My Top 10 Brick Walls - Dad's Side

Image courtesy of GenealogyInTime Magazine www.genealogyintime.com

Several people have been posting their Top 10 Brick Wall Ancestors, so I decided to do so as well. The trouble was, when I started looking through my family tree, I realized I had a lot more than ten (don't we all?). So this post is about my top ten brick wall ancestors on my dad's side. Which, of course, means there'll be a post on the ones on my mom's side.

I've written about some of these folks before, but not all of them. Those that have previous blog posts have been linked. Do YOU have the answers to my brick walls?

My Top 10 Brick Walls - Dad's Side

1. Are the parents of Joseph Josiah ROBBINS (1820 - 1905)--of Oceana Co., Michigan, McKean Co., Pennsylvania, Tioga Co., Pennsylvania, and Otsego Co., New York--George Washington ROBBINS and Abigail HICKS?

2. Nelson H. PECK (b. c. 1819; d. 15 Apr 1849, probably in Potter Co., Pennsylvania) - when and where was he born, where did he die, what was his cause of death, and who were his parents? There are a lot of PECKs in Potter County, Pennsylvania around the time he lived there...but how do they connect?

3. Who were William KIMBALL's parents? He was b. c. 1806 in Vermont, moved to Cuyahoga Co., Ohio; and later removed to Kalamazoo and Newaygo Counties in Michigan.

4. Who were Cynthia PHILLIPS' parents? She was b. 10 May 1802 in Sharon, Litchfield Co., Connecticut; m. Ezra DICKINSON 12 November 1820 in Trumbull Co., Ohio; and d. 21 March 1852 in Hicksville, Defiance Co., Ohio after giving birth to 12 children.

5. Who are Richard WILKINSON's parents? He was b. c. 1815 in Yorkshire England; and m. Mary LAMOREAUX/TERRY before 1842, probably in York Co., Ontario. When and where did he die? He was last noted on the 1881 Canadian Census in Whitchurch, York Co., Ontario; and in 1891, his wife is a widow. He does not appear in the death records.

6. Why do we have two surnames for Mary LAMOREAUX or TERRY? Was she adopted? Who were her parents? Was she born (c. 1818) in Ontario or New Brunswick (I have both locations as birthplaces, from various documents).

7. When and where did John Henry SAYERS and his wife, Mary CAHOON, die? They are last found on the 1871 Canadian census in Cavan Twp., Durham Co., Ontario. They don't appear in the Ontario death records, nor the Michigan ones (a number of their children emigrated to Western Michigan around 1880-1881).

8. Were Stephen YORK and Amy FRANKLIN of the Town of Clarence, Erie Co., New York the parents of Jeremiah Franklin YORK (1791 - 1876)? I'm 99% sure that they were. I just need to find that one document with the evidence.

9. James W. BARBER (1841 - 1912) of England, Bruce Co., Ontario, and Lapeer and Genesee Counties, Michigan: Who were his parents?

10. Were William CLEVELAND and Lydia SHAW of China Twp., St. Clair Co., Michigan the parents of Clarissa CLEVELAND (c. 1832 - 1877)?

Surname Saturday: SAYERS

Intro

The meaning of the surname SAYERS is diverse because the name can originate from a variety of languages and countries. In my family, our oral history states it is a Scots-Irish (or Ulster Scot) line. In other words, it is a family that originated in Scotland and settled in Ireland for many generations, before emigrating to North America. There is a Gaelic origin of SAYERS which is Mac Saoghair. This apparently is a patronym of the Old English personal name, Saeger, which meant Sawyer (an occupational name for someone who cut, or sawed, wood).

This name has been difficult to search in databases because of its many spelling variations. Some of the more common ones include Sears, Sawyer, and Sayer. Using Soundex to search for this name brings up hundreds of results, making narrowing down likely candidates very difficult.

Researching the SAYERS family was one of my early projects when I began doing genealogy. I was fortunate to come into contact almost immediately with distant cousins, mainly in Canada, who were also researching the family. We were able to exchange information and really expand the family tree of William SAYERS, Sr. and his wife, [--?--] GILLESPIE, although we have been stuck attempting to go back beyond this couple, due to lack of records in Ireland. I have even hired professional genealogists in Ireland to pursue this family line, but they were unable to do so.


