X00057 Peter Brown and Annie Paton Kerr Missing Child - Solved!

The 1911 census for Peter Brown and Annie Paton Kerr, mentions that the couple had twelve children, but only nine were alive at the time of the 1911 census.

Through thorough research, I identified eleven of their children from previous census records:

• Maria Kerr Brown, b. 1875
• Peter Brown, b. 1876, d. 1884
• William K. Brown, b. 1879
• James Brown, b. 1881
• John Young Brown, b. 1883
• Jane Menzies Brown, b. 1885
• Peter Brown, b. 1887
• Annie Kerr Brown, b. 1889, d. 1909
• Elizabeth Brown, b. 1894
• Thomas Kerr Brown, b. 1896
• Alexander Brown, b. 1889

From this list, we can see that both the first Peter Brown and Annie Kerr Brown had passed away prior to the 1911 census. This leaves a gap—there must have been one more child, born and died between census years, never appearing in any of the census records.

To fill in this missing piece, I turned to other genealogical resources. While searching through Ancestry, I stumbled upon references to a Jennie Kerr Brown. This led me to Scotland’s People, where I discovered a birth record for Jeannie Kerr Brown, born 16 April 1878, and a death record dated 28 March 1880. As suspected, Jeannie Kerr Brown was born and passed away between the census years, thus explaining why she wasn’t recorded in the census records.

This discovery, while fulfilling in terms of completing the family tree, also brought a poignant reminder of the challenges and sorrows faced by our ancestors. The short life of Jeannie Kerr Brown, and the losses endured by Peter and Annie Brown, are now acknowledged and remembered, adding depth and context to the Brown family history.

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Sources:
[D00338] 1911 census of Scotland, Larbert, Stirlingshire, Scotland, enumeration district (ED) 2, page 8, schedule no. 57; digital images, ScotlandsPeople.

X00038 William Douglas Passenger List - Solved!

I finally managed to find a passenger list for William Douglas, my fourth great-grandfather.

I knew that he was born in Scotland and from the letters that he had sent, had relocated to Vermont to teach at a school there. I checked a number of passenger and immigration lists, including Filby's, but couldn't find anything.

I did find a mention in Volume 2 of A Dictionary of Scottish Immigrants to the U.S.A. by Donald Whyte:

All of the other information checked out, and it gave a date of "before 1825". I next was able to find a reference to a William Douglas, teacher, who arrived in New York from Scotland on the Sceptre on 24 July 1822.

Here is the port registration for the Sceptre:

And here's the actual passenger list:

X00036 William Douglas Death Information - Solved!

William Douglas is my fourth great-grandfather. He was born in Scotland in the late 1700s and moved to Vermont in the 1820s. I know that he died in November 1829 thanks to a letter from his brother that is in the Owen Sound archives. I have not been able to find any death record for him, even though there are some death records in Vermont that survive from that time period.

I did manage to find a death notice in the Northern Spectator (Poultney, Vermont) from 9 December 1829:

Which confirms the date of death given in the letter (albeit being off by a day - the letter says 15 November 1829, whereas the newspaper article says 14 November 1829).

New Record, New Information, New X-Files

Ancestry just released the 1945 death records for Ontario. There were a few that I was looking forward to seeing, one of which is the death registration for Annie Agnes Tew. To be honest, I wasn't expecting to find much that I didn't already know. But it turns out that there was a lot more on this record than I had expected. Some clues, and a whole lot more questions.



So, here are a few interesting observations:

1. The date of birth is listed as December 11, 1849. From census record to census record, her year of birth varies, although it's usually around 1855. 1849 is much earlier than I would have expected. Granted, death records are often erroneous, but this is definitely something to check out. [X00128]

2. The place of birth is listed as Niagara-on-the-Lake. I had figured that the McLeod family would have been living in Cobourg at the time of her birth, but that was when I had figured it was 1855. Again, this is a bit of a clue as to where I might find a birth record. [X00128]

3. The birthplace of her father, John McLeod is given as Edinburgh, Scotland. Until today, I only had a very common Scottish name, and an approximate year of birth to go on to trace him back to Scotland. At least this gives one more piece of information to narrow down possibilities. [X00182]

4. By far, the most interesting piece of information is that the name of the mother is given as Anne Doherty. All the evidence that I have points to her mother being Henriette Mundy. It's time to review the evidence and re-evaluate. Again, the information on the death registration is all coming second-hand, but it's worth investigating; even if it is incorrect, the name of Anne Doherty must have come from somewhere. [X00191]

5. And finally, the information that the mother was born in Cobourg, Ontario gives a clue on where we might find more information. [X00191]