My maternal grandfather was Albert J. Hayward.
- Born
- 1 November 1920, Saint John, Saint John County, New Brunswick, Canada
- Died
- 7 July 1986, Saint John, Saint John County, New Brunswick, Canada
Family context
Albert’s mother was Josephine Scott.
- Born
- 3 October 1879, Saint John, Saint John County, New Brunswick, Canada
- Died
- 13 March 1961, Saint John, Saint John County, New Brunswick, Canada
Josephine had two daughters, Gertrude and Evelyn, presumably outside marriage. Their father is not named in the surviving records. Both girls were placed in an orphanage, though they stayed in contact with Josephine.
Josephine later married Manly Hayward.
- Born
- 1879, Albert County, New Brunswick, Canada
- Died
- 10 April 1932, Simonds, Saint John County, New Brunswick, Canada
Albert was their son. He therefore had two older half-sisters, Gertrude and Evelyn. I never met Gertrude, though she visited the house before my time.
Line of descent
Read from my mother upward, the relevant line currently looks like this:
- Brenda Simmons
- daughter of Albert J. Hayward
- Albert J. Hayward
- son of Josephine Scott and Manly Hayward
- Josephine Scott
- daughter of Richard Scott and Winnifred A. W. Kerrigan
- Manly Hayward
- son of Samuel A. Hayward and Charlotte Fairweather
Gertrude Scott
Monte Abbott, archivist for the Sisters of the Good Shepherd, found her by working through unsorted paper records and ledgers. The answer arrived as a small archive: vow books, community lists, photographs, a funeral record, and an order for a gravestone.
- Born
- 15 September 1903, Saint John, New Brunswick
- Entered the community
- 4 October 1927, Halifax, Nova Scotia
- Religious name
- Sister Magdalen of St Teresa of the Sacred Heart
- First vows
- 22 July 1931
- Perpetual vows
- 22 July 1942
- Died
- 15 July 1986, Windsor, Ontario
A life in the contemplative community
Gertrude entered the Good Shepherd contemplative community in Halifax in 1927. The congregation then maintained two forms of religious life. Apostolic sisters worked directly in schools, shelters, treatment programs, and social-service agencies. The Magdalens, later called Sisters of the Cross and then Contemplatives of the Good Shepherd, remained within the convent and supported that work through prayer.
Community lists place her in Halifax from at least 1940 through 1972. She moved to Windsor that year. A 1975 list gives her work as “Crafts, when able,” a phrase that offers one small view of an otherwise enclosed life. Magdalen communities also earned money through embroidery and the making of communion wafers, though no surviving record assigns either task to Gertrude.
Documents:
- Religious record summary, including the correction of her mother’s name from Nellie to Josephine
- Baptism certificate, recording Mary Gertrude Scott’s baptism in Saint John in 1904
Her own hand
The vow books move Gertrude from an entry in somebody else’s index into the first person. She signed her annual vows in 1931, her perpetual vows in 1942, and later renewals in a firm blue hand. Formula governs the language, as formula was meant to do, yet the repetitions measure a life: poverty, chastity, obedience, prayer, the same commitments copied again across decades.
- First vows record, 1931
- Perpetual vows record, 1942
- Vow renewals, 1964 to 1967, in Gertrude’s own hand
Photographs
Two photographs came from the family:
Other photographs supplied by the archive are conjectural, and some faces are too difficult to make out for reliable comparison.
- Good Shepherd sisters in Halifax, June 1948. Gertrude may be among the sisters in dark habits; no identification has been confirmed.
- An archive album page labelled “Sr. Gertrude and Sr. Agnes Mary”
- Three women, two in religious habits
The last record
Gertrude died of heart trouble in Windsor on 15 July 1986, after fifty-nine years in the community. Her stone was made in “Britts Blue” granite to match the others in the sisters’ plot at Heavenly Rest Cemetery.
- Funeral director’s statement of death, 15 July 1986
- Monument order, signed 22 September 1986
The search established Gertrude’s religious name, dates, communities, vocation, death, and burial. A secure identification in the surviving photographs remains open.
Gertrude Scott materials supplied by Monte Abbott, Director of Archives, Sisters of the Good Shepherd, after research in the congregation’s paper records and ledgers.