Quarterly Chronicle • Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014

In This Issue . . . and a Brother Who Went to Australia?

By the Skin of My Teeth . . .

John Price and the “Perthshire Grey Breeks”

Anglo-Celtic Roots Published quarterly in March, June, September and December by the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa and sent free to members. Canadian Publications Mail Sales Product Agreement No. 40015222 Indexed in the Periodical Source Index (PERSI) Editor: Jean Kitchen Editor Emeritus: Chris MacPhail Layout: Barbara Tose Proofreader: Anne Renwick Unless otherwise stated, permission to reprint for non-profit use is granted to organizations and individuals provided the source is credited. Articles accompanied by the copyright symbol () may not be reprinted or copied without the written permission of the author. Opinions expressed by contributors are not necessarily those of BIFHSGO or its officers, nor are commercial interests endorsed. We invite readers to submit family history stories, illustrations, letters, queries and similar items of interest, preferably in electronic format using MSWord-compatible software, to [email protected] or The Editor, BIFHSGO, PO Box 38026, OTTAWA ON K2C 3Y7. Please include a brief biographical sketch and a passport-type photograph. Authors are asked to certify that permission to reproduce any previously copyrighted material has been acquired and are encouraged to provide permission for non-profit reproduction of their articles. The Editor reserves the right to select material that meets the interest of readers and to edit for length and content.

British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa Founded and incorporated in 1994 Charitable Registration No. 89227 4044RR0001

To contact BIFHSGO:  PO Box 38026 Ottawa ON K2C 3Y7  613-234-2520  [email protected]  www.bifhsgo.ca

Contents

COLUMN From the Editor From the President/2 This issue begins with the story of FAMILY HISTORY RESEARCH Chris MacPhail’s dogged pursuit of . . . and a Brother Who Went the truth behind a vague hint that a to Australia? great-uncle might have wended his Chris MacPhail/3 way from Scotland to Australia. By the Skin of My Teeth For those who missed the Leighann C. Neilson/15 December 2013 Great Moments John Price and the presentations, Leighann Neilson “Perthshire Grey Breeks” reveals how she managed to Betty Warburton/22 discover why her father rarely TECHNIQUES AND RESOURCES spoke of the Fitzgerald branch of The Cream of the Crop his family. John D. Reid, Ken McKinlay/36 Betty Warburton tells the intrig- The Bookworm uing tale of her ancestor John Betty Warburton/40 Price’s military service in the West BIFHSGO NEWS Indies, North America and Europe Minutes of the Annual during the many campaigns of the General Meeting June 2013 early 1800s. Anne Sterling/42 John Reid teams up with fellow Minutes of the Special blogger Ken McKinlay in this General Meeting December 2013 edition of “The Cream of the Crop.” Anne Sterling, Marnie McCall/46 And in preparation for BIFHSGO’s Membership Report June 2014 Annual General Meeting, Kathy Wallace/47 we publish the draft minutes of the CALENDAR OF EVENTS AGMs held over the past year, so Back cover members can assess whether any changes will be required to their COVER ILLUSTRATION Wreck of the Loch Ard, sister ship content. of the Loch Sloy Source: Illustrated Sydney News, 13 July 1878 Jean Kitchen

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 1 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014

From the President

Spring is in the air, and after the winter that we have experienced, milder temperatures and longer days are undoubtedly welcomed by all of us. Our BIFHSGO season is slipping by very quickly, but we have been blessed with a great program of presentations and even greater attendance. We are well into our 20th anniversary celebration and celebrate we should. Our Society continues to grow in numbers and our monthly meetings are the envy of the Canadian family history and genealogical community. Whatever we are doing, it resonates with our membership. It was for this reason that we decided to celebrate our members in our anniversary commemorations. Improvements to our website, new and expanded databases and much more will salute those who have made our Society as vibrant as it is. If you have yet to do so, I would encourage your participation in our writing contest. This is an excellent opportunity to bring together your research, discoveries and ideas about your family and then to share them with others. Ever since BIFHSGO was established, we have promoted the writing of family history, so it is fitting to celebrate our anniversary this way. A few months ago, I had an opportunity to speak with David Mason, one of Canada’s foremost antiquarian book dealers, about genealogy. He recognized the attraction of family history research, but noted regretfully (and correctly) that the results are rarely written down in a form that allows them to be shared publicly with future generations, within the family or otherwise. It is time to demonstrate what can be done with our research, which often reaches far beyond our own families, to tell us something about our shared history and our Anglo-Celtic origins. On another matter, I feel it necessary to call your attention to the fact that the Society will need a new President as of June. Our bylaws restrict my tenure to four years, and while it has been a ride to remember, it is time to step aside and let another member direct the future course of the Society. Please give this “call” your earnest consideration, your Society needs you!

Glenn Wright

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 2 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014

Family History Research

. . . and a Brother Who Went to Australia?©

BY CHRIS MACPHAIL Chris is a retired consulting engineer whose career involved writing and reading a good many construction-industry contracts. His interest in genealogy began with his wife’s family, and expanded with the discovery that his grandfather had been a Home Child. Chris has served on the BIFHSGO Board and as editor of ACR, and is a member of the Hall of Fame.

y maternal grandfather was Robert Spence M Mitchell—a kind, jovial man who was well loved by his large family in and around Sudbury, Ontario. I had the pleasure and privilege of knowing him from my earliest years. But I never heard him say anything about his parents or siblings, except for his brother Matthew. I knew that he had an older brother Matthew who lived in Pennsylvania and who, with his wife Grace, visited with Grandpa and his family at their summer camp on Ramsey Figure 1: Matthew and Robert Lake, now part of Greater Sudbury. Source: family collection Matthew died in Pennsylvania in 1954 at the age of 85, without any Boys.” Well no, I didn’t know, and descendants. what were Barnardo Boys anyway? When I became interested in the It was only after my grandfather’s family history in more recent years, death that my mother said “Well, I was introduced to BIFHSGO and you know that they were Barnardo its work on Home Children, thanks

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 3 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014 to Dave Lorente, John Sayers and eventually abandoned his children others. I began to piece together to whatever benevolent agency the history of my grandfather and would take them. his Glasgow family. Much of this has been published in 2010 in the David Mitchell Jane Love BIFHSGO book “British Home 1844-? 1842-1879 Children: Their Stories.”

As far as I was aware, these two David boys were the extent of my 1863-1874 grandfather’s family—except that not long before her death, my Ann 1867-1892 mother mentioned in an off-hand comment that “. . . there might have Matthew been another brother who went to 1869-1954 Australia.” However, she couldn’t explain or elaborate, and the William moment passed. It was only some 1871-? time later that I began to wonder whether the comment was based Robert on fact or fiction. 1873-1956 I was able to trace my grand- Samuel father’s family in Scotland, largely 1875-? through the pay-per-view

ScotlandsPeople website, where my Martha contributions helped to sustain the 1877-1913

Scottish economy. I found that he David, 18, and Jane, 20, had been was one of seven children born to married in 1862.Their first child, David Mitchell and his wife Jane also named David, was born in Love. The birth records for the 1863 and died at the age of 11 after children indicate that David was an suffering from tuberculosis for nine itinerant labourer who moved months. regularly from one rented room to another. Ann, born in 1867, left or was sent out of the house at about 12 years Jane died in a parochial asylum at of age. At 22 she married and had a the age of 39 of “maniacal daughter a year later; she died of exhaustion,” two years after giving blood poisoning, and her daughter birth to her seventh child. David of bronchitis, within a month of was described as a drunkard, and each other in 1892. Ann was 25.

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Matthew, born in 1869, was taken Samuel was the sixth child, born in in by the Quarriers and immigrated 1875. He was placed with his to Canada in 1882 at the age of 12. brother William in the home in After a somewhat unhappy Stevenston, but he had disappeared experience with the Canadian from Scottish records after the farmer with whom he was placed, 1881 Census. he made his way to the United Finally, Martha, the second States, where he became a daughter, was born in 1877. Her bookkeeper with a manufacturing mother died in 1879, and Martha company in Pennsylvania. was taken in by her older sister William was born in 1871 and in Ann. After Ann’s death Martha about 1880 was placed in a moved to Dundee, where she children’s home in Stevenston, worked in a jute mill. She married a Ayrshire, run by the Glasgow co-worker at the age of 20 and had United Evangelistic Association. two daughters. By 1901 she was Unfortunately, the records of that back in Glasgow living with her agency have not survived, except husband and daughters, his parents for a few annual reports that are and siblings—12 people in two not in enough detail to be of help. I rooms. Martha died in 1913 at the then found him in the 1891 Census, age of 36. living with his sister Ann and her All the siblings had been accounted husband, along with younger sister for, except for William and Samuel. Martha. But I had been unable to Could one of these be a “brother find anything beyond 1891. who went to Australia”? Robert was next, born in 1873. He William too was taken in by the Quarriers I decided to start with a search for and was sent out to Canada in William, being the older of the two. 1881, when he was immediately I had only the information already placed with the Spence family in mentioned: the certificate of his Owen Sound. His was a happy birth in Glasgow in 1871, his story, much of which was residence in a children’s home in published in British Home Children: 1881 and his occupation as a sailor Their Stories. He led a happy life, in the 1891 Census. My searches of although his first wife died in the usual sources failed to reveal childbirth. He remarried and raised any other information, and a six children; he was active in professional genealogist in Scot- church, lodge and civic life, and land was unable to add anything died in 1956 at the age of 83. else.