Stories and History:

Ahnentafel #156 - William SAYERS (1758 - 1860) - my earliest known SAYERS ancestor, my 4th-great-grandfather, was born in Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland. It is believed, but not known for certain, that his wife's surname was GILLESPIE, as they had a son with that name. The family belonged to the Church of Ireland, and declared themselves Anglican after they emigrated to Canada. William's five known children started emigrating to Prince Edward County (not Prince Edward Island) in what was then Upper Canada (now Ontario) in the late 1820s to late 1830s. I often think about how brave William must have been to be in his late seventies and board a wooden sailing ship to cross the Atlantic to his new home. He apparently lived near or with his son, William, Jr., in Hungerford Township, Hastings County, and appears in the 1861 mortality census as having died the previous year at aged 102.

Ahnentafel #78 - John SAYERS (b. 1811) - he was born in Letterkenny, and as a single young man came to Prince Edward County, Upper Canada, probably with his sister Catherine and her husband Stephen MARTIN. The MARTIN family was one of the early prominent pioneer families in Prince Edward County and have been listed in Pioneer Life on the Bay of Quinte (see link below). In 1828, John was residing in Marysborough Township. He married Mary CAHOON in 1831 in St. Mary Magdalene Church in Picton. They had 11 or 12 children. In 1861 and 1871, they are farming in Cavan Township, Durham County. I cannot find a death record for either John or Mary, although vital registration began in 1867. Their deaths probably went unrecorded. I have other Ontario ancestors who did not have their deaths recorded for one reason or another. They do not appear to be enumerated on the 1881 census, but is difficult to determine for certain, due to spelling variations. Another possibility is that they emigrated to Michigan with a number of their children; however, no death records there have turned up for them.

Ahnentafel #39 - Mahala SAYERS (1847 - 1937) - born in Prince Edward County, she married farmer and carpenter John WILKINSON in 1871 in Port Hope, Northumberland and Durham County. They had eight children (five born in Canada and three in the U.S.) and lived in the Port Hope and Cavan Township areas until about 1880, when they emigrated with a number of Mahala's siblings to Montague Township, Muskegon County, Michigan. By 1884, they had resettled in Whitehall Village, Muskegon County, where they lived until John's death in 1917. As a carpenter, he built numerous homes in Whitehall Township. In 1930, Mahala was living with her son, John, Jr., in Paris Township, Kent County, Michigan. Later, she lived with her daughter and son-in-law, Ella and Floyd LUCHINI, in Alma, Gratiot County, Michigan, where she died. Mahala was my grandfather's great-grandmother, and he remembers her as a small boy. One of the memories involves her running her finger down the length of his nose, saying, "Love is like this..." and then, running it back up, "...but marriage is like this."

Ahnentafel #19 - Mary J. WILKINSON (1872 - 1940) - She was born in Port Hope, the eldest of eight children. She married George Emmett LEWIS (1868 - 1964) on 31 Dec 1891 in Muskegon, Muskegon County, Michigan. Like her father, George was a carpenter, and it is likely Mary met George if he worked for or with her father. For a short time, Mary and George lived in Cleon Township, Manistee County, and later in Blue Lake Township, Muskegon County, but they lived most of their lives in Whitehall Township, Muskegon County, particularly the Village of Whitehall with both Wilkinson and Lewis family members close by. Mary gave birth to 13 children, 11 of whom survived infancy. Her eldest child, George Richard LEWIS was tragically killed at the age of 20 in a motorcycle accident. Although Mary herself only lived to the age of 68, four of her children survived into their 90's, apparently inheriting her Great-Grandfather Sayers' longevity genes.

Ahnentafel #9 - Marie LEWIS (1902 - 1986) - my great-grandmother; read her AnceStory here.

Ahnentafel #4 - Robert Lewis ROBBINS (1920 - 2003) - my paternal grandfather; read his AnceStory here.

