Leach Marriage Record found!

I have managed to find the marriage record for Charles Leach and Margaret Delahaye [D02745].

Based on the fact that they both are unmarried in the 1851 census and their first child was born around 1853, I figured that they married between 1851 and 1853. Sure enough, I managed to find them in the records for St. Luke's Anglican Church married on February 4 1853.



A couple of notes:
1. Charles' occupation is listed as yeoman. I have not seen a record that describes his profession as a yeoman to date. He's usually been listed as a carpenter
2. It is a bit unusual that they would be married in an Anglican church when it is very likely that Margaret comes from a Roman Catholic background. Then again, given the time period and the region, there may not have been much in the way of church options to get married in.

X00151 is now closed!

Some preacher of heresy....

I have a new X-file to investigate for the surname Doritty. The records of St. Vincent de Paul Roman Catholic Church in Niagara lists this baptism in either 1890 or 1891 for a male child with the surname "Doritty" (see below). No first name is given.

The record has a note below the entry stating that

"This was conditional, the boy having been 'baptized' by some preacher of heresy, when a babe."

This appears to be a child of John V. Dorrity and Cecelia Fellows, although the 1891 census does not show them having a child born in 1890 or 1891. Nor can I find anything in the Ontario Birth Indexes. So, perhaps it was one of their sons born earlier and they were only recording the entry later.



Definitely worth investigating though. I'm wondering what constituted a "preacher of heresy" back in the 1890s?

Lawrence Ashton Memorial

I have discovered through Toronto Branch OGS' For King and Country database that there is a memorial for Lawrence Ashton at Lambton Mills School.

A String of Accidents

Continuing the search for the Mundy/Dority relationship I came across this obituary for a Francis Moore that provides a great deal of information:



Unfortunately for Mrs. Moore (I have since found out that her first name is Sarah), it seems that she has faced a great deal of tragedy in her life. But it certainly gives a great deal of information for me to follow up on.

For one thing, it references her brother in law Henry Monday drowning in the Niagara River in 1827 referencing the findings I posted last time. So she is likely the sister of Anne Sidney Taylor. It also mentions that her father was a Sergeant Taylor and that her mother remarried a man named Oakes.

So, here are the new X-Files to investigate:

• Investigate a Sergeant Taylor (likely father of Anne Sidney Taylor) who died at the siege of Badajoz, Spain in 1812 [X00200]
• Investigate a Mrs Oakes (likely mother of Anne Sidney Taylor) who died in St. Catherines in 1828 [X00201]
• Investigate a Sergeant Oakes (likely step-father of Anne Sidney Taylor) who drowned in the Niagara River around 1821 [X00202]
• Investigate a Francis Moore (likely brother-in-law of Anne Sidney Taylor) who died in Hamilton in 1831 [X00203]
• Investigate a Sarah Taylor-Oakes-Moore (likely sister of Anne Sidney Taylor) [X00204]

More on the McLeod-Mundy-Dorrity Saga

Continuing on from Part 1 and Part 2 of the story, I discovered some more records.

First, I found a marriage between a Thomas Dority and an Ann Mundy in 1831. Ann Mundy was listed as as a widow:



Next, I found a obituary for a Henry Mundy in 1827:



And finally I found a marriage between a Henry Mundy and an Ann Sidney Taylor:





So, here's the timeline of what I have pieced together so far:
* March 1827 - Henry Mundy marries Ann Sidney Taylor
* October 1827 - Henry Mundy dies in a boating accident
* About February 1828 - Ann Sidney Taylor Mundy gives birth to Henrietta Elizabeth Mundy
* May 1831 - Thomas Dority marries Ann Sidney Taylor Mundy
* March 1832 - Thomas and Ann Dority have a daughter Margaret
* August 1848 - Henrietta Elizabeth Mundy marries John McLeod
* December 1850 - John and Henrietta McLeod have a daughter Annie Agnes McLeod

So, it explains why the Dority name appears so much with the McLeod family and likely why Annie Agnes McLeod's mother was errantly listed as Anne Doherty

I still have some more investigating to do and some of the links to prove (most notably the births of Henrietta Elizabeth Mundy and Annie Agnes McLeod) but the pieces are coming together.