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 5 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014

I recalled an article in Anglo-Celtic the Loch Sloy. This much was Roots based on a talk at a BIFHSGO free—to learn more, I would have meeting by Robert J. Brown titled to send money. Before taking that “Baa Baa Black Sheep: Thinking step, however, I resorted to Google outside the Fold.” He had referred and found a wealth of information to a website (www.blacksheep about the Loch Sloy in 1899. index.co.uk) that listed the names Wikipedia provided a brief of individuals, along with locations description of a shipwreck and dates, who had been involved involving the Loch Sloy, with a in some newsworthy event. He had citation that gave the source: a found a lot of information about his 1972 book titled Kangaroo Island grandfather, a railway locomotive Shipwrecks by G. D. Chapman.1 I engineer, who had been involved in used the WorldCat website to an accident that was reported in locate a copy, the nearest being in the press of the day. (That website the Metro Toronto Reference seems to have been shut down, Library. possibly due to the influence of Google.) My son Andrew lived across the street from the library at that time, and I volunteered him to obtain a copy of the text, which he dutifully did. Other accounts were obtained later from newspapers from Australia, New Zealand, the U.S. and Scotland that are available online.2 The Loch Sloy was one of a fleet of Figure 2: the Loch Sloy some 25 steel-hulled sailing ships Source: Wikimedia Commons owned and operated by Aitken, The names on the website were Lilburn & Co. of Glasgow, and also organized under several categories, known as the Glasgow Shipping one of which was Masters and Company. They were all named Mariners. Thinking of the 1891 after Scottish lakes, and the fleet Census description of William as a became known as the Loch Line— sailor, I logged on and entered or as we will see, the “Unlucky Loch “William Mitchell.” Sure enough, a Line.” Over the span of 30 years, Mitchell, William appeared along nearly half of the ships were lost.3 with the date: 1899, the location: Glasgow, and the name of a ship:

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 6 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014

The ships carried general cargo might encounter icebergs floating and a few passengers from the U.K. up from Antarctica. In spite of the to Adelaide and Melbourne, added risks, mariners of the day Australia, and returned with grain. tended to choose the faster route. Each outbound voyage took about three months, with another three months for unloading and reloading in the Australian ports. The return voyage took a further three months, so with time to unload and reload again, a round trip occupied the best part of a year. In spite of the growing reliance on steam, the company based its fortunes on wind power, and continued to operate its sailing Figure 3: Kangaroo Island vessels until it finally wound up its Source: www.acacia-apartments.com.au activities in 1912. In January 1899, the Loch Sloy left Glasgow, down the River Clyde, The typical outbound route would bound for Adelaide. She carried take them southward down the general cargo, six passengers and a Atlantic, to round the tip of Africa crew of 30. The ship’s provisions at the Cape of Good Hope at included ample supplies of canned roughly 35° south latitude. and preserved foods, but without However, they were subject to the refrigeration, they also had live vagaries of the wind and weather, chickens, goats and pigs for eggs, and at least one passenger on a milk and fresh meat. The ship was sister ship recorded in her diary under the command of Captain having sighted the coast of Brazil. Peter Nicol. It was his first voyage From there, the captains could in command of the Loch Sloy, but he steer a course nearly straight east was considered to be an exper- to Australia. However, the winds ienced officer and had made the were much stronger further south voyage before in the role of first in what was referred to as “the mate.4 Roaring Forties”—the area One of the crew was William between 40° and 50° south Mitchell, an able-bodied seaman. latitude—where the ships could make much better time. The On the night of 24 April 1899, after disadvantage was that this put 109 days at sea without sighting them into an area where they land and navigating by sextant and

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 7 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014

drive the ship closer to the island. They overran their course and lost sight of the lighthouse. The wind and tide began to sweep the ship onto the rocks, and when it was obvious that attempts to bring the big ship around had failed, the captain ordered everyone aloft into Figure 4: Route of the Loch Sloy the rigging to avoid the seas Source: Google maps that were by now breaking over chronometer, the Loch Sloy was the decks. crossing south of Australia, Too little, too late. The crashing approaching the harbour at waves soon carried the masts, sails, Adelaide. The captain may have passengers and crew into the surf, been following a southerly course with the loss of all those on and would have had to veer board—except for one passenger, northward to approach the final leg David Kilpatrick, an apprentice, into Adelaide harbour. William Simpson and crewmen The port city of Adelaide is Duncan McMillan and William protected from the Southern Ocean Mitchell. The crewmen managed to by Kangaroo Island, a rather scale the cliffs and drag Kilpatrick, sparsely treed, windswept island who had been severely injured, to a some 140 km long by 50 km wide. sheltered spot where they made He would have to follow a course him as comfortable as was possible through the channel between under those conditions. The men Kangaroo Island and the mainland also managed to retrieve some and would have been guided by the material from the wreckage, lighthouse at Cape Borda, on the including a case of whiskey and a western edge of the island. few tins of herring. The weather conditions had Over the next three days, the deteriorated during the night with crewmen found some fresh water heavy rain and low-lying clouds and fashioned a shelter for obscuring the horizon. Also Kilpatrick. They then decided that compounding the situation was an McMillan should go in search of eastward current that tended to help while Mitchell and Simpson

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 8 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014

The Times of London and the New York Times, among others, it was a major event in the young colony. Details of the wreck, the investigations that followed and the activities of the survivors were reported almost daily. Figure 5: Wreck of the Loch Ard, sister ship Through Trove, the New of the Loch Sloy South Wales website and Source: Illustrated Sydney News, 13 July 1878 La Trobe Picture Collection. State Library of Victoria Papers Past from New Zealand, I found extensive tended to Kilpatrick. However, articles in these papers.2 when McMillan hadn’t reappeared after two days, Mitchell and The crewmen were taken to a Simpson decided to go as well, hospice for sailors in Port Adelaide, leaving their supplies with where they recovered and later Kilpatrick. On 8 May, 15 days after appeared before a Board of the wreck, McMillan managed to Enquiry. find the lighthouse and help—he The proceedings from the enquiry returned with a couple of men on were published in newspapers in horseback, only to find that both Australia and New Zealand, Kilpatrick had died of his injuries and while the crewmen were and exposure. They buried the commended for their actions, no body, and in later years a plaque fault was found with the captain or was placed at the site. his actions. It was deemed an Meanwhile, Mitchell and Simpson unfortunate accident. wandered for days before being As an indication of the celebrity rescued. They were found on status of the survivors, they were 10 May, and William Mitchell, presented to Governor-General delirious and in rags, had a dead Hallam Tennyson and his wife at a penguin around his neck on which luncheon held in their honour. he fed from time to time. Tennyson was the son of Alfred While the tragedy warranted Lord Tennyson, the famous poet. mention in The Glasgow Herald,

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 9 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014

records of the shipping company had not survived, but did learn that the ship’s manifest that would have described the crew Figure 6: Kilpatrick grave and monument Source: Graeme McGregor, members in detail had been on the http://www.abc.net.au/news ship when it was lost. There was a glimmer of hope that The men were scheduled to return appeared by chance. I had posted to Scotland on board the Loch my family tree on Ancestry, and it Rannoch, a sister ship, but at the prompted an email from a woman last moment, McMillan and Mitchell in Western Australia. As a child, she elected to stay on in Australia. had emigrated with her parents While McMillan was reported to from Scotland to Australia after the have eventually returned to sea, Second World War. William Mitchell, who said that he had survived two previous Her parents were happy to cut the shipwrecks, decided that he had ties and leave Scotland behind, and had enough. It was the custom were uninterested in family among British seafaring nations to history. However, she wanted to offer employment on land to sailors learn more about her roots, and who had survived a shipwreck and found the link from my tree to did not wish to go back to sea. The Martha, my grandfather’s younger reports suggest that Mitchell asked sister. She claimed to be a direct for such employment, but no descendant of Martha. further record of his fate has been She was enthusiastic about found to date, although the search wanting to help search for William continues. and contacted an elderly man living While she was in Scotland on her on Kangaroo Island. He said that he honeymoon, I persuaded my had been a prisoner-of-war in daughter Heather to check a few France during the First World War, details at the Mitchell Library and and that another prisoner, on the Strathclyde University in learning that he was Australian and Glasgow. She found that the from Kangaroo Island, had told him

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 10 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014 that he was a survivor of the wreck when placed in the home in of the Loch Sloy—but he couldn’t Stevenston. His whereabouts were remember the man’s name. a mystery after that—the usual Scottish sources failed to turn up Just to show that one should keep any sign of him. looking, I recently came across a blog by a PhD student at Flinders I had received copies of the annual University in Adelaide, who is inspectors’ reports for both my writing her thesis on the Loch Sloy grandfather and his brother disaster and those who perished. Matthew from Barnardo’s She quotes from several of the Aftercare in England. (The boys sources that I had found, but has had been sent by Quarriers to the added details about the victims and Marchmont Home in Belleville, two of the survivors. Unfortunately, operated by Annie McPherson she has been unable to offer any Homes. The Marchmont records new information about William were turned over to Barnardo’s for Mitchell.4 This led to yet another safekeeping in 1925.) recently posted reference to the ill- A clue emerged from the reports on fated Loch Sloy that listed the visits to my grandfather during his passengers and crew in more stay with the Spence family of detail, albeit without citing the Owen Sound. In one of them, dated source. 14 May 1886, my grandfather To my disappointment, William asked “. . . if Samuel would be Mitchell is listed as an able-bodied coming out,” suggesting that he seaman, age 47, from Caldewgate, knew that Samuel had been in a Carlisle, in England. Time has not home in a situation similar to his permitted further research, and I own, and that perhaps he would be have to acknowledge that the sent to Canada as well. This led me William Mitchell in this story was to a detailed re-examination of probably not my grandfather’s Home Children files at Library and brother. Archives Canada and BIFHSGO, to no avail. Neither were there death Although William’s trail has run records from Scotland that would cold, I still had another brother, indicate an early demise, like that Samuel, to research. of some of his siblings. Samuel And so, in my idle moments, I The youngest brother in the family submitted random entries for was Samuel, born in 1875. He was Samuel Mitchell in FamilySearch two weeks past his fourth birthday and Ancestry, and they produced a when his mother died, and only 6

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 11 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014 vast array of results. It’s went back to them for help in astonishing to see the number of tracing Samuel. Several offered Samuel Mitchells born into this suggestions, but one—bless her— world. But narrowing the search was able to locate a reference in down by birthdate and place New South Wales marriages; of generated one significant find. course, there was fee to be paid for a copy. Having come this far, I The U.K. 1891 Census, found on figured “in for a penny, in for a Ancestry, revealed a Samuel pound.” I sent the appropriate fee Mitchell, born Glasgow, age 15, as and requested a copy of the certify- an Assistant Steward aboard the SS icate. It arrived a few weeks later, Martaban lying at the Wapping and offered the following proof. Dock on the Mersey River in Liverpool. This had to be a lucky coincidence—to have the crew enumerated on the day when that ship was in that harbour. The Martaban was owned by the British and Burmese Steam Navigation Company and plied the route from Glasgow and Liverpool to Rangoon, Burma. Thinking that Burma was in the general vicinity Figure 7: SS Martaban Source: www.clydeside.co.uk of Australia, I decided that this was a lead worth pursuing. It is the marriage certificate for Samuel Mitchell and Agnes Kenniff. Thanks to the extensive records of Samuel is recorded as a bachelor, crew lists for arriving vessels age 26, born in Glasgow, and his provided by Ancestry, it was occupation was a steward. His possible to trace his career through father was David Mitchell, a the first half of the twentieth “shipwright.” century through shipping and immigration records. Samuel Well, David had worked on the literally travelled the world over Glasgow docks, perhaps related to the course of some 60 years. ship-building—Matthew had told his wife and her family that his But how to prove that this Samuel father David had been a “ship’s was the correct one? I had made captain” to explain his long several contacts among genealo- absences from home. We do try gists in Australia and New Zealand to put the best face on things. in my search for William, and I now

