remember were the times when
we had planned lunch at a certain point on the map only to find out that
there was no place to eat because the restaurant “went out of business” or
is “closed today”. Since PEI is so small, this wouldn’t be a problem for
most people who travel in cars. But, another 20 miles on the bicycle,
when your hungry isn’t much fun.