An Ontario Pose

By Eilene Lyon

Found Photo Project #6

Found in Albuquerque, this portrait of Bertha Marie Goodger with one of her nephews will soon be returning to its origins in Canada. Most likely the nephew is Norman Goodger, son of Thomas W. Goodger. If you’re wondering how to pronounce that name, think “Goodyear.”

Bertha was the fourth of six children born to William Goodger and Sarah Smith. Thomas was the youngest. Only Thomas and the eldest child, George Henry Goodger, married and had children. Bertha, her sister Elizabeth, and brothers Abraham and William Jr., all remained single.

The William and Sarah Goodger children were born in Oxford, Ontario, Canada, from 1867 to 1881. George moved to the U.S. and was a doctor in South Dakota. He married Ida M. Peek and they had two sons, Lewis and Donnan. George died at the age of 30 in a Toledo, Ohio, hospital of a brain tumor, just a month after the birth of his second son.

Lewis and Donnan wound up in Los Angeles, California, and though both married, neither had children. Inside the folio holding the Bertha and Norman photo is a faint name in pencil, probably “Louie Goodger.” Likely Donnan, or his wife, gave this photo to Lewis. Since the brothers had no heirs, it’s not surprising the photo wound up in the Albuquerque antique mart where I found it.

Thomas Goodger had four children with his first wife, Alma Maycock: a stillborn child, Norman, Margaret, and W. Donald. Alma died when Donald was just four years old. She contracted the flu during the 1918-19 epidemic, which progressed to pneumonia.

Norman and Donald did not look much alike as adults, but I think they may have both been towheads as young boys, looking very similar. The person who wrote on the back of the photograph thought the boy was probably Norman. After seeing his baby picture, I decided that is probably correct.

Bertha Marie Goodger was born in 1872 or 1873. At age 18, she was a lodger in the John Walton household in Westminster, Ontario. Ten years later, she was back home with her parents and remained with them. She died of uterine cancer in 1929.

Her nephew, Norman Maycock Goodger, was born in 1911, which would put the date of this photograph in about 1916. In newspapers, he is usually named as a survivor of various family members who passed away. The only other mention is a notice he put in the paper to find information about the postal history of Kingston, Ontario. This appeared about a year before his death in 1997. I hope he did complete the history he was writing.