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 12 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014

Samuel’s mother was stated as California, a suburb of Los Angeles. Martha Love (deceased). His The eldest, Ernest, had married and mother’s name was actually Jane, remained in Seattle. but her mother’s name was Martha. Back in Seattle in 1940, Samuel and Since Jane died when Samuel was Agnes were living in an apartment only 4, and his younger sister and Samuel was employed as a Martha was but 2, and given the janitor in the Marine Cooks and family’s circumstances, his Stewards Association union hall. It grandmother was likely involved in may have been a stop-gap measure, the children’s care after Jane died; I as he later went back to sea. think that it was an easy mistake. Samuel continued to serve on I decided that—as someone said board ships as a waiter and about parallel parking—“it’s close attendant. The records of crew lists enough” and I accepted this as also indicated that he was of slight sufficient proof that he was my build, 5’ 3” tall and averaging about grandfather’s brother. 130 pounds, with a tattoo on his left forearm. He sailed on both the So I had an answer to my question. Atlantic and Pacific oceans on ships But having an answer always of a number of steamship generates more questions—and I companies, including those continued to track Samuel’s story. commandeered by the U.S. Samuel continued to ply the oceans Government as troop ships in the of the world, but was at home Pacific during World War II. sufficiently often to father two The Seattle City Directory for 1940 sons: Ernest Patrick in 1903 and lists Samuel and Agnes, and their Sidney Frank in 1911. occupations and residence. In the meantime, records indicate However, Agnes was missing in the that he first arrived in the United 1942 edition, and later I found the States in 1903, via Victoria, B.C. He record of her death in Australia in must have liked what he had seen, 1948.6 for the family emigrated to the U.S. In searching for Samuel’s death in 1912 and settled in Seattle, record, again there were multiple where a third son, Samuel Jr., was choices. But narrowing down the born in 1915.5 They became options, I sent a request to the naturalized citizens in 1921. Orange County, California, Vital In the 1930 U.S. Census, Samuel Statistics Branch, and in due course and Agnes with their two younger received a copy of the death sons were living in Orange County, certificate. Again, I was lucky, for

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 13 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014 the Ancestry website listed his In conclusion, I could now tell my birthplace as South Carolina, rather mother that there was indeed a than Scotland. brother who went to Australia, although for a time it appeared that Samuel died on 15 March 1960 in perhaps there might have been Garden Grove, Orange County, two. California, at 84 years of age. He had been living with his son Reference Notes Samuel for some 3½ years. His 1 Gifford Desmond Chapman, Kangaroo death certificate indicates that he Island Shipwrecks (Roebuck Society, had been living in California for 18 1973), 37–41. years, so he may have gone to live 2 Otago Witness, Wanganui Herald, with his son after Agnes’ death. His 1899, digital images, Papers Past last employment was as a cook for (www.natlibgovt.nz/); Melbourne the Far East Coast Line, a merchant Argus, Port Philip Herald, Adelaide marine shipping company. The Advertiser, 1899, digital images, certificate states that he had been Trove (http://trove.nla.gov.au/). employed in that occupation for 71 3 (http://www.theshipslist. years. com/ships/lines/loch.shtml). Having come this far, I decided to 4 For a video describing Kangaroo find out what I could of his Island and the story of the Loch Sloy, descendants. Searches for the see http://www.youtube.com families of Samuel’s sons Sidney /watch?v=Ps6SFa0AWUo (accessed Frank and Samuel Jr. have been October 2013). unsuccessful to date. However, I 5 1920 U.S. Census, Seattle, King, recently discovered a family tree Washington, Roll T625_1931, p 25A, on Ancestry that included Ernest Enumeration District 331, Image Patrick, Samuel’s eldest son. I am 255, digital image, Ancestry.com now corresponding with the (www.ancestry.com). author, who is a granddaughter of 6 Certificate no. 3181/1948, digital Ernest, and is living outside Seattle. image, New South Wales Registry of We have established that we are Births, Marriages and Deaths second cousins! (http://www.bdm.nsw.gov.au). ©2014 Chris MacPhail

There is a fine line between a packrat and a serious family historian.

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 14 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014

By the Skin of My Teeth . . .©

BY LEIGHANN C. NEILSON As well as conducting a survey on genealogists, Leighann has been studying her own family history. This article reprises her recent “Great Moments” description of how she unravelled a family mystery. son Nathaniel (1838–1910) was the first of my direct line born in ’ve learned a lot from attending Canada. Nathaniel married BIFHSGO meetings—tips and Sussannah Burroughs (1835– tricks—all of which helped to 1897) around 1863, and in 1870, I my great-grandfather, Ebenezar, shine some light on a shadowy corner of my family history. was born. Ebenezar married a local girl, Mary Fitzgerald, in 1907. When my father talks about his youth, his stories include lots of We’ve had some talks at BIFHSGO people from the local community, recently about the usefulness of including many members of his maps in family history research. maternal grandfather’s family—the Using the Belden Atlas of Carleton Scharfs—but strangely not so many County from 1879, I was able to about his maternal grandmother’s place the two families in close people—the Fitzgeralds. I won- proximity to each other. The dered why that was. I guess it was Scharfs had their farm on Conces- this information gap that made me sion 3, Lot 3 in March Township, curious. and the Fitzgeralds were fairly close by, on the north half of We know a fair bit about my great- Concession 2, Lot 1, Ottawa front, grandfather’s side of the family, the Nepean Township. For me, being Scharfs, but mostly because of what able to visualize this was important immigration historians like because just reading their Professor Bruce Elliott have been “locations” from census records able to tell us. Many of my ances- doesn’t tell you much when they tors were illiterate and so left very are in different townships. little residue. My three times great- grandfather Beacham Scharf My father really didn’t know much (1805–1862) came to Canada with about his maternal grandmother his parents, James and Ann, who except that she was a Fitzgerald are buried in the Scharf family and he thought her name was cemetery in Hazeldean. Beacham’s Mary. So I started with the usual

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 15 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014 birth, marriage and death reported the births of his son documents and was able to add a William and daughter Agnes to the few names to the family tree, County registrar, only to also working collateral lines. report the deaths of Agnes and Hannah. The birth of William was I learned that Mary Helena (1879– followed by those of his brother 1942) was the oldest of seven John in 1889, then sisters Christina children born to John Fitzgerald in 1891 and Ann Margaret in 1893. (1851–1920) and Annie Burns/Byrne (1858–1920). A But it was a tip that I picked up at sister, Hannah, followed in August my very first Great Moments 1882 and then another sister, meeting that really got things going Agnes, in September, 1885. On with my research. At that meeting, Christmas Day in 1885 tragedy a member was talking about his struck the young family: Hannah trip to a cemetery in the U.K. He died from diphtheria. Seven days took pictures of a gravestone that later, on New Year’s Day, 1886, had fallen over but didn’t think diphtheria claimed her little sister he’d found anything about the Agnes as well. ancestor he was researching. If I remember the story correctly, Diptheria is a contagious bacterial when he returned home, he turned infection that is spread through the photo upside down and there direct contact or by breathing the was the information he needed. So airborne secretions of infected the lesson I took from that was to individuals. The poison caused by have a good look around, whether the bacteria can produce a thick researching in cemeteries in per- coating in the nose, throat, or air- son, or in archival records online. way leading to breathing problems and difficulty in swallowing. If left As a result, I noticed that the untreated, it has a mortality rate of deaths of siblings John and 40 to 50 per cent. Today, most Christina Fitzgerald were recorded children in North America and right beside each other in the death Europe are vaccinated against register. Then I found the death diphtheria at an early age, with the registrations of two more family DPT (diphtheria-pertussis-tetanus) members recorded on another vaccine, and death from diphtheria page; all four had died in 1920. in Canada is almost unknown. Information on individual family members had been transcribed by We can well imagine that John Ancestry.ca and I could have just must have had mixed feelings recorded the basic data in my own when, on 20 September 1886, he records. But clicking the link to see

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 16 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014 the original record and then having daughter, Mrs. Daley, into the room a look around is what gave me my later and she found him dead. first real clue as to why the The Carleton County death register Fitzgerald family did not figure for Nepean Township indicates prominently in my father’s stories. that John Sr. died from double Although my family was not pneumonia, complicated by famous (they were just farm folk pernicious anemia. His son John like so many others) I thought that died from double pneumonia four deaths in one family might complicated by influenza. Christina, merit some kind of mention in the the Mrs. J. Daley, died a few days newspaper. By 1920, in spite of after her brother, on 26 February, continuing newsprint shortages from pneumonia complicated by following the end of World War I, influenza. Her sister Ann Margaret the Ottawa Evening Citizen was died the next day from peritonitis publishing on a regular schedule, and pneumonia, complicated by so I ordered up the microfilms. In influenza. The duty of reporting the edition of 26 February 1920, I their deaths fell to the only found the first two death notices: surviving male member of the “Fitzgerald, at family residence family, William. Nepean, February 20, 1920 John The Ottawa Evening Citizen Fitzgerald, in his 64th year,” and contained this article: immediately below, “Fitzgerald, at family residence Nepean, February Four Deaths in One Family in a 22, 1920, John Fitzgerald, son of Week A double funeral took place the late John Fitzgerald, in his 27th Saturday morning from the home of year.” the late John Fitzgerald at A short article in the same issue Hazeldean. A fourth member of the explained: family, Miss Annie Fitzgerald, died Friday night. Saturday morning her The late John Fitzgerald Sr. was remains, along with those of the found dead in his room last Friday late Mrs. J. Daley, her sister, who evening by his daughter, Mrs. J. passed away Thursday night, were Daley, and on Sunday afternoon interred in Fallowfield cemetery, shortly after the other members of following a funeral mass at St. the family had returned from his Patrick’s church, Fallowfield. funeral, his son John Fitzgerald, Jr. passed away. Mr. Fitzgerald, Sr. had Of the Fitzgerald family, four just finished his supper and retired members died during the week to his room. His wife sent her ending Friday. Mr. John Fitzgerald, Sr. was found dead on the evening of Friday, February 20. A short time

