Workday Wednesday - The Painters of Windsor, Ont., Canada - Part 1

    We all have those stories in our family that go something like "I can't believe the families knew each other before the kid's met and married"; or something similar to this.  Well one of those stories I told way back in my first blog on Nov. 12, 2011  - A New 40 yr old Cousin I've Known for 20 yrs .  In  this case a cousin who was adopted out and ended up being my sister-in.law.  Today I want to talk about my grandfathers. My  dad's father was John Francis (Frank) Goodwin and he moved to Windsor around 1943-44 with his new wife and my father William F. was born July 7, 1945.  John went to work as a decorator/painter for National Painting and Decorating Co. Ltd. at 725 Wyandotte Street.   There he met Joseph Wilfrid Lafleur, another painter.  Wilfrid was the father of my mother Noella A., born on Dec. 26, 1947.

    

 John Francis Goodwin

aka - Frank

1940-48

Joseph Wilfrid Lafleur

aka - Wilfrid 

1943

      These are the men I was named after, John Francis Wilfrid Goodwin. I have a lot of information on my grandfather Lafleur, as my mother was the executor of her parents estate, and I am the family genealogist. So she passed down a lot of the documents for me to keep and use for the family record. I also practically grew up in my grand parents home. My parents worked and I stayed with my grand mother, not to mention we were over their house at least once a month with the rest of my mothers brothers & sisters and their families. So I knew my grandfather well. I remember him coming home for lunch when he was near enough to home to do so. Pulling up behind the house on  Bruce in the Company van, with ladders attached to the roof. He was the best.  Now my grandfather Goodwin, I never met. My grandmother unfortunately drove him off with all her wild living. My own father barely remembers him at all. I have only just broken past that brick wall to figure out who his family was. But I do have some information I was able to dig up. So for part one of this Workday Wednesday I will end with the excerpts from the Windsor Directories of the days. 

Taken from the 1953 Windsor City Directory, White Pages
pg-211;  Goodwin
My grandfather is going by Frank J. Goodwin here, Frank is the name he went by during this stage of his life.

Taken from the 1955 Windsor City Directory, White Pages
pg-291; Lafleur
They spelled my grandfathers name in the English form instead of the French (Wilfrid). My grandmother in the brackets is also in the English as Denise (her name in the French is Desneige). Then his occupation as a Painter at National Paint (all in the short form).