X00361 Is this Tew family connected?

I came across this article in the Oakville Record from 1960

I don't recognize any of the names, and this Tew family looks to have come from England, whereas mine came from Ireland. But it's worth investigating

X00118 More about Charlotte Emily Tew (1872-1873)

I posted previously about X00118 and Charlotte Emily Tew. She was born 16 June 1872 in Meath, Ireland and died 16 September 1873 in Hamilton, Ontario.

The only confirmation that I had of her death was the gravestone in Hamilton Cemetery, but I have since heard back from the Cemetery. According to their records she was originally buried 18 September 1873 in a single, unmarked grave, but then removed and re-interred in the current location 25 September 1875.

So, the original burial date of 18 September 1873 would agree with a death date of 16 September 1873. As well, the re-interrment was around the time that her sister had died in September 1875, so I figure that the family bought the plot around that time and had her re-interred there.

X00118 Charlotte Emily Tew (1872-1873)

Charlotte Emily Tew was born 16 June 1872 in Meath, Ireland [D01026] and is the daughter of John Armstrong Tew and Charlotte Elizabeth Arthur. I have found her gravestone in Hamilton Cemetery noting that she died 16 September 1873 [D02952].

Transcription:

Charlotte E. Tew
died Sep 16 1873
aged 1 yr & 3 mos

Catherine M. Tew
died Sep. 7 1875
aged 6 years & 4 mos

daughters of John A. Tew

The date of death on the stone agrees with the date of birth found in her birth certificate. I have tried to locate an Ontario death registration for her, but have not been succssful. I suspect that this is a death that may not have ever been registered. I've also checked the Hamilton Spectator for a listing, but it doesn't appear to have been listed, unlike her sister Catherine, who's death did appear appear in the Spectator.

Short of checking for a burial record, the gravestone may be the only evidence of her death that exists.

On the plus side, it does nail down a range of when the family came to Canada: they must have arrived between June 1872 and September 1873.

---

Sources:
[D01026] Ireland GRO Ireland, Irish Civil Regsitration, Births, 12: 783, 407, 75. Rec. Date: 4 Feb 2018. Cit. Date: 4 Feb 2018.

[D02952] Hamilton Cemetery (Hamilton, Wentworth, Ontario), Section: CC-C. Rec. Date: 19 Dec 2020.

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]

The Tew-Tew Marriage

A number of years ago while searching for a different Tew marriage, I found in the Ontario indexes an 1875 marriage in Hamilton, Ontario where both parties had the surname Tew. Or at least that is how it appeared in the index.

At first I thought that perhaps it was an error with the index, that the indexer accidentally put one surname down for both the bride and the groom. But when I got the microfilm reel and found the actual marriage registration record (shown below) I discovered that there was in fact, no indexing error - both the bride and groom had the last name Tew: Martha Tew and John Armstrong Tew.

My next thought that perhaps there was a remarriage - i.e. perhaps the bride's first husband died, and she was marrying her brother-in-law, which wasn't unheard of at the time. But it appears that Martha Tew hadn't been married before and Tew was her maiden name.

So, next I figured perhaps they were cousins, so I started researching their respective families to see if they had a common ancestor. Now here's the weird thing: John Armstrong Tew (my line) comes from Ireland and Martha Tew's line comes from England.

So, what I can conclude from this, is that either:
a) They are distant cousins, due to a connection that I haven't found yet
b) As a strange coincidence, two individuals both having the same uncommon surname happened to meet and get married.

Can anyone else offer another explanation?