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after his funeral, the following Sun- helpful.1 Bacic relates that Spanish day, his son, John, passed away. Influenza killed between 30,000 Thursday his daughter, Mrs. J. and 50,000 people in Canada Daley, died and on Friday his during a four- to five-month period youngest daughter, Annie, passed in the winter of 1918. This away. She was 23 years of age and was born at Hazeldean, and lived compares with approximately there all her life. 60,000 Canadians killed in World War I. The disease first appeared in Besides her mother, she is survived Ottawa in the last week of Septem- by one sister, Mrs. E. Scharf, of ber 1918. By the end of October, Hazeldean, and one brother, William, at home. over 440 people were dead. In total over 500 Ottawans died during the Mrs. E. Scharf was my great-grand- last four months of 1918. mother, Mary Fitzgerald, by birth. The influenza virus was an The death records listed the cause airborne pathogen that infected the of death as pneumonia or respiratory tract through close peritonitis and pneumonia. contact. The disease was often Influenza was listed as a contrib- accompanied by respiratory uting factor. But not being a ailments such as pneumonia and medical doctor, that didn’t really pleurisy. The Spanish flu was tell me much. This is where unusual in that it killed young knowing an Ottawa historian came adults, between 18 and 35 years, at in really handy. Professor John a time when respiratory ailments Taylor, partner of BIFHSGO like pneumonia tended to affect member Ruth Kirk, told me that infants and seniors. It killed men these medical conditions were and women equally. A second wave often written as the cause of death of infections appeared in the early during the Spanish Influenza months of 1919, and minor epidemic. Then he provided the outbreaks occurred through 1920. key piece of information: the influenza epidemic came in waves, The Carleton County death register with minor outbreaks occurring in revealed several other deaths from various places throughout the pneumonia or the combination of Ottawa Valley through the early pneumonia and influenza during 1920s. the same period of 1920 during which my family members passed Jadranka Bacic’s (1999) research away. However, a search of the on the influenza epidemic in newspaper for the surrounding Ottawa, published by the Ottawa time period failed to turn up any Historical Society, was quite

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 18 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014 discussion of an influenza out- family members, William escaped break. because he probably wasn’t there. I was struck by the idea that it Figuring out how my great- seemed everyone who came into grandmother Mary escaped took a the house died, except Mary’s bit more detective work. The map mother Annie. I wondered how below shows you where the two Mary and her brother William had families lived, based on family escaped the same fate. tradition. The Fitzgerald farm was located where the Park and Ride is William was fairly easy to figure now found on Eagleson Road at the out. Although the newspaper said Queensway. The Scharf homestead William was living at home, it was a little farther down the seems unlikely. I think it’s more Queensway, close to where the likely that the death registry is pedestrian overpass now exists. correct when it lists his residence Both the 1911 and 1921 censuses as Britannia Bay. And in the show the Scharf family living in recently released 1921 Census I March Township, in a census sub- found a William Fitzgerald, of the district that includes this area. correct age, living with cousins in the village of Bell’s Corners and Mary had already given birth to working as a labourer. I still have Sussannah Helena (my grand- to confirm that this is the William mother, known as Lena), Vivian, I’m looking for, but it seems likely. Herman, and Russell. She was So whatever it was that killed four pregnant with her last child, Billy,

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 19 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014 when the flu virus infected her which was located on Rideau Street family. We don’t know if Mary near Wurtemburg, in Ottawa. Given attended her father’s funeral or that the hospital operated until visited the family home. It seems 1924, it seems likely that this part unlikely, given the advanced state of the birth announcement of her pregnancy and the distance supports my reasoning that Mary she would have had to travel wasn’t home; she was in the between what is now Kanata and hospital in Ottawa. And my the church at Fallowfield village. grandmother Lena, as the oldest There has also been the suggestion daughter, was likely needed at that family ties may have been home. weakened by her decision to marry a Protestant. So was the Budroe family somehow related to the Scharfs? Did Mary A birth notice in the Ottawa lodge with them as the birth of her Evening Citizen holds the key to the child neared? Well, isn’t that the mystery. It records the birth, on 25 best part of doing family history? February 1920, of a son to a Mr. Now I have another mystery to and Mrs. E. Scharf. It appears that explore! Billy had the good sense, if we might call it that, to be born in- In any case, if Mary Helena had between the deaths of his grand- been exposed to the virus, there is father and uncle and the deaths of a strong possibility that she too his two aunts. But as so often would have died, and Lena’s life happens with family history, this would have been radically altered. information helped to solve one And if Mary had sent her 12-year- mystery while creating another: old daughter (my grandmother the address provided in the birth Lena) in her place, many of us may announcement posed a problem. never have been born. By the skin of my teeth . . . No one in the family today could remember the Scharf family ever living in Ottawa, much less at 73 Epilogue Willow Street. The Ottawa City Mary’s mother, Annie Fitzgerald, Directories for 1909, 1915 and died four months later, in June 1919 show the family of Emerson 1920, from a cerebral Budroe, a printer, living there. haemorrhage, having lapsed into a coma. Christina’s daughter, Anna However, the birth announcement Agnes, died in hospital in July 1920, also said that the birth occurred at from acute enteritis (inflammation the Ottawa Maternity Hospital, of the small bowel). She was only 1

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 20 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014 year old. The family is buried at St. photographs. While not wanting to Patrick’s Roman Catholic Cemetery, seem uncaring or rude, two of my Fallowfield, Ontario. cousins (also family historians) and I seized the opportunity and offered to scan the photographs, so that they would not be lost to the larger family. In that box we found a photograph of our Great-Uncle Billy as a boy, and several images of our great-grandparents, Ebenezar Scharf and Mary Fitzgerald. These were the first images we had seen and the only images of his grand- parents that my father has today. Reference Notes 1 Jadranka Bacic, The Plague of the Spanish Flu: the Influenza Epidemic of 1918 in Ottawa (Ottawa: Ottawa Figure 1: Mary Fitzgerald Scharf Historical Society, 1999). Source: family collection In 2011, at my Aunt Mary’s funeral, ©2014 Leighann Neilson one of her daughters mentioned having found a box of family

In Memoriam

Gerry Neville, 10 January 2014; a founding member of BIFHSGO, he was its first Vice-President (Publishing). A knowledgeable and generous genealogist, he was also the author of numerous genealogical publications. Bernice Severson, 31 January 2014; member no. 81 in 1994, she took on the positions of Director of Communications, Education, and Education & Queries during the 1990s.

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John Price and the “Perthshire Grey Breeks” BY BETTY WARBURTON Along with serving as the BIFHSGO Librarian, Betty has found time to uncover the military history of some interesting ancestors. Here she reveals a 200-year-old tale of service in a Scottish regiment. The 90th Regiment of Foot After the British terminated the ineteenth-century census Treaty of Amiens in May 1803, records told me that my four Napoleon Bonaparte began to N times great-uncle John Price assemble thousands of men and was a Chelsea pensioner. Thus I flat-bottomed barges on the shores knew that, at some time in the of northern France in preparation early 1800s, he had served in the for an invasion of England. The British Army and had been threatened invasion ended when discharged for medical reasons. For Admiral Nelson defeated the some time, I contented myself with French and Spanish fleets at dreaming of him participating in Trafalgar on 21 October 1805. the Battle of Waterloo or serving Between 1803 and 1805 there was with Wellington in Spain. Late in a desperate need for soldiers to 2011, I invested in a subscription defend Britain. to the database findmypast and On 10 April 1805, in Lewes, Sussex, found John Price’s discharge 19-year-old John Price enlisted in papers from the 90th Regiment of the 90th Regiment of Foot (or Foot (Perthshire Light Infantry), Perthshire Volunteers) for unlim- where he had served in various ited service. What was he doing so foreign campaigns. far from his family and birthplace This account is based mainly on in Herefordshire? John, the eldest that single-sheet discharge paper son of Joseph Price (or Pryce) and and on two e-books, cited in the Elizabeth Saunders, had been bibliography below. For fuller baptized 11 April 1785 in Brom- accounts of the campaigns in yard, Herefordshire. On that Martinique and Guadeloupe please occasion the parish priest wrote in refer to these books. the register, “no duty paid. The parents receiving Parish Pay at the time.”1

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The son of poor parents and “meritorious conduct commands himself a poor labourer, had John admiration.”3 After the campaign in drifted southeast in his search for Egypt ended, the regiment was work or had a sense of adventure posted to Malta, England, Scotland moved him to look for greener and Ireland, before embarking for pastures? Had that same the West Indies in January 1805. adventurous spirit suggested that There the regiment acted as the life of a soldier offered more garrison for the island of St. opportunity than that of a Vincent. labourer? Had John enlisted In the meantime, a second battalion because he was unable to find was raised in Scotland in 1804, work? Or even drifted into moved south by way of Ireland and enlisting, dazzled by the fine red Wales, arriving in Portsmouth in coats of the recruiting party, or just June 1805, where the new recruit liking the idea of having one whole John Price probably joined them. shilling in his pocket?2 For wha- tever reason, John Price made his Along with the other recruits, John mark on the document offered him would have been marched off to by the recruiting party and became nearby barracks with reminders a private in the 90th Regiment of from the sergeant to “Pick up those Foot. feet” and “Straighten up. Pull those shoulders back. You’re soldiers of Thomas Graham, the wealthy the King now, m’lads.” Scottish Laird of Balgowan, had raised this Perthshire regiment in The new recruits were issued fine 1794. Some of the original recruits red woolen coats and tall black had been serving time in prison shakos as well as sturdy boots, when they enlisted, and it is trousers, a knapsack and other thought that the regiment may accoutrements.4 As a private in the have earned its nickname of the British Army, John would be fed, “Perthshire Grey Breeks” because clothed and paid regularly. But it many of these recruits were would be a rough life. The lower wearing their grey prison clothing ranks of the regiment, the privates, when they enlisted. lance-corporals, corporals and sergeants, were usually poor, Colonel Graham was an advocate of illiterate labourers, like John; they rigorous training. The Battle of included Englishmen (speaking Mandora (Egypt, 1801), earned the many different dialects), Scotsmen regiment the commendation from and Irishmen, some of whom spoke General Abercromby that its no English and some with criminal

