“Old Gander” genealogy project - Introduction

(Now with street names)

(Version 25 Sept 2021

by Robert G Pelley)

The "Old airport" has disappeared and, even worse, with the passage of time, the names of the people who once lived there are slowly fading away  This information must be preserved for future generations who may wish  to research their roots.

In early 2015 I started researching what information was available about former residents.  Luckily there were good initial sources, such as phone books, the 1945 census, biographies by former residents, official histories and a weekly TWA employee newsletter covering period from 1945-59.  Faye Raynard's pages in the original "Flight" website also provided a number of names.  It was also possible for example to purchase documents on Pan Am  from the University of Miami. 

When the first version of the genealogy project was posted in autumn 2015, several people were mentioned for their help getting the ball rolling.  Carol Walsh, Eric Smith and the Gander Beacon provided excellent geographical references that were the foundation of this project. 

While a large number of people have very graciously offered valuable information, there are a few people who merit special mention because they really went "above and beyond the called of duty": Michel Crowe, Carol Walsh, Jim Butler, Gladys (Goulding) Stryde, Dora (Butt) Hickey, Cliff Powell, Bert Waterman, Wayne Dyke, Jim Simmons, Don Hanrahan, Helen (Gosse) Goobie and Wayne Suley.

My heartfelt appreciation therefore to all those who participated in what is now “our” project, rather than “my” project. Our children’s children will thank us.

The result of this research is shown below and divided into several sections. Each clickable section has a list giving the building number and street address, the organization using it and the names of the occupants, along with the appropriate reference map. As can be easily seen, this is a geography-based reference, where the building number is the basic starting point to look up names.

Several comments before looking at the lists and maps:

-    as can be seen from the maps attached, the numbering system for the old airport buildings is baffling. Numbers are far from consecutive and jump from one side of the airport to another. In many cases buildings have the same number, for example those on Chestnut on the American side and the Canadian side. 

-    there may be more families listed in a given building that apartments available. This is because people moved around quite frequently on the old airport and may have lived in several buildings. Particularly in the case of airlines, there was a lot of movement to and from Gander.

- it is also possible that the members of a family in one bldg may be different those of the same family in an other bldg. This is for two reasons. Firstly the info may have come from two different sources, for example if a family moved from the Army side to the American side. Also children were added to families as they moved around.

- please note that the lists are entitled father, mother, children for reasons of standardization. However in  certain cases the identified adults were single.

- Any information you can give to improve this genealogy section (and the website in general) would be very helpful. When giving your information, please identify firstly the  area (ex Army side), then  the bldg number, followed by the names of persons concerned.

None of us are not getting any younger – so your help is very much appreciated!    Robert Pelley