Ahnentafel #2 - my father (living)

Ahnentafel #1 - myself


More About the SAYERS Family:

1. Online database (I update this at least once a month): SAYERS ancestors and relatives (no info on living persons available)

2. Some SAYERS obituaries [on website]

3. Posts about SAYERS ancestors and relatives on this blog

6. My  SAYERS Virtual Cemetery on Find A Grave

7. Pioneer Life on the Bay of Quinte, published in 1904, found at the Internet Archive. The SAYERS family's story is intertwined with the MARTIN's, which is on pages 579 through 585.


My SAYERS Immigration Trail:

County Donegal, IRE > Prince Edward Co., ONT > Northumberland Co., ONT > Durham Co., ONT > Northumberland Co., ONT > Muskegon Co., MI > Manistee Co., MI > Muskegon Co., MI > Ottawa Co., MI > AK > Stevens Co., WA > Spokane Co., WA

An Independent Man: John WILKINSON, Jr.

When Jasia called for posts for the 51st Carnival of Genealogy, I had a little trouble coming up with someone in my family tree who would fit this description AND who was deceased:

With the upcoming July 4th holiday, there is no more perfect time to honor someone from your family whose life can be summed up in one word – INDEPENDENT! Do you have a relative who was feisty, spoke their own mind, was a bit of a free spirit? Anyone who most people might consider a “nut” on the family tree but you know they really just followed a “different tune?”

I can think of a number of independent individuals in my family, all living, and all women--people I truly admire. So I got to thinking, "Were there any men in the family that could have been described as independent or a free spirit?" Well, I don't know for certain, but I think that John WILKINSON, Jr. might have fit the bill. Here's an opportunity for me to highlight another single person in my family tree; too often, it's the direct ancestors, or the relatives who married and had children that get featured in family stories. But those single men and women have their place, too, and contribute to our family histories in diverse, and often profound ways. They often had more freedom to travel, pick up and settle multiple times, and try new experiences than those who had families to support.

The history of John WILKINSON, Jr. begins on 25 March 1879 in what was then Northumberland Co., Ontario, Canada, probably in or near the unincorporated community of South Monaghan, situated halfway between the cities Peterborough and Port Hope in present-day Durham County. He was the fourth of seven children born to John WILKINSON, Sr., a carpenter, and Mahala SAYERS, and the last of their children to be born in Canada before they immigrated to Muskegon County, Michigan in late 1880, successfully avoiding both the 1880 U.S. Federal Census and the 1881 Canadian Census!

There may have been something in John's upbringing that caused him to be independent. His siblings, for the most part, all seemed to be a bit unusual. His oldest sibling, Mary J. WILKINSON, my great-grandmother, seems to have been the most traditional, marrying her husband and having 13 children, a not-so-surprising number in those days. Then came Manley, who married a German immigrant and had 11 children. Not one of those offspring married, except for the youngest, Alvin; and he waited until both his parents were deceased! What was the deal behind that? Next came William James, who moved out west to Washington State for a while. The family history always showed him as single, but I found him in a census with a wife and several children. However, he returned to Michigan to live with his sister until his death. No spouse or children were listed in his obituary. Did he divorce? Catherine seemed fairly typical, but like her brother Manley, married an immigrant from another country (Sweden). She outlived him to marry again. After John came Frederick, who married a woman with a similar name, Fredericka. They moved to Washington State, like William, and lived for quite some time in the community of Freeland, which was started as a utopia for those with socialist sympathies. Ella contributed to the ethnic diversity of the family by marrying an Italian street vendor. And poor little Jennie died young.

We know that John migrated around quite a bit. He homesteaded in the Peace River area near Ft. St. Johns, British Columbia, although my attempts to locate his land have been futile, John Wilkinson being a fairly common name. He also lived in Monroe, Snohomish Co., Washington for a while, with a SAYERS cousin, relatives on his mother's side. I had an opportunity to meet the daughter of this cousin when she was elderly, and she told how she, her siblings, and her cousins loved Cousin John: how they would get into water fights with him when fetching water from the well! My paternal grandfather, a grandnephew of John also had fond stories to tell about how he used to play with the youngsters in the family. He may not have had children of his own, but John apparently loved and was beloved by the little ones in his extended family!

