Amy Johnson Crow of the No Story Too Small genealogy blog suggested a weekly blog theme of ’52 Ancestors’ in her blog post “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks.” I decided to take up the challenge of the 52 Ancestors blog theme as a means to prompt me into regularly sharing the stories of my ancestors. So over the course of 2014 I will highlight an ancestor, sharing what I know about the person and perhaps more importantly, what I don’t know.
This week I am turning the spotlight onto an ancestor in my maternal family lineage. Flora McRae (or MacRae) is my 3X great grandmother, the great grandmother of my maternal grandfather, John Graham O’Neill.
As I was growing up, my mother’s side of the family was the Irish side. You can therefore imagine my surprise when I found Flora McRae, and her husband Finlay, and they were not Irish. No, they were Scottish!
I don’t know who Flora’s parents were but it doesn’t appear that she had to change her name when she married Finlay. According to an Old Parish Register record from the parish of Lochalsh in Ross and Cromarty county, Finlay MacRae married Flora MacRae on 19 July 1800, after their banns had been read, that is their marriage contract announced, on 2 July 1800.
Finlay and Flora set up house in Invernesshire, Scotland where the first five of their nine known children were born. Events, however, that pre-dated their marriage and thousands of miles away from them would eventually have a tremendous impact on the life of their family.
Scotsmen who had years earlier left Scotland for opportunities in New York State were uprooted by the American Revolutionary War, seeking refuge as Loyalists in Glengarry County, Upper Canada (now part of Ontario). The establishment of the Glengarry settlement set off an emigration of Highlanders, most notably from Inverness. It seems that Finlay and Flora caught the tail end of this large emigration, likely leaving Scotland around 1815.
I don’t know much about Flora’s life in Canada during the 19th century but I do know she was widowed and a small story in the Oriliia Times newspaper, dated 5 May 1876, captured the peaceful, but with a pinch of the dramatic, way she left this world. “Mrs. Flora McRae, of the great age of 100 years, who lived in a house by herself, a few rods from that of her son, Colin McRae, Kirkfield, was last Thursday found dead sitting by the fireside, with her clothes almost completely burnt off her body. She was not severely burnt, but when found life was extinct.”
Ontario
The Death of Tom Knox As Told By His Sister-in-Law Emily Squires in Her Diary
Thomas Elliott Knox was an interesting figure in the history of California and my wife’s family history. Photos that I have found of Thomas, from newspaper articles or those that were held and preserved by the family, always show him as a rather starched, dignified individual. I have always, through the years that I have researched Ellen’s family, referred to him rather formally as ‘Thomas Elliott Knox.’ It is a bit hard for me then to see him referred to as “Tom,” but that, as it turns out, is exactly how he was known to his family.
Three-year old Olive Theresa Evelyn ‘Tess’ Latimer (Ellen’s mother) stands between
her grandparents Edward Nelson ‘Ned’ Latimer (on the left),
Amy Squires Knox (centre) and
Thomas Elliott ‘Tom’ Knox (on the right)
On 19 October 1882, Tom, a native of Huron County (and likely, more specifically, the village of Seaforth), Ontario, Canada, married Amy Jane Knox, a native of Chesterfield, England, in California. Tom was plasterer by trade and had worked his way to California as a young man presumably to find his fortune. Amy had immigrated to California with her parents and seven known siblings as a young girl. Amy’s older sister Emily kept a diary and that diary tells the story of Tom’s death in a way that can’t be captured by a newspaper article.
Emily Squires’ diary entries show life as it was during a time before the conveniences of automation, gadgetry, and mobile devices. In early 1938, the highlights in her day that she wrote about in her diary included social events, writing, posting and receiving mail, having clothing made, mended and adjusted, and of course, the household finances. She also recorded the health status of family members. The following are my transcripts of extracts from her diary entries:
Wednesday, January 19, 1938
…Tom and Amy are both laid up with heavy colds….
Thursday, January 20, 1938
…Tom & Amy both laid up with colds….
Friday, January 21, 1938
…Tom not so well….
Saturday, January 22, 1938
…Tom suffering from cramps in stomach. They sent for Dr. Hamlin, and he called an ambulance & had him go to hosp. pronto. They fear pneumonia.
Sunday, January 23, 1938
…Tom is in a pneumonia jacket, has been x rayed, but they do not know just what is causing the trouble.
Monday, January 24, 1938
… Tom about the same. Doctor would operate if he were younger & see what it is all about….
