Eden Cemetery, Toronto Township

An email arrived from Find A Grave with a photo request from Eden Cemetery which is close to where I live. So I thought I'd go and see if I could find the grave.

I have visited the cemetery before because there are some Miller headstones in the cemetery and my Miller family lived in Toronto Township for a time. There is, however, no connection between the Miller family in this cemetery (who came from Ireland) and my Miller family as far as I can tell.

It's a samll cemetery and very easy to cover the entire cemetery in a short period of time. So, I'm surprised that there were any gravestones there that were not photographed. As it turns out, there was. I wasn't able to find the gravestone requested, but I did find a stone with the name Rosalind on it (last name could not be read). Rosalind died in April of 1860.

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

Other Hardy Gravestones

With the research I was doing with X00216: The Trafalgar Hardy letter, I was able to answer some questions I had about some other Hardy surname gravestones that I found in both St. Peter's Cemetery in Erindale and Springcreek Cemetery in Clarkson.

On previous trips to St. Peter's and Sprincreek Cemeteries I had photographed some stones that had the Hardy surname on them, in the event that they were connected. I've since been able to connect many of these to the George Hardy and Mary Buckton who are buried in St. Peter's

The above stone, for George H. Hardy was found in Springcreek. This George, I found, was the son of George Hardy and Mary Buckton. He married an Emma Gilby, which accounts for a number of stones I found in both locations with the names Hardy and Gilby.

George and Mary had another son, J.C. Hardy and I found his stone in Springcreek as well

So, it seems that many of the Hardy names that I've found in Clarkson and Erindale are all connected to the George Hardy and Mary Buckton line (to which I'm still investigating if they are connected to mine). It would appear that there were at least three Hardy families living in Toronto Township at the time: One in Churchville (mine), one in Streetsville and one in Clarkson/Erindale. If there is a connection between any of the three of them, it was before they arrived in Canada.

X00216 The Trafalgar Hardy Letter

In 2017 Summer newsletter of the Trafalgar Township Historical Society, there's a mention of a letter in their archives written in 1855 from a Mary Hardy to her sister Elizabeth in Yorkshire, England. Given the surname Hardy and the timeline, I was curious to know if this Mary Hardy was connected to my Hardy family. I have not found any evidence of the family being located in Trafalgar Township, but it's not that far from Churchville, so it could be a possibility.

The article mentions that the letter was written by Mary Buckton Hardy (1801-1881) who married a George Hardy. Interestingly enough, I had previously come across and photographed both of their gravestones at St. Peter's Anglican, Erindale when I was looking for the gravestone of Lancelot Hardy.

Knowing this, I could now solve a couple of mysteries at the same time - the first as to whether the letter was connected to my family and the second as to whether the George and Mary Hardy buried in St. Peter's Anglican Cemetery were connected.

George Hardy died in 1850, which is before civil registration began in Ontario, but I was able to find Mary Hardy's death registration:

Unfortunately, it doesn't give anything additional to confirm or rule out a connection between the two families. I have since found evidence of a marriage between a George Hardy and a Mary Buckton 30 December 1830 in Kirk-Leatham, Yorkshire, England. The original record may give some more information about George's background, but I'd need to get that from a Family Search Centre or Family Search affiliate library. Stay tuned for more...

X00316 Solved!!

Previously, I mentioned X00316 where there were two potential burial locations given for William R. Hoyt. One of them in Eugene Pioneer Cemetery and one in Multnomah Park Cemetery

I have since discovered that William's death registration mentions a burial in the Eugene Pioneer Cemetery:

I contacted someone with the Eugene Pioneer Cemetery Association and there is no stone associated with WIlliam R. Hoyt, so speculation that he is buried there may be based on the death registration alone.

I checked with the Multnomah Park Cemetery burials and they list a burial date for William Hoyt of 14 August 1924, three days after his death. So the more likely situation is that he was buried at Mulnomah Park, rather than first buried at Eugene Pioneer and then relocated later.

X00306 Solved!

Thomas James Decatur (1848-1887) was the first husband of Helen Douglas. They were married 20 December 1880 in Toronto [D03207].

While researching what happened to Thomas James Decatur, I found his death registration, but oddly no date of death was given in it [D02963]. He died in 1887 of consumption, but no specific date of death was given.

I also couldn't find him in any listings for the Owen Sound cemeteries or any other cemetery listing to that point, so I couldn't get any information there.

So, I put this X-File aside to go and work on other issues. But then just the other day I was looking at my research and realized that this issue was still outstanding and so decided to have another look on Find-A-Grave. To my surprise, someone had added the gravestone for Thomas James Decatur in March of 2020. The stone is in Forest Lawn Cemetery in Orangeville, Dufferin County, Ontario and not only do the birth and death years match but his parents are also listed on the stone, so I'm confident that this is the right person.

The dates given on the stone are:
Birth: 9 May 1848
Death: 5 Jan 1887

So, I now have an answer to the question, as well as a burial location. Some times if you wait long enough these mysteries just take care of themselves.

---

Sources:
[D02963] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Deaths, MS935; Reel: 49: 225, 15838; digital image, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Deaths," Ancestry.ca

[D03207] Ontario Archives of Ontario, Ontario, Canada Marriages 190, 13286, Decatur-Douglas; digital images, Ancestry.ca, "Ontario, Canada Marriages,"

Multiple grave locations for George Miller & Amelia Grant Munro

George Miller and Amelia Grant Munro appear in two different burial locations in Find-a-grave:

Dixie Union Cemetery in Peel County:
- George Miller
- Amelia Grant Munro

Greenwood Cemetery in Grey County:
- George Miller
- Amelia Grant Munro



They also appear in the the transcriptions for both graveyards.

Analysis and conclusion:
I have to think that the Greenwood Cemetery listing is the correct one and that the Dixie Union one is a mistake for a few reasons:
- George and Amelia were known to be living in Owen Sound at the time of their deaths. They left Peel region in the 1860s
- From newspaper accounts, we know that George’s funeral was held in Owen Sound
- I'm more inclined to trust the Greenwood cemetery listing, because the Greenwood Cemetery listing lists the actual burials whereas the Dixie Union one is just inscriptions. I suspect that somebody interpreted the inscription on their son George M. Miller’s stone as being for them as well.

X00199 - Solved!

A couple of years ago I went to the Peel Archives to look up the Perkins-Bull collection for the surname Hardy. In it, I came across this record:



The record indicates that Lancelot Hardy the younger lived from about 1860 to 1896 and was buried in St Peter’s Cemetery in Erindale.

According to the record above, there was a Lancelot Hardy who was born about 1860 and died in 1896 and was buried at St Peter’s Anglican church in Erindale. The problem is that:

• I can’t find a death record in the Ontario death registrations for a Lancelot Hardy in 1896
• The cemetery transcriptions for St Peter’s Cemetery do not show a Lancelot Hardy
• I’ve contacted the Anglican Church archives and they don’t have a burial record

I also went to the cemetery and couldn’t find a stone.

I was about to conclude that Perkins-Bull had the wrong information, or that no stone existed, but then I checked the cemetery transcription for the nearby Erindale Cosmopolitan Cemetery and found a listing there.



Then I went to cemetery and actually found the stone. It’s very worn and difficult to read, but you can make out some of it.



Next, to see about finding a death or burial record.