Cannells-of-Simi

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2002

When the children of Gertrude and Robert made trips to the Isle of Man in the 30's they stayed both with Robert's sister Isabel and her husband Alex Robertson and with Gertrude's sister Emily Ann and daughter Emily. All lived in Douglas.

Isabel and Alex had a daughter Helen who married Harry Quine. They had two children: Annette and Richard. Tom and Phoebe visited Helen and Harry in England in the 80's, but other than that not much connection has been maintained with Robert's side of the family.

On the other hand, a strong friendship flourishes with descendants of Emily Ann. Her grandsons Geoffrey and David have made trips to the Pacific Northwest with their families and several of Gertrude and Robert's grandchildren have visited the Isle of Man.

In August of 2002 Tom's daughters, Sheila, Sharon, and Ann, Sheila's husband Peter, and Ann's daughter Emily attended the August 3rd wedding of Geoffrey and Elaine's daughter Rachel. She married Graham Ashley and below is a group picture from their wedding. This gathers together most of the descendants of Emily Ann. Only David, youngest son of William Sr., was unable to travel from his work in Canada to join the celebration.

The Geoffrey Christian family returned the favor by coming to the United States in August, 2004. Geoffrey and Elaine Christian flew to Sea-Tac, having visited Geoffrey's brother David in Canada for two weeks, and attended the annual Cannell Reunion in Oregon... where they led all present in singing the beloved Manx song "Ellan Vannin ".

(At the following website you can hear Robin Gibb of the BEE GEES singing this song at a concert in England. http://www.bernd-bouillon.de/html/ellan_vannin.html) The brothers of Bee Gees fame were born on the Isle of Man. Of course he doesn't hold a candle to Elaine and Geoffrey's rendition!

Geoffrey and Elaine drove down through California with John and Ann...wonderful company and great moral support to a nervous mom of bride!

At San Francisco they met their son Neil Christian who flew in from Boston.

He had been with them in Canada and had taken a detour to visit friends in Boston. Ann flew on down to begin mother-of-the-bride work while the others spent a couple of days sightseeing in the SF area. They arrived in La Jolla, CA on Sunday and Monday daughter Rachel and her husband Graham Ashley flew in from the Isle of Man....and so the Christian delegation was complete!

It was wonderful to have them in attendance and it was a special treat for the ceremony to have Elaine and Geoffrey sing.

Matthew Robert was born in the Isle of Man May 29th, 2005 at 12:05 a.m. He weighed 7lb 12 oz. Little Matthew was so eager to greet the world he couldn't even wait for his grandparents Christian to return from a trip to Ireland! Grandma could only advise by text messages!!

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