Family History
We often receive e-mail from other Hayman families around the world. Our branch came from Bath, Somerset, England in the form of Dave's grandfather, Stanley Morris Hayman, who was orphaned as a young boy. He was sent to Canada in the late 1800's. We have no knowledge of relatives of his in England or anywhere else, but have a ton of relatives from his wife's side.

Dave's mother's family is also interesting. Her parents were Hungarian. They married in the USA and Dave's mom was born in East St. Louis, IL. Then they moved back to Hungary briefly, where his older uncle was born. Then with political strife all about, they moved to Canada, where his younger uncle was born. The family names were Janosy (later Johnson) and Varady. One of the great aunts has a portrait of her grandfather in the uniform of a Hussar of Emperor Franz Joseph.

Judith's family also has some mysteries. Her many times removed grandfather, John Legate, to land in Garafraxa township, Wellington County, near Orangeville, ON. He and all the rest of the Legates were Protestant Irish, and they married (mostly) within that group, right up to Judith's grandparents William Legate and Margaret Cowan. There were members of the Orange Lodge on that side, I regret to say.

Enter her father, who is actually from Belfast (also Protestant Irish) who would have nothing to do with the Orange Lodge. He had lived all his life in a mixed neighbourhoods and had no use for intolerance. He had also been orphaned by age 13, losing his parents Samuel Marshall and Margaret Cavan. While living with his uncle (last name Black) he developed a yen for Canada, and travelled here alone at age 18. There's a bit of a mystery there too. There are rumours of an older sister, but Pat never spoke of her.

Interests
Books, music, film, some sports and our beloved animals are family passions. And we still enjoy travelling as a family, doing things like driving across the continent, white-water rafting and eating around.

Filk and SF fandom are embraced by Dave and Judith, and amusedly tolerated by Jenn and Rich (and the cats, who really don't care).

The house is shared with quite a variety of both books and musical instruments. None of them are vintage or valuable, but we love them all.

The house is also shared with many passing friends -- to the point where Mary Ellens Wessels finally dubbed us "Hotel Hayman".

Home
Home for us is in the City of Hamilton in Southern Ontario (where, it seems, half the world comes to visit us). We're about one hour's from Niagara Falls (one of the seven natural wonders of the world) and also one hour from Toronto (one of the unnatural wonders?).

For the record, we love to entertain and have references to the quality of hospitality (food and otherwise) served up here!