2019: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 4 (I'd Like to Meet...)

During the past decade, my husband and I have moved back and forth across Canada three times due to his work.  The first two were arranged and paid for by his company while the last one was arranged by us and only subsidized by his company.  With each move, as our household and personal things were packed up and transported, I always wondered what prompted my ancestors to relocate - not just from one province to another, but across an ocean and without the modern convenience of air travel and professional movers.  One move took me back closer to my elderly mother and other family members, but two moves did take me away from my relatives.  With having experienced the pain and agony of leaving family, I again always wondered how my ancestors managed, emotionally, to leave family members behind in the homeland with the knowledge that they would likely never to see them again.

The ancestor I would like to meet is my Third Great Grandmother, Isabella Margaret (nee Greer) Bates McKee.  She was born about 1822 in Ireland and died in 1878 in Ontario Canada.  She married Thomas Edward Bates in 1843 in Ireland.  Their first son, my great-grandfather, William was born the following year in Ireland.  In 1846, the young family departed their homeland for Canada.  Although I have not been able to verify with primary documentation, folklore claims that Thomas died during the voyage aross the Atlantic Ocean and Isabella was pregnant with their second child who was born after the widow arrived in Canada.  She named that son Thomas Edward.

The young widow Bates was likely not totally alone with a toddler and newborn as her parents may have been emigrating with them at the same time.  As I have not been able to locate passenger or immigration records, I am only assuming that at this point in time.  The 1861 census for Canada West does show the two young Bates boys living with their maternal grandparents (William John Greer and Marthy Charleton) in Mulmur Township in Simcoe County.  I have not yet located any of the family in the 1851/52 census.  Isabella was not in the household in the 1861 census as she had remarried in the early 1850s to Robert McKee and was living with him elsewhere in Mulmur Township.

I would like to meet Isabella to hear her stories as to her experiences deciding to leave her homeland with husband and son only to arrive in her new land as a widow and about to give birth to her second child.  I can only hope that the family had indeed been travelling with her parents so that she had their support during that time.

I would also like to meet Isabella to ask why her sons were living with her parents rather than with her and their step-father.  What was her life like with her second husband?  Was he a controlling man who refused to have sons from his wife's previous marriage live with them?  Did circumstance find that the teenage boys were better off living with their grandparents?   The grandparents would have been in their 70s and would have benefited from having the teenagers living with them to do the farm chores, but the household also included a married son and his bride.  Or was it just a case that the Bates brothers had been visiting their grandparents at the time of the census?  The 1861 census also listed two granddaughters in the household.  They were daughters of another son, not the son also in the household.

I am interested in knowing Isabella's story.  Why did she make the life decisions she did make and what were her thoughts about how life treated her.  I feel that I am a strong, independent woman and the more I research my family history, I find that I am not unique in my family as my tree is full of woman who had to have been strong and independent to survive life in their times of hardship.  As I have not been able to locate much information on Isabella Margaret Greer Bates McKee, I would like to meet her to find out more about her life.

2019: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 3 (Unusual Name)

I am writing about two names I find unusual.  One I know the origins (to some extent) but the other continues to mystify me.

The origin of the unusual name that continues to be a brick wall for me is the name 'Daisley'.

My grandparents, Harry and Gertie Allen, drew upon family names when naming their 11 children.  My father Willam John was named after his two grandfathers: William Daisley Allen and John Albert Cooper.  Although my Grandfather was called Harry, his actual name was Henry and his middle name 'Woodland' was his mother's maiden name.  Woodland was also used as the middle name for one of my uncles.  Another uncle was given the middle name of Daisley.


My grandparents were already deceased before I got into research my roots.  Although my aunts were never interested enough to pursue research, they were full of stories of family lore.  I have always been lead to believe that 'Daisley' was a family name.  In my two decades of genealogy researching, I have yet to find anyone with that name (first, middle or last) prior to my great-grandfather.  Granted, I have only been able to go back two generations past William Daisley and have the maiden names of the woman who married into the family.

The other unusual name is the name my mother goes by: 'Eveleen' (pronounced Eve-lynn).  Her full birth name is Pearl Mary Eveleen Schell.  As a child she never used any of the names as she was always known as 'Sis' because her sister (older by only 15 months) could not pronounce 'Sister' and the nickname stuck.  Even at the age of 89, members of our extended family still call her Sis.  When my father's work required them to relocate away from the small village where they were both from, and had built their home after marriage, Mom made the decision to go by a more mature name in her new environment.  Her first two names were from her grandmothers: Elsie Pearl (nee Mumberson) Bates and Mary (nee Deadman) Schell.  According to my mother, her parents added 'Eveleen' as she was born on her Aunt Effie's birthday. 

In my genealogy research, I found that 'Aunt Effie' was Eveline Bailey, the wife of Frank Mumberson, my mother's first cousin 3 times removed.  Although the spelling is different, Frank and Eveline had a daughter Betty Eveleen - the same spelling assigned to my mother.

