Monday, April 26, 2021

X00251 Death Date for Jonadab Hardy - Solved!

For the longest time, I had figured that Jonadab Hardy (son of Lancelot Hardy and Ann Wood) had died sometime between 1891 and 1901. This was based on the fact that I had found him the 1891 census [D02255], but in the 1901 census his wife, Mary Ann Foster Hardy appears without him [D03280]. But I wasn't able to find a death record for him in that range. Nor was I able to find any cemetery record indicating when or where he might be buried.

I came across a death record from 1906 that could be a possible fit [D03297].


It was indexed as "John Adolph Hardy", but on closer inspection, it could well be Jonadab (or a spelling variant of it). The date of death was 12 March 1906.

Looking at the death record, there are a few arguments in favour:
  • The name matches (or at least it's a close approximation)
  • The location of the death (Toronto) makes sense, because previous records indicate he had been living there.
  • The age at death (73) indicates a year of birth around 1833, which matches what is known about Jonadab
  • I haven't seen any other occurrence of the name Jonadab Hardy in southern Ontario at the time.

There were a few problematic areas as well:
  • The given occupation (speculator) does not mach previous records indicating that he was a carpenter and operated a saw mill in later years.
  • The birthplace (Canada) does not match all other records indicating that he was born in England
  • The fact that he doesn't appear in the 1901 census with his wife is suspicious. The census record does not indicate whether or not she was a widow.

I did some digging in the Peel archives and found an death notice in the Streetsville Review dated 15 March 1906 [D04565].



Not only does it confirm the name, but it also indicates that he formerly operated a sawmill in the area. Based on that, I'm going to conclude that this is the same person and that the birth location given on the death registration was an error. I still haven't found him in the 1901 census but that might likely be because of the various mispellings of his name. Another plus: it gives the location of where he was buried, in Erindale Cemetery. That being said, he doesn't appear in the transcriptions for Erindale so, it is most likely that either there was no stone, or the stone hasn't survived.



Sources:
[D02255] 1891 census of Canada, Ontario, district 119, sub-district St. Stephen's Ward, Toronto City, p. 150, dwelling B2/6, family 678; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.ca, Ancestry.

[D03280] 1901 census of Canada, Ontario, district 103, sub-district D-3, Toronto Township, p. 2, dwelling 19, family 19; RG 31; digital images.

[D03297] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Deaths, MS935 Reel 124: 55, 1742; digital image, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Deaths," Ancestry.ca. [D04565] (Streetsville) Streetsville Review, 15 March 1906, p. 1, Col 6.

No comments:

Post a Comment