Investigating the McLeod-Dority Connection

Since I discovered the name Anne Doherty in Annie Agnes McLeod's Death Registration (see previous post) which has thrown up the question of whether Annie Agnes's mother is Anne Doherty or Henriette Mundy, I've been reviewing some of the family records. While I haven't found any definite proof either way, I've found the surname Doherty (or more accurately, Dority) staring me in the face in a number of records.

First, in the marriage record between John McLeod and Henriette Mundy, there is a Margaret Dority as a witness:



Next, in the 1861 census there appears to be an M.A. Dority either living with the family or next to the family



Same with in the 1871 census, when the family had moved to Hamilton:



I've also discovered that one of John & Henriette's daughters as named Amy Dorrity McLeod:



And finally, we find a marriage record for Margaret Dority, and both John McLeod and Annie Agnes McLeod are witnesses. Worth noting: the groom comes from Cobourg.



So what this all means, I'm not sure of yet. But there's definitely some connection between the McLeod family and the Dority surname.

New Record, New Information, New X-Files

Ancestry just released the 1945 death records for Ontario. There were a few that I was looking forward to seeing, one of which is the death registration for Annie Agnes Tew. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to find much that I didn't already know. But it turns out that there was a lot more on this record than I had expected. Some clues, and a whole lot more questions.



So, here are a few interesting observations:

1. The date of birth is listed as December 11, 1849. From census record to census record, her year of birth varies, although it's usually around 1855. 1849 is much earlier than I would have expected. Granted, death records are often erroneous, but this is definitely something to check out. [X00128]

2. The place of birth is listed as Niagara-on-the-Lake. I had figured that the McLeod family would have been living in Cobourg at the time of her birth, but that was when I had figured it was 1855. Again, this is a bit of a clue as to where I might find a birth record. [X00128]

3. The birthplace of her father, John McLeod is given as Edinburgh, Scotland. Until today, I only had a very common Scottish name, and an approximate year of birth to go on to trace him back to Scotland. At least this gives one more piece of information to narrow down possibilities. [X00182]

4. By far, the most interesting piece of information is that the name of the mother is given as Anne Doherty. All the evidence that I have points to her mother being Henriette Mundy. It's time to review the evidence and re-evaluate. Again, the information on the death registration is all coming second-hand, but it's worth investigating; even if it is incorrect, the name of Anne Doherty must have come from somewhere. [X00191]

5. And finally, the information that the mother was born in Cobourg, Ontario gives a clue on where we might find more information. [X00191]

The Parents of Alice Butterworth

I love it when a distant cousin or someone who is researching the same line as I am asks me how I arrived at a certain conclusion because then it forces me to review my evidence and assumptions. Sometimes my assumptions turn out to be correct; sometimes I find that I've made a mistake, but all-in-all it helps to make my research stronger.

Anyway, I received a recent question about how I arrived at the conclusion that the parents of Alice Butterworth (born about 1828 in Blackburn, Lancashire, England) were Robert Butterworth and Betty Council. There appears to have been a number of Alice Butterworths living in or around Blackburn at the time as well as multiple Robert and Betty Butterworths, so how did I arrive at these ones?

So I went through my documents and here is my analysis:

I start off with the marriage record of George Ashton & Alice Butterworth. From this, we learn that her father’s name was Robert Butterworth and his occupation was a weaver. Also, that Alice was born about 1828.



Next, I’ve found George & Alice in the 1851 census. The names and ages match the marriage certificate. In the household, they are living with a Betty Butterworth who is listed as a widow. So, presumably Robert had died by 1851.



