Cause of death: Cancer of liver

Occupation: Income tax preparation

Lawrence married on 16 September 1960
Yvonne Margaret COLLINSON.
They were the parents of three children.
She later married Arvid BOLME.

Yvonne was born in the army town of Nanaimo where her father served in the Royal Canadian Medical Corp. After his death in 1945, her mother moved the family to Victoria, British Columbia where Yvonne grew up. In 1956 the family moved to Vancouver, and after leaving school she worked as an office clerk. Reg and Yvonne lived in Surrey and as the children grew up, she studied accounting and income tax and went to work in that field in 1976. Eventually Yvonne started her own business 'Y. M. G. Business Systems,' a small accounting and income tax enterprise which blossoms at tax season.

Yvonne was very active on Find A Grave creating in excess of 6000 and managing over 7000 memorials. She mobilized a small army of volunteers to take pictures for her across the continent.

OBITUARY
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BOLME, Yvonne Margarett (nee Collinson, formerly Gowen) January 14, 1943 to February 2, 2014. Yvonne passed away peacefully in her sleep after a short hospital stay.

Published in The Times Colonist from Mar. 8 to Mar. 11, 2014

Personal Recollection of Yvonne
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Ralph Gowen
February 2, 2014

I first became acquainted with Yvonne when I began refreshing the Gowen family genealogy that my great-grandfather, Bela, authored in the 1950’s, and my grandfather, Lloyd, refreshed in the 1980’s. This work had been put together to trace primarily our direct line of descent. Being very familiar with software and the powers of the internet, I began searching for additional information online and shortly discovered Yvonne and the work she had been doing on the Gowen family for decades. After bumping into her name over and over again, I reached out online and we became partners in genealogical crime. This was only a few years ago shortly after Christmas 2010.

Yvonne became my mentor as I retraced the steps that she had taken while exploring the family tree years earlier. I learned the basics from her and became impressed with the quality of her research – she never settled for “plunking” which she disdained. Facts had to be supported! Doing our research we constantly checked and double-checked each other’s work – correcting “oopsies” as Yvonne called them, and adding to each other’s facts. On many occasions, Yvonne challenged me with trying to find some obscure fact – often times I struck out miserably, but on a number of occasions was able to find the elusive pot of gold – after which she would also call me “Sherlock” and tell me “shine my badge.” Old pictures, documents, paintings and other artwork were among our favorites as they brought the family research to life. We also joked about “spice” when we found family stories that featured some crime, misdeeds or other imperfect behavior.

We exchanged countless emails as our work progressed – and boy did Yvonne delight when our work was “challenged” by another researcher. If we were wrong, we fixed it – but most of the time her data was rock solid and we were able to beat another challenger down. I always had the feeling that these moments made her proud of her high-quality work, for which she had justly earned quite a reputation. A couple of times I was contacted by someone looking at my work, who would refer me to Yvonne, “You really ought to contact her, she knows her stuff!” Things like this were commonplace.

I enjoyed Yvonne’s sense of humor, which she was careful with at first as she didn’t want to offend me. It turned out that we had a similar dry sense of humor (and I am exceedingly difficult to offend) and when extending holiday wishes I would always ask if she was frying up walrus in the igloo for the family, and I got similar treatment in return.

I wasn’t aware that Yvonne was ill and regrettably didn’t have a chance to tell her how much our friendship meant. Her work on the Gowen genealogy is an amazing gift for posterity and her memory will live on for all who knew her and loved her. I will miss her wit, the collaboration and exchanges of information, challenges to get it right, sharing in the excitement of a new fact, and the friendship we forged over the past few years. She was much more than a distant cousin with a common interest and I’ll miss her deeply.

Ralph Gowen

Gowen Family Genealogy - by Yvonne Collinson Gowen
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Introduction:
The creation of this book began in early 1978; it was after the death of her mother that Yvonne (Collinson) Gowen, wife of Lawrence Reginald (Reg) Gowen, was going through an old trunk of her family documents and photos to compile a Collinson Family Genealogy. Reg's brother, Alonzo (Al) & wife, Mary were intrigued by her project. Discussion became centered on the lack of any Gowen family knowledge and the desire to learn of some family history. At this point the success of such a project seemed futile as the brothers knew only their fathers' and grandfathers' names. However, it was decided to make an attempt.

In the Spring of 1978 visits were made to local family members searching for information and photographs. They established a family photo album, but were unable to learn any history. In the summer the two families visited a cousin, Brooks Ledgewood Gowen, in his Calgary, Alberta home and acquired more photos and some family stories were documented. Unfortunately, they were unable to establish any further names, dates, birthplaces, or other pertinent information.

In 1986, Almeda (Gowen) Schofield, daughter of Isaiah Joseph Gowen, provided funds to bring this Gowen Family Genealogy to publication. Almeda felt this history was too valuable to be 'lost again,' and should be available to be shared and treasured by all descendants of William & Elizabeth (Frost) Gowen.