While in Washington State, John enlisted with Co. C. of the 35th Regiment of the U.S. Volunteer Infantry to serve during the Philippine Insurrection, which occurred at the end of the Spanish-American War. Did he become naturalized as part of his enlistment? I don't know. I do think it fits his independent personality that he did not serve in a well-known war, but served in a smaller military venture, instead. When he returned to Michigan, there was no local military fraternal organization specifically for that operation, so he joined the Guy V. Henry Post, Camp 3 of the United Spanish War Veterans in Grand Rapids, Michigan.

During the Depression, he worked as a teamster, and owned a farm in Paris Twp., Kent Co., Michigan, which was worth $9,000--a tidy sum in those days! Paris Township was nowhere near any of his siblings, so unlike many single men of his day, he did not live with a sibling or elderly parents. In the 1940s, he lived in Rothbury, Oceana Co., Michigan, another community away from his siblings. However, he is mentioned in his siblings' obituaries as a survivor, suggesting that although they may have lived apart, there were still good relations between them. These many locations show a man on the move, but a prosperous and apparently happy one.

I have seen one photograph of John. He could be described as handsome, on the shorter side, with dark hair and a mustache. He is standing outside his automobile, dressed in a suit, hat, and long coat. The photograph was taken during the 20s, probably during a visit to his widowed sister and her daughter, who may have taken it. (I wish I still had a copy of it; I scanned it back in my pre-Scanfest days, when I was ignorant of digital storage, and it's now irretrievable. The original in a borrowed scrapbook seems to now be in Texas.)

At this time, I do not know his death location, but he died 6 August 1955 and was buried in the Wilkinson family plot in Oakhurst Cemetery, Whitehall Twp., Muskegon Co., Michigan.

Source: Tombstone of John Wilkinson, Jr. Oakhurst Cemetery, Whitehall Twp., Muskegon Co., Michigan. Digital photograph taken at the request of Miriam Robbins Midkiff by Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness volunteer Toni Falcom. Digital copy in the possession of Miriam Robbins Midkiff, Spokane, Washington. 2002.

What do you think? Was John WILKINSON, Jr. an independent, free spirit? I am certain of it!

Locations of my (Scots) Irish Ancestors

I've been lucky enough to know the exact location where my SAYERS family originated in Ireland before they emigrated to Canada in the 1830s. Letterkenny is the largest town in County Donegal, in the province of Ulster, Ireland, and apparently was the home of many Ulster Scots. I've mentioned before that I really haven't done much Irish research on my family, mainly because they lived in Ireland during a period of time for which it is difficult to access records, if they still exist. Many of the records that were kept when the SAYERS lived in Letterkenny were later destroyed, or are only accessed onsite.

I enjoyed reading through Wikipedia's descriptions of the place names I mentioned above. I also did a Google image search for Letterkenny, Donegal and Ulster, and by clicking on these links, you should be able to see some beautiful images as well.

When the SAYERS family came to Canada in the mid-1830s (the family immigrated in several stages over the course of about five years), they settled in Prince Edward County (not to be confused with Prince Edward Island), Ontario, particularly Picton and Athol Township. Some of the siblings and cousins moved into Hungerford Township in Hastings County, while my direct line traveled further to Cavan Township in Durham County and Port Hope in Northumberland County. I'm still studying the rather complicated histories of the locations and residences in which this family lived, backtracking bit by bit over time. As more and more information is available online (I haven't been able to find many resources for these areas at my local library), I've been able to educate myself further. There's much more to learn, and I've been keeping myself occupied with researching these lines after they came to Michigan.

I'd love to have the opportunities to visit all these locations and see the places where my Irish immigrant ancestors lived, worked, and worshiped. Until then, I'll be satisfied in being an armchair traveler using the amazing technology of the Internet!

Obituary of Mahala (SAYERS) WILKINSON - 1937

VENERABLE LADY IS SUMMONED BY DEATH AT LUCHINI HOME

Mrs. Mahala Sears [sic] Wilkinson, 89 years old, died at the home of her son-in-law and daughter, Mr. and Mrs. Floyd Luchini, 115 Walnut street, at 2 o'clock Wednesday [2 Jun 1937] morning, following a critical illness which began with a heart attack last Saturday.

The aged lady had been in precarious health since July 8, 1936, when she was found to be suffering from a serious heart malady. She got along quite comfortably, however, until last week when the sudden heat wave brought on the condition which resulted in her death.

