Do you know the Gibson’s of Cape Breton?

River Bourgeois, Cape Breton by Cal Shook

While in this time of transition, as my husband and I are getting ready to move, I’ll be seeking answers to some questions that continue to surface as I write a memoir on my great grandfather Michael Landry’s family.

At the time of the Halifax Explosion the Landry family owned and occupied 38 Union Street in Halifax, Nova Scotia. They were not alone; the Gibson’s of Cape Breton were living there also. Do you know the Gibson’s of Cape Breton?

Joseph Gibson and his wife Alice, plus their two daughters, Mary and Vernetta, moved in shortly before December 6, 1917.  They rented three rooms: a kitchen, sitting room, and bedroom.  They were making payments on a piano and owned a violin and accordion.

At the time of the explosion, Joseph was around 28 and Alice 23. Daughter Mary may have been around 3 years old and Vernetta possibly less than a year. Not long after the explosion, Alice and the girls went to live with her parents, Andrew and Mary (Thibeau) Robertson, in River Bourgeois, Cape Breton.  One of the girls “had been badly cut about the head,” said mother Alice in a statement to the Halifax Relief Committee, on January 1st, 1918.   Joseph did carpentry work in Halifax for a little while then joined them.

Alice Gibson’s parents were Andrew and Mary (Thibeau) Robertson.  Joseph Gibson’s parents were Thomas and Marie Anne (Thibeau) Gibson. Joseph died around 1968 and Alice around 1926, in St. Peters, Cape Breton

Any pictures or information about this family before, during, and after the explosion and how you acquired them would be welcomed.

Note:  Special thanks go out to cousin Linda Landry Horne for the many hours spent at the Nova Scotia Archives doing research and to Kristin Josselyn Morin for genealogy assistance.