X00286 Burial Record for Eva Wilkinson - Solved!

It's been a while since I've posted anything, but there have been some new releases that have come out since my last post. In particular, the Ontario Death Registrations for 1949 have been released. Among other things, I was able to find the death registration for Evangeline Louise Madden Wilkinson (1883-1949).

I had already know that she was buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto through Find a Grave, but the death registration confirmed it.

I found the plot number through the Toronto Trust website and then went to Family Search to search for the burial records for that plot and was able to get the burial record

In addition I was able to verify other names as well for that plot.

X00363 Robert Ashton Investigation - Solved!

I was investigating some hints on Ancestry and found that for George Ashton and Alice Butterworth (my 3x great-grandparents), another Ancestry member had listed a child named Robert who was born 1863 and died 1867. The Ancestry member did have GRO Index links for both the birth and the death record. The timing certainly is plausible because the couple did not have any other children born in 1863 (they had children born in 1862 and 1865, from my research). As well, the child would not have lived long enough to have appeared in a census, which is why he could have been missed.Both references are for Blackburn, Lancashire as well, which also makes sense.

So, now that the GRO allows the purchase of digital records for much cheaper now, I decided to get the records that were referenced in the indexes.

Here's the birth record:

The parents are listed as James Ashton and Ellen Blackburn, which clearly doesn't match.

Here's the death record:

The death record lists this child as the son of Robert Ashton, a plasterer. So it's not even the same child as was referenced in the birth record, but again is not a match.

So, neither record is a match and so it would appear that neither record is evidence that George and Alice had a child named Robert.

X00021 James Oatt connection - Solved!

Another older query that I was investigating. I had records from a James Oatt and a Kate Simpson Oatt, but hadn't been able to connect them to my family. I did manage to find the family gravestone in Greenwood Cemetery:

One clue was with the surname "McNaught" which appears in their daughter's middle name. I eventually found that the James C. Oatt who is connected to my tree married a Catherine McNaugt, which had me thinking that there was likely a connection there.

I then found his death record, which lists his parents name and has confirmed the connection:

X00022 Place-Nightingale Marriage - Solved!

I've been going back and having a look at some of the older queries that I had noted in the past with fresh eeyes and new discoveries that have been made since then.

It looks as if back in 2012 I purchased a marriage certificate between a Thomas Place and an Elizabeth Nightingale (nee Moorby), likely thinkng that it was Thomas Place, son of Robert Place, born 1827 in Blackburn, Lancashire, England. But on receiving it, I discovered that the father of Thomas Place in the marriage certificate is Joseph Place:

So, the question was, was that the wrong information on the marriage record (which I have seen before), or were there two different Thomas Places, born around the same time in the same place.

As for the Thomas Place, son of Robert Place, the only records that I have been able to definitely verify as being his are baptism records and the 1841 census. I did some digging, however, and managed to find records of the Thomas Place, son of Joseph Place in a baptism record.

I have also found both of them in 1841 census records. So, it would appear that we are looking at two different individuals and the marriage record is from a different Thomas Place.

So, mystery solved, but this raises the question of what became of Thomas Place, son of Robert Place? I don't have any definite records for him beyond his appearance in the 1841 census. Other trees on Ancestry have him dying in 1866 and some have him marrying a Sarah Ramsbottom in 1870. Not sure if either of them are true (they obviously both can't be true) but that is a mystery for another day.

X00089 1911 Census for Ernest Ashton - Solved!

I've been trying to find more about Ernest Ashton and what became of him after 1916 (see X00317). I've had some luck with that so far, and have been able to find him in the 1931 census recently.

Another query that I've had involving Ernest Ashton is finding him the in 1911 census (X00089). PReviously, I had found this document:

Where there is an Ernest Ashton working as a labourer on a farm. The age and the birth date are correct (December 1890 vs December 1891). He was born in England and the record shows him as having arrived in Canada in 1910, which corresponds to other records that I have that say the same thing. I also have not found any other possibilities in either the 1911 census of Canada or England. I am therefore prepared to conclude that this is the correct Ernest Ashton.

X00303 Update on Who is Martha Williams

Now that I have a bit more information about the Williams family, I have taken another look at the question of Who is Martha Williams (X00303).

As mentioned previously, she is buried in Greenwood Cemetery in the same plot as some of the other members of the Thomas Williams family and I was wondering if there was a connection.

Martha Williams was born Martha Frost and married Henry H. Williams. She was the daughter of John Frost and Mary Williams and since the surname Williams appears on both sides of the marriage, it's not entire clear as to which side the connection could come from.

I thought that Mary Williams could be a sister of Thomas Williams, as he did have a sister named Mary. But Mary Williams, the sister of Thomas Williams was born in 1791, likely in Gloucenstershire and the Mary Williams who married John Frost was born in 1815 in Wales according to my research.

Henry H. Williams is the son of Lewis Williams and Orrilla Healey. It would appear that Lewis Williams was also born in Wales in 1807.

So both Williams connections to Martha Frost WIlliams originated in Wales and the timing doesn't seem to match with the Thomas Williams family. So it would appear that if there is a connection between the two families, it goes further back than that.

X00055: James Farrage and William Chisholm

So, I was doing some thinking. William Chisholm (who signed the George Miller-Margaret Farriage marriage bond) was living in Nelson in the 1830s. He operated a general store and supplied local shipping companies. He later became a ship builder. So could he have been the connection between the Farrages and George Miller?

Perhaps Margaret’s parents died and so she traveled with James. James knows William Chisholm as a supplier who finds her work in her home town as a domestic, where she meets George. Just a thought.