X00301: Who is Gertrude Evelyn Nugent?

I came across this naturalization document recently [D06314]:



The person described in the document is a Gertrude Evelyn Nugent and bears a lot of similarities to Gertrude Lavinia Hart. See the comparison below:

Gertrude Evelyn Nugent [From Document D06314]
Born 12 Aug 1883 in Fredericton, NB
Married a man named Percival 21 Sept 1929 at Dorchester, Mass
Currently living in Dorchester, Mass [as of 1 April 1941]
Percival was born on 27 June 1883 in Dorchester, Mass
No children
Previously entered the US on 25 Dec 1923 under the name Gertrude E. Madden


Gertrude Lavinia Hart [Known information]:
Born 12 Aug 1883 in Ontario
Married Henry Percival Madden 2 Feb 1911 in Bayham, Elgin, Ontario
Henry Percival Madden born 5 October 1881 in Minden, Haliburton, Ontario
One known child: Murray Gordon Madden born 19 June 1912 in Hensall, Huron, Ontario
Obituary states that she lived in Ottawa between 1939 and 1943

	Same	Different
First Name	Same
Middle Name		Different
Last Name		Different
Date of Birth	Same
Birth Location		Different
Husband's Name	Same
Marriage Date		Different
Marriage Location		Different
Husband's Date of Birth		Different
Husband's Place of Birth		Different
Child Status		Different
Residence in 1941		Different

As far as I am aware, Gertrude Lavinia Hart and Henry Percival Madden stayed married during their entire lives and I have no evidence of them ever having lived in the United States. Gertrude is buried alongside Henry Madden and it does not appear that she remarried after his death.

This is a tough one to call because it means either one of two things:

1. This naturalization document is filled with inaccurate information
2. There were two women named Gertrude, born on the exact same day who both married someone name Percival and used the surname Madden at some time.

I'm inclined to go with option 2 based on the information available, although it does seem like quite the coincidence. With option two though there are just too many things wrong. Even if it turns out that the two people are the same person, this document would not be much use genealogically because of all the inaccuracies.

X00303: Who is Martha Williams?

Recently I posted about Tattie Williams and the Williams plot at Greenwood Cemetery in Owen Sound. In that post, I mentioned that all of the names in the plot had been identified except for Martha Williams.



The burial listings for Greenwood Cemetery indicate that Martha Williams died 1 April 1873 and was buried 20 February 1874, which seems a little odd. Her age was listed as 0, which might be the case, or it might be that her age was not recorded in the records.

So, I first had a look through the Ontario death records and did not find a Martha Williams who died in 1873. Then I had a look through the Owen Sound newspapers and found the following death notice in the Owen Sound Advertiser for Thursday, April 10, 1873, p2 Col 8:



So then I went back to the Ontario death registrations and then found a record for a Martha Frost who died on 1 April 1873 in Owen Sound and was the wife of Henry H. Williams. She was born about 1858.



This would appear to be the correct Martha Williams that is buried in Greenwood. The only problem is that it still doesn't identify who she is and what her connection is to the Thomas Williams family. So I next tracked down a marriage record between Henry H. Williams and Martha Frost. They were married in Owen Sound on the 14th May 1870.

Henry H. Williams was born about 1854 and was the son of Lewis Williams & Orella Healey.
Martha Frost was born about 1858 and was the daughter of John Frost & Mary Williams.

Now here is where it gets interesting: both of them have parents with the surname Williams. So, could Lewis Williams be the connection with Thomas Williams? Or perhaps it is Mary Williams. Or maybe both of them? Or it could be neither of them and the cemetery recorded the wrong burial location. More research to come.....

Profile: Jane Emily Williams & William Henry Madden

Jane Emily Williams [1851-1936] & William Henry Madden [1853-1936]

Jane Emily Williams was the first born child of Isaac Amos Williams and Caroline Seymour Sanders. She was born in Guelph, Wellington in Canada West on 23 Nov 1851 [D04285] during the time that Isaac was working for his father’s brewery. She grew up in Guelph and attended school in Guelph [D03763] before the family moved to Mount Forest, Wellington County in the 1860s [D03788] and then Lindsay, Victoria County in the 1870s [D03761].

Jane married William Henry Madden, a Methodist minister on 2 July 1879 in Lindsay [D03761]. Prior to her marriage, Jane was a member of the Church of England [D03763, D03788] but converted to Methodism prior to her marriage [D03761].

