Who was “Grannie Annie?”

I embarked on a mission to find out.

A couple of years ago, my cousin brought me several rusted old trunks that had sat in a shed on her parents property. Inside, the trunks were filled with piles of letters and documents, certificates rolled up in tubes, and old photos dating back to the 1860s.

As I perused the items, I kept returning to a 5 x 7 photo of a fair-haired, petite young woman looking down at the piece of paper in her hand, a serious expression on her face.

Captivated by the photo, there was something so familiar about her. Was it the expression on her face? The slant of her eyebrows, perhaps?

On the back of the photo, the faded ink read “Grannie Annie Collie.”

“One thing was certain - I felt inextricably connected to her.”

I consulted my family members who recalled my father mentioning his Aunt Ann - my grandmother’s sister, however, no one seemed to know about Grannie Collie.

As the family’s self-proclaimed archivist, I set out to learn more about this elusive ancestor.

Born August 6, 1828 to Lachlan and Ann Rose, in the small town of Kingussie (south of Inverness-shire), Scotland, Ann was one of six children.

Her siblings were identified as Alice, Sarah, Jane, William and Donald.

At the age of 23 she married William Collie in Kingussie and together they had 11 children.

View the full colourized portrait of Ann's extended family here.

Immigrating to Canada

Immigrating to Canada in the 1870s, Ann, her husband and their children settled in Woodlands, Manitoba. Manitoba became a province in 1870 and many immigrants travelled by oxcart, riverboat, or rail to make their way to the new community. It would have been a challenging time for the Collies, as land had to be cleared before houses and other structures could be built.

The Collies later moved to MacDonald, Manitoba, circa. early 1900s, and then finally, Winnipeg.

In 1910, at the age of 81, William passed away; Ann lived to be 89.

An Old Photo Colourized

As I coloured this old photo of an elderly Ann and William, with an unidentified relative, I noticed how William Collie’s face seemed weathered, likely from exposure to the elements; while Ann’s swollen fingers suggest years of labour as a mother and pioneer wife had a lasting effect.

A Doting Grandmother

Later photos of Ann indicate she was a doting grandmother (see my blog post Visit to Grannie Collie), travelling to Vancouver and Vancouver Island to spend time with her daughter Sarah Justine, grandchild Christine and great-grandchildren Mary, Dorothy and Arthur.