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an infantryman—to stand at attention and to present arms, as well as the use and firing of a musket and the use of the bayonet. Veterans would have introduced John and the others to the traditions of the regiment and recounted with pride the story of the Battle of Mandora. Soon the regiment must have become John’s second family. John’s officers, on the other hand, were usually drawn from the ruling classes—the sons of landed gentry, of civil servants, of politicians or of other officers; that is, from families with the wealth to buy a com- Figure 1: British soldiers mission in Britain’s army and Source: en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File: maintain the lifestyle expected of Officer_and_a_private_1812_40th.jpg an officer, who was required to #filelinks purchase expensive uniforms and records. They swore, drank, much of his equipment. Often the gambled and whored. pay an officer received was not enough to even pay his mess bill. Arthur Wellesley, the Duke of He was expected to act like a Wellington, once called most of gentleman, have very good them “the scum of the earth,” but manners and some education, but admitted they could be made into generally he was more interested fine soldiers.5 They could be in sporting activities than arts and flogged for the smallest infraction science. As well, he was expected to of discipline—even for a dirty be brave, obedient and loyal to his button. In peacetime, “spit and regiment and to the reigning polish” was important and sovereign. countless hours were spent polishing brass buttons, blacking In peacetime, officers’ duties were shoes and cleaning equipment. not onerous and there was plenty of time to play polo and other Through endless drills on the sports, to attend dances and to parade ground, young John and the socialize. Discipline, drill and the other recruits learned the skills of feeding and well-being of the

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 24 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014 troops were the responsibility of mountainous central spine. John the commanding officer, the likely made the trek at least once to adjutant and the quartermaster. On the lip of the crater of the 4000- campaign, however, most officers foot-high volcano Soufrière and, led their men bravely and well. trying not to breathe its sulphurous fumes, gazed with awe at the Service in the West Indies bubbling lava below. And always John Price’s discharge paper there were the endless drills: records that he “was at the Capture presenting arms, standing at of Martinique in 1809 and attention, loading and firing Guadeloupe in 1810 and Served in muskets and using the bayonet. the Campaign of the Americas in 1814 and 1815” and that, out of his total 15 years and 107 days of army service, he served 8 years and 48 days in the West Indies.6 There was no separate calculation for the time he served in Canada or in Europe. In the spring of 1806, John sailed from Portsmouth for St. Vincent to join the regiment’s First Battalion as a replacement for soldiers who had died of disease. In 1806 alone, the regiment reported 150 deaths from fever. It was policy that the Figure 2: Martinique in 1809 regiments in the West Indies Source: author remain at full strength in case, at The monotony ended on 30 any moment, they were called upon January 1809, when two British to act either in defence or attack. divisions under the command of Sir During the next two-and-a-half George Beckwith, Commander-in- years, as he patrolled with other Chief of British forces in the soldiers of his regiment, John Windward and Leeward Islands, would have become well- invaded the French island of acquainted with the 150 square Martinique. John Price was among miles of tiny St. Vincent: from the the soldiers of the 90th Regiment capital Kingstown in the south to selected to participate. At last, I’m Baleine Bay in the north and from sure John and his comrades its black sand beaches to its

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 25 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014 thought, they could prove In November 1809, Sir George themselves as soldiers. Beckwith received orders to attack the island of Guadeloupe, which The 90th Regiment, within the was still in the possession of the Second Division under General French, who had recently received Maitland, landed on the southwest reinforcements and strengthened coast of the island between Point the fortifications on the island. Sir Salomon and the town of Sainte- George immediately concentrated Luce. In spite of incessant rain, the his forces in the island of Dominica. invading forces moved quickly He formed his army into two north towards the capital, Fort- divisions and a reserve. The 90th Royal.7 At Lamentin, the division Regiment, along with John Price, met the main body of the French was recalled from Martinique to militia, who surrendered and were become part of the First Division. easily persuaded to return to their plantations. After 300 men of the 90th Regiment seized the French hospitals in Fort-Royal, the town surrendered on 10 February. Now only Fort-Desaix, built on a hill overlooking the town, offered resistance. The British besieged the fort as they moved cannon, mortars and howitzers into place. The unrelenting bombardment that began on 19 February probably hurt John’s ears and made his head Figure 3: Guadeloupe in 1810 ache. Never would he have heard Source: author such a noise. The bombardment The First Division and the reserve disabled most of the French guns sailed from Dominica on 27 Jan- and exploded a powder magazine. uary 1810 for Guadeloupe. Early On 24 February, the French the next morning the troops landed capitulated. without opposition on the moun- The 90th Regiment remained on tainous island of Basseterre (the the island as a garrison and, during western half of Guadeloupe) near their stay, dismantled Fort-Desaix. the town of Capesterre. Sweating in John and his comrades may have their red woollen jackets because grumbled, as they worked, about of the excessive heat, the troops being nothing but “navvies.” marched south, hugging the coast and avoiding the mountainous Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 26 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014 spine of the island. Even so, the of General Ernouf. The First country was rugged, especially Division, soon after dawn on through the pass known as Troue- 3 February, crossed the Galion Chien. River under heavy fire from a French battery at the bridge of To add to their misery, there was Vozière. That night, the 90th heavy rain during the night. As Regiment occupied the buildings they approached the town of Trois- and estate of a M. Pelletier. Perhaps Rivières on the morning of 30 John Price, now an experienced January, they began to meet small soldier, enjoyed a good night’s detachments of the enemy. In the sleep in one of the barns of the evening, to the surprise of the estate. British, the French abandoned their posts on the heights near the town, The next day, the British reserve leaving their field artillery behind. division crossed the river and After obtaining more provisions successfully assaulted the left flank from the fleet, on 2 February the of the enemy. The French, appar- British troops began to move north ently believing that the difficult towards the Galion River. mountainous terrain offered good protection and not expecting an The French, under General Ernouf, assault on that flank, instantly had selected a defensive position hoisted white flags in surrender. on high ground behind the Noire The next morning, 5 February, the River. John and his comrades may terms of capitulation were signed. have looked with dismay at the The French marched out with steep rugged slope across the river; military honours and became it was bushy and full of rocks. As prisoners of war. The French losses well, the French had reinforced were 600 killed and 2000 their line, which extended into the prisoners; the British lost 52 mountainous spine of the island, at officers and men killed, 250 every accessible point with abatis8 wounded, and 7 missing. and redoubts.9 Assault would be difficult. At some time in 1810, the 90th Regiment returned to St. Vincent. Meanwhile, on 30 January, the Second Division had landed north With the capture of Guadeloupe, of the town of Basseterre, the France lost its last possession in capital of Guadeloupe, and then the Americas. In 1803, Napoleon moved south to join the First had sold Louisiana to the United Division and cut communication States and the British had occupied between Basseterre and the forces the tiny islands of St. Pierre and

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Miquelon in the Gulf of St. Wellesley during his campaign in Lawrence early in the conflict. Portugal and Spain. For his service, Sir Thomas had been made a peer While not much was happening in and had taken the title of Lord the Caribbean, important events Lynedoch. were happening elsewhere. During 1811, the British, under General John Price would remember well Arthur Wellesley (recently the day in 1812 that the earth appointed Viscount Wellington of shook and Soufrière erupted. The Talavera), had driven the French event was described in a letter sent forces out of Portugal. In 1812, the from the island, dated 17 May British seized the great Spanish 1812: fortresses of Badajoz and Cuidad On the 28th, 29th, and 30th of Roderigo and entered Madrid. In April, the island was visited by an June, the American Congress earthquake, and at the same time declared war on Great Britain and one of the mountains vomited forth threatened Canada. large quantities of lava. Strong detachments of the 90th Regiment The same year, Napoleon’s stationed at Olivia, and close to the invasion of Russia had ended in an mountain whence the fluid first ignominious retreat. The following issued, had a most miraculous year, victorious British forces escape. The barracks in which they crossed the Pyrenees into France were quartered were completely and, in October, the combined demolished by stones falling on armies of Prussia, Austria, Russia them, the arms and clothing totally and Sweden defeated the French at destroyed, but most fortunately not Leipzig in Prussia. a European perished. Upwards of twenty negroes who did not desert The officers and men of the 90th their huts fell victims to the awful Regiment must have chafed to see visitation. The 90th (upwards of others winning honour and glory, 1,000) are in good spirits, and the while they lingered in what had island is considered healthy.10 become a Caribbean backwater. John and the regiment were Even their colonel, Sir Thomas occupied for some time after the Graham, was making a name for catastrophe in helping the himself. When the regiment went inhabitants repair the damage that to the West Indies in 1805, Sir the earthquake had caused. Thomas had remained in Europe to serve as aide-de-camp to Sir John Canada and Another War Moore, and, after Moore’s death at There must have cheers and Corunna in 1808, to Sir Arthur celebration in late 1813, when the news arrived that the regiment was Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 28 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014 being posted to Canada. In North waterways were the usual means America, battles were still being of transportation, for roads were fought along the border between few. The 90th Regiment would Canada and the United States. have loaded men, supplies and equipment into barges for the Before the regiment departed, journey up the St. Lawrence River there were several formal to Kingston. It was a slow journey, presentations with addresses especially between Montreal and expressing regret at the loss of Kingston, because of rapids. At important members of the each set of rapids, passengers community, appreciation of the disembarked to walk around the good relationship established portage; all able-bodied men would during the regiment’s stay of be expected to help handle the almost nine years, and best wishes ropes as the boats were towed for the future. through the rough waters. It was No doubt eagerly anticipating 8 July before John Price and his action in Canada, the regiment regiment arrived at Kingston. bade farewell to Kingstown and The junction of the Cataraqui and tiny St. Vincent with its palm trees, St. Lawrence Rivers at the head of black sand beaches and volcano, Lake Ontario had long been and, on 5 May 1814, boarded regarded as a strategic military troopships bound for Quebec and site. In 1673, the French had built a Kingston in Upper Canada. The fort and trading post there, only to regiment arrived on 20 June to find have them destroyed by the British Quebec buzzing with the news that Napoleon had abdicated in April and the war in Europe was likely at an end, but that Britain was still at war with the United States.

