Carscallen Authors and Books

This blog post will be of interest primarily to the descendants of Hulda May Culbert and her husband, Reverend Charles Rupert Carscallen.
 

Hulda May Culbert & Rev. Charles Rupert Carscallen. Photo courtesy of Wendy (Gowland) Boole.

In the previous post, I wrote about a road trip taken by Hulda and Charles' daughters, Kay Carscallen and Alice Carscallen. Accompanying Kay and Alice were two of their cousins: Eula (Carscallen) Lapp and her sister, Beth Carscallen.  

Eula C. Lapp, author, and niece of Hulda May (Culbert) Carscallen

Eula (Carscallen) Lapp was the author of several books, a few of which I'll mention in this post, along with a book by Eula's niece, Suzanne Carscallen.

China Was My University: the Life of Hulda May Carscallen by Eula C. Lapp is a biography of Hulda May (Culbert) Carscallen, the daughter of Richard Culbert and Jane Fairhall, and the granddaughter of John Culbert and Mary Ward.
 

Hulda May (Culbert) Carscallen (1881-1972). Photo courtesy of Betty (Carscallen) Marmura.

The book covers Hulda May's early life growing up on Poplar Farm near Lucan, Ontario; becoming a school teacher at age 16; her marriage to Reverend Charles Rupert Carscallen; the many years they spent as educational missionaries in China where they raised their four children; Charles' appointment as Principal of Ontario Ladies College in Whitby, Ontario; her active social and cultural life in Whitby and her involvement with the College; and her busy retirement years. Although the book, published in 1980 by Agincourt Press is no longer in print, it might be available through used book outlets or through Interlibrary loan. 

Another of Eula C. Lapp's books is Seven Generations of Carscallens: a history of one branch of the Carscallen family: the descendants of Edward Carscallen U.E.L., his sons, Luke and George, U.E.L., his grandson, Isaac, and great grandson, Isaac Newton, as well as descendants of George's daughter, Catherine Hill Wilde through her daughter, Ann Jane Carscallen.  

This small book is essential for Carscallen family historians. Published in 1956, it's no longer in print but a free, online edition is available through the HathiTrust Digital Library.

Eula (Carscallen) Lapp and her sister, Beth Carsallen had a brother, Alan Newton Carscallen (1907-1995). 

Left to right: Siblings Beth (Carscallen) Fowler, Alan Carscallen, and Eula (Carscallen) Lapp, 1940. Photo via the Red Deer Archives.

During the Second World War, Alan Carscallen was a Squadron Leader with the Royal Canadian Air Force (RCAF) in Tunisia. When the RCAF headquarters moved to Rome, Alan Carscallen met his future bride there, Helen Shirkoff (1923-2005). 

Helen (Shirkoff) Carscallen was from a family of displaced Russian aristocrats. Her mother's sister, Countess Olga (Zweguintzoff) Hendrikoff aka "Lala" (1892-1987) was born in Voronezh, Russia. Olga also lived in Constantinople, Rome, Paris, and Philadelphia. She was an eyewitness to the Russian Revolution, and to the occupation and liberation of Paris during the Second World War. Olga spent the last 20 years of her life in Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Suzanne Carscallen, the daughter of Alan Carscallen and Helen Shirkoff found Olga's diaries hidden in a trunk in Olga's Calgary home. Included was a Russian longhand manuscript detailing her escape from Russia, as well as a typed manuscript in French recalling life in France during WWII. Suzanne compiled and edited the remembrances of her great-aunt, Countess Olga Hendrikoff into a book, A Countess in Limbo: Diaries in War and Revolution. The book was published in 2012 by SF Classic, and again in 2016 by Archway Publishing.

The book relates how Countess Olga lost her brother in the Russian Gulag, her sister-in-law was murdered with the Russian Imperial family, and Olga herself was robbed at gunpoint and accused of being a spy by the Nazis. You can read more about Olga and the book on Suzanne's website, A Countess in Limbo.

Returning now to the Carscallen family...

The Carscallens are descended from United Empire Loyalists. The United Empire Loyalists were generally those who had been settled in the thirteen colonies at the outbreak of the American Revolution, who remained loyal to and took up the Royal Standard, and who settled in what is now Canada at the end of the war. For more on the history of this group, we turn again to Eula C. Lapp who wrote, To Their Heirs Forever: United Empire Loyalists, Camden Valley, New York to Upper Canada.  

This story focuses on the families (including the Carscallens) who were forced to seek a new life in Canada after the American Revolutionary War. First published in 1970, the book's latest edition was printed in 2000 by Global Heritage Press.

With the cold weather upon us, it's the perfect time to settle in with one of these books.