So, I'm trying to connect Sir Mackenzie Bowell, Canada's 6th Prime Minister, to the main tree. Fortunately for me, one of his sons moved to B.C. and provided a batch of grandchildren, so I've been able to source and add a bunch of profiles using the BC Archives.
It turns out that one of those grandchildren was named after his grandfather, and when he got married in 1909, he listed his occupation as "Merchant".
"Hmmm..." think I. You see, there used to be a used car dealership in Vancouver called Bowell-MacLean, famous for an enormous sign they put up in 1958, in Vancouver's heyday as the neon sign capital of the world. (That was before a bunch of self-appointed guardians of the public's aesthetics decided that great huge neon signs were tacky. I mean, those people say "tacky" as if being tacky were a bad thing...) Not many people remember the car dealership, but everybody in town knows that sign, which used to be visible 29 kilometres away.
So, is this Mackenzie Bowell related to the car dealership? Well, maybe, and maybe not.
Find A Grave certainly thinks so, except that they add a "John" before the "Mackenzie" which I have not found in any other record.
The BC Archives also lists a Mackenzie Bowell, with the right birthdate and place, the right father's name, dying on the same date as Find A Grave has, and listed as the retired President of Bowell MacLean.
The trouble is, the BC Archives list another Mackenzie Bowell dying 18 years later.
Personally, my theory is that the second Mackenzie Bowell was a Soviet sleeper agent who took over the identity of the first one for 18 years, and nobody noticed.
Failing that, it might be that he was one of the walking dead for 18 years, and still nobody noticed.
Or possibly, it was one of those cases where "rumours of my death have been greatly exaggerated."
Lots of fun speculating, but I still haven't managed to connect this branch to the main tree.