William Henry Madden was born 4 Jan 1853 in Napanee, Lennox & Addington County [D03761, D04984, D04981] the son of David B. Madden and Anna James. At a young age, his family moved from Napanee to Otonabee, Peterborough [D04984] where he presumably met Jane Emily Williams as Otonabee is not far from Lindsay.

William’s profession as a minister required him to relocate frequently, and as such, the family lived in a number of different places in Ontario. Shortly after they were married, they moved to Eugenia Falls, Grey County [D03836, D04979], but after three years moved on to other charges including Minden, Haliburton County [D03847], Georgina, York County [D03845], Collingwood, Grey County [D03838], Medonte, Simcoe County [D04980], Meaford, Grey County [D04981] and finally Aurora, York County [D04982].

William and Jane’s first child, Clarence Eugene Madden was born 13 March 1880 in Eugenia Falls, Grey County [D03836]. He died of pneumonia on 16 February 1916 at the age of twenty-one as was about to enter the ministry like his father [D03837, D05047].

Henry Percival Madden was born 5 October 1881 [D03848]. He worked as a banker [D05196, D05194, D05201, D05197] and married Gertrude Lavinia Hart on 2 February 1911 [D05194]. He died on 5 April 1937 [D05193].

Jane and William’s first daughter, Evangeline Louise Madden was born 10 July 1883 [D03847]. She married Dr. Hilary N. Wilkinson, a dentist, on 28 September 1910 [D05198] and died 7 January 1949 [D05209].

Frederick Walter Madden was born 26 January 1885 [D03844]. He followed in his father’s footsteps and worked as a minister [D05210]. He married Stella Evelyn Hames on 21 June 1917 [D05210]. He died in 1957 [D04644].

Olive Seymour Madden was born 26 July 1886 [D03845]. She married William John Broley on 10 August 1904 [D03838] and died in 1963 [D03855].

Jane and William’s youngest child, Lillian Southmayd Madden was born 26 January 1889 [D03838]. She died of tuberculosis at the young age of twenty-five on 8 September 1914 [D03839].

Jane Emily Madden herself died 21 April 1936 of cardiac failure at the age of eighty-four [D03792]. She and her husband were living in Aurora, York County at the time. In her obituary she was remembered for being “of a particularly happy and cheerful disposition, her merry laugh often ringing out.” And for being involved with her religion and children’s lives [D05047].

Reverend William Henry Madden died just over two months after his wife on 29 June 1936 in his eighty-fifth year [D03835, D04875].

Both Jane Emily and William Henry Madden are buried in Mount Pleasant Cemetery in Toronto [D03829].



Sources:
[D03761] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Marriages, 10516, Madden-Williams; digital images, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Marriages,"(accessed 15 May 2018).

[D03763] 1861 census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, Wellington, Guelph, p. 31; RG 31; digital images,Ancestry.ca (accessed 20 May 2018).

[D03788] 1871 census of Canada, Ontario, district 35, sub-district e, Mount Forest, p. 49, dwelling 173, family 173; RG 31; digital images(accessed 20 May 2018).

[D03792] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Deaths, MS935, Reel 534: 351, 3260, 2371; digital image, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Deaths," Ancestry.ca (26 May 2018).

[D03829] Mount Pleasant Cemetery (Toronto, York, Ontario).

[D03835] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Deaths, MS 935 Reel 576: 433, 40364; digital image, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Deaths," Ancestry.ca (2 Jun 2018).

[D03836] Ontario Archives of Ontario, MS 929, reels 1-245, MS929 Reel 43: 8401, 23; digital image, Ancestry.com, "Ontario, Canada Births," (2 Jun 2018).

[D03837] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Deaths, MS935 Reel 01: 579, 5; digital image, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Deaths," Ancestry.ca (2 Jun 2018).

[D03838] Ontario Archives of Ontario, MS 929, reels 1-245, MS929 Reel 93: 168, 11764; digital image, Ancestry.com, "Ontario, Canada Births," (2 Jun 2018).

[D03839] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Deaths, MS935 Reel 203: 428, 36193; digital image, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Deaths," Ancestry.ca (2 Jun 2018).

[D03844] Ontario Archives of Ontario, MS 929, reels 1-245, MS929 Reel 74: 708, 44798, 13; digital image, Ancestry.com, "Ontario, Canada Births," (2 Jun 2018).

[D03845] Ontario Archives of Ontario, MS 929, reels 1-245, 41815, 8; digital image, Ancestry.com, "MS929 Reel 80," (2 Jun 2018).

[D03847] Ontario Archives of Ontario, MS 929, reels 1-245, MS929 Reel 61: 28254, 1; digital image, Ancestry.com, "Ontario, Canada Births," (2 Jun 2018).

[D03848] Ontario Archives of Ontario, MS 929, reels 1-245, MS929 Reel 50: 494, 26905, 10; digital image, Ancestry.com, "Ontario, Canada Births," (2 Jun 2018).

[D03855] Alliston United Cemetery (Alliston, Simcoe, Ontario).

[D03858] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Marriages451, 19067, Broley-Madden; digital images, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Marriages,"(accessed 3 Jun 2018).

[D04285] "Births," (Guelph) Guelph Weekly Herald, 2 Dec 1851, p. 3, col. 2.

[D04644] Erskine Cemetery (Durham, Ontario).

[D04875] ”Deaths,"Flesherton Advance, 1 Jul 1936, p. 1, col. 2; digital images(accessed 15 Dec 2018), Grey Highlands Historical Newspapers.

[D04979] 1881 census of Canada, Ontario, district 155, sub-district A-3, Artemesia, p. 13, dwelling 65, family 65; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.ca (accessed 2 Dec 2018).

[D04980] 1891 census of Canada, Ontario, district 116, sub-district 6, Medonte, p. 4, family 22; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.ca, Ancestry (accessed 2 Dec 2018).

[D04981] 1901 census of Canada, Ontario, district 64, sub-district D-2, Meaford, p. 2, dwelling 15, family 15; RG 31; digital images(accessed 8 Dec 2018).

[D04982] 1911 census of Canada, Ontario, district 137, sub-district 31, Aurora, p. 36, dwelling 109, family 113; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.com (accessed 9 Dec 2018).

[D04984] 1861 census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, Peterborough, district 12, Otonabee, p. 52; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.ca (accessed 15 Dec 2018).

[D05047] ”Mrs. Madden Passes," Flesherton Advance, 22 Apr 1936, p. 1, col. 6; digital images(accessed 2 Dec 2018), Grey Highlands Historical Newspapers.

[D05193] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Deaths, MS935 Reel 578: 384, 3465, 2231; digital image, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Deaths," Ancestry.ca (8 Dec 2018).

[D05194] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Marriages, Reel 159, 3524, Madden-Hart; digital images, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Marriages,"(accessed 8 Dec 2018).

[D05196] 1911 census of Canada, Ontario, district 82, sub-district 40, Hensall, p. 8, dwelling 109, family 109; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.com (accessed 8 Dec 2018).

[D05197] 1921 census of Canada, district 93, sub-district 94, Highgate Village, p. 5, dwelling 71, family 73; RG 31; digital images, ancestry.com (accessed 8 Dec 2018).

[D05198] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Marriages, Reel 151: 231, 24712, Wilkinson-Madden; digital images, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Marriages,"(accessed 9 Dec 2018).

[D05201] Ontario Archives of Ontario, MS 929, reels 1-245, MS929 Reel 227: 461, 26304; digital image, Ancestry.com, "Ontario, Canada Births," (9 Dec 2018).

[D05209] "Deaths," Toronto Star, 10 Jan 1949; digital images(accessed 15 Dec 2018).

[D05210] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Marriages, Reel 432, 19013, Madden-Hames; digital images, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Marriages,"(accessed 16 Dec 2018).

Identifying Tattie Williams

Back in June of 2018 I posted about the burial information for Samina Foxwell Williams. In the post, I listed the names of individuals who were buried in the same plot with Thomas Williams and Sybil Foxwell.





The names in the plot are:

• Thomas Williams
• Sybil Foxwell
• Tattie Williams
• John Douglas
• Louisa Williams
• Minnie McInnis
• John Williams
• Martha Williams

Thomas Williams & Sybil Foxwell are the parents of the family. Louisa Williams is their daughter and John Douglas was her husband. Minnie McInnis was identified earlier as Samina Foxwell Williams, another daughter of Thomas and Sybil Williams. John Williams is the son of Thomas Williams and Sybil Foxwell. Martha Williams is yet to be identified (see X00303).

So that leaves Tattie Williams to be identified. According to the burial listing for Greenwood Cemetery, she died March 14, 1882 at age 19. A quick search of the Ontario death registrations for that date shows a record for a Charlotte Ann Williams with a matching age and death date:



This name and birth date matches with a Charlotte Ann Williams, daughter of John Williams and Charlotte Ann Perry. And so "Tattie" is a nickname for "Charlotte".

Sources:
[D01131] "Owen Sound Greenwood Cemetery Interments" (typescript, 2005), p. 332. Rec. Date: 6 May 2018.

[D03740] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Deaths, MS935 Reel 33: 412, 21417, 286; digital image, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Deaths," Ancestry.ca (13 May 2018). Rec. Date: 3 Sep 2017.

Analysis: Birth info TW Douglas

Details/Background:

Different dates of birth have been found for TW Douglas ranging from 1858 to 1859. No records earlier than 1861 (i.e. baptism record or news articles) have been found.

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Analysis:

Ref	Desc	Birth Date Given	Notes
D01597	1861 Census	Abt. 1858	3 years old in 1861
D01559	1871 Census	Abt. 1859	12 years old in 1871
D01354	1881 Census	Abt. 1859	22 years old in 1881
D02623	Marriage Record	Abt. 1858	26 years old on 26 Aug 1884
D00764	1891 Census	Abt. 1858	33 years old in 1891
D00307	1901 Census	24 June 1859
D00334	1911 Census	24 June 1859
D04728	1921 Census	Abt. 1859	62 years old in 1859
D04954	Gravestone	1858
D01131	Burial Registration	Abt. 1858	96 years old on 23 April 1955
D05663	Obituary	Abt. 1858	96 years old on 23 April 1955

The only calendar date of birth given in 24th of June from both the 1901 and 1911 census records [D00307, D00334], so that is most likely the date of birth.

The census records seem to either give dates of birth of 1858 or 1859, but since the census dates are often in the months of May or June, that could be dependant on when the census was conducted. The dates given by people who would better know such as Marriage records or records after death all seem to suggest a birth year of 1858.

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Conclusion:

The most likely date of birth for T.W. Douglas is 24 June 1858.

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Sources:

D00307 1901 census of Canada, Ontario, district 65, sub-district D-8, Owen Sound, p. 11, dwelling 89, family 100; RG 31; digital images(accessed 11 Mar 2017). Rec. Date: 4 Mar 2017. Cit. Date: 11 Mar 2017.

D00334 1911 census of Canada, Ontario, district 73, sub-district 48, Owen Sound, p. 8, dwelling 68, family 83; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.com (accessed 25 Mar 2017). Rec. Date: 18 Mar 2017. Cit. Date: 25 Mar 2017.

D00764 1891 census of Canada, Ontario, district 68, sub-district Owen Sound Center Ward, Owen Sound, p. 36, family 181; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.ca, Ancestry (accessed 5 Oct 2017). Rec. Date: 30 Sep 2017. Cit. Date: 5 Oct 2017.

D01131 "Owen Sound Greenwood Cemetery Interments" (typescript, 2005), p. 81. Rec. Date: 6 May 2018. ID: D01131. Cit. Date: 30 Sep 2018.

D01354 1881 census of Canada, Ontario, district 134, sub-district G, Toronto, p. 136, dwelling 657, family 713; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.ca (accessed 30 Sep 2018). Rec. Date: 17 Feb 2018. Cit. Date: 30 Sep 2018.

D01559 1871 census of Canada, Ontario, district 37, sub-district 1-G, Owen Sound, p. 67, dwelling 258, family 262; RG 31; digital images(accessed 6 Sep 2018). Rec. Date: 4 Mar 2017. Cit. Date: 6 Sep 2018.

D01597 1861 census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia, Guelph, Guelph, p. 14; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.ca (accessed 13 May 2018). Rec. Date: 5 Feb 2018. Cit. Date: 13 May 2018.

D02623 Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Marriages, MS932; Reel: 47: 494, 8179, Douglas-Wright; digital images, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Marriages,"(accessed 30 Sep 2018). Rec. Date: 9 Sep 2017. Cit. Date: 30 Sep 2018.

D04728 1921 census of Canada, district 83, sub-district 45, Owen Sound, p. 1, dwelling 13, family 14; RG 31; digital images, ancestry.com (accessed 17 Oct 2018). Rec. Date: 1 Apr 2017. Cit. Date: 17 Oct 2018.

D04954 Greenwood Cemetery (Owen Sound, Grey, Ontario), G-S9-1. Rec. Date: 1 Dec 2018. ID: D04954. Cit. Date: 1 Dec 2018.

D05663 Grey County Surname Collection; digital images(accessed 3 Apr 2019). Rec. Date: 2 Nov 2018. Cit. Date: 3 Apr 2019.