Business associates, no doubt

Forty three years ago, after tracking down my birth family -- without the aid of the internet, I might add -- I learned that, among other talents, they had been the biggest bootleggers in Kemptville.  Wow, I thought!  How cool is that!  Back then, one had to diligently slog through city directories, phone books and archives to find anyone.  My mother's maiden name had been "Latimer", so, although not exactly "Smith-like", it was still relatively common. 

My adoption had been handled privately through a lawyer, the Children's Aid at the time having decided my parents would be unfit parents because my father was Catholic and my mother Protestant.  How pathetic when you consider anyone could have and keep a baby.  But they denied my wonderful parents a baby.  Undaunted, they secured me and later my brother via a lawyer and the Salvation Army Bethany Home for unwed mothers.  Still unofficial, I remember having to sign papers agreeing to be adopted when I was 13, yet I had no clue I hadn't been completely adopted when they got me.  Wait, scratch that for now; that's a story for another blog. 

Anyway, got a fb feed from "Old Ottawa and Bytown Pics" that showed Al Capone's secret bootleg cabin off road in the woods near Kemptville.  Apparently, Mr. Capone plied his trade out of there, among other hidden sites in the Valley.  So, it appears the Latimer's hooked up with Al and joined in the lucrative trade.  How brilliant!  Now it all makes sense.  My smart Latimer ancestors profited with Al's help.  I love it!           

When I married my late ex-husband, I had no clue about this notorious past, but wouldn't you know it, his kin were also bootleggers.  I remember my late mother-in-law telling me how her mother-in-law, Old Lady Russell, used to sell booze to dodgy people who knocked furtively at her back door on Sundays, when no booze was permitted on the Sabbath in straight-laced Ontario.  As a child, my then-husband always wondered why Grandma Russell was always running to the back door to deal with strangers?    

Ya gotta love it!

My father, born in 1899, was of another generation and he remembered as a child meeting Buffalo Bill, whose troupe travelled the US on trains run by his father in Kansas City, Missouri.  He also remembered Jesse and Frank James, the latter of whom ran a general store in the town.  More fascinating tales from the crypt!