Next, I found Betty and Alice in the 1841 census. The ages and names of the Alice and Samuel match the family in the 1851 census, so I’m confident it is the same family. Robert is missing from this census as well, so he likely had died before 1841. One thing to note is the ages for Betty don't match between the 1841 and 1851 census, although the 1841 census was notorious for rounding ages.



Next, I’ve come across a death certificate for a Robert Butterworth in 1840, living in Blackburn, who is listed as being a weaver. In the document the informant is a William Counsell. That isn't necessarily proof of anything, but it does support the argument that Betty's maiden name was Counsell.



Finally, I’ve come across a marriage record for a Robert Butterworth and a Betty Council, married in Blackburn in 1813. Robert's occupation is listed as weaver and the year of 1813 is consistent with when their oldest child from the 1841 census would have been born.

So, all seems to be consistent: the names, dates, occupation and locations. The only outlier (aside from the difference in ages for Betty Butterworth in the 1841 and 1851 censuses) is what I believe is the baptism record for Alice, where her father’s occupation is listed as a farmer and everywhere else it is listed as a weaver. That being said, if this is her baptism record, she was baptized much later in life, and it would have been 37 years after her father had died, so it is very likely that she could have given the wrong profession for him.

Frederick Ashton Birth Record - Solved!

I've been trying to find the birth record for Frederick Ashton. The 1891 census suggests that he was born in 1889 in Blackburn, Lancashire, England. According to the Ashton Family bible, he was born on October 17, 1889.

A search of Free BMD found a Frederick Ashton born in Blackburn in the Oct-Nov-Dec quarter of 1889. But looking at the certificate, the parents were not the correct family:



Later on, however, I found a burial record, where his name was listed as just "Fred". So, I tried the search again, searching just for a Fred Ashton. This time the parents are the correct ones:



The date of birth is a little off from what is in the family bible (October 22nd vs October 17th) but Frederick likely would have died long before the owner of the bible was born, so I can assume that the birth date is at least second-hand information.

Elizabeth Mitchell Baptism - Solved!

My 3Xgreat-grandmother was born Elizabeth Mitchell in 1820 (according to census records). She married George Ockenden in 1850 in Ifield, Sussex, England.

To go back further to the previous generation, I needed to get a record of her birth, but being born before 1837 I would need to get a baptism record. Census records confirm a birth year of about 1820 and a location of Crawley, Sussex. Her marriage record also confirms the birth year and gives a name for her father of James Mitchell.

A number of years ago, I did a search on the British Isles Vital Records Index for an Elizabeth Mitchell born in 1820 with a father named James and found a baptism record from Brighton, Sussex, which is not far from Crawley. So I made the assumption that this was the baptism record. The parents were James and Elizabeth Mitchell. Now, this was back in my early days of genealogical research when I really didn't know any better and so back then I was not as thorough with my research as I am now. So, I didn't bother questioning the fact that the baptism was in a different location than the other records would have suggested.

From there, I started researching the next generation by looking for a marriage between a James Mitchell and an Elizabeth as well as early census records.

Fast-forward to today and I'm undergoing a genealogy do-over of sorts. When I looked at the information I had, I started questioning how I knew that the mother's name was Elizabeth. I realized that the only proof that I had was the baptism index record for an Elizabeth Mitchell born in Brighton, and then started to question it. I did some more research and eventually found a baptism record for an Elizabeth Mitchell baptised in Crawley, Sussex in 1820 to a James & Mary Mitchell.




Not only does this Baptism fit the time and place, but when I had another look at the older census records I found that I had completely missed this clue from the 1851 census, the year after George and Elizabeth were married:



Living on either side of George and Elizabeth are his parents and her parents. I completely missed this because I was looking for a James and Elizabeth rather than a James and Mary. The answer had been staring me in my face all along!

As an added bonus, I have also noted that there is a family with the surname Bowers also on the census page. My suspicion is that Mary's maiden name is Bowers so I will need to look into that a bit further.

The genealogy sad dance

In my tree, I have a marriage between a George Miller and Margaret Farriage in Toronto Township in 1832 (October 25th, 1832 to be specific).


