Today was Canadian Thanksgiving Day. Since I have a little bit of Canadian ancestry, I now celebrate this holiday instead of Columbus Day. The two holidays are always on the same day. Unless they decide to someday change Columbus Day to a more inclusive holiday like Explorer’s Day, this will continue to be my tradition.

In my post Almost Canadian? I wrote about my ancestor John Jenks who lived in Sacksville, New Brunswick in the 1760’s.

I have another ancestor who lived in Nova Scotia. Stephen Chapman and Zerviah Sanger moved to Newport, Nova Scotia from Rhode Island sometime around 1760. Stephen Chapman died there in 1770 and his family over time moved back to Rhode Island. His son Nathaniel married Phoebe Rhodes, the 3rd great granddaughter of Roger Williams. Nathaniel and Phoebe Chapman are my 5th great grandparents.

For Canada, Thanksgiving is usually traced to a Thanksgiving feast held by Sir Martin Frobisher and his crew in 1578.

The feast was held on the Countess of Warwick’s Island. Today the island is known as Kodlunarn Island. The island is just off the shore of Baffin Island in Frobisher Bay.

Since the restaurant that I usually go to for Canadian Thanksgiving closed a couple years ago I decided to have a Marie Callender’s dinner.

While warming up the convection oven I pulled out the tray and slit the film on both compartments.

After it was done cooking I pulled the tray out of the oven. I decided that it didn’t look like a holiday meal sitting in the tray.

So, I pulled out a colorful plate and emptied the contents of the tray onto it. I then added a roll and was ready for my Thanksgiving dinner.

Happy Thanksgiving to all my Canadian friends.

Steven