In Canada, at Figure 4: War of 1812 locations that time, Source: author

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 29 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014 during the Seven Years’ War. the Americans now had naval Refugees fleeing the American supremacy on Lake Ontario. Revolution in 1784 settled on the From local gossip, the new west bank of the Cataraqui River regiment would also learn about and established the town of other events of the war. There was Kingston. In 1789, the Royal Naval the Americans’ raid on nearby Dockyard was built on Point Gananoque and other skirmishes 11 Frederick, east of the town. When along the St. Lawrence River during hostilities with the United States the previous summer, all of which began in 1812, a wooden fort was ended when the British garrison at built on the high ground of Point Prescott captured the U.S. town of Henry to protect the dockyard. Ogdensburg. Americans also The duties of the 90th Regiment burned Newark (now Niagara-on- were to protect the dockyard and the-Lake) on the Niagara River the assist in monitoring the maritime previous December, leaving its traffic on the St. Lawrence and Lake inhabitants with no shelter in bitter Ontario, as loss of this vital winter weather. These events, as shipping route would have cut off well as the looting of York (now supplies to Kingston and the rest of Toronto) and the burning of its Upper Canada. parliament building in April 1813, For the next three months, John would have elicited bitter and his regiment patrolled the denunciations from the Loyalist north banks of the St. Lawrence population of Kingston. Therefore River and the shores of Lake the news that the British Navy had Ontario around Kingston, ever attacked Washington and burned watchful for any unusual activity the White House in August 1814 on the American side of the river. would be considered just retri- That summer there was little bution for these atrocities. activity at the eastern end of Lake During the summer of 1814, Ontario, except for the unsuccessful several hundred miles to the west British attack on the American along the Niagara River, bloody naval dockyard at Sackets Harbor battles were being fought. There at the end of May. was a particularly bloody engage- When John’s regiment arrived in ment at Lundy’s Lane on 25 July, Kingston, this event was likely still while the siege of Fort Erie lasted a lively topic of conversation most of the summer and fall, from among the inhabitants of Kingston, its seizure by the Americans on as they voiced their concern that 3 July until their withdrawal on 14 November.

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All summer long, John Price and the Perhaps during his patrols around 90th Regiment patrolled the banks Fort Niagara, John had the oppor- of the St. Lawrence River and the tunity to see the great thundering north shore of Lake Ontario. waters of Niagara Falls. September brought the usual Spring brought news of the Treaty magnificent display of autumn of Ghent, signed in December 1814, colours to the forests of Upper which ended the war between the Canada—a phenomenon many of United States and Great Britain. the soldiers had not seen since Fort Niagara was returned to the leaving Britain many years before. Americans on 22 May 1815 and the And the 90th Regiment began 90th Regiment crossed the river to packing in preparation for their Fort George. Ten days later they set move to Fort Niagara on the out on the long journey back to American side of the Niagara River. Britain. They set out on 13 October for Fort George, the headquarters for the Europe, Then a Return Home Centre Division of the British Army. The voyage home was uneventful. The regiment marched over the Everyone was likely looking corduroy roads on the north shore forward to seeing familiar places of Lake Ontario, past the small and faces, when, on 3 August 1815, farms cleared in the forests by they sighted Spithead. There, settlers and through the small despatches were waiting, ordering Loyalist settlements: Adolphus- the regiment to join the army of town (now part of Napanee), occupation in France. Smith’s Creek (now Port Hope), The messenger probably brought York (still scarred from the the first news of Napoleon’s final American attack the previous defeat at Waterloo, as well as the year), Stoney Creek (the site of a welcome news that “the Prince British victory the previous year) Regent had been pleased in the and past the ashes of Newark. name and behalf of His Majesty, to There were probably snowflakes in approve of the 90th Regiment, or the air when they crossed the Perthshire Volunteers, being Niagara River to Fort Niagara, formed into a Light Infantry which they occupied during the corps.”12 The regiment could now winter of 1814/15. It was likely, as look forward to replacing their the weather grew colder, that John muskets with rifles and learning Price experienced the first twinges new drills to fight independently as of the rheumatism that would lead skirmishers. to his discharge five years later.

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The regiment finally returned to may have wondered what changes English shores in June 1816 after had occurred during his long spending the winter in the small absence. Because neither John nor commune of Garches, about 10 other members of his family could miles west of Paris. The following read or write, it was unlikely they two years were spent in Plymouth, had exchanged letters, unless they followed by short stays in Chatham, persuaded or paid someone to Brighton and Hilsea Barracks at write letters for them. Portsmouth. Ongoing protests in Except for a racecourse built in the Manchester area by handloom 1815 by returning veterans of the cotton weavers seeking better recent wars, there were actually wages had culminated in a bloody few changes in Bromyard. But riot, 16 August 1819, popularly there were many changes in his known as the Peterloo Massacre. In family. His mother was still living, October 1819, to help keep law and but his father had died in 1808. His order in the area, the 90th Reg- brother William, a shoemaker, was iment was posted to nearby living in Norton Township (just Macclesfield and Stockport in east of the town). He had married Cheshire. Jane Price in 1815 and had two During the previous five years, children5-year-old James and 4- John Price’s rheumatism had month-old Elizabeth. continued to cripple him. When it John never married. Census became known in 1820 that the records tell us that John lived with regiment would likely be sent relatives until his death: with his overseas, John was discharged “in brother William and his family in consequence of Rheumatismus 1841; in 1851, blind as well as Chronicus contracted in N. America crippled with rheumatism, with his in 1814.”12 Acknowledging that he widowed nephew James and his had received all just demands of young family; and in 1861, with his pay, clothing, etc., on 25 July 1820 niece Elizabeth and her husband John made his mark on the dis- Benjamin Basey. charge paper. This paper also described John as being 35 years His stories of volcanoes and old, five feet, seven inches tall, with earthquakes, of war and of life in light hair, grey eyes and a fresh faraway lands, as well as his complexion; his trade was contributions to the household labourer. budget from his government pension, although small, would As he painfully made his way home have made him a welcome addition to his family in Bromyard, John

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 32 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014 to most households. John Price died 4 This was the standard uniform at the age of 79 and was buried on adopted by the British Army between 1 May 1864 in Bromyard 1800 and 1808. Prior to 1800 each churchyard. regiment had its own uniform, although most adopted red coats. John Price, along with the officers 5 Wikipedia contributors, “Arthur and men who had participated in Wellesley, 1st Duke of Wellington,” the successful campaigns in entry, Wikipedia, the Free Martinique and Guadeloupe and Encyclopedia (Wikipedia.org: whose names appear on the accessed 4 February 2014). Peninsula Medal Roll, was eligible 6 In World War II, my husband’s to apply for the Military General service overseas with the RCAF was Service Medal. It was approved calculated from the day he left 1 June 1847 as a retrospective Canada for Great Britain until the day award for various military actions his ship left Liverpool to return him from 1793 to 1814 and was to Canada. I have used the same awarded only to surviving formula to calculate John Price’s claimants who applied for it. service in the West Indies. If, Because of his illiteracy and his however, John’s service overseas failing eyesight, it is doubtful that included the time he spent in Canada John did so. If he had applied, and in Europe, his arrival in St Vincent would be two years later. John’s medal would have had two clasps—one for Martinique and 7 Now known as Fort de France. one for Guadeloupe. 8 An obstacle of trees with sharpened Reference Notes branches directed toward the enemy. 1 From 1783 to 1793, the clergy was 9 An independent earthwork built ordered to collect a tax on register within a permanent fortification. entries of baptisms and burials 10 Delavoye, pp. 76–77. unless the person was a pauper. This extra work was resented and anyone 11 Now the site of the Royal Military not paying Land Tax might be offered College. the ‘P’ (meaning pauper) designation. 12 Delavoye, p. 80. 2 Formerly, in Britain, a shilling handed 13 “Discharge document of John Price. to a new recruit on his joining WO97/994/27. Chelsea Pensioners military service was considered as and Militia. British Army Service binding as a contract. Records 1760–1915,” digital images, 3 Alexander M. Delavoye, Records of the findmypast, (www.findmypast.co.uk, 90th Regiment (London: Richardson accessed 14 Jan 2012). & Co., 1880), p. 36.

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Selected Bibliography Delavoye, Alexander M. Records of the 90th Regiment (Perthshire Light Infantry) with Roll of Officers from 1795 to 1880. London: Richardson & Co., 1880. (www.archive.org: accessed January 2012). Ellis, A. B. The History of the First West India Regiment. London: Chapman and Hall, 1885. (www.archive.org: accessed January 2012). The First West India Regiment participated in the invasion of Guadeloupe. Farwell, Byron. Mr. Kipling’s Army. New York: W.W. Norton, 1981.

Great Moments in Genealogy 14 June 2014

Grandma Ruth’s New Fur Jacket—Susan Davis’ grandmother, Ruth Robinson, received a mink jacket in 1956 that she mentioned in her diaries. Susan is now the grateful caretaker of both the teddy bears made from this jacket and Ruth’s diaries from the period.

A Tale of Illegitimacy, Music, Mistresses and the Windham- Guises—Gillian Leitch follows up on her Fall 2013 article in Anglo- Celtic Roots, which described her surprise at uncovering wealthy and well-known ancestors, with new information on her illustrious English forebears.

John Armstrong Fielder: Is This All There Is to Him?—Judy Thamas thought that she had gathered all the facts available about her grandfather, but a sudden Google inspiration led to some adventures and a surprising result.

Finding My Great-Great-Grandmother in London, England—Brian Chamberlain used a variety of techniques and sources to track down where his ancestor, Maria Matilda Snooks, came from in England and what she did after her arrival in Canada.

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 34 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 35 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014

Techniques and Resources

The Cream of the Crop Top items from recent posts on the Anglo-Celtic Connections and Family Tree Knots blogs BY JOHN D. REID AND KEN MCKINLAY Notice anything In 2013 the Libra- different? Two rian and Archivist heads being better left under a cloud. than one, we’ve We’d hoped to be doubled up on the able to report on number of authors. the new Librarian and Archivist of Library and Archives Canada Canada by now, as it is over six Around the time you receive this it months that the duties have been will be the tenth anniversary of performed on an interim basis. It Library and Archives Canada, the appears that at least the decline has institution established to combine been halted. Canada’s previous National Library and National Archives entities. The According to a press release from Act that governs its operation LAC, Public Works and Government received Royal Assent by Governor Services Canada is undertaking the General Adrienne Clarkson on 22 digitization of about 640,000 March 2004. The Library and Canadian Expeditionary Force Archives of Canada Act makes no service files, to be made available on mention of genealogy, the closest it its “Soldiers of the First World War” comes being four mentions of database for free. The files will be materials of “historical or archival converted alphabetically, in order of value.” the CEF members’ last names, beginning in March; files for letters LAC failed to live up to this A to D, for example, will be promising start. As about two-thirds inaccessible until this summer. of LAC’s direct clients are family Throughout the process, 75 per cent historians, and most BIFHSGO of the collection will still be members take advantage of our accessible, however. ready access to LAC facilities, we felt the decline especially keenly.

