UNITY RYDER WORTMAN

My great-grandmother appears above. All her life, she was noted for her fine sense of noble fashion. Even though we have many photographs of her, however, not one of them shows her smiling. I can only attribute this to the Victorian notion that photograph taking was a major event. Also, until the more sophisticated photograph equipment appeared, subjects had to stay perfectly still until the plate could be exposed.

William Wilson Wilmot Wortman was her husband. Will Wortman is a descendant of the Petitcodiac German pioneers, George & Mariah Wortman. In 1766, these pioneers arrived at what is today's Moncton, NEw Brunswick, CANADA.

Will and Unity eventually located to Winnipeg, Manitoba. They arrived in 1879. A careful study of the newspapers for that year, however, does not show anything of Will and Unity arriving. They probably sailed from Minnesota along the Red River, although the rail lines were in place by then from the south.

Will worked for the railroad since his early days in Moncton. The rails arrived from the East in Winnipeg in 1881.

Below is a photo of Unity and Will Wortman's great-grandson, Wayne Wortman. He is standing next to his mother, Florence Elizabeth Settee Wortman. This was taken in Moncton, NB, Canada.

Wayne and Flo live in Winnipeg. They were in New Brunswick where Wayne and his late sister, Marilyn Morrison, went through all the pioneer cemetaries unearthing information abou the Wortman Family. LINEAGE George & Mariah Wortman (arr. June 3, 1766)//Martin Wortman//William Henry Wortman//William Wilson Wilmot Wortman [m]Unity Ryder)//Harris Wortman//Donald Harris Wortman (1918 - 1991)[m] Florence Settee//Donald Wayne Wortman (1944 - )