X00347 Erastus Leach Death and Burial

At some point I was visiting St. Jude's Cemetery in Oakville, Ontario and found the following gravestone for an Erastus Leach:

Given the name on it was Leach and Leach is one of the surnames that I'm researching - particularly in Oakville - I took a photo of it and figured that I'd try to identify the person.

I figure that it's the son of William Leach and Phoebe Derby, who was also born in 1861. Originally, I had read the year of death as 1933, but I couldn't find a death record for an Erastus Leach in 1933.

I did find him in a voters list from 1935, which suggested that he must have lived beyond 1933 [D07681]:

Having another look at the gravestone, I noticed that the last digit could be a '9' rather than a '3' and so I looked for a death record in 1939. I wasn't able to find anything in 1939, but did manage to find his death record in 1940 [D07680]:

The death record is clearly his, as it identifies his parents. It lists the place of burial as St. Jude's Cemetery, Oakville. The problem is that the death record lists his year of death as 1940 and the gravestone lists his year of death as 1939. As far as I have been able to determine, there are not two individuals named Erastus Leach buried in St. Jude's cemetery.

I'd have to take the death record as being more accurate, and perhaps the gravestone was added after the fact by someone who was not entirely sure of the year of date. And so, I'm going to conclude a year of date of 1940.

Sources:
[D07680] Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Collection: MS 935; Series: M047749l; Reel 655

[D07681] Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Voters Lists, Federal Elections 1935-1980

X00223 John Miller of Markdale

The Miller family creates all sort of mysteries, partly because they were living in pre-confederation Ontario, where it is tough to find records, but also because they have a very common last name.

One of the mysteries is trying to find anything about John Miller, son of George Miller. According to Miller family lore, George and Margaret had two sons, William and John, both born between 1833 and 1835. They may have been twins.

The only sources that I've found to prove his existence and link him with the rest of the family are an appearance in an 1865/1866 Owen Sound Directory and the 1881 census. Unfortunately, the 1851 census for the section of Toronto Township where the Miller family would have been living has not survived, and he was not living with the family in 1861. There are other records I’ve found with a John Miller in it, but since it is such a common name and there were more than one John Millers living in the area at the time it’s hard to confirm if they are the same person or not.

A marriage record might be able to identify him as it might give names of parents. But I have not been able to find a marriage record for him and he doesn't appear to be married in 1881. I've looked into death records, but I haven't found anything definite.

One consideration is a John Miller who died in Markdale, Grey County in 1911, aged 77 (i.e. born about 1834).

The age is right, the location is certainly a possibility, but there's not much else to go on. So I had a look in the Markdale Standard online for 1911 to see if there was an obituary. I checked all of the papers for the month of March 1911 and found nothing. Not even a mention. I even checked the Flesherton Advance to see if they had picked it up. Still nothing.

It seems unusual that there would be nothing in the newspaper about this, because Markdale just isn’t that big. If there was nothing reported, I’m inclined to think that perhaps this isn’t the John Miller that I am looking for. If it were, I would think that there would have been at least a mention about family members coming in from out of town, but there’s nothing. My take is that it’s likely that this John Miller didn’t have much in the way of family and wasn’t really known within the town.

X00222 Marriage date for George Miller and Amelia Grant Munro

One mystery that I have been trying to solve is the marriage date of George Miller and Amelia Grant Munro.

According to a distant cousin who is researching the same tree, the date of the marriage was 5 December 1835. She did not give me a source for this date however, and she has since passed away and so I don't know where she found the date. The date does fit with the timeline, in that George and Amelia's first child would have been born 7 October 1836, and George's last child from his previous wife would have been born around 1834. So, the date does make sense, but where did it come from?

Another question is where the marriage took place. On Ancestry, a number of people have recorded the marriage date as 5 December 1835 (presumably that information has been copied from one source, possibly even mine) but some list the marriage location as Cardinal, Ontario (formerly Edwardsburgh) and others have listed it as having took place in Toronto. Either place is entirely feasible as Amelia Grant Munro came from Edwardsburgh and George Miller would have likely been living in Toronto Township at the time. It's not entirely clear how they would have met, although there seems to be some evidence that members of the Munro family were living in Toronto and Halton region around that time. So the marriage could have taken place in Edwardsburg, Toronto Township, Nelson (if they were still living there at the time) or Toronto (as people often got married in Toronto at the time).

