X00317 Ernest Ashton after 1916 - Solved!

I have posted in the past about X00317 and trying to find out what happened to Ernest Ashton after 1916. The Ashton Family bible lists his date of death as 23 January 1953, but I had not been able to find anything definite to cooberate the date in the Fmily Bible.

I had found him in the 1931 census and in the Toronto City directories for 1952, but not 1953, which was consistent with him dying in 1953.

Recently, the Ontario Death record for 1953 were released and I was able to find his death record

The death record gives a date of death of 24 January 1953, one day different from the family bible, but otherwise everything else matches.

An interesting thing that I had not known about is that his spouse is listed as Ruth Foot, so he evidently remarried. I managed to find their marriage record and it appears that they married in 1938.

And another thing that the death record give me was the burial place of Park Lawn Cemetery and I was able to find a corresponding entry at Find a Grave.

So, with that, I am now considering this X-File to be solved.

X00363 Robert Ashton Investigation - Solved!

I was investigating some hints on Ancestry and found that for George Ashton and Alice Butterworth (my 3x great-grandparents), another Ancestry member had listed a child named Robert who was born 1863 and died 1867. The Ancestry member did have GRO Index links for both the birth and the death record. The timing certainly is plausible because the couple did not have any other children born in 1863 (they had children born in 1862 and 1865, from my research). As well, the child would not have lived long enough to have appeared in a census, which is why he could have been missed.Both references are for Blackburn, Lancashire as well, which also makes sense.

So, now that the GRO allows the purchase of digital records for much cheaper now, I decided to get the records that were referenced in the indexes.

Here's the birth record:

The parents are listed as James Ashton and Ellen Blackburn, which clearly doesn't match.

Here's the death record:

The death record lists this child as the son of Robert Ashton, a plasterer. So it's not even the same child as was referenced in the birth record, but again is not a match.

So, neither record is a match and so it would appear that neither record is evidence that George and Alice had a child named Robert.

X00089 1911 Census for Ernest Ashton - Solved!

I've been trying to find more about Ernest Ashton and what became of him after 1916 (see X00317). I've had some luck with that so far, and have been able to find him in the 1931 census recently.

Another query that I've had involving Ernest Ashton is finding him the in 1911 census (X00089). PReviously, I had found this document:

Where there is an Ernest Ashton working as a labourer on a farm. The age and the birth date are correct (December 1890 vs December 1891). He was born in England and the record shows him as having arrived in Canada in 1910, which corresponds to other records that I have that say the same thing. I also have not found any other possibilities in either the 1911 census of Canada or England. I am therefore prepared to conclude that this is the correct Ernest Ashton.

X00317 Update on Ernest Ashton

An update on the search for Ernest Ashton after 1931. I did check some of the city directories

I found him in the 1952 City Directory for Toronto living at 128 Jamieson Ave:

....but not in the 1953 City Directory:

So, while this doesn't prove anything, it is consistent with the death date of 23 January 1953 in the Ashton family bible.

X00317 Update

Well the 1931 Census is available and so I thought i'd see if I could do a little ore research on X00317 - What happened to Ernest Ashton after 1912?.

I first managed to find Ernest by himself in the 1931 census, living in Toronto West as a boarder

But then, where is the rest of the family? So, I decided to do a search for Clarence Ashton, and found him listed as a step-son:

Clarence is living with his mother, Jennie Massey, it would appear and she remarried a may by the name of William Ashford. To confirm the details, I found the marriage record for William Ashford and Jean Ashton

As well, I found the reference to a divorce between Ernest and Jennie in 1926, although I have yet to find the original record for that.

So I have now found them up to 1931.

Next Steps

• Check for British records to see if Ernest had moved back to the UK
• Continue to check newspapers and cemetery records for the family
• Check Toronto area directories to see if Ernest appears in them
• Consider the possibility that the date of death in the family bible is not accurate

X00008 Is the person in this photo Lawrence Ashton - Solved!