Tuesday, January 25, 1938
..Olive and Leila went to see Tom at Prov. Hosp. [Providence Hospital in Oakland, California] this afternoon. I wrote Will & Nellie about him this eve….
Wednesday, January 26, 1938
…Tom seemed weaker to-day….
Thursday, January 27, 1938
Tom has pneumonia and seems to be growing weaker….
Friday, January 28, 1938
…Tom is weaker, and was given a serum this noon, & no visitors allowed. Amy went to Y M [?] to tell me….
Saturday, January 29, 1938
…Dude [Tom and Amy’s youngest son] & Amy were with Tom until 11 last night, and were called at 8:30 this A.M. Has been in a comatose condition all day. Practically no hope….
Sunday, January 30, 1938
…poor old Tom went to heaven about eleven o’clock this morning. I hope his spirit has already found Art’s. [I believe this is a reference to Arthur Squires Knox, Tom’s son who died in 1928] I went to church & heard Dr. Zwemer talk on Islam. Wonderful speaker. Talked with Mr. & Mrs. Davenport and walked home with Auntie. The Beebes and Mrs. Jackson were with Amy & Dude. Amy asked me to write to Mattie & break the news. I also wrote to Mary, Marion, Gertrude Jordan and Ella McCul. Note in S. F. Chronicle of Tom’s illness.
Tues, February 1, 1938 (The Funeral)
…Linden took Olive, Emma & myself to Grant Miller’s. [Grant Miller Mortuary, 2850 Telegraph Avenue, Oakland] Almost all the family was there – all except Ed & May, Nellie, and our children in the East & at Sacramento. Tom looked handsome.
[Note: A special thanks to Squires cousin, Pam Marino for sharing her great grandmother Emily Squires’ diary pages.]
Great Grandaunt Emily Visits The Latimer Family In Canada
It was the Spring of 1933 when Emily (Squires) Wiggin set off on a trip around the continental United States and Canada. A year earlier, Emily became a widow when her husband Charles died in their home state of California. This trip would take her from the Pacific to the Atlantic and then north through Canada on her return home. The trip would also include a two-day visit in Orillia, Ontario to see how her niece, Mattie (Knox) Latimer was getting along.
(from left to right, Knox Latimer, Emily (Squires) Wiggin, Mattie (Knox) Latimer, and Albertine Latimer)
Mattie was the oldest child and only daughter of Emily’s older sister Amy (Squires) Knox. Amy and her husband Thomas were solid fixtures in California where Thomas had served for many years as Postmaster and Mayor of Livermore and then as a County Supervisor. Mattie had not remained in California however, moving to Canada soon after marrying Edward Latimer in 1906.
Fortunately, Emily kept a diary of her trip and so we learn directly from her that on Saturday, May 6, 1933, she arrived in Toronto at 7:45 a.m. to a downpour where she was welcomed and greeted by Charlotte (Latimer) Mullett, the sister of Edward Latimer, Charlotte’s daughter Doris Mullett, and Albertine ‘Abby’ Latimer, Edward and Mattie’s eldest child who would accompany Aunt Emily to Orillia for her visit.
(left to right, Tess Latimer, Albertine ‘Abby’ Latimer, Emily (Squires) Wiggin, and Mattie (Knox) Latimer)
After a breakfast of coffee and toast, Aunt Emily and Abby reached Orillia by train around noon where they were met by Abby’s brother Knox Latimer. As Emily described the visit, “After dinner with Mattie and family, who all gave me a warm welcome, we went through a nearby hospital, then Knox took us, Mattie, Tess [Tess was Ellen’s mother Olive Theresa Evelyn (Latimer) Wagner] and me for a ride in a truck to a Park and Statue of Champlain…Hazel and Jack also came over to see me. Had a most enjoyable day.”
(Edward Knox Latimer, May 1933, Orillia, Ontario)
It sounds like it was also a tiring day, for in her entry for Sunday, May 7th, Emily starts off with, “Everybody slept late, but all were on hand for dinner. Ed [referring to Mattie’s husband Edward Latimer] not so hilarious today as yesterday.” Following a Sunday afternoon drive around the town of Orillia to see the sites, Emily caught the 7:10 p.m. train back to Toronto where she purchased some post cards and her train ticket to Vancouver. After commenting in her diary that “Albertine was lovely and invaluable,” she “went to bed right away on the train and slept well.”
(Olive Theresa Evelyn ‘Tess’ Latimer, aged 13, May 1933, Orillia, Ontario)
Finally, my sincere thanks to Ellen’s cousin Pam Marino of Jamestown, California for the previously unseen by us photos and diary pages for which she granted permission for me to share with other family members through this post!