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Each file contains, on average, 49 The companies are also increasing images, for a total of over and broadening access to the 32,000,000 images or almost 617 records that FamilySearch has terabytes of scanned information. already published online. In January They will be searchable by various Ancestry added tens of millions of keywords. The original files will be such records to their collections for stored at the LAC facilities in 27 countries, where they’re Gatineau. available to add to your family tree. In the meantime we await the Recently FamilySearch added overdue appointment of a new 4,490,808 entries in “England, Librarian and Archivist, hopefully Norfolk Register of Electors, 1844– someone with a client focus, to pull 1952” and 1,161,877 entries for the organization back to meeting its “Norfolk Bishop's Transcripts, national leadership role. 1685–1941,” the largest collections digitized recently. Also of potential FamilySearch Plans interest are parish registers: and Progress 720,830 records from Bristol, Digitization is a challenge. 537,556 from Essex, 447,092 from According to FamilySearch CEO Dorset and 204,049 for non- Dennis Brimhall, speaking at conformists of Cheshire. RootsTech in February: London Cemeteries For the top countries with the highest online research demand, On Boxing Day Deceased Online using our existing resources and started adding records from volunteers, it will take up to 300 London’s Kensal Green Cemetery to years to index the 5.3 billion records its collection. Full digital scans of all that we already have. That means original burial reference books and you and me and the next 10 records indicating those buried in generations of our posterity would each grave are now available. Also not live to personally benefit from online are digital images of the them. And there are another 60 original cremation registers up to billion records that still need to be 1993, with computerized records digitally preserved. We can do significantly better by working thereafter, and all records for West together with other organ-izations London Crematorium, 1939–2010, and as a community. located at the same site. FamilySearch will collaborate on This is the second of the London digitization projects with Ancestry, “Magnificent Seven” cemeteries Archives, findmypast, Fold3, and available through Deceased Online. MyHeritage. Brompton was the first. Which

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 37 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014 others will be added: Highgate, (TNA) on a pay-per-view basis. Now Tower Hamlets, Nunhead, or West we can search and view the Norwood? manuscript originals through ancestry.co.uk, and with Ancestry Another London cemetery is coming worldwide subscriptions. online soon, but through an initiative of BIFHSGO member The Ancestry index is not a copy of Derek Hopkins, not through that at TNA. Usually a search at TNA Deceased Online, is Abney Park will include a few more entries than Cemetery. Details will follow when found by the Ancestry exact search available. and fewer than from Ancestry's default search. For Ancestry Scotland—Another Year subscribers the best advice is to use of Civil Registration both indexes, then see if you can A reminder that ScotlandsPeople find the original image for any (www.scotlandspeople.gov.uk) entries not found by Ancestry using came out promptly (as the clock the reference information given struck midnight for the New Year) from the TNA search. with indexed images from statutory registers of births for 1913, British Library British India marriages for 1938 and deaths for Records Online 1963. In January findmypast published over 2.5 million records detailing Ancestry Adds Wills the lives of the British in India from The first big genealogy database, 1698 to 1947. The collection, more than a million records, added released in partnership with the to Ancestry in 2014 came in early British Library, includes “British January. “England & Wales, India Office Birth and Baptism Prerogative Court of Canterbury Records 1698–1947”; “British India [PCC] Wills, 1384–1858” has Office Deaths and Burials 1749– 1,012,964 records. The PCC was the 1947”; “Indian Office Wills and senior court dealing with English Probate Records 1749–1957”; and Welsh probate prior to the start “Indian Office East India Company of the civil probate process in and Civil Service Pensions 1749– January 1858. 1947”; “East India Company Cadet The records, which include many Papers” and “Applications for the people who lived elsewhere but Civil Service.” died with assets in England and The collection, name indexed with Wales, have long been available links to original images, is a good through The National Archives place to look for the elusive stray

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 38 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014 who disappears from British “Churches of Suffolk” is the original records. site, gradually being revised, with 693 churches. “Churches of Essex” is Churches of East Anglia a Flickr collection with over 240 Often when you visit a community churches, including between one where your ancestors lived the only and 76 photos from each. You can physical connection you'll find is the access them all and more from church they attended, where they www.suffolkchurches.co.uk/. were baptized, married and buried. If you're fortunate there may be a Welsh Newspapers at the tombstone. National Library of Wales Those with connections to Essex, Newspapers are one of the lesser- Norfolk or Suffolk can visit many of used resources when doing the counties' churches virtually via research. It is even more difficult the Churches of East Anglia site, or when you are researching from a more accurately sites, the work distance. The Llyfrgell Genedlaethol of Simon Knott of Ipswich. The Cymru or National Library of Wales “Churches of Norfolk” subset covers has been digitizing, indexing and some 880 churches with photo- placing online the various news- graphs of significant features and a papers of Wales. The site detailed description, reminiscent of (http://welshnewspapers.llgc.org. a modern-day version of Arthur uk/en/home), still in beta, has over Mee's The King's England county 4.5 million articles and 420,000 guidebooks. pages freely available, and is growing, although not as rapidly as originally planned.

Recruits Wanted The Summer issue of Anglo-Celtic Roots will focus on the First World War. If your family history includes an interesting story from that period, now is the time to share it with your fellow BIFHSGO members! The submission deadline for the issue is 24 April; it’s time to enlist—

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 39 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014

The Bookworm

BY BETTY WARBURTON The library has several books about ecause the the history of Jersey. For an Channel overview of its history, I would B Islands lie in suggest A Short History of Jersey, by the English Joan Stevens. Eye on the Past . . . Channel close to Yearbook 1992: Episodes in Jersey’s the British Isles, I History from the columns of Island tend to think of Eye and its companion Another Eye them as part of the United Kingdom. on the Past . . . Yearbook 1993 by They are not. This small archipelago Alex Glendinning are collections of of Jersey, Guernsey, Aldeney, brief historical accounts that Herme, Sark and several other appeared in the newspaper Island smaller islands is instead a British Eye. The parish pump: a guide to Crown Dependency, separated into discovering the real Jersey, published the Bailiwicks of Guernsey and by Jersey Channel Television Jersey, with its own laws and Publications, is similar in style. parliament. You may find information about Therefore the records you need to ancestors in Alex Glendinning’s Did search for ancestors in the islands your ancestors sign the Jersey Oath of will be different from those found in Association Roll of 1696? a history of the British Isles. Fortunately, the the roll and many of the people who Brian O’Regan Memorial Library has signed it; as well as in Old Jersey books to help you. Houses and Those Who Lived in Them From 1700 Onwards, by Joan Records needed in your ancestral and Charles Stevens. research are all located in the Channel Islands. At present, few are Dealing with more recent history digitized and available online. are Howard Baker’s German Marie-Louise Backhurst points out Occupation of Jersey 1940/1945: that, while the records are similar to Reference Maps with Supporting those of the United Kingdom, there Text and Comprehensive History and are notable differences. Her book, Francis Le Sueur’s Shadow of the Tracing Your Channel Island Swastika: Could It All Happen Again? Ancestors: a Guide for Family The latter is an account of personal Historians, is an essential guide to experiences in the life of a young your research. Jerseyman during the Nazi occu- pation of the island.

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Was your ancestor involved a Explore Jersey: Its Coast, Countryside murder? You may find information and Heritage. on him (or her) in Murder in the The library has two family histories: Islands: the most fascinating murder The De Gruchys Of Jersey: Including cases in Channel Island history, by Their History From Norman Times Sue Simons and Chris Lihou. and Comprehensive Trees From the What was it like to live in a small Fourteenth Century to 1881 (plus isolated community like Jersey? The De Gruchys Of Jersey: David Le Feuvre in Jersey: Not Quite Amendments & Additions) and The British: the Rural History of a Gallienne Letters, 1835–1895, edited Singular People and John D. Kelleher by May Morley. in The Triumph of the Country: the Until 2008, the island of Sark was Rural Community in Nineteenth- one of the last bastions of feudalism. century Jersey discuss the social Ken Hawkes, in his book Sark, history of the rural community. A describes this curious little island Jersey Childhood by Doris Carter and its history. Readers will also tells what it was like to grow up in enjoy the autobiography of the 21st Jersey. Beth Lloyd describes the head of Sark, The Dame of Sark, by island of Jersey with photographs Sibyl Hathaway. and brief descriptions in her book

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 41 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014

BIFHSGO News

Minutes of the 19th Annual General Meeting of the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa 8 June 2013 The 19th Annual General Meeting Approval of the Minutes (AGM) began at 9:00 a.m. on 8 June of the 2012 AGM: 2013, in the Library and Archives No comments or corrections were Canada auditorium at 395 received either prior to, or at, the Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario. 2013 AGM. It was moved by John D. The notice of the meeting and the Reid and seconded by Jane Down 2012 AGM minutes had been that the minutes as published be published in the Anglo-Celtic Roots approved. MOTION CARRIED. Spring 2013 issue. Reports of the President A quorum of at least 25 was and Directors: declared, with attendance estimated These reports were published and at approximately 180. Anne Sterling distributed as a yellow booklet was appointed the Recording handed out to members as they Secretary. arrived at the meeting. Call to Order and The directors had worked diligently Opening Remarks: on behalf of the members during the The President, Glenn Wright, year, as reflected in the reports. The welcomed everyone to the meeting. major issue during the year was the relationship with Public Works Approval of the Agenda Canada, which operates the ground of the 2013 AGM: floor facility at 395 Wellington. As The Agenda was given to members charges for use of equipment have at the meeting. It was moved by Ann now been waived the Society is in a Burns and seconded by Jane Down position to continue to meet in the that the revised Agenda be approved. auditorium for the coming year i.e. MOTION CARRIED. the 2013–2014 season. LAC still best meets our needs. Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 42 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014

Financial Report for There were no questions about the Fiscal Year 2012: report. The Balance Sheet and the Profit Auditor’s Report: and Loss Statement of the Society The Auditor, Darrel Kennedy, noted for the fiscal year, being from 1 Jan- that this was his final report, owing uary 2012 to 31 December 2012, to requirements of the Canada Not- were handed out at the meeting. for-Profit Corporations Act. Greater Treasurer’s Report: efficiency in administrative proced- The Treasurer, Marnie McCall, drew ures, especially the appointment of attention to an omission in the a bookkeeper, Cliff Adams, meant Statement of Profit and Loss for the the audit was completed in two year. The Total Expenses for the days, half the time estimated. year were $50,366 and not $0,366 Bank errors from the previous year as printed. The statement this year remain outstanding. There is one includes comparable amounts for additional bank error this year. The the previous year and from the Auditor is informed they will be budget, as recommended by the addressed by the end of June 2013. Auditor. These accounts show a Other errors were noted, which surplus for the year of about $4,300 were addressed by the Treasurer. compared to a budgeted small deficit, largely due to the surplus In summary, the Auditor stated he from the annual conference and was given thorough access to the donations to the Library Fund in financial records. From the records memory of former Treasurer Tom provided the funds expected to be Rimmer. As a result of a decision available were found to be available. not to distribute Anglo-Celtic Roots The financial statements for the at meetings there was an increased year 2012 prepared by the Treas- cost related to mailing expenses. urer represent a fair statement of the financial status of the British As regards the Balance Sheet, an Isles Family History Society of addition error means that Total Greater Ottawa. Assets, and Liabilities and Equity, are not $90,374 as printed, but The Treasurer noted that the $91,362. With an increase in liquid omission of a 5 in the total expenses assets of about $10,000 for the year for the year (as mentioned earlier) the Society remains financially also applied to the budget figure. A healthy and will continue to operate discrepancy in revenue amounts on an approximately break-even was accounted for by the transfer of budget policy. funds to the Research and Library Funds at the end of the year.