Since I will likely need to look for church records for this X-File, another question is under what religion would the marriage have been conducted? Both George and Amelia were definitely Wesleyan Methodist later on, although according to George's obituary he converted at some point.

Next steps:

• Check early Ontario marriage records for Eastern Ontario locations
• Check church records for early Toronto Township
• Check newspaper records for the time
• Check obituaries for George Miller and Amelia Grant Munro
• Check newspapers in later years for wedding anniversary notices

X00294 Solved!

I posted previously with a profile for Lewis Dyer. One of the things that I didn't have at the time was confirmed birth information for Lewis Dyer.

I had reported a birth date for him of 30 January 1838 in Devonshire, England, based on a number of different sources, but could not find a birth or baptism record for him. I did find a birth record for a Lewis Dyer from 1845, but the parents are named Richard and Mary Dyer, not Joseph and Jane as given in his marriage record [D04846].

So, I decided to broaden my search and look for a wider year of birth range. I came across a Lewis Dyer in the 1841 census in Devonshire. The given year of birth is 1831, which is much older than the previously thought date of birth of 1838, but the parents are named Joseph and Jane [Source Needed].

I then had a look for baptism records in 1831 and managed to find it:

So that seems to have resolved the issue. Although looking at Lewis' given birth dates from a number of sources, his year of birth seems to be all over the map:

Doc Number	Doc Desc	Year of Doc	Age Given	Date of birth
D07666	Baptism Record	1831	0 years	1831
D07667	1841 Census of England	1841	10 years	1831
D07673	1851 Census of England	1851	20 years	1831
D07671	1861 Census of England	1861	28 years	1833
D07672	1871 Census of England	1871	36 years	1835
D04846	Marriage Record	1875	38 years	1837
D04847	1881 Census of Canada	1881	43 years	1838
D05263	1891 Census of Canada	1891	48 Years	1843
D04848	1901 Census of Canada	1901	63 Years	30 Jan 1838
D04855	Death Record	1906	66 Years	1840
D04854	Gravestone	1906	66 Years	1840

Since I’ve found a baptism record confirming a baptism year of 1831 and the earlier census records show a date of 1831, I’m going to conclude that the most likely year of birth for Lewis Dyer is 1831. And given that the only birthdate listed is 30 January, I’m going to conclude a birth date of 30 January 1831.

---

Sources:
[D04846] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Marriages, Reel 18: 339, 6765, Dyer-Williams; digital images, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Marriages,".

[D04847] 1881 census of Canada, Ontario, district 133, sub-district J, Uxbridge, p. 46, dwelling 218, family 229; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.ca.

[D04848] 1901 census of Canada, Ontario, district 120, sub-district C-8, Lindsay, p. 8, family 82; RG 31; digital images.

[D04854] St James Cemetery (Toronto, York, Ontario), C Ravine.

[D04855] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Deaths, MS940, Reel 5: 1269; digital image, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Deaths," Ancestry.ca.

[D05263] 1891 census of Canada, Ontario, district 102, Uxbridge, p. 30, family 152; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.ca, Ancestry.

[D07663] 1841 census of England, Silverton, Tiverton and Dulverton District, Devonshire, England, folio 13, page 20; digital images; citing PRO HO 107/226/15.

[D07671] 1861 census of England, Exeter, St. Stephen's, Devonshire, England, folio 9, page 11; digital images; citing PRO RG 9/1398.

[D07672] 1871 census of England, St John Paddington, Kensington, London, England, folio 63, page 7; digital images, Ancestry.ca, Ancestra.ca; citing PRO RG 10/27.

[D07673] 1851 census of England, Torquay, Newton Abbott Registration District, Devonshire, England, folio 215, page 26; digital images; citing PRO HO 107/1872.