My Work Life Chronicled In A Novel
A friend and former work colleague, now author, Stephen Lonsdale informed me through Facebook that his newest novel Inside Looking Out was now available on Amazon.com. (It’s currently on sale for only $9.96, a bit cheaper than the low price I paid a couple of weeks ago).
While I have posted a lot of information about ancestors, I have shied away from posting the story of me. As a genealogist, I have trained myself to look for and analyze records left by and about family members. A fictional novel is not the place to seek out information.
But now, Stephen’s novel Inside Looking Out tells the stories of the early years of my professional career with the provincial government in Ontario, Canada. Inside Looking Out is the author’s semi-autobiographical account of his entry into the world of Corrections, the significant impacts that world had on his life, and the winding journey that brought him to where he is today. Inside Looking Out chronicles the first few years of my public service career as I shared many parts of Stephen’s journey and was present for some of the frightening, even traumatic, events that are recounted.
I began my career as a correctional officer. It wasn’t my first choice of jobs and I knew it was a disappointment to my parents. Having been the first of my family to graduate from university, my parents had much higher expectations than to brag about their son the jail guard. But I needed a job as the one I had at the time was winding down. I had my sights set on becoming a probation officer, a position that required the university credential. In order to access the probation jobs, I needed to get a position, any position, in the Corrections department. My late wife Karen and I had only been married two years but had purchased our first house and I needed a secure job to make the mortgage payments. The position paid $6.67 per hour plus benefits to start. Karen and I were thrilled with our good fortune. What I didn’t know is that I got the job as a Correctional Officer in one of the most dangerous institutions in Canada! And that is where I met Stephen Lonsdale.
Although the names of the people have been changed in Inside Looking Out, I recognized many of the characters. I know the real names. For example, David Evans, the novel’s protagonist, was hired to be a Correctional Officer by the institution’s administrator Iain Wallace, accurately described as a bombastic, old Scotsman. That same administrator hired me after first confirming that based on my name, I was also Scottish. You can see how family history played a key role in my life.
I was present and witnessed many of the events that the author writes about in Inside Looking Out. Those of us who shared in those incidents and worked in that institution at that time know the true identities of the novel’s characters and we can attest to the accuracy of the stories told. It was a tough work life and one that I wasn’t permitted to speak about at home because it frightened my wife to know about the environment I left our happy home to work in each day.
I worked hard in my Corrections career and over the course of time, I was eventually promoted to the position of Superintendent – the equivalent of a Warden in the United States or a Governor in the United Kingdom. I left Corrections many years ago for family reasons and thoroughly enjoyed working in other areas of the provincial government. But, I am most proud of leading the redesign and introduction of a new (and still current) uniform worn by the province’s Correctional Officers. I was also the first to wear a Superintendent’s uniform in the history of the province (as far as I know).
If you are looking for a really good book to read, I recommend going over to Amazon.com and doing a search for Stephen Lonsdale to purchase Inside Looking Out or one of Stephen’s other books like Badon. You may also want to look differently at novels in the future when you are researching your family history. I know I will.
OMG! Not Another Politician In The Family Tree
My family was politically active. We voted. Regularly. Never missed an opportunity to exercise our franchise. We always took the responsibility, and the privilege, of being able to cast a ballot very seriously.
We campaigned for candidates. I spent many hours dropping off campaign literature before I was even old enough to vote. My father, in particular, often lead campaigns for candidates with whom he was close. We were never candidates. We just managed the political campaigns for those who sought elected office.
Ellen’s family, on the other hand, is full of elected officials both in Canada and the United States. One of her great grandfathers was the Mayor of Livermore, California. Several of her cousins were the Mayor of Berlin, later Kitchener, Ontario. Her cousins have been Members of Parliament at both the provincial and federal levels, and a second great uncle was a Canadian Senator. Recently, I found another politician ‘hanging’ in her family tree – Jonathan Joseph Merner (pictured below from his official Parliament of Canada biography).
Jonathan, Ellen’s first cousin, three times removed, was born in Blake, Huron County, Ontario, then Canada West, and raised on the family farm. His father, Gottlieb Merner, was a younger brother to Sen. Samuel Merner and had immigrated with his family to British North America around 1837 or 1838 from his native Switzerland. When Jonathan was quite young, his family moved to the village of Hay in Huron County, Ontario where Jonathan attended school. Eventually, Jonathan struck out on his own, finding employment with Mr. D. D. Steinbach, a general merchant in Zurich, Ontario. His experience with Steinbach enabled Jonathan to open his own successful mercantile shop, which would come to include a large evaporator and apple jam factory.
