Friday, February 24, 2012

A poet and geologist

Well, it took a little digging and some help from other researchers but I actually found a bit of information on two siblings of my great-great-great grandmother who was born in England. A sister, Harriet Annie Wilkins, was a teacher of music and wrote poetry to supplement her income when she had to care for her ill mother and younger siblings after her father's death. A brother David Francis Henry Wilkins, graduated from McGill University with I guess you could say a degree in Applied Science and focused on Geology. He published several articles on that subject and Harriet published four books three of which can be found on Google Books. 

Upon just googling Harriet's name her poems and also a brief biography can be found. The bio confirms some of what I found in my research and lets me know that I at least found the right line as far as her grandparents. Her father was a minister. The bio also explains why the youngest child, David was born in Ohio when the others were born in England before they immigrated. Apparently they emigrated to the US and then after a couple of years went north into Ontario Canada where they lived the remainder of their lives. I would've never thought of just googling her name even though I've done that with other names in my tree just to see what (if anything) might come up.

I haven't read any of Harriet's poetry but I'm proud that someone was able to get published like that and wish I had a real copy of one of her books.