I visited our safe deposit box at Provincial Credit Union today for the first time in 12 years, looking for a copy of Oliver’s birth certificate. I didn’t find it. But I did find this 1924 receipt from the “American Consular Service” for $1 paid by my great-grandfather, John Pothalo (born потягайло and anglicized when he emigrated to Canada), “for preparing Alien’s Declaration and administering oath thereto as prescribed by regulations of the Department of State.”
I’ve no memory of how this receipt survived for 92 years in the family records, nor for how it ended up with me. But I’m glad it did.
If I recall what my grandmother told me properly, the trip to the US, from Fort William, Ontario, was to go to the Mayo Clinic, 700 km away in Rochester, Minnesota, for cancer treatment.
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I am Peter Rukavina and this is my blog. I am a writer, letterpress printer, and a curious person.
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