On September 21, 1911, Jonathan was elected to represent the federal riding of Huron South in the Parliament of Canada as a member of the Conservative Party. He represented the people of his riding in southwestern rural Ontario for the next ten years, losing his Parliamentary seat in the December 1921 election.
Jonathan died of an embolus during pancreatic surgery at the Hotel Dieu hospital in Windsor. Ontario on February 25, 1929. His death registration lists his occupation at the time of his death as Retired Builder.
Interestingly, Jonathan’s biography on the Parliament of Canada website lists his date of death as February 26, 1929. For the government being off by one day might be close enough; for a genealogist, it’s wrong.
Christmas Came Early To My Genealogy Land
Christmas in Hadden genealogy land came a bit early this year thanks to a new cousin connection and a two-year old blog post. The gift that I received was a whole new branch of Ellen’s family including approximately 200 new ancestors found so far.
The story of how this came about is quite simple and straight forward. In August 2010, I posted A Canadian Senator in the Family describing Ellen’s connection to the Hon. Samuel Merner who was appointed to the Canadian Senate in 1887 on the advice of Sir John A. MacDonald, Canada’s first Prime Minister. Samuel Merner served as a Senator until his death in 1908.
In October of this year, a comment was left on the blog post about Samuel Merner by Fraser Laschinger who indicated that he was also descended from the same Merner family line. Fraser is an historian and serves on his local historical society board and as turns out, he is Ellen’s fourth cousin. In emails subsequent to receiving his comment, he indicated that he had some genealogical information, compiled over the years by some family members, which he has graciously sent to me. One of his documents stated that Anna Merner (the name can also be found spelled Muerner, likely it’s original Swiss spelling) “married a Staebler” but offered no other reference to who the identity of the Staebler nor anything further about that family. 
Anna Merner is Ellen’s 2X great grandmother and she was one of Samuel’s younger sisters. Fraser 2X great grandmother, Mary, was another of Samuel’s younger sisters. All were the children of Jacob Emanuel Muerner and Susanna Schluchter. Anna (Muerner) Merner married Jacob Staebler around 1840. Jacob and Anna Staebler youngest daughter Mary is Ellen’s great grandmother.
The key to unlocking the new branch of Ellen’s family tree was the information that Fraser offered in his posted comment, “Mary [Merner] married Joseph Laschinger ….” I didn’t have that information and although I have yet to find a marriage record for Joseph and Mary, I have found many records listing them as living together and being the parents of a dozen children.
Exploring the Merner – Laschinger branch has added, as stated earlier, about 200 more individuals to my genealogy database, and all sources have been cited. The ‘new to me’ Laschinger family line has discovering connections with Edmund H. Laschinger, a prominent Canadian government figure in the early 20th century, along with Russell Howard Laschinger, a prominent newspaper publisher in Gilmer, Texas along with his daughter, Sarah Jane (Laschinger) Greene who, in 2010, was inducted into the Texas Newspaper Foundation Hall of Fame.
A great early Christmas gift for a genealogist. Now if Santa could only find a photo of my great grandfather John Foley!
British Columbia, Canada Showing The Way With Free Online Records
Searching for many of my Canadian ancestors has been facilitated by them having lived for many generations in the province of Ontario. Records in Ontario for births, marriages, and deaths have been available through the Ancestry site. The Ontario records are indexed and there are digital images available of the records that can be saved on a personal computer. But, it is not free. Access to these records requires a subscription to the Ancestry site.
There are some means that can be used to obtain the same records for free but none of those opportunities mean staying at home. You could visit the Archives of Ontario or a Family History Centre to search through microfilm reels and print copies of the records you want, or perhaps your local public library has an institutional subscription to Ancestry, allowing you to find the records and save them to a USB key. Those research trips can be fun but still are not free with the cost of transportation and most importantly, time.
The province of British Columbia (B.C.) however, is leading the way by becoming the first Canadian jurisdiction I am aware of to post their vital records online and for FREE! As was reported by Dick Eastman on December 2nd, B.C. has posted more than 700,000 digital images attached to their fully indexed vital records.
My research has been halted, or at least slowed at times by what seems to be the inevitable migration of families to the west. So for example, a family living in Ontario during the latter half of the 19th century is attracted to and leaves Ontario for the chance at greater prosperity, often with free land awaiting, in the Canadian prairies. Eventually, family members venture a little further west into Alberta and B.C. That is certainly the migration pattern that I have seen with my wife Ellen’s family.
