Martin, Katherine Seagull

My father, Martin Seagull arrived in Halifax aboard the Baltic American ship Estonia, on March 28th,1926. A duty of the processing Immigration Officer was to "Canadianize" difficult to pronounce names of the new Canadians. In Polish, the name Szczygiel, translated to "Goldfinch", thus the name was changed to "Seagull". Martin was destined for Winnipeg, Manitoba as a farm labourer, but while travelling by train to Montreal, he struck up a conversation with a gentleman, who told him how very cold Manitoba was and that the winters were brutal. On hearing this, he hopped a train for Southern Ontario and rode it as far south as possible, ending up in Windsor, Ontario where he settled.

In January, 1928, he was able to bring his wife Katherine, and three young sons, Michael age 7, Eugene age 5, and John age 2, to Canada aboard the Baltic American ship Lithuania, disembarking at Pier 21, on January 23rd,1928. Subsequently, five more children were born in Canada, to Martin and Katherine Seagull.

During World War Two Martin and two of his immigrant sons Mike and Eugene, shipped out of Pier 21 for Europe as members of the Canadian Army. The third immigrant son, John, served Canada as a member of the R.C.N.V.R. during the war aboard the Canadian Navy Corvette H.M.C.S Tillsonburg.

They all voluntarily and Proudly served their country, CANADA