I have previously posted about a photo of a 75th Battalion soldier that I found on ebay that I was wondering whether or not was Lwarence Ashton or not.

Here's the photo from ebay:

Recently someone posted a different photo of Lawrence Ashton that I hadn't seen previously:

This photo is nice a clear and I can definitely see that it is the same person as in the other known photos of him. But the person in the ebay photo is definitely someone else.

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).

In Remembrance

Today being the 100th anniversary of the end of World War 1, I thought I'd post a remembrance to all of those in my tree who fought in the war

Edwin Ashton	BEF	Survived WW1
Lawrence Ashton	75th Bn CEF	Died September 2, 1918
Charles A. Brown	4th Signal Co. CEF	Survived WW1
Wilfred M. Brown	Can Signal Pool, CEF	Survived WW1
Herbert Hewett Burnet	CEF	Survived WW1
Everett Delahaye	US Military	Survived WW1
Peter Delahaye	US Military	Survived WW1
John C. Douglas	20th Bn CEF	Survived WW1
Stewart Arnold Douglas	CEF	Survived WW1
Thomas W. Douglas	3rd MGC CEF	Survived WW1
Reynold Hardy	CEF	Survived WW1
Duncan Hook	Lancashire Fusiliers, BEF	Died July 8, 1915
Geoffrey Hook	Royal Air Force, BEF	Died April 10, 1918
Harry Theodore Hook	BEF	Survived WW1
Robin Hook	Lancashire Fusiliers, BEF	Died August 7, 1915
Valentine Hook	Royal West Surrey Regiment, BEF	Died May 3, 1917
Howard Radford Letty	CEF	Died October 8, 1916
George Russell Miller	CEF	Survived WW1
James Piggott	CEF	Survived WW1
Christopher Place	King's Royal Rifles, BEF	Died February 19, 1917
Thomas Place	East Lancashire Regiment, BEF	Died August 13, 1915
John Raymond Price	CEF	Survived WW1
Emerson Claude Smith	4th Canadian Mounted Rifles CEF	Died June 7, 1917
George Wilfred "Fred" Smith	15th Bn CEF	Died July 22, 1918
John McLeod Wainwright	CEF	Survived WW1

X00001 - The Conclusion!

I've had a couple of posts so far about trying to find the death date and record for Edwin Ashton. The first post described the issue. The second post was an update when I was able to find Edwin Ashton and Clara Scattergood in the 1939 Register.

The names and dates of birth in the 1939 register [D03865] matched Edwin's known birth date. And the location of Alcester matched the location on the 1950 death certificate. The informant on the death certificate [D00319] was an E.W. Savage who married an Edith Ashton who would have been born about 1920. So all that was left was to link Edith Ashton to Edwin Ashton

It appears that Edith was born in Canada and the 1920 birth registrations aren't available yet. I couldn't find Edwin in the 1921 Canadian census, so he may have been back in England by then. But I managed to find a ship's passenger list [D01427] with Edwin, Clara and Edith. And the ages all match. So we can consider this one closed!

Update on X00001

A month ago, I posted my query about determining Edwin Ashton's date and place of death (X00001). Since then I have made an interesting discovery that is changing my perspective.

I've found an Edwin Ashton in the 1939 register:



But here's the interesting information:

• Edwin Ashton's date of death is listed as 12 Nov 1884, which matches the Edwin Ashton born in Blackburn
• Edwin's wife's name is Clara, which also matches the Edwin Ashton born in Blackburn
• But the most interesting thing is that location in 1939 is Alcester, Warwickshire, which matches the death location of one of the Edwin Ashton death certificates that I found for 1950.

So, this means I need to re-examine my previous conclusion. I had previously ruled out that death certificate because the location and timing of his daughter's birth didn't make sense. But with this latest update, it looks very much as if the Edwin Ashton who was born in Blackburn and the Edwin Ashton who died in Alcester are the same person. Watch this space for more.....