I’ll use Ellen’s paternal grandfather, Louis Jacob Gordon Wagner (pictured to the right) to illustrate this point. Louis was born in Ontario in 1886 but by the early part of the 20th century, Louis had moved to Saskatchewan where he married Ellen’s grandmother, Charlotte (‘Lottie’) Faulkner in 1912. By the end of his life, Louis was in B.C., living near his son Gordon in Comox on Vancouver Island, where he died in 1968.
BC has made available their records for births (1854 – 1903), marriages (1872 – 1936), deaths (1872 – 1991), colonial marriages (1859 – 1872), and baptisms (1836 – 1888). The records, as stated, are indexed and can be searched using a basic search or advanced search screen.
Here is what the search result looked like when I searched for Louis Wagner’s death record.
In addition to basic data being provided in the listing such as gender, age, date and location of event, the listing includes a link to the digital image of Louis’ death certificate. Louis’ death certificate is typed so it is easy to read with the exception of the attending doctor’s certification as to cause of death which is hand written and may be difficult to decipher.
With this record (and several others for other family members in both my family and Ellen’s), I was able to enter additional facts with source citations included in my RootsMagic database and attach the record digital images to the events that each supported.
I’m hoping more Canadian provinces follow the lead of BC in making these records available and easy to access. As a Canadian researcher, life would be so much better.
Oscar August Brehler
Oscar August Brehler was my wife’s first cousin, three times removed. Oscar was the son, and youngest child, of Jacob Brehler and Harriet Hailer. Harriet was the sister of my wife’s second great grandmother, Margaret Hailer, and the daughter of Johann Jacob Hailer, a Kitchener, Waterloo pioneer.
Jacob and Harriet Brehler married in Canada West (now Ontario, Canada) likely around 1855, but moved to Michigan in the United States in 1864. Oscar was born in Royal Oak, Oakland, Michigan on 3 June 1880. At the age of 24, Oscar graduated from the Detroit School of Medicine as a pharmacist and set off on his own. His first stop was at Prescott in the then Arizona Territory. After a short stay there, estimated to be only a year or two, Oscar headed for California.
In 1905, Oscar purchased a drug store in Sanger, Fresno, California. For the next forty years, Oscar operated what was described as the “County’s First Drug Store.” Oscar was prominent in the community serving as a leader of the local and district Kiwanis clubs among many civic undertakings. When Oscar sold his drug store in January 1945 to Roger F. Taylor, it was reported on page 4 of the Fresno Bee Republican newspaper (January 7th edition). When Sanger City celebrated it’s Diamond Jubilee in 1963, a commemorative book published to mark the occasion stated, “Oscar arrived a scant 17 years after Sanger dates it’s founding, and throughout all these years his reputation for square dealing, dependability and integrity has been known and respected throughout this entire area.”
There’s seems little doubt that Oscar was a good down-to-earth kind of guy but what makes Oscar unique was his basket collection!
It seems that in the early years of his store, many Yokut Indians from the foothills around Sanger came to town and Oscar bought several of their hand-woven baskets from them. It is reported that Oscar purchased the baskets from the natives as he knew they needed the money to purchase supplies. Eventually his basket collection grew to be about 200 baskets in total.
Oscar died in 1966 and his basket collection formed the centre piece of a new Sanger museum, housed in the original Sanger railway station building – the Sanger Depot Museum.
Quite the legacy for a pharmacist from Michigan with deep Ontario roots.
The URL for this post is http://ianhaddenfamilyhistory.blogspot.ca/2012/08/oscar-august-brehler.html
The Fitzgerald Kids
In my last post I promised to share the information I found in the Ontario Roman Catholic Church Records, posted on FamilySearch, for the children of my maternal second great grandparents, Lewis and Ellen (nee Daley) Fitzgerald.
Canadian census records had provided me with the names of their nine children as they entered the family unit and eventually left the family, to strike out on their own or perhaps, through an early death. I have found no evidence of the deaths of these children with the exception of my great grandmother, Mary Jane Foley (nee Fitzgerald).
As previously posted, Lewis Fitzgerald married Ellen Daley at St. Paul’s Roman Catholic Basilica in Toronto on 11 September 1856. Their marriage was recorded in the church’s register by Father J. FitzHenry. Searching the subsequent Canadian decennial census records, starting in 1861, produces a list of nine children however with the exception of the 1901 census, the records for 1861, 1871, 1881, and 1891 only provide an age and place of birth, not an exact date of birth.
