Sharon Craik Mitchell G5

BACK NEW! Sharons Family History Photo Album (John Chugg Family)

Heirlooms of John and Ada Chugg and Beatrice Chugg. Owned and displayed by Sharon Craik Mitchell.
I forgot to get the picutre of Grace Chugg Peake's beautiful blue and gold china service. (Stunning!) - Michael Philip Chugg -moderator.
John and Anna Ada Chugg's dough chest. Resides in the loving care of Sharon Craik Mitchell. Dec 2009
John and Anna Ada's chest for teh commode. Restored by Sharon Craik Mitchell - owner. Dec 2009 Used with permission.
Beatrice's Pitcher set. Owned by Sharon Craik Mitchell Dec.2009. Picture used with permission.
Beatrice's decoative plate. Owned by Sharon Craik Mitchell. Picutre used with permission Dec. 2009
A second decorative plate belonging to Beatrice Chugg. Owned by Sharon Craik Mitchell Dec.2009. Photo used with permission.

Our Visit with Sharon Craik Mitchell and her sons John Mitchell and Jay Mitchell on Sunday Dec 27th, 2009 in South Mountain, Ontario:

On Sunday December 27^th, 2009, my wife, Marybeth, my daughter, Caitlin and myself traveled from our hotel accommodations in downtown Montreal to South Mountain, Ontario. Our trip along the St. Lawrence was beautiful. We visited the Oratory of St. Joseph on Mount Royal in the morning prior to our trip.

Our deepest thanks goes to Sharon and her two sons for their willing participation in meeting us for the first time and for connecting with us. The visit was so special, meaningful and such fun as well. I called Sharon the day before to see if we could visit. Sharon must have been busy as she had an assortment of fantastic homemade sweets ready for us, as well as her son John. This was an extra special treat.

South Mountain is predominantly a one main street town north of Route 20. We had to stop once for directions and overshot the turn for the town due to the fact that there was no sign. We did get there about 3:30 p.m. Sharon lives three doors down from her son Jay and his pizzeria, King’s.

Sharon called up to us from her door before we could even get there. She was definitely ready for us, an eager participant. Sharon spent some time in her living room sharing with us about her life, her four children and answering our myriad questions. John amiably chimed in with his own questions and answers. He was such an exuberant participant and willing to make us as much a part of the Mitchell family as we were in adding more information about the Chugg family history.

For those without as much knowledge, John Mitchell was the respondent to the Blue Sea Lake bulletin board forum in which I posted a picture of Sharon Mitchell with her great aunts Grace and Bea at the Chugg cottage at Blue Sea Lake. I asked for information about the cottage. He told us about Mitchell Cottage, shared pictures and introduced us to photos of his family and his mom, Sharon. The result was this day in which we physically were at his mom’s winter home. Additionally we left John with a load of scanning to do with his Mother’s scrapbook. The book had so much of the John Chugg family history, which we as a family have been missing. I am hoping that soon enough the Chugg family will have access to these photos as well.

Sharon Mitchell graciously opened her family history book to us, and in particular me, to share her life story and that of her mother, Grace Chugg Craik O’Brien, of her grandfather Earl Minto Chugg, as well as of Grandpa John, her great grandfather, aunts Bea, Grace, and Hazel as well as pictures of Wallace Chugg as a young adult, Wallace’s children John and Marie???. Clayton Peake, Dr. Fred Fitch, the O’Connor boys, and pictures of the different stages of her life.

Why should this matter?

Sharon was the last person to locate for those of us who had lost the knowledge of the Chugg Family Story. Even for son John, the knowledge of this family was a learning experience. John just shook his head on several occasions when I started rattling off names and connections. There were pictures in which Sharon would ask, “ And do you recognize these two?” and I would rattle off their names because their likenesses were so much those of the photos that I had already viewed and committed to memory. Wallace in particular was an easy identification.

Why else?

Viewing the photos told me that Sharon lived a wonderful life as a child in the care of her great aunts and her beloved “Grandpa John” – great grandfather. The pictures of her at play were photos of running, laughing, playing amongst Bea’s flower garden with her dolly, fishing with Grandpa, rowing the boat, swimming, and pictures with her Great aunts. Yet, Sharon’s mother Grace Chugg Craik O’Brien lived nearly all of her life absent of Sharon. Sharon was in a very real sense an orphan brought up in the love and care of other Chugg generations. So we get a lesson in the tender love and care, and the generosity of two older generations. It is this love that is a lesson that bears its fruit in Sharon’s fight and care for her children when her own husband left her at a young age, with four children to feed and raise. Additionally it is this love that is manifest in Sharon’s kind and loving willingness to entertain this somewhat bold and crazy Canuck, wiki master on his obsessive compulsion to get the facts and meet the people.

