Gerald Samuel Stares (1901 - 1977)

Born 22 Jul 1901 in Port Blandford, Newfoundland

Ancestors

Husband of Isabelle (Fifield) Stares — married Nov 1922 in Somerville, Middlesex, Massachusetts, United States

Descendants

Died 26 Sep 1977 at age 76 in Lowell, MA, USA

Biography

Sources

• The Halfyard Family Register 1994, compiled and edited by Robert R. Halfyard.

In McAlpine's business directory of 1904 for Port Blandford, Bonavista Bay, Newfoundland, Allen Stares, his father and brothers are listed as fishermen A steel plant had opened in Algoma, Ontario, Canada, in 1902. Allen moved his family there in 1918. In the 1921 census they lived at 265 St. James Street. Allen age 52 was a stove tender, who monitored the heat of the blast furnace, and controlled the blast valves. Gerald Stares age 20 was a skip operator, who loaded iron ore, coke and limestone into the furnace, via tippable rail cars. The year before, his cousin Estella Stares married in Algoma, to Richard Fifield of Trinity East, Newfoundland. They soon after moved to Somerville, Massachusetts. When Gerald moved there, ca. 1922, he became a trimmer in an automotive plant, applying leather and fabric to the interior of the automobile. In Massachusetts, Ford's Cambridge assembly plant had opened in 1913, being replaced by the Somerville assembly plant in 1926, and in 1930 this is the city where Gerald worked, living at 5 Gilman Terrace. Gerald married Isabelle Fifield (also from Trinity, Newfoundland, Richard's sister) in 1922. Isabelle went back to Trinity, Newfoundland to have their first daughter Dorothy Geraldine (Dot), born 29 August 1923. Returning by the well known Newfoundland ship SS Kyle on 11 October, Isabelle is listed as a nurse. Gwen was born in 1926. Pop (H.M. Stares) went working in the States for awhile, and there's a photo of him, Isabelle, and Gerald's daughters in 1926. Dad (A.E.Stares), Gerald's first cousin, had been working in the States for a few years as well, and he and Gerald had their portrait taken at Kresge Studio on Washington St. in Boston in 1927. Gerald's daughter Marjorie was born in 1930. In 1940 Gerald was a costruction rigger, who managed the loading and operating of a construction hoist. He was living at 236 Richdale Ave, Somerville. On Dec 20, 1954, he became a naturalized American citizen, living at 66 Marlboro Rd, Woburn, well northeast of Somerville. The year before, his daughter Dot and her husband Leonard Richard had both been living with her father, and she had become naturalized around the time they were married, the fourth of July 1953. "His daughter Marjorie said she owed her resilience to being of 'hearty Newfie stock'. Where her parents had emigrated from Newfoundland, Marge made many visits back to her roots. Originally a legal secretary, she and her husband Don Fudge started a successful travel agency in the ‘70’s that lasted for years and enabled her to travel the world". Latterly Gerald lived at Tewksbury, northeast again of Woburn, and he passed away at Lowell, not far from Tewksbury, 26 September 1977, probably visiting with Dot who lived there. So, he passed away surrounded by family.

by Michael Stares, son of Gerald's first cousin, Bert Stares February 11th, 2021