The search for three sisters

Charles Edwin Hewett and Emily Jane Williams had six daughters and one son. Four of the daughters have presented problems as far as finding out what happened to them:

• Annie Frances Hewett [X00309], third daughter, born 10 March 1872
• Clara Augusta Hewett [X00311], fifth daughter, born 5 August 1876
• Olive Jane Hewett [X00312], sixth daughter, born 20 December 1880.

I have posted about Annie Frances Hewett previously.

I have also had difficulties tracking down what happened to their fourth daughter, Norah Eleanor Hewett, but I will save that X-file for another time.

Clara became a school teacher in Orillia and Olive because a nurse.

I have found the three of them living together in Orillia in 1965 from a voters list:

So, they were all three still alive in 1965 and apparently unmarried. But nothing after that. I haven't found any cemetery listings for any of them, nor have I found any death notices in the Simcoe newspapers online. But the search continues...

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Sources:
[D04719] Canada, Canada, Voters Lists, vol. 1965: 2; digital images, Ancestry.ca, "Canada Voters Lists 1935-1980,"

X00291 Update

In my search to find what happened to Hester Sophia Williams, I was looking into the possibility that she may have stayed in England rather than come to Canada with the family. I did come across a marriage record from 1853 in Cornwall, England between a Hester Ann Williams and a Henry Pascoe.

On the plus side, the year of birth is close (1831 vs 1833), and the name of the father is also Thomas Williams. Plus, the location of Cornwall is not far off from where the family originated.

On the negative side, the name is off (Hester Ann vs Hester Sophia) and the father's occupation is given as a miner (as far as I can make it out). I decided to dig a bit further, and managed to find a baptism record for the Hester Ann Williams who appears in the marriage record:

Unfortunately, this would appear to be a different person than the one I'm looking for. The mother's name is different, and of course, I've already found the baptism record for Hester Sophia Williams.

So, the search continues. I do think that it is unlikely that she would have stayed in England by herself at age ten, but I want to look for all possibilities.

X00212 Who is Esther Riley Part 2

In last week's post, I was verifying information found on a tree in Ancestry.

In the post, it mentioned that

• Henry Raleigh died 1848 in Meadowvale due to a sawmill accident
• Henry married Esther Tricker in 1843 in Churchville, Ontario
• Esther Tricker lived 1822 to 1851
• They had three children: William b. 1844, George b. 1846 and Henry b. 1848

So far, I've been able to verify a number of the facts including Esther's birthdate and the names and birth dates of the children.

While doing these verifications, I had another look at Lancelot Hardy and Jane Tricker in the 1861 census and realized that the Henry listed with them is actually Henry Reilly, son of Henry Raleigh and Esther Tricker, which not only confirms the family connection, but adds further evidence to the idea that Esther had died by that time.

But the biggest piece of confirmation that I was able to find was this transcription of an obituary from the Streetville Review:

I still need to confirm with the original record, but from the transcription it does seem to confirm that Henry Raleigh did in fact die in a sawmill accident (albeit in 1849, rather than 1848).

So, this means that I've been able to confirm all of the details from the other tree, except for the year of marriage between Henry Raleigh and Esther Tricker and Esther's date of death.

X00212 Who is Esther Riley Part 1

One of the mysteries that I've been searching is the question of who is Esther Riley. Thus far, she had only appeared in a marriage register from 1850, listing a marriage between a Lancelot Hardy and an Ester Riley:

Unfortunately, that's all the information that I have on her. No death information, nothing about her parents, or when or where she was born.

I had originally thought that Esther Riley was the second wife of the older Lancelot Hardy (born about 1794), remarrying after Ann Wood Hardy had died, and that the younger Lancelot Hardy (born about 1827) had married Jane Tricker. But I've since changed my opinion on that - more on that issue in a future post.

I've come accross some additional information and Esther Riley recently. A cousin who is researching the same family pointed me to a family tree on Ancestry. The tree mentioned a Henry Raleigh who died in Meadowvale in 1848 due to a sawmill accident, married an Esther Tricker (1822-1851) in 1843. They had three children together, William Raleigh born 1844, George Raleigh born 1846 and Henry Raleigh both 1848.

On the plus side, the timeline fits quite nicely: Esther Tricker marries Henry Raleigh in 1843. Henry dies in 1848 and the widowed Esther Raliegh (or Riley) marries the younger Lancelot Hardy in 1850. She then dies in 1851 and Lancelot Hardy goes on to marry Frances Snowden in 1853. The fact that her maiden name is Tricker also suggests that there is a connection with Jane Tricker. On the minus side, there are no sources given in the Ancestry tree for any of the information given. So, I decided to treat the Ancestry tree information as a clue and do my own verification.

The first thing that I did is find a baptism record for a Hester Tricker, baptized 7 April 1822, the daugther of James Tricker and Sarah Wade, the same parents as Jane Tricker (see X00214). So, Esther and Jane Tricker were sisters.

Next, I had a look at the children.

I found the death certificate for Henry Raleigh who died in Tacoma, Washington in 1935. In the death certificate, his birth date is given as 10 July 1848 in Meadowvale, Ontario and his parents are listed as Henry Raleigh and Esther Tricker.

I managed to find a marriage registration for a William Riley and a Mary Ann Hyatt in 1866 where William's parents are listed as Henry and Esther Riley. It also confirmed a birth year for him of 1844.

Verifying the connect with George was a little harder to do, but I found that from census records he was living with James Tricker and Sarah Wade in Indiana and is buried in the same cemetery as them.

So, I've been able to verify dates of birth for Esther and the children and everything checks out with the details on the Ancestry tree. Next week, I'll look at some of the other details from the tree.