File: hancockharold06-oh-familyorigin_M.mp3
Speakers:
HH – Harold Hancock
KN: Keith Nicholson
HH: Well the Hancocks immigrated up from the states. Actually my grandfather deserted off an American sailing ship in Charlottetown Harbor, and in those days he'd have been hung if they'd got him. But they didn't get him (laughs).
KP: Do you know when that was?
HH: He died when he was 92. I was probably 8 years old [c.1940]. So you can do the math. He was a great storyteller and he used to tell us, he sailed around the world on these sailing ships. And he often told that story. And he walked from Charlottetown, and he was walkin out through Pownal, and he saw my grandmother off to the side of the road workin' at something and he decided that was the girl he wanted to marry. This is his story. And eventually he did! And manys the time he told us that story. He was a great singer, too, entertainer. He knew all the old Irish songs.
KN: I didn't know that, I learned something new today.
HH: We were from Philadelphia I think.
