Don’t know how these people would fit into my family tree, but I found this interesting nevertheless: a gloomy Newfoundland expression:
“On February 3, 1868, a vicious blizzard lashed the Avalon Peninsula killing more than 30 people. In Upper Island Cove a man named John Coombs and his two teenaged children, Mary and Richard, were frozen to death. John Coombs had gone into the woods to cut wood when he was overcome. In separate incidents the younger Coombs and two other residents of the town perished in the storm. Thereafter throughout the Avalon Peninsula the accepted expression for a bad storm was a “Coombs’ Day.” “Looks like we’re going to have a Coombs’ Day tomorrow” or “That was a real Coombs’ Day,” were commonly heard for generations after. The idiom lasted until the early 1920s.”
From Les Harding’s Exploring the Avalon. (Exploring Newfoundland Series. St. John’s: Breakwater Books, 1998. page 90.)
Posted by Sylvia J. on July 16, 2011 at 12:07 am
Thanks for the info. Sad, but interesting.
Posted by Cheri Wheeler on October 14, 2011 at 9:53 pm
I just read where my ancestor Joseph Drover of Upper Island Cove died in the Coombs Day disaster and his date of death is listed as the same as what you have mentioned: Feb 3, 1868. I didn’t know what this disaster was and I looked it up and found your blog. Thank you for posting this. I also have Coombs ancestors from UIC so they may have been involved too. Very sad.
Posted by Pauline Clara Bartlett on February 3, 2012 at 9:01 am
I know a lot about Coombs Day…My great great grandfather was the John coombs who died in the blizzard of Feb 3 1868…maybe we can chat sometime
Posted by Emily on February 3, 2012 at 10:48 pm
Wow, thanks for commenting! My email is eahegarty at gmail dot com if you want to get in touch –that would be great!