The main misconception: that they weren't like us. They were. Exactly. (I'm talking ancestors - for I assume there's a difference between cultures.) Just because we get to know our ancestors when they are old and stuck in their ways, doesn't mean they weren't just as wild, just as conservative, whatever, in their youth. This is a good exercise for me because these aren't my ancestors, so I'm not squeamish about looking into their lives. I can analyze from a distance, so to speak.

I am amazed at the power of genes: I can see certain traits filter down through the generations. There's also a kind of on/off pattern. One generation rebels against the last: This is well known of course, but I have HARD evidence.

My husband recalls as a teen sitting down with a blind, aged Edith (1970s) and she told him "to live life to the fullest." 

Edith, daughter of Norman Nicholson
Photo courtesy of Dorothy Nixon
www.tighsolas.ca

I think of all the women she is most like me: but hard to tell. She wants to have it ALL, experience-wise, and that is my reason why she never married.  I THINK marriage is confining (even today.) We feel sorry for Old Maids but maybe they have the better life. 

Edith went on to work as a assistant matron at Royal Victoria College (girls' dorm) at McGill and in that University's Registrars office. She bonded with her niece, Dean, to such an extent, that Dean's parents had to literally move far away to wean Dean from her. Dean, a professor of education, harbours fond memories of her.

So, I assume I'd get along with Edith more than, say, I did my mother-in-law, who deeply admired these women, but was a sixties housewife, with all the baggage that entails. So to answer your question, I'd talk about everything with Edith, not ask her questions of the past, but talk about modern issues, since she would be interested in modern issues.

HOBBY because I am doing it in my spare time. I applied for something called a Canada Council Grant to write a book, and didn't get it, so I merely put up a website (learning on the spot ) in about a week.

I'm busy on another project, but when finished with that I will get to work refining this site.

I have been publicizing the site in Canada and elsewhere: publicity is everything, right? Even with a website. People who drop in by mistake don't stay. 

A website manager must seek out and target people who might be interested - to enrich these people's lives. There is a great deal to learn about courtship at the turn of last century here. There are many clichés dispelled here. Women aren't caricatures (well, we know that): Goddess, Whore, Good Mother, Feminist... No, women are a wonderful mixture of these archetypes...Marion had the babies in the family, but she had the most 'manly' character, a real go getter, very practical.

Margaret was born in 1854 but she was the wisest of them all - with the biggest hunger for learning - and who knows what she would have become born, say, in 1954, like me? She fought for women's suffrage but was devoted to her man (who struggled all his life).

Biographical Profile:  Dorothy (Dot) Nixon

I'm a Montreal based freelance writer with a background in Film and Communications. I've published essays and articles for small and major market venues in the US and Canada for 20 years, and in fact, was once a paid columnist for a parenting website MOMS ONLINE, which was later folded into Oprah's empire and then dissolved.

I am a media literacy advocate and spend a great deal of time working on Literacy for the 21st Century Issues. What comes around goes around: these times are similar to back then, a time in flux.

I have two sons, 17, 19. My husband works as a news editor. I am part of a dying breed: the anglo Quebecer. These Nicholson letters are not only history but heritage because of the fact that Quebec is officially French these days and our community is dwindling.

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