Judith
Lynne (Luker) Massey of Lake Joseph, Muskoka, Ontario, Canada celebrates her 65th
birthday today. Judy is the 3x-great-granddaughter of John Culbert and Mary Ward. Judy is descended from John and Mary's daughter, Susan (Culbert) Crawley.
Let’s get to know a little about Judy and her family
history through this piece she’s written for the Culbert Family History blog.
Take it away, Judy!
I was born on 1 March 1957 in London, Ontario not far from Lucan where
my Irish Hodgins ancestors settled when they first came to Canada in the early-mid
1800’s. The town of Lucan was originally called Maryville. The renaming of the
town was the result of a large influx of Irish immigrants. This increase of
Irish settlers to the area was spear-headed by Colonel James Robert Hodgins.
Colonel Hodgins, also known as “Big Jim,” was born in
Nenagh, Tipperary County, Ireland about 1785. He is acknowledged by some as the
first white settler in Biddulph Township. He and a few close relatives made the
decision to emigrate and left for Canada in 1832. The log home he built was
finished in September of the same year on Lot 39, Concession 3 in Biddulph Township.
In 1835, Colonel Hodgins became an agent for the Canada Company and in this
capacity, he voyaged back to Ireland in order to encourage other families to
emigrate.
Although Colonel Hodgins is not my direct descendent, he
was instrumental in convincing a significant number of Irish families,
including my own, to put down roots in Biddulph Township. The result was that a
large number of Irish Protestants settled on the Huron Tract. Within 10 years
of Colonel Hodgins’ arrival, close to 50 Hodgins families joined him and
quickly established themselves in the township. Most of these families were
from Northern Tipperary. Even today the name Hodgins is very common in Lucan
and the surrounding area.
Many Irish families moved to Canada for a better life
as conditions in Ireland made life very challenging. My Hodgins family were
drawn to the area by the large tracts of rich agricultural land. They were not
only interested in farming but also in breeding horses. Over the following
years, they made many trips back to Ireland to obtain horses for their breeding
program.
Even though the trip by sea to Canada was arduous and
often dangerous it did not deter the Irish travelers. My ancestors could not
convince their mother/grandmother, 89-year-old Eleanor Revington (Atkinson) Hodgins, the widow
of William “Longworth William" Hodgins, that she should not take the potentially life
threatening trip to Canada with them. The good news is that Eleanor insisted on
traveling with her family and she survived the journey. Eleanor (known as The Grand Old Lady of Biddulph) died peacefully
in Biddulph Township at 103 years old, on her porch rocking chair.
The name Hodgins is an ancient name and variations
such as Rodger, Hodge, Hodgson, Hodgens, Hodgkins, Hodgkinson, Hodgin, may have
been derived from Hrodgar or Hruodger. By the 12th century, the name Hodge was
very common in Lancashire, England and in 1545 Hodgins appears in the archives
of the city of Norwich. However, even before then the name Hodgins appears in
Warwickshire in a variety of alternative spellings. In the early 1600’s several
Hodgins, including my ancestors, left for Ireland. I believe that my family Hodgins’
name appears in Ballyroom in about 1650, followed by Dublin, County Leix (then
Queen’s County) and then emerges in some of the small villages such as Lucan,
which is just outside Dublin. They later moved to Modreeny, County Tipperary, and
settled in several small communities in Tipperary. I imagine that being so
close to County Offaly (then King’s County) that it may have been there that they
came into contact with the Wards and the Culberts.
My grandmother, Gladys Hodgins was very proud of her
Anglican, Irish background. She was born in Lucan, Ontario and many of the
families who settled there also lived near each other in Ireland.
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Judy's grandmother, Gladys (Hodgins) Luker.
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Names like Hodgins,
Hill, Culbert, Ward, Crawley, Armitage, Coursey, Brownlee and Atkinson are all plentiful
in the local cemeteries in Lucan, Ontario and surrounding areas. Most of the
names that I have mentioned do not sound very Irish but many families like the
Hodgins may have come over from England as soldiers, mine in the early 1600’s.
They also might have been sent to Ireland by King James 1st during the early
1700’s during the Plantations of Ireland.
I am the oldest daughter of Sam Luker and Melva Murphy
and I have Irish roots on both my maternal and paternal lines.
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Judy (Luker) Massey (right) with her parents, Melva (Murphy) Luker and Sam Luker.
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I am very fortunate
to still have both my parents, currently 89 and 91 years of age (good Irish
genes). They have been amazing role models for both my sister, Jana and myself.
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Sisters, Judy (left) and Jana.
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My parents have nurtured hope, a positive attitude in us, and taught my sister
and me to always look for the silver lining despite the circumstance. My parents inspired us to be well-rounded and focus on many aspects of
life. We learned to value and enjoy academics, sports, and music but
most importantly relationships. I have
tried my best to follow their excellent example.