The body was taken to Whitehall [Muskegon Co.], Michigan, Mrs. Wilkinson's old home, Wednesday morning, and the funeral and burial will take place there beside her husband, and among loved friends and scenes.

Mrs. Wilkinson was born July 8, 1847, at Prince Edward [County], Ont., and came to the States many years ago. She is survived by Mrs. Floyd Luchini, Alma; Mrs. George Lewis, Mrs. A. L. Ainger and John Wilkinson, all of Whitehall, and Fred Wilkinson, of Kelso, Wash. Mrs. Luchini has the sympathy of many Alma friends in her loss.

--from The Alma Record and Alma Journal, Alma, Gratiot Co., Michigan, Thursday, 3 Jun 1937, unknown page.
------------------------
Mahala was my paternal 3rd-great-grandmother, a Canadian immigrant, herself the child of Ulster Scot immigrants from Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland. My paternal grandfather fondly remembered her from his early childhood. She used to run her finger down the slope of his nose and say, "Love is like this," then run it back up, saying, "but marriage is like this!" I had some digital scans of photos of her with my grandfather and his younger brother taken around 1923 in Whitehall, and she appeared rather frail even then. Unfortunately, I did not know enough about re-writable CDs at that time, and those digital scans have been lost. The originals remain with my paternal grandmother in Texas.

This obituary gives me more detailed birth information (date and location) and a complete death date, than what I originally had. A photo of her tombstone in Oakhurst Cemetery, Whitehall, Muskegon Co., Michigan can be found at Find A Grave here.

Meeting a SAYERS Cousin

A couple of weeks ago, I checked my old e-mail address at Juno. I had it for years, and when I switched to Gmail, decided against closing my Juno account, as I had done online genealogy for so many years using that e-mail address. Every few weeks or so, I'll check on it, delete the piles of spam that have accumulated, and find a few messages from people that were unaware of my address change.

One such person was my cousin, Beverly (STRACHAN) STRONG, a fifth cousin, once removed and fellow descendant of William SAYERS, Sr. (1758 - 1860) and his wife, who we believe had the maiden name of GILLESPIE. Scots-Irish they were, from Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland. We know they had at least five children: William, Jr. (Bev's ancestor); Catherine, who married Stephen MARTIN; Henry; Gillespie; and John (my ancestor). We know from a history of the Martin family that some of these Sayers children came from Ireland c. 1830 with a group to the Bay of Quinte and settled in what is now Prince Edward County (not to be confused with P.E. Island), Ontario, Canada. A year or so later, they sent for their widowed father along with wives and children they had left behind in Ireland. Imagine being around 80 years of age, leaving the only home you had known, and boarding a wooden ship in order traverse the stormy Atlantic! Perseverance and luck played out, and William, Senior lived to the ripe old age of 102 before passing away in 1860 in Hungerford Township, Hastings County, Ontario.

William's descendants multiplied, as descendants will do, and today they can be found not only in Ontario, but in Alberta and British Columbia. Some of them crossed the border from Western Canada and resided in Western Washington. My particular ancestors, children of William's son John, headed southwest from Prince Edward County and settled in Muskegon County, Michigan. I've done a great deal of research in Muskegon County vital and cemetery records and found all sorts of branches of the SAYERS and related families, piecing them together and adding them to the family tree that Bev had begun to build.

I connected to Bev years ago (I just checked my files and it was in 1997) through another SAYERS descendant, Marge (DAINARD) McARTHUR, who had seen my information online (probably on a message board) and had called me from B.C. to tell me there was a whole tribe of Sayerses out there! Bev and I, and Marge and I, began corresponding and sharing information in earnest, along with a few other Sayers descendants we picked up along the way. For a while, we had a Sayers Family Website at MyFamily.com that was fairly active, until it became a subscription site (no one wanted to pay the high cost of storing all the family photos on that site).

Bev (my dad's age and generation) and her husband, Ron, were for years directors of their local Family History Center in Alberta. While volunteering there, she went through roll after roll of microfilmed Ontario vital records and extracted names, dates, and places not only of the SAYERS family life events, but also those of other Bay of Quinte ancestors she was researching (DAINARD, WANNAMAKER, WESSELS, McCAMON). She and Marge and quite a few of the Sayers are descendants of many pioneers of this colony; I am not. Bev, out of the kindness of her heart, looked up my WILKINSON surname and extracted what little she could find out of those microfilms for me (William, Senior's granddaughter, Mahala Sayers, was my last Sayers ancestor, and she married John WILKINSON).

