Karl Triller (September 30, 1928 - February 27, 2022) was born in Hungary and immigrated to Canada as a young man in the early 1950s. He worked in northern Ontario for a couple of years before moving to BC, where he worked as a baker and cook in forestry camps.
He married Elizabeth Wolf in 1956 and they had four children: Margaret in 1956, Rudy in 1958,Terry in 1960 and Fred in 1962. Around 1964 they settled in Courtenay,and Karl worked for Safeway for the next 16 years. Karl and Elizabeth divorced in the late 1970s.
Karl took early retirement at the age of 52 and moved to Cortes Island. He had always loved castles, and the granite rock of his property on Manzanita Road was the perfect place to build one. He designed, built and furnished a five-story, eight-bedroom German medieval-style castle of cement blocks over the course of 12 years. The castle featured eight bedrooms, a large dining hall, and a dungeon in the basement. The castle opened for business in the early 1990s, serving as a bed-and-breakfast and a venue for banquets and parties.
Karl took an active part in community life, and was crowned King of Cortes in Dec 2000. His duties included leading the Cortes Island Day parade and presiding at community Christmas dinners.
Part of a series of 5 photographs taken by a couple from Germany who were visiting Hans Dolezol (also known as Hans Croker), who lived in the Round House on the property of Paula Snow (now 1474 Robertson Rd.) during the late 1970s until his death in 1982.
Part of a series of 5 photographs taken by a couple from Germany who were visiting Hans Dolezol (also known as Hans Croker), who lived in the Round House on the property of Paula Snow (now 1474 Robertson Rd.) during the late 1970s until his death in 1982.
Series consists of family trees of Cortes Island settler families, with notes on related people and events. These trees are intended to help identify links between families on Cortes. Sources include online databases (e.g. Family Search.org, Ancestry.com and Canada Archives), CIMAS Archives and Information files, interviews and correspondence with family members.
Families researched include: Aldrich; Barrett; Borden; Byers; Cafferata; Froud; Hawkins; Hayes, Ashford and Griffin; Heay; Manson; Marquette; Middleton; Nichols; Percival and Saunders; Petznick; Pickles; Smith; (Carr) Smith& Marflett; Tiber; Tooker; Valley.The family trees and notes are kept in a binder labelled "Cortes Family Trees Project", located above the public access computer in the May Ellingsen Archives Room. Files are not available online due to privacy concerns.
We acknowledge that these trees are of white settler families and reflect colonization of ancestral homelands and displacement of the Indigenous Peoples who have thrived here for generations. We would welcome the opportunity to add those families to our records.
Family trees were researched by Bernice McGowan (1387 Bodington Rd, Whaletown, BC) in 2022. The Manson family tree was provided to CIMAS by Greg Johnson (2837 West 6th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V6K 1X2; phone # 604 897 5925) in 2022.
Scope and Content
Series consists of family trees of Cortes Island settler families, with notes on related people and events. These trees are intended to help identify links between families on Cortes. Sources include online databases (e.g. Family Search.org, Ancestry.com and Canada Archives), CIMAS Archives and Information files, interviews and correspondence with family members.
Families researched include: Aldrich; Barrett; Borden; Byers; Cafferata; Froud; Hawkins; Hayes, Ashford and Griffin; Heay; Manson; Marquette; Middleton; Nichols; Percival and Saunders; Petznick; Pickles; Smith; (Carr) Smith& Marflett; Tiber; Tooker; Valley.The family trees and notes are kept in a binder labelled "Cortes Family Trees Project", located above the public access computer in the May Ellingsen Archives Room. Files are not available online due to privacy concerns.
We acknowledge that these trees are of white settler families and reflect colonization of ancestral homelands and displacement of the Indigenous Peoples who have thrived here for generations. We would welcome the opportunity to add those families to our records.
Photograph of Mary Weiler walking onto the ferry after a surprise farewell party on the day she moved away from the island. Mary Weiler is facing the camera; John Ashby is center, with pipe; Brigid Weiler in the long skirt.
Photograph of Mary Weiler walking onto the ferry after a surprise farewell party on the day she moved away from the island. Mary Weiler is facing the camera; John Ashby is center, with pipe; Brigid Weiler in the long skirt.
"Granite and Fossils" is a compilation of informatioin about Cortes Island fossils created by Christian Gronau for the Cortes Island Museum in 2002 and updated in 2016 and 2023. It has been digitized as Volume 1 and Volume 2.
Christian Gronau studied palaeontology and geology in Germany. He came to Canada in 1972 and
worked in the mining sector in the N.W.T. (among other places), where he met Aileen.
Christian and Aileen (C&A) moved together to Cortes Island in 1978, where they lived for 34 years on a
water-access-only property, without hydro or telephone (Swamp’s Edge), supporting themselves as beach-
only shellfish farmers (Last Farm Oysters). Throughout, C&A have been avid naturalists, continuing this
tradition from their present home at the south-end of Cortes Island (Tanglebank).
Scope and Content
"Granite and Fossils" is a compilation of informatioin about Cortes Island fossils created by Christian Gronau for the Cortes Island Museum in 2002 and updated in 2016 and 2023. It has been digitized as Volume 1 and Volume 2.
