Conflicting Baptism Information for Caroline Seymour Sanders

So, it would appear that there are two baptism records for Caroline Seymour Sanders (wife of Isaac Amos Williams).

First there is D04436


Child's Name: Caroline Seymour
Parents: John Arnold & Fanny Sanders
Baptism date: 15 Mar 1826
Birth date: Not given
Location: Bathwick, Somerset, England



Then, there is D03874


Child's Name: Caroline Seymour
Parents: John Arnold & Fanny Sanders
Baptism date: 28 Aug 1831
Birth date: 13 Sep 1825
Location: Bathwick, Somerset, England


You will note that other family members were baptized at the same time.

I can see two possibilities: either she was baptized twice, once on her own and once with other children in the family, or these baptisms are for two different individuals.

Looking into the possibility of them being from two different individuals, given the common names, common parents names and locations, it would seem to be a very unlikely coincidence that there would be two Caroline Seymours born to two sets of parents with the same name in the same location around the same time. They could both be daughters of the same parents, only one died at a younger age. But it is the later baptism that gives a birth date that occurred before the first baptism date. So that doesn't look like it could be the case.

Therefore, the most likely conclusion is that there were two baptisms: one initially as an individual and one with other members of the family.

X00056 Clarence Douglas in 1921 Census Solved!!

For the longest time, I wasn't able to find Clarence W. Douglas in the 1921 census, I did come across the following person in the 1921 census:



While the name and the age (53) matches, there are a number of things that do not. For one thing the relationship to head of Roomer/servant is a discrepancy. But the biggest one is that he is listed as being from Ireland, of Irish background and immigrated to Canada in 1884, where we know that he is actually of Scottish background and was born in Canada.

On the other hand, the address of the place he was living at was 845 2nd Avenue East, which was the address of the Paterson House where he and George Marron would have been the co-owners in 1921. Sure enough, George Marron and his family are also listed as living there at the time. Owen Sound street directories from show Clarence Douglas living at that same address in 1917 and 1922, which leads me to conclude that this Clarence Douglas in 1921 is the correct one, and the information about his ethnic background was giving incorrectly by someone who did not know him all that well.

Update on X00121: Who is Ellen Reynolds?

Back again with another update on the X00121 quest to find out who Ellen Reynolds/Ellen McLeod is and if they are the same person. This time I've been searching to see if I could find some other records on Ellen McLeod.

Some time ago, I found evidence of an Alexander & Ellen McLeod living in Niagara. Since the John McLeod family has a connection to Niagara, could this be the same Ellen McLeod as the one that we're trying to resolve? It would have to mean that Alexander died before 1861. I managed to find their gravestone in Drummond Hill Cemetery in Niagara and Alexander died in 1871. As well, I found the two of them together in Welland County in the 1861 census:



Since we already have the other Ellen McLeod in the 1861 census in Cobourg we can rule this Ellen McLeod out as a match.

Next, when I was searching for possible marriages between an Ellen McLeod and a Joseph Reynolds in Cobourg, I found a marriage record between a John McLeod, aged 34, born in Scotland and an Ellen Thompson, aged 21, born Canada. The marriage date was 30 Dec 1858. Both bride and groom resided in Hamilton.



So, this marriage was intriguing for a number of reasons: the names Ellen & McLeod. The fact that it was in Cobourg and that both parties lived in Hamilton (John McLeod & family have connections with Hamilton). If this were the case, it would mean that Ellen's maiden name was Thompson and her husband John would have died before the 1861 census.

But there are some other issues with the record that suggest that it might not be the same Ellen. For one thing, the age in the marriage record suggests a birth year of 1837, whereas the other Ellen would have been born in the 1820s (the year varies by record). As well, she is listed as being born in Canada whereas the Ellen that we are looking for would have been born in Scotland. Plus, in the 1861 census, the Ellen McLeod we are checking is not listed as being a widow.

But the final blow came when I found John & Ellen McLeod in the 1861 census as well. So we can rule that possibility out as well.

X00289 & X00290 Solved!!

I now have a follow up on both X00289 & X00290. Both have been solved!

I posted about X00289 some time ago - I was looking for birth and death information for Annie Louisa Williams.

Then I posted about X00290 where I was looking for the cemetery and death information for Charlotte Ann Perry Williams (mother of Annie Louisa Williams).

The good news is that I managed to get answer for both issues via the cemetery transcriptions for Woodlawn Memorial Gardens in Guelph:



It would appear that both Annie and Charlotte were initially buried in St. George's Cemetery in Guelph, but the cemetery was later closed and the burials were relocated to Woodlawn Cemetery. According to the transcription there are no markers for these graves and it is impossible to determine their locations. But at least there are some records that have survived to give the details