Janes-Melus Family Tree

Dougall was born in Warwick Twp, the youngest of 9 children. Within a year of his birth his mother died. He was raised mostly by his sister Addie, sister Ila and his brothers. The little contact he had with his father was not a good memory. NOTE: His birth certificate says he was born Feb 13, 1910 and named Gordon Dougall Goldwin Janes. The doctor at birth was Dr. Copeland. While he lived on the family homestead on Brickyard Line he attended Kelvin Grove School on Bethel Sideroad. Growing up he lived with Addie and her husband Bob Hawkins on the Egremont Rd. While living on the Egremont he attended the local school SS#15 and served as its custodian. Dougall also lived with with his brother Rayburne and his wife Amy above the Warwick General Store in Warwick Village and later with Ray and Amy above the grocery store at the corner of Confederation and Vidal Streets in Sarnia. A friend from Warwick was Chub (Winston) Wilkinson. They remained lifelong friends. Dougall never finished elementary school but became a lifelong learner and a great reader. Unemployed in the 30s, Dougall tried many jobs. For a while he rode the rails (much like Steve Melus did). He told me about arriving in a small town in Northwestern Ontario and looking for a meal. At one home he found a woman who seemed to be especially sorry for him. After he left he saw his face in a mirror. It was completely black from the soot around the railroad. He moved west and lived with his brother Wilbur in Winnipeg. There he worked in the Grain Exchange. Dougall lived in Transcona, Manitoba (with his brother for at least part of the time.) Returning to Ontario he got work on the Canadian National Railroad in Sarnia where he continued until his retirement at the end of 1974. He was a foreman in the Sarnia train yard, often working on trains moving through the Canada-US tunnel to Port Huron. Dougall only had one serious injury on what was a dangerous job. Once while coupling train cars he lost a large part of his thumb. However, he often came home with cinders in his eyes from the coal fired engines. When war broke out in September 1939 Dougall's job on the railroad was considered of vital importance to the war effort. He was not eligible for service overseas. Through his brother Charlie and Anna (Whiting) Janes, he met Marion McLachlin, a cousin of Anna. They were married on July 14, 1939. They left for a honeymoon trip to the Muskokas with a canoe on top of their car. It appears that the McLachlins were not happy with the marriage and with the fact that Marion left work as a nurse to raise a family. They did not attend the wedding. Marion and Dougall watched the building of the new bridge to Port Huron the year they were married. Dougall and Marion lived in an apartment on Confederation Street, above his brother Ray's grocery store, then at 562 Wellington St. for a few months before moving to 188 Stuart St. In 1958 they moved to 1046 Wellington St. In retirement they moved to Eton Court in Camlachie to be near the lake, then made a final move back to Wellington St in the Sandpiper Apartment building for seniors. Dougall and Marion loved to travel and passed this love on to their family. They often visited family across southern Canada and most of the United States. They enjoyed camping with trailers and boating on the St. Clair River and on Lake Huron. Dougall's hobbies included stone polishing, gardening, their euchre club and church activities. Marion and Dougall spent many winters in Florida at Winterhaven and Lakeland. By the 1980s Dougall had developed Alzheimers Disease, which took his life in 1991.