X00001: When/where did Edwin Ashton die?

For X00001, I’m looking for a date of death and place for Edwin Ashton, Lawrence Ashton’s older brother. The one lead I have is from the Ashton family bible:



The year of death is recorded as 1950. Interestingly, the listing for Edwin shows only the year of death, but for all of the other children there is a full date given. This implies to me that whoever was the owner of the bible was not likely in close contact with Edwin.

Here is a roundup of what I know so far:

• Edwin’s date of birth is November 12, 1884 in Blackburn, Lancashire, England [D00373]
• Edwin’s second marriage was in 1923 to Clara Scattergood Butler (b 1884) [D00737]
• Edwin seems to have moved back and forth between England and Canada. He was married in Canada, but he fought for the British Army in WW1.
• I haven’t found much in the way of evidence after 1923, although I have found Edwin and Clara were on a passenger list arriving in Glasgow, Scotland in 1939

So, assuming that the year of death of 1950 is accurate, the options for death location are Canada, Scotland, England or elsewhere.

Scotland Possibility
I checked the Scotland death registrations for 1950 and did not find any Edwin Ashtons.

Ontario Possibility
Death registrations are not yet available for 1950 in Ontario. See next steps below

England Possibility
I’ve found two Edwin Ashtons listed as having died in 1950:

• Ashton, Edwin. Age 85, Hitchin, Hertfordshire vol 4b p153 [D02301]
• Ashton, Edwin. Age 65 Alcester, Warwickshire vol 9c p2 [D00319]

We can rule out the first possibility [D02301] because the age is off by about 20 years.
For the second possibility [D00319], the informant on the registration is a son-in-law named E.W. Savage. I found a marriage record between an E.W. Savage and Edith Ashton [D00004] in 1942. So, the question is, is Edith Ashton the daughter of this Edwin Ashton? According to the marriage record, Edith would have been born about 1921 in Alcester, Warwickshire England and Edwin & Ellen Ashton would have been living in Canada in 1921, so very unlikely.

Elsewhere
Since this is the least likely of the possibilities, I'm going to rule out the others before proceeding with this one.

Next Steps

• Wait for the 1950 Death registrations to be released for Ontario (should be in 2023)
• Continue to monitor Find a grave and other sites for Clara Ashton & Edwin Ashton in Canada/US cemeteries
• Possibly check 1945 register to see if he was living in Ontario then
• Check Ontario newspapers for a death notice
• Check Toronto Directories to see if living in Ontario

Updates:
See Update June 6, 2018

Lawrence Ashton Memorial

I have discovered through Toronto Branch OGS' For King and Country database that there is a memorial for Lawrence Ashton at Lambton Mills School.

Frederick Ashton Birth Record - Solved!

I've been trying to find the birth record for Frederick Ashton. The 1891 census suggests that he was born in 1889 in Blackburn, Lancashire, England. According to the Ashton Family bible, he was born on October 17, 1889.

A search of Free BMD found a Frederick Ashton born in Blackburn in the Oct-Nov-Dec quarter of 1889. But looking at the certificate, the parents were not the correct family:



Later on, however, I found a burial record, where his name was listed as just "Fred". So, I tried the search again, searching just for a Fred Ashton. This time the parents are the correct ones:



The date of birth is a little off from what is in the family bible (October 22nd vs October 17th) but Frederick likely would have died long before the owner of the bible was born, so I can assume that the birth date is at least second-hand information.

Is the person in this photo Lawrence Ashton?

A few months ago, I purchased a picture below off ebay:

The picture is of a WW1 soldier and the uniform indicates that he was in the 75th Battalion CEF. My thoughts (and main reason for purchasing the photo) were that this could possibly be my great-grandfather, Lawrence Ashton, who was in the 75th Battalion CEF. I have included some pictures below that are of him for comparison. Any thoughts as to whether he might be the same person as the one in the ebay photo? I've asked a few people and have received different opinions.