I have been fortunate to have travelled extensively with
my parents and with my husband, Dave Massey, both professionally and for pleasure in
countries such as China, Australia, Europe, the Caribbean, and Jordan.
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Sam Luker with his daughter, Judy (Luker) Massey in Dingle, Ireland.
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Judy (Luker) Massey and husband, Dave Massey at Ashford Castle in Cong, County Mayo, Ireland.
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Growing
up, I participated in many sports such as competitive skiing, running and swimming
where I achieved success at both the local and provincial levels. I also enjoyed
many recreational sports, and I still do.
I received an Honours BA at the University of Guelph
with a double major in psychology and English.
I then went on to get a Teaching Certificate and Bachelor of Education
before completing a Masters in Sociology and Doctorate in Education at the
University of Toronto.
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Judy (Luker) Massey receives her Doctor of Education degree at the University of Toronto on 21 November 2001.
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I thoroughly enjoyed teaching numerous elementary
grades. Later, I became a consultant for kindergarten to grade 8 where I
supported teachers with program development, shared resources, and modelled
strategies. I then went on to be a Consultant for the Gifted and worked with
students and teachers from kindergarten to grade 12 before becoming a vice
principal and then a principal. I next became a Superintendent of Schools where
I did my best to support students and their families as well as other academic
and non-academic staff.
I have always felt that I was fortunate to do such
stimulating and inspiring work with so many exceptional individuals. Even when
mentoring others, I always learned something from them as well and felt great
satisfaction in our shared successes. My
career experience provided me with many opportunities for leadership at the local,
provincial and national levels. Five of the many, many highlights for me beyond
my regular duties as teacher, consultant, principal and vice principal and
superintendent of education were as follows:
The first was working with the Creative Education
Foundation in Buffalo, USA out of the EPCOT Centre in Orlando, Florida. It was
very exciting to support adults and grade 6 to 12 students using a creative problem-solving
model to achieve their goals and solve problems.
The second was being the keynote speaker for a number
of graduations and award assemblies such as for those graduating at the
Master’s Level and above from Griffith University (Australia.)
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Judy (Luker) Massey: keynote speaker at the Griffith University graduation for Master and Doctoral candidates.
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The third was going back after retiring to do contract
work such as principal evaluations.
The fourth was teaching Additional Qualification Courses
for Faculties of Education. There, I taught courses such as the Principal and
Superintendent Qualification programs, Primary Methods -Specialist and Special
Education.
The fifth was speaking and giving workshops across North
America on a wide range of topics such as Emotional Intelligence, Creativity, Problem
Solving, Gifted Education, the Young More Able Learner, Creative Problem
Solving, and Site Based Planning and Management.
I loved each role I undertook and felt a sense of
purpose in supporting others when sharing ideas and knowledge.
Now that I am fully retired, I still have purposeful
work in that I am able to be there to support my parents, particularly my
mother who has dementia. I also feel great joy in having the flexibility and
opportunity to be with my family and friends more frequently. In addition, I
now have more time to do some of the things that I had not been able to do when
I worked such long hours.
One hobby I now have more time for is Genealogy.
Spending more time tracing my ancestors through research and DNA is both
enjoyable and interesting for me. However, my one regret is that I wish I had
asked more questions of my grandparents. Some things I may speculate on now
about their life and history, I may never ever really fully understand or know definitively.
I wish I had thought to ask about their
childhoods, their grandparents and family growing up, as well as what they might
have remembered or have heard about the old country, Ireland.
I am very grateful to my ancestors for being
courageous enough to take the risk of venturing from Ireland to a new and
unknown country. They must have left
Ireland full of hope but also with some fear and uncertainty about what was
ahead of them. Their hard work, love of
family, and faith in a better life has brought the generations that followed
many opportunities and blessings. I am thankful to them and fascinated by the
life they had in Ireland, which I am only able to glimpse and ponder from a
distance.
I will always be proud to be of Irish heritage and of
my wise and resourceful ancestors who leaped into the unknown to bring us to
Canada and give me the life that I now value and love. However, Ireland will
never be forgotten and it will always be in my heart and in my blood.
Judith Lynne (Luker) Massey's Family Tree:
Ancestors:
John Culbert & Mary Ward (3x-great-grandparents)
Susan Culbert & Philip Crawley (2x-great-grandparents)
Sarah Catherine Crawley & Samuel Hill Hodgins (great-grandparents)
Gladys Sarah Hodgins & Wilbert Luker (grandparents)
Samuel Robert Luker & Melva Moreen Murphy (parents)
Judith Lynne (Luker) Massey.
No descendants.