A few years ago, Ron and Bev applied to serve a mission for the LDS church, and fortune most certainly smiled upon them, for they were called to do a two-year mission at...the Family History Library in Salt Lake City!!! Now on leave, they are traveling around visiting family and friends, and it was Bev's message in my Juno inbox that I found not long ago, asking if it would be an imposition if they dropped by on Labor Day. Of course I jumped at the chance of finally meeting her after 10 years of correspondence, and I'm so glad we did! What fun we had visiting! Their descriptions of serving in the FHL were truly amazing! The logistics of coordinating thousands of volunteers for the Family History Library and Church history archives must be staggering; yet the FHL runs like a well-oiled machine. As we covered everything from genealogy to the latest matter concerning Ancestry.com, we ended up discussing a topic we had in common: working with the disabled. It seems that the LDS Church accepts their developmentally impaired members for missions as well. Paired up with a non-disabled person, these missionaries are able to contribute to their community and church and help further the cause of genealogy. According to Ron and Bev, the library is also well-equipped to handle disabled patrons, no matter what their needs may be.

After visiting for a few hours, the Strongs took us out to dinner. We had an enjoyable meal together, then wished them well, as they continued their journey. Such a sweet and pleasant couple, so interesting and entertaining...it was nice to make new friends that were also family!

Muskegon County, Michigan Family Histories Wanted

DearMYRTLE highlighted an article in today's Muskegon Chronicle which encourages those of us with Muskegon County, Michigan roots to share our family stories for the publication of a county history being created by the Muskegon County Genealogical Society.

With ten ancestral--and dozens more collateral--surnames of my family tree taking residence in Muskegon County from at least 1879 to the present, I could submit a ton of information! However, only one family history of no more than 400 words and one photo are allowed free entry into the book. There's no information on the costs involved if you would like to submit more than one family history. Let's see, I could do the following groupings and submit five family histories (if they allow this): HOLST/GUSTAVSON/CONCIDINE; ROBBINS/KIMBALL; LEWIS/VREELAND; HOEKSTRA; and WILKINSON/SAYERS. Wonder how much that'll cost me?

I'm off to e-mail the genealogy society...!

Happy Canada Day!

To my Canadian relatives, friends and readers, I wish a Happy Canada Day!

Flag Image from 3DFlags

My ancestral connections to Canada are as follows:

• My father was born in Edmonton, Alberta while his father and uncle were stationed there with the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II (back in the day when being born in a U.S. military hospital on foreign soil did not automatically qualify you for American citizenship). Dad became a U.S. citizen when he was 16. When I was a kid, I used to tease him that he could never become the President of the United States. I don't think that was ever a disappointment for him...! Dad also had many Canadian ancestors.
  