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The Treasurer acknowledged the Margaret Singleton was awarded a assistance of the Auditor, Darrel Certificate of Recognition for the Kennedy, and bookkeeper, Cliff Best Presentation by a Member at Adams, during the year. the Monthly BIFHSGO Meeting for the 2012–2013 season. Her talk, It was moved by Marnie McCall and entitled “The Box in the Closet,” was seconded by Mary Anne Sharpe that delivered at the 9 February 2013 the financial statements be accepted. meeting. MOTION CARRIED. Jeanette Arthurs was presented Appointment of Auditor: with a Citation of Excellence. In The Treasurer noted that during the addition to serving a term as coming year the Society will be Communications Director, assisting making changes required by the at annual conferences and in the Canada Not-for-Profit Corporations library, Jeanette has for many years Act. There will be a special general managed the Society’s incoming meeting in the fall to approve the correspondence. Her conscientious new bylaws and at that time a new recording and distribution of mail auditor who qualifies under the has enabled the smooth operation terms of the Act will be appointed. of the Society. In response to questions, the Treasurer explained that the exact Mark Lloyd was presented with a requirements of an organization Citation of Excellence in recognition under the Act, especially if it of his work for the Society as qualifies as a non-soliciting database manager from 2004 to organization, are not clear. In the 2012. With his extensive knowledge interim, Craig O’Blenis has agreed to of the software he contributed his assume the duties of Auditor. expert talents to maintain compre- hensive membership records. At It was moved by Marnie McCall and monthly meetings, Mark regularly seconded by Bob Lamoureux that staffed the membership table. Craig O’Blenis be appointed as the Society’s Auditor for 2013. MOTION Darrel Kennedy received a Citation CARRIED. of Excellence for his service as Auditor of the Society from 2006 Awards and Presentations: until the present. Darrel’s diligent Carolyn Emblem was presented examination of Society finances with a Certificate of Recognition for assured members that Society the Best Anglo-Celtic Roots Article of accounts were properly maintained 2012 for her article, entitled while his opinion on the annual “Eleanor, Ellen and Frances,” financial statements accurately published in the Spring 2012 issue. Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 44 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014 reflected the true situation. He has (Treasurer), Susan Davis also informed and educated (Communications), Margaret members with his presentations Gervais (Publicity), and Tara Grant and articles. He lives the spirit of his (Membership). The President noted heraldic motto, “Thoughtful Speech that all four directors had indicated or Silence.” their willingness to remain in their positions for two more years. Joan and Ivor Banks received a Citation of Excellence immediately Further nominations were solicited following the AGM. (They were busy three times from the floor for the with their duties during the AGM.) four positions. There were no Their citation read, “ BIFHSGO further nominations. All four members enjoy the convivial incumbents were therefore atmosphere of its meetings. Joan declared elected by acclamation. and Ivor have made a major Other Business: contribution for the past two years No other business was raised at the by assuming responsibility for meeting. refreshments at monthly meetings.” Report of the Adjournment: 9:40 a.m. There being no further business it Nominating Committee: was moved by Glenn Wright and Mary Anne Sharpe, Vice-President seconded by Jane Down that the and Chair of the Nominating meeting be adjourned. MOTION Committee, noted that some Board CARRIED. members’ two-year terms were at an end. Coming up for renewal in Prepared by Anne Sterling, Secretary, 2013 were: Marnie McCall 21 June 2013

People are hungry for stories. It’s part of our very being. Storytelling is a form of history, of immortality too. It goes from one generation to another. Studs Terkel

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Minutes of the Special General Meeting of the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa 14 December 2013 The Special General Meeting began Corporations Act in 2013. The Act at 9:00 a.m. on 14 December 2013, sets out requirements that apply to in the Library and Archives Canada all non-profit organizations, auditorium at 395 Wellington meaning the bylaws only have to Street, Ottawa, Ontario. The notice address those elements which can of the meeting and the proposed be tailored to the needs of the bylaws had been sent by email to organization. members online. Those members It was moved by Mary Anne Sharpe without use of a computer were and seconded by Gloria Tubman sent the document by Canada Post, that the bylaws as presented be regular mail. approved. A quorum of at least 25 was It was moved by Darrel Kennedy declared, with attendance estimated and seconded by Marnie McCall that at approximately 150. the bylaws be amended to change Anne Sterling was appointed the the quorum requirement in section Recording Secretary. 20 from “10% of voting members” to “10% or 25 voting members, Call to Order and whichever is less.” MOTION Opening Remarks: CARRIED. The President, Glenn Wright, welcomed everyone to the meeting. It was moved by Susan Davis and seconded by David Cross that the Treasurer Marnie McCall chaired bylaws as amended be approved. the meeting, which had been called MOTION CARRIED. to ask the membership to approve our transition to the Canada Not- It was moved by Judy Thamas and for-Profit Corporations Act. seconded by Barbara Tose that the Articles of Continuance be The Treasurer explained that all approved. MOTION CARRIED. not-for-profit organizations were required to transition from the It was moved by Darrel Kennedy Canada Business Corporations Act, and seconded by Willis Burwell that Part 2 to the Canada Not-for-Profit the resolution directing the Board of Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 46 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014

Directors to apply for continuation There being no further business, the under the Canada Not-for-Profit meeting was declared adjourned at Corporations Act be approved. 9:25. MOTION CARRIED. Note: The new bylaws, the articles of incorporation and the resolution will be posted on the BIFHSGO website. Membership Report BY KATHY WALLACE New BIFHSGO Members 11 Nov 2013—8 Feb 2014 Member No. Name Address 282 Royden Long Ottawa, ON 1634 Robert Mallet Kanata, ON 1635 Mary Plawutsky Beaconsfield, QC 1636 Helene Higgins St Rémi, QC 1637 Robert Corrigan Barry’s Bay, ON 1638 Iris Stinson Ottawa, ON 1639 Norma Lavallee Calgary, AB 1640 Janice Graves Bishop’s Mills, ON 1641 Brian Castledine Ottawa, ON 1642 Carol Landgraff Stittsville, ON 1643 Norman Fines Ottawa, ON 1644 Andrea Harding Orleans, ON 1644 Matthew Harding Orleans, ON 1645 Pamela Clark Nepean, ON 1646 Brian Laurie- Manotick, ON Beaumont 1647 Michael McNorman Orleans, ON 1648 Sheila Kulka Ottawa, ON 1648 Ed Kulka Ottawa, ON 1649 Ian Barker Guelph, ON 1650 Susan Courage Ottawa, ON

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 47 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014

Anglo-Celtic Roots • Quarterly Chronicle 48 Volume 20, Number 1 • Spring 2014

BIFHSGO Board of Directors 2013–2014 President Glenn Wright 613-521-2929 Recording Secretary Anne Sterling 613-596-2955 Treasurer Marnie McCall 613-736-1101 Research & Projects David Cross 613-258-3934 Membership Kathy Wallace 613-746-6796 Communications Susan Davis 819-568-0081 Publicity Mary-Lou Simac 613-837-8256 Programs Jane Down 613-741-1463 Education Mary Donnelly 613-445-3432 Past President Mary Anne Sharpe 613-562-4570

Associate Directors 2013–2014 Editor Anglo-Celtic Roots Jean Kitchen E-newsletter Editor Christine Woodcock Web Managers Gail Dever, Mary Plawutsky Photographer Shirley Monkhouse Associate Treasurer Cliff Adams Publication Sales Brian Chamberlain Librarian Betty Warburton Queries Mary Anne Sharpe Voicemail Ann Adams Conference 2014 John Reid, Gloria Tubman Auditor (interim) Craig O’Blenis

The Society The British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO) is an independent, federally incorporated society and a registered charity (Reg. No. 89227 4044 RR0001). Our purpose is to encourage, carry on and facilitate research into, and publication of, family histories by people who have ancestors in the British Isles. We have two objectives: to research, preserve, and disseminate Canadian and British Isles family and social history, and to promote genealogical research through a program of public education, showing how to conduct this research and preserve the findings in a readily accessible form. We publish genealogical research findings and information on research resources and techniques, hold public meetings on family history, maintain a reference library, and participate in the activities of related organizations. Membership dues for 2014 are $40 for individuals, $50 for families, and $40 for institutions. Members enjoy four issues of Anglo-Celtic Roots, ten family history meetings, members-only information on bifhsgo.ca, friendly advice from other members, and participation in special interest groups.

BIFHSGO Calendar of Events Saturday Morning Meetings Library and Archives Canada 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa

12 Apr 2014 From Aberdeen to Albany: How Our Scott Family Ancestors Became United Empire Loyalists in Canada— Ken Harley will explore both how his wife’s ancestor William Scott followed his dream and why our ancestors would emigrate to what was essentially an unsettled wilderness. 10 May 2014 What Really Happened? A Genetic Genealogy Success Story—Elizabeth Kaegi and James Thomson used both traditional and genetic genealogy techniques to solve a six- decade-old mystery and have the findings conclusively confirmed, giving Elizabeth seven new family members. 14 June 2014 Great Moments in Genealogy—Four BIFHSGO members will describe some exciting moments in their family history searches, explaining how they achieved the breakthroughs and what the discoveries meant to them. For details see page 34. Schedule 9:00–9:30 Before BIFHSGO Educational Sessions: check www.bifhsgo.ca for up-to-date information. 9:30 Discovery Tables 10:00–11:30 Meeting and Presentation 12:00–1:00 Writing Group For up-to-date information on meetings of other special interest groups (Scottish, Irish, DNA, Master Genealogist Users), check www.bifhsgo.ca. Articles for Anglo-Celtic Roots Articles and illustrations for publication are welcome. For advice on preparing manuscripts, please email the Editor, [email protected]. The deadline for publication in the next issue is 25 April 2014.