In 1861, the Lewis and Ellen Fitzgerald household included three children. In 1871, the household included six children however the eldest child, Mary Rebecca, listed in 1861 was no longer present. The census records for 1881 provide the most complete family picture as eight children are present in the household with again the eldest, Rebecca as she was known, the only child missing. By 1891, the there were only five children living at home in the household and by 1901, only Alice, the youngest of the Fitzgerald children was part of the household.
This is where the church records came an important role, especially as civil registration had not yet been instituted. These records helped provide exact birth dates and verification that there were no other children who may have been born after a census was taken and died before the following census.
The baptismal records of St. Paul’s Basilica provide the following names and dates for the Fitzgerald ‘kids’:
1. Mary Rebecca Fitzgerald, born 14 November 1857
2. Margaret Fitzgerald, born 25 April 1859
3. Anne Fitzgerald. born 23 December 1860
4. Ellen Fitzgerald, born 20 May 1862
5. Mary Jane Fitzgerald, born 22 May 1864
6. Elizabeth Fitzgerald, born 11 February 1866
7. Catherine Fitzgerald, born 28 September 1868
8. Lewis Albert Fitzgerald, born 16 August 1872
9. Alice Caroline Fitzgerald, born 29 December 1874
At least five of the Fitzgerald daughters married. In addition to Mary Rebecca whom I suspect died at an early age, I have found no record that suggests Margaret or Elizabeth married. Similarly, I have found no record indicating that Lewis Albert married.
Mary Jane Fitzgerald married John Foley on 25 April 1894 in St. Joseph’s Roman Catholic Church, the marriage event entered into the church register by Father William Bergen. Although I don’t yet have many of the details, I have been contacted by a local Toronto historian who has informed me that Lewis Fitzgerald was one of the founding members and contributors to St. Joseph’s Church which is located in what is now the east end of the city of Toronto, in an area known as Leslieville.
The URL for this post is: http://ianhaddenfamilyhistory.blogspot.ca/2012/06/fitzgerald-kids.html
Digging in Church Records
I have had a difficult time tracing my maternal Irish ancestry back more than about 150 years and feeling confident that I was closely approaching having all of the information that would help propel me further. Census records provided snapshots of the family unit at points in time but my information was too vague for my liking.
My great great grandfather, Lewis Fitzgerald and his family are a good case in point. The following AHNENTAFEL list shows my ancestral connection to Lewis and his wife Ellen Daley.
1. Ian Gerald Hadden
2. Lewis John Hadden
3. Anne Margaret O’Neill
6. John Graham O’Neill
7. Gertrude Ellen Foley
14. John Foley
15. Mary Jane Fitzgerald
30. Lewis Fitzgerald
31. Ellen Daley
I was aware that Lewis and Ellen Fitzgerald had nine children, including my great grandmother Mary Jane Fitzgerald, but most of the children were born “about” a given year in my database. This is where the “Ontario, Roman Catholic Church Records” on FamilySearch.org have been of great assistance.
These records are not indexed but are available in image form. Fortunately, the record group is divided by city or town in Ontario and then by church name. Beyond that help, I needed to examine each page of each church register looking for the members of the Fitzgerald family. It was tedious and, it was time-consuming but it was worth the effort. Register pages containing records involving my Fitzgerald ancestors were saved easily as JPEG files on my computer with a simple single mouse click using the helpful ‘Save’ feature.
Above is the register entry for the marriage of Lewis (spelled Luis in the registry) Fitzgerald and Ellen Daley (spelled Daly in the registry). The marriage took place on September 11, 1856 at St. Paul’s Basilica which is located on Power Street in Toronto, Ontario. The priest who officiated at the marriage and signed the register was Father J. FitzHenry and the witnesses to the marriage were William McDonald and Briget (spelling is as it appears in the registry) Sexton. I don’t know who these witnesses were but assuming that they were close friends of my great grandparents, I now have a clue for further research. Most interesting to me was the appearance in any record about Ellen Daley that I have found of a location in Ireland for further research. Typically, census records would list her birthplace as Ireland but this church record states that she was from County Clare. Wishful thinking has me wanting to believe that there was only one Daley family in County Clare but how likely is that to be true?
In my next post, the Fitzgerald ‘kids.’
The URL for this post is: http://ianhaddenfamilyhistory.blogspot.ca/2012/06/digging-in-church-records.html