• On his father's side, Richard John WILKINSON, b. c. 1815 in Yorkshire, England, immigrated to Canada and lived in what is now Whitchurch, York Co., Ontario. His wife, Mary TERRY, a.k.a. Mary LAMOREAUX, may have been French-Canadian...or she may have been born in New Brunswick...or she may have been born to a Loyalist family from New Jersey. It's one of those vague family stories that I would love to focus on and get documented and clarified!
• Richard and Mary's son John WILKINSON married Mahala SAYERS, who was the daughter of Scots-Irish immigrants, John Henry SAYERS and Mary CAHOON. John SAYER's family came to Athol Township, Prince Edward Co. (not to be confused with Prince Edward Island), Ontario from Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland in the mid-1830s, in several trips. Mary CAHOON's father was Preston CAHOON, and our line dead-ends there. John and Mahala (SAYERS) WILKINSON immigrated around 1880 - 1881 to Musekgon County, Michigan along with many of her siblings, thereby missing both the 1880 U.S. Federal Census and the 1881 Canadian Census (they were sneaky like that!). Mahala was alive when her great-grandson Robert Lewis ROBBINS (my paternal grandfather) was born, and he had a few memories of her to share with me.
• On dad's mother's side, her paternal YORK and SWEERS ancestors took advantage of offers of homesteading land that were provided by the Canadian goverment during the early 19th century. We know that the SWEERS family emigrated to Chippewa Creek, Welland County, Ontario from Worcester, Washington County, Vermont in May 1809, and that the YORKs from Bath, Stueben County, New York were there around the same time. This became a problem for these American citizens when the War of 1812 broke out. Ancestor Daniel SWEARS, III, escaped across the Niagara River to join up with a New York regiment. Ancestor Jeremiah F. YORK (Daniel's future son-in-law) and his brother Stephen VanRensselaer YORK were pressed into the 3rd Regiment of the Lincoln Militia of the British army, but also managed to escape to Canadaigua, Cattaraugus County, New York to join Captain Justus P. Spencer's militia there. The SWEERS and YORK families eventually settled in the Town of Clarence, Erie County, New York, and later Atlas Township, Genesee County, Michigan.
• Grandma's paternal great-grandfather, Daniel J. MacARTHUR was born in Glengarry County, Ontario in 1827, a grandson of immigrants from Kenmore, Perthsire, Scotland. He emigrated to Montcalm County, Michigan in the mid-1840s. During the Civil War, he enlisted in Company I of Berdan's Regiment, U.S. Sharpshooters (Michigan), rising to the rank of sergeant. Taking ill within weeks of the close of the war, he returned home on leave, and apparently never reported back for duty, disqualifying him for a veteran's pension years later, although he made several applications.
  
• Grandma's maternal grandfather, Orlando BARBER, was born in Ontario in 1868, and the household is found in Amabel, Bruce County in the 1871 Canadian Census. The family emigrated to Lapeer County, Michigan around 1876. Orlando's father, James, was born "in England" in 1839. His death record gives no clues as to his parentage. Orlando's mother, Elizabeth A. "Betsey" COLE, was born in South Dorchester, Elgin County, Ontario to parents James COLE and Lavina WILLIS who were a first-generation Canadian (James' parents were from Vermont) and a direct immigrant from New York, respectively. It is likely they came to Canada for the same reasons the YORKs and SWEERs did.

My husband has two lines that also hail from Canada:

• His great-great-grandmother, Rachel HUBBY, was born somewhere in Ontario in 1832 to John HUBBY from Scotland and Hannah JONES from New York.
• Henry LYTON was born as George TURK in Ottawa around 1841. He, like 10,000 other Canadian men, immigrated to the U.S. during the Civil War expressly to join the Union forces. He served from Iowa.

So as you can see, Canada may not be my home, or my native land, but it is one of my ancestral homelands!

Ontario, Canada Vital Records at Ancestry

I have the feed to Joe Beine's blog on my Google home page (along with feeds from many of my favorite blogs), and I noticed yesterday that he had a new post entitled "Online Canada Death Records Indexes." I discovered that not only were the death records indexes for Ontario available at Ancestry.com, but so were Ontario birth and marriage records indexes. Where have I been?

I have no idea when these databases were added to Ancestry, so that's what I love about Joe's blog. It highlights new online databases, links of which are posted at his website. For someone like me who can be very easily overwhelmed by visual clutter, this blog is a godsend. Whenever I try to find out what's new at Ancestry, it's too hard for me to process all the information available on their "What's New" page. Besides, Ancestry isn't the only kid on the block. Joe's easy-on-the-eyes blog and website have links simply categorized from all over the web.

I was very excited to find birth, marriage, and death records for many of my SAYERS, WILKINSON, and SWEERS (SWEARS) kin in Ontario. I wasn't as successful with my BARBER, COLE, and McARTHUR (MacARTHUR) searches, probably because I didn't have enough information to do a specific search, and/or the records I needed were too early for registration. At long last, I believe I found a death record for my 4th-great-grandmother, Mary (TERRY) WILKINSON (or was her maiden name LAMOREAUX?...I have documents that support both as her maiden name). Here's a snippet of her death record from Markham Village, York County, Ontario:

For a full-size view, click here.

If you've got Canadian ancestors in Ontario from 1858 to 1932, I recommend you visit Ancestry. And no matter from where your ancestors hailed, I definitely recommend you visit Joe!