So I trust that the willingness of my wife and daughter to go along for the ride and the experience will also be a willingness for other Chugg family members to reach out to Sharon and her family. In particular, I hope that her O’Brien half brothers and half sisters will reach out to Sharon, as she would dearly love to meet them and get to know them.

Our time went by so quickly. I am glad to have seen the photos of Earl, and Grace, Sharon’s grandfather and mother. I also saw pictures of Sharon’s father and of Harry and Hector in full military dress. The pictures told a story of the coming home, the coming back of each member of the family. Even pictures of Ebenezer Chugg and John Chugg, brothers standing side by side, reminded me that the Chugg family is a close family and its members always come home to touch base. Most stunning were the pictures of Ada. And in almost every picture, Ada was at work. Ada was involved in every domestic aspect of raising a well cared for family. Ada suffered real setbacks in her marriage, but forged on with her husband and raised productive, successful children.

While visiting with Sharon we also learned of her own life, her trials and tribulations as well as her steadfastness for a quarter century at work, and her involvement in her community’s United Church. We also learned of how she works with her children to assist and encourage them in their endeavors. Jay cooked the pizzas, to order, at his pizzeria, for us. Sharon treated. Caitlin went with John to place and deliver the order. She had a chance to check out Jay’s establishment. Jay arrived during dinner to meet us and to share in some stories with us. He also shared his own story about his road to success with his business and the difficult aspects of the work as well. Jay was just as jovial as his brother John and it was a treat to watch the two men and their mother interact.

This was such a memorable occasion for us and whether I receive scans or not, I will always remember our time with Sharon and the “boys”. I am so glad that this connection between one member of the Western Chugg clan and members of the Eastern Chugg clan occurred. Our link to Aylmer and Hull, Quebec is now much more than genealogical sharing of words and information. It is now a person-to-person connection which makes our family that much more real and alive. I am so proud to have met Sharon, John and Jay and trust that our relationship may grow as the years go by. I am also so pleased that my daughter Caitlin made this real connection to her fourth cousins! Probably more importantly she has made connections, which will always be with her. She may at some point in her life be able to tell of the strong desire that her father had to meet his distant relatives and she may be able to relate the Chugg Family History to her own children.

As I receive photos from Sharon and the boys, I will post those that I am able. I trust that their generosity in sharing these images of their lives, will also provide a learning experience for the rest of the Chugg family and that you all will know so much more about those whom you have neither seen nor met.

Thank you Sharon, John and Jay for such wonderful sharing, for good food, for friendship, for your kind and gentle hospitality and for inviting us into your lives. I will always be indebted to you all.

Sincerely,

Michael Philip Chugg

My Monday Sept 21, 2009 telephone chat with Sharon Craik Mitchell Of Blue Sea QC and South Mountain Ont. will follow here shortly.

Sharon Craik Mitchell - Summer of 2009 - Blue Sea Lake, QC with her friend Kay Teevens and with Niles, her new sidekick! Sharon is the daughter of Grace Chugg Craik O'Brien and the granddaughter of Earl Minto Chugg. She is also the great granddaughter of John Chugg. We found her thanks to her son John Mitchell after 5 years of searching. John responded to my message left on the Blue Sea Lake website.

Sharon lives on the east side of Blue Sea Lake. She lives in a property adjacent to John Mitchell's Chugg cottage. Contact Michael Chugg -wiki host- for the address. She has no mailbox, so won't get mail until she is in South Mountain Ontario in the winter. My conversation with Sharon will be found below the pictures. Her words tell many of the unknown detasils of others' lives including significant interactions with teh "Western Chuggs".

Sharon Craik Mitchell's son - John Mitchell - current owner of Mitchell Cottage on Blue Sea Lake, which has passed down through the generations from John Chugg and ownership around 1913 through Grace Chugg Peake to Sharon Craik Mitchell to John Mitchell. Photos generously contributed by John Mitchell. - Thanks John!

Sharon's son Jay Mitchell, near whom she lives in South Mountain, Ontario in the winter. Jay owns a Pizzeria there. Summer 2009.

John's son William Mitchell hard at work on the Blue Sea Cottage of Chugg history.

Mitchell Cottage - formerly John Chugg's cottage at Blue Sea QC. Passed down to John Chugg's great great grandson- John Mitchell. Great job on the cottage, Mitchell Family! Thanks for a long awaited look at the cottage! - Michael