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Call Number: Mss 192, Pc 182 (A.04-103)
Title: Strange, Davison, Thompson, Griffiths Family fonds.
Dates: 1865-2003, predominant 1918-2003.
Extent: 1.55 m of textual records. -- 1369 photographs.
Biographical sketch: Theodore Strange married Mary Ann Griffiths and together they had four children: Nita, Ella, Sims, and George. Strange worked in Winnipeg for a short while to earn money to buy land for a farm and relocated his family to Green Ridge in 1878. He died in October 1879 of pneumonia and complications from injuries received during the U.S. Civil War. The following year, Mary Ann Strange married Andrew Davison of Green Ridge. They had five more children: Mary, Llewie, Lizzie, Bill, and Bert. Andrew Davison died in 1933 and Mary Ann Davison died in 1936. The farm was bequeathed to Bert and Bill Davison, neither of whom married. Upon their deaths, Theo Stancel Strange, the son of Sims Strange, inherited the farm. Lizzie Davison married a Mr. Thompson and they had a daughter, Edith. Edith Thompson lived on the farm most of her life.
Custodial history: The fonds was donated to University of Manitoba Archives & Special Collectionbs by Theo Strange and Edith Thompson in 2004.
Scope and content: The fonds consists of greeting cards, postcards, photographs, newspaper clippings, correspondence, farm ledgers and account books, receipts, wills, legal documents, land deeds, historical municipality charts, family trees, and historical papers including the official notice of John Thomas’ discharge from the U.S. military service in 1865 and a letter from Buckingham Palace wishing a safe return to a soldier sent overseas (presumably Pte. H. W. Davison). Included among the family photographs are Pte. Davison’s photos of the destruction in France at the end of WWI. The majority of correspondence is between Llewie Davison, Lizzie Davison, Nita Strange, Mary Davison, Bill Davison, Bert Davison, Edith Thompson, and Theo Stancel Strange. The photograph collection sonsists of 3 albums (1 of 76 postcards, 1 of 33 photographs, 1 of 238 photographs), 1098 photographs, 1 slide, 165 negatives, 426 postcards, 330 greeting cards and one mounted family portrait located in an oversize folder. Cartographic material consists of 2 maps. The fonds is divided into six series as originally identified by Edith Thompson.
Restrictions: There are no restrictions on this material.
Accruals: No further accruals are expected.
Related material: The journal of Theodore Strange is held by the Archives of Manitoba. The journal contains Strange's account of his voyage from Thorold to Winnipeg. Edith Thompson has prepared and included a handwritten account of the journal.
Finding aid: An on-line finding aid is available at the link below: