X00120 What happened to Jane Louise D'Eye after 1897?

George Hastings Rust-D'Eye and Henrietta Fox Addison had thirteen children born between 1862 and 1881. So far, I've been able to trace what happened to all of them except for one of them: their fifth child, Jane Louise D'Eye, born in 1868.

Jane came to Canada in 1883 with the rest of the family [D02319]. I have found her Marriage record from 1897, indicating that she married George Forbes, a telegraph dispatcher for CPR [D01887].

But that is the last record that I have found for her. Nothing after that marriage. I haven't found either George or Jane in any census record or death record. At least until recently.

I had a new look on my tree on Ancestry and specifically at the hints for George Forbes (none of the hints for Jane Laura D'Eye were valid). There were a number of hints given for George Forbes, but it's hard to tell which ones are valid and which ones can be ruled out. This is partly because the name George Forbes isn't that uncommon, but also because working for the railway, it's likely that he moved around a lot so it's difficult to say where he could have been living at any given time.

There was one hint, however, that caught my attention, it was a passenger record showing a George Forbes living in Naramata B.C.[D07128]. So I thought that I'd check with the British Columbia death indexes to see if I could find that person. Sure enough there was a George Forbes who died 14 April 1951 living in Naramata, B.C. [D07117].

In the record, the year of birth matches, he's a dispatcher for the C.P.R. He's listed as a widower and his wife's name is given as Jane Louise D'Eye. So it's definitely the right person. Not only does this tell us what has happened with George Forbes, but we now know that Jane had passed by 1951. This gives us a date of death range between 1897 and 1951, which is still quite a wide range.

Another piece of information that the death record gives was that he was in the province twenty-three years prior to his death. So, this means that he would have been living outside of B.C. during the 1921 census. With that in mind I did some additional searching in the 1921 census and managed to find a George Forbes living in Edmonton in 1921 with his daughter Gertrude. The dates match, he is listed as a widower and he is listed as a CPR employee, so it is likely that this is the same George Forbes [D07118].

Gertrude E. Forbes is nineteen years old in the 1921 census, which puts her birth year at about 1902 and also notes that she was born in Quebec. I next checked the Quebec birth records and found a Gertrude E. Forbes born in Quebec in 1901, with her parents being listed as George Forbes and Jane Laura D'Eye [D07119].

So, no definite answers yet, but we can at least now pin down Jane Laura D'Eye's date of death between 1901 and 1921.

---

Sources:
[D01887] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Marriages, MS932; Reel: 91: 121, 1368, Forbes-D'Eye; digital images, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Marriages". Rec. Date: 9 Sep 2017. Cit. Date: 17 Dec 2020.

[D02319] Canada, "Passenger List - SS Oregon 1882"; C-4532 C-4532, Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa. Rec. Date: 17 Dec 2020. ID: D02319. Cit. Date: 17 Dec 2020.

[D07117] British Columbia Vital Statistics Agency, death certificate 1951-09-004040 (1951), B13208; British Columbia Vital Statistics Agency, Victoria. Rec. Date: 24 Jun 2018. Cit. Date: 17 Dec 2020.

[D07118] 1921 census of Canada, district 6, sub-district 83, Edmonton, p. 11, dwelling 132; RG 31; digital images, ancestry.com (accessed 17 Dec 2020). Rec. Date: 1 Apr 2017. Cit. Date: 17 Dec 2020.

[D07119] Église Saint-Romuald (Farnham, Quebec, Canada), Drouin Collection, "Baptism - Gertrude Ellen Forbes," B.119; digital images, ancestry.ca (accessed 20 Dec 2020). Rec. Date: 20 Dec 2020. ID: D07119. Cit. Date: 20 Dec 2020.

[D07128] "Manifests of Alien Arrivals in the Seattle, Washington District," online images, ancestry.ca (accessed 20 Dec 2020), manifest, Nederland, 20 Dec 1945, 1207. Rec. Date: 20 Dec 2020. Cit. Date: 20 Dec 2020.

X00193 Is Thomas Leach the Son of Joshua Leach?

Thomas Leach, who died 6 August 1846, is buried in Saint Mary's Cemetery in Oakville, Ontario. According to his gravestone, he was born about November 1804.

It has been long suspected that he is the son of Joshua Leach and Mary Dexter, who were married 14 March 1803 in York, Upper Canada [D00745]. One of the biggest clues in support of that case is that Thomas Leach and Joshua Leach are buried next to each other in Saint Mary's Cemetery.

Being buried next to each other isn't proof of anything but it does suggest that there was a connection between the two.

I have tried looking for a baptism record for Thomas in the St. James Church records (where Joshua and Mary were married) but have not been able to find anything. Nor have I been able to find a burial record. The only reference to Thomas' marriage to Electra Ann Abbott in 1835 comes from William D. Reid's Marriage Notices of Ontario and does not mention parents.

Other sources are inconclusive; Thomas does not appear in Joshua Leach's will, but since Thomas died before Joshua (Joshua died in 1862) this is to be expected. The 1841 Census and 1840 assessment rolls for Oakville show Thomas Leach and Joshua Leach living separately although close to each other.

The one thing that does show some promise is in some early censuses for the Town of York. They only list the heads of household and the numbers of children of certain ages. From them I’ve been able to determine that Joshua and Mary must have had a male child born about 1803 or 1804. That would be consistent with Thomas who was born in 1804 according to his gravestone. Their next (known) child, Robert, was born several years later in 1807.

Again, it’s not definite proof that Thomas was the son of Joshua and Mary, but it is consistent with it. Another way to look at it, Joshua and Mary definitely had a male child that was born earlier than Robert in 1807. So, no smoking gun, unfortunately, but all the evidence seems to point in the direction that Thomas is the son of Joshua and Mary.

Next steps:

• Continue to look for a baptism record for Thomas Leach
• Look for other marriage records for Thomas Leach and Electra Ann Abbott
• Check newspapers for the time period (although they may be frew and far between)
• Look for DNA matches with descendants of Thomas Leach

Sources:
Reid, WIlliam D, Marriage Notices of Ontario (Hunterdon House, Lambertville, NJ, 1980 ISBN 0912606053), 25 Feb 1835, p81. Cit. Date: 4 Jun 2006.

[D00745] St James Cathedral (Toronto, Ontario, Canada), "Marriage Record - Joshua Leach & Mary Dexter". Rec. Date: 16 Sep 2017. ID: D00745. Cit. Date: 16 Sep 2017.

Update on X00055: The Nelson Township Papers

Still looking for more information on the marriage between George Miller and possibly Margaret Farriage (for details so far, look for X00055)

Now that the Township Papers are available on Family Search, I had a look through the Township Papers for Nelson Township to see if there were any papers that mention someone with a Miller surname or something close to 'Farriage'. I found this document, dated 1823, that is signed by both a Thomas Miller and a Robert Partridge.

Could this be a connection? Could Thomas Miller be connected somehow to George Miller? Could Partridge be Margaret's actual last name? It could be a clue.

X00317 What happened to Ernest Ashton after 1912?

Ernest Ashton (sometimes spelled 'Earnest') was the seventh child of Lawrence Ashton and Mary Ann Westwell. He was a brother of both Edwin Ashton and Lawerence Ashton have been mentioned on this blog previously.

Ernest was born 17 October 1891 in Blackburn Lancashire [D00386]. He travelled back and forth between Blackburn and Toronto between around 1910 and 1913 and married Jennie Massie in Toronto on 12 November 1912 [D00753]. He worked as a car motorman.

And, unfortunately, that is where the mystery begins. It's not clear on what happened to Ernest or Jennie after 1912. Or at least it wasn't until some recent discoveries.

According to the Ashton Family bible [D01200], Ernest died 23 Jan 1953. But I have not been able to find a death record, cemetery record or obituary to corroborate that information. I've checked not only the usual cemetery sources such as Find a Grave, but also the Toronto Trust Cemetery records with nothing found. There is an Ernest Ashton who died around that time period in Winnipeg, but there are too many discrepancies: the age, profession, spouse name and date of death are all inconsistent.

I have recently found a birth record for a Clarence Ashton, born to an Ernest Ashton and Jennie Massie in 1913 in Toronto.

This discovery has also led to finding of Ernest, Jennie and Clarence in the 1921 census living in Toronto. So I have now found them up to 1921.

Next Steps

• Wait for the 1931 census to be released
• Check for them in the 1930/1940 US Censuses and 1926 Western Canada census
• Check for British records to see if they had moved back to the UK
• Continue to check newspapers and cemetery records for the family
• Consider the possibility that the date of death in the family bible is not accurate

---

Sources:
[D00386] England and Wales, birth certificate for Ernest Ashton, born October 17, 1891; citing 8e/417/485, D quarter 1891, Blackburn registration district, Blackburn Southern sub-district; General Register Office, Southport.

[D00753] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Marriages, MS932_244; Reel: 244, 29337, Ashton-Massie; digital images, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Marriages,"(accessed 29 Sep 2017).