A Family S Search

A Family’s Search

Family historians always hope to discover someone famous in their ancestry. They will even settle for someone infamous, a horse thief or a train robber. Rarely can we satisfy this wish when their research leads them to St. Mark’s.

Recently we had a visit from a young lady who announced that she was a descendent of Robert Addison. Always on the lookout for members of the family of the first Pastor of St. Mark’s parish we inquired if she was of the Connolly or Stevenson line. Neither name seemed to strike a familiar chord.

Rev. Robert Addison was the son of John Addison. He had two sons and two daughters. The first boy and eldest member of the family died shortly after birth. The fourth child was also a son who was born in England after Addison had left for Canada. He was supposed to come to join the rest of the family, but there was no one to bring him and Addison could not get permission to travel to England. The boy remained with Addison’s father and died there at the age of seven.

The only descendents of St Mark’s first pastor were the children of his daughters. Elizabeth, who married Ensign George Connolly had four children and Mary Eleanor who married John Andrew Stevenson had eight.

When we learned that our visitor had her Canadian roots in Norwich in Oxford County, we recognized that she could well have descended from Robert Addison. Addison had been granted several hundred acres of “wild land” in Norfolk County. He had offered it to his nephew, godson and namesake. In 1831, two years after Addison’s death, the nephew, and his family came to Canada to clear the land and establish a farm. In the annals of Norwich, there are many references to the descendents of this Robert Addison.

Our visitor had several reasons to be happy in finding someone important in her family tree, however. Like our Robert Addison, she was also a descendent of John Addison through his son William. A third brother, Joseph, lived in Hampstead and his son Peter also came to Canada. Rev. Peter Addison became one of the foremost preachers of the Methodist Church in this country. His work is celebrated in the history of the United Church of Canada.

Very few of us can trace our ancestry back to royal or even to outstanding personages, but to discover two outstanding early Canadian preachers in your collateral lines would make the search worth while.