I was able to find a bit more information on George Miller - he was born 1809 in Poughkeepsie, New York - but not much on Margaret Farriage. It certainly doesn't help that the surname Farriage takes on a number of variations - sometimes there is only one r, sometimes e's replace the a's and sometimes there is no letter i.

I managed to find a Margaret Farridge through FamilySearch.org born May 1st, 1804 in Rothbury, Northumberland, England, daughter of William Farridge.



The name is close enough and the timeline is not outside the realm of possibility. As well, George and Margaret's second son was named William, so it all fits. But I was a little hesitant to make the jump that this could be the same person in both Nelson Township, Ontario and in Rothbury, Northumberland, England without more proof.

Now, this was back in the early days when I was just starting out in genealogy. I managed to get in touch with a distant cousin who had spent many years researching the Farriage line and she had the two as the same person, so I made the connection in my tree, figuring that I would verify it with my own research later.

So, fast-forward to a few months ago. I'm now getting around to verifying that line. There was a wavy leaf on Ancestry.com that led me to some other people who had Margaret Farriage in their tree. Most of them either had the same connection as I did or no date of death. But interestingly, two of them had a death date of 1809 with no source. I contacted them, but (like many people with trees on ancestry) neither of them know where the information had come from, and had likely copied it from someone else.

So, I ordered the microfilm reel for Rothbury and sure enough I found the burial entry:



It's blurry, but it's a Margaret Farriage, daughter of William Farriage died October, 1809, aged 5 years. It's definitely the same person.

So, the Rothbury Margaret Farriage born 1804 is not the same as the Nelson Township Margaret Farriage. I checked the Rothbury Baptisms to see if the family had named a later child Margaret, but didn't find anything. So, I now have to delink that branch of the family, and go back to square one as far as finding Margaret's actual birth date, place & parents. It's a bit of a genealogy sad dance, but finding out the truth is far better than wasting time researching the wrong family.

Who is Sam Butterworth?

The back of the photo show here identifies the individual as Sam Butterworth and was definitely taken in Blackburn, Lancashire, England.

The photographer was Wilson Jennings. Wilson Jennings appears to have been in business in Blackburn from at least 1905 until at least 1924.

The only Sam Butterworth that I have in my tree was born about 1837. If this picture was taken in 1905 at the earliest, it's unlikely that it could be the same person.

Can anyone identify an approximate date for when the picture might be been taken? Or how old Mr. Butterworth might be in the image?

The Tew-Tew Marriage

A number of years ago while searching for a different Tew marriage, I found in the Ontario indexes an 1875 marriage in Hamilton, Ontario where both parties had the surname Tew. Or at least that is how it appeared in the index.

At first I thought that perhaps it was an error with the index, that the indexer accidentally put one surname down for both the bride and the groom. But when I got the microfilm reel and found the actual marriage registration record (shown below) I discovered that there was in fact, no indexing error - both the bride and groom had the last name Tew: Martha Tew and John Armstrong Tew.

My next thought that perhaps there was a remarriage - i.e. perhaps the bride's first husband died, and she was marrying her brother-in-law, which wasn't unheard of at the time. But it appears that Martha Tew hadn't been married before and Tew was her maiden name.

So, next I figured perhaps they were cousins, so I started researching their respective families to see if they had a common ancestor. Now here's the weird thing: John Armstrong Tew (my line) comes from Ireland and Martha Tew's line comes from England.

So, what I can conclude from this, is that either:
a) They are distant cousins, due to a connection that I haven't found yet
b) As a strange coincidence, two individuals both having the same uncommon surname happened to meet and get married.

Can anyone else offer another explanation?

Website update

Shortly after I decided to move my site to Dropbox, Dropbox decided to stop rendering HTML files as HTML pages. And then shortly after that, they decided to get rid of their public folders altogether. So, I'll need to find another solution for hosting my website. In the meantime, I do have my tree posted on Ancestry.ca; if anyone is on ancestry.ca you can find it there.