Why do I consider the name 'Eveleen' unusual?  Over the course of my lifetime, I have rarely ever heard people pronounce or spell my mother's name correctly.  Most people pronouce it as 'Ev-lyn' or 'Eva-lean'.

2019: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 2 (Challenge)

The topic for Week 2 is 'Challenge'.  Almost since the beginning of my genealogical journey, my biggest challenge as been 'What happened to Robert & Mary Ann (nee Widdis) Allen after the 1891 Canadian census?'  Except for the maiden name of Widdis, all the names involved are fairly common - which has hindered me in breaking through this brick wall.

This couple are my Great-Great Grandparents on my father's side.  I had verbal information from my Aunt Dora of an entry in the family bible:

William Allen and family sailed from Liverpool on the 28th of May and landed in Quebec on the 17th of July 1831.

May these days be remembered by us all and every year give to God the praises due to his Holy Name for ever, Amen.

Age 68 in August 1892 - Robert Allen.

William Allen married a Buchannan and his son Robert Allen married Mary Anna Widdis and their son William Allen married Mary Jane Woodland.

I have never seen the family bible myself.  According to Aunt Dora, the bible had been in the possession of her Aunt Lena.  Aunt Lena, as well as her two daughters are now deceased.  Unfortunately, I do not know what happened to the bible.

Does the entry 'Age 68 in August 1892 - Robert Allen' mean that Robert Allen died in August 1892 at the age of 68?  Or did he make the entry in the bible at that time and died some time later?  Others researching the family have used August 1892 as the death date for Robert. 

Aunt Dora had provided some assistance to a cousin, Bob Allen, doing research.  His records have Robert Allen's death as August 1892 in Ontario with burial in Markdale Cemetery. He had no definite death date for Mary Ann Widdis but also lists her burial in Markdale Cemetery.  Another researcher who has posted this family tree online uses August 1892 for Robert's death but with the location of British Columbia and no information for Mary Ann.

Through my genealogy research, I have followed the Robert & Mary Ann Allen family in the Canadian censuses.  The family did move around, but always in Ontario (Canada West prior to Confederation).  In 1891, the family was residing in Euphrasia Township in Grey County.  Markdale is in Artemisa Township, Grey County, which would not be far from Euphrasia Township.

Both Ancestry.ca and FamilySearch have Ontario death records for the time period that Robert and Mary Ann would have died - in 1892 or another time.  Why have I not been able to locate them?  Knowing that transcribing and index on Ancestry can leave a lot to be desired, I have tried to be creative in my research.  But, after many years, I have yet to locate either Robert Allen or Mary Ann (nee Widdis) Allen.

I have not discounted the possibility that both of them, or even just Robert, had migrated out west to British Columbia.  I know one of their sons, Robert James, did relocate to British Colubmia with his family - but that was not until sometime between the 1901 and 1911 censuses. 

An unmarried son, Jackson, died in British Columbia in 1947.  According to his Death Certificate, information for the certificate was obtained from a number of friends - no family.  No one knew the names of the deceased parents and reported that he had been in the province for 50 years.  If that time frame was accurate, Jackson would have relocated to British Columbia about 1897.  Given the friends' lack of knowledge about Jackson Allen, it is possible that he was in that province as early as 1892.  Had his father, and possibly mother, joined him as well?  Death records for British Columbia are digitized and available online at Ancestry.ca as well as the province's website, but I have yet to locate death certificates for either of the individuals.

As I research my Allen ancestors, I have frequently found the extended family to be very close.  When a parent died, the spouse and children were often taken in by other family members (not always together) or neighbours - who may be distant relations as well.  So I find it difficult to accept that Robert Allen and Mary Ann Widdis Allen disappeared into thin air without any contact with other family members.

Local newspapers of that time were always 'newsy' with details of local people as well as their relatives, often extending the community's condolescences when a family member had passed away.  Checking newspapers local to where the many children of Robert and Mary Ann lived during the 1890's have not revealed any mention of the couple.  But not all of the relevant newspapers are online and it has not been possible for me to travel to the areas to research locally.

I do continue to search for my elusive Great-Great-Grandparents and hopefully I will eventually find out what happened to them post 1891.

2019: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 1 (First)

New year, new 52 Ancestors project.

Week 1's topic is fitting: 'First'.  What to write?  First ancestor to migrate to the New World?  That would be my 5x Great Grandfather, Johann Christian Schell, who reported arrived in Philadelphia in 1749 before settling in the Mohawk Valley area of New York and marrying Maria Elizabeth Petrie, a member of one of the Palatine families of the Burnetsfield Patent.  I have yet to revisit this ancestor in my Do-Over Project, so I'm reluctant to write about him with possibly unfounded information.

Instead, I have chosen to write about the first 'skeleton in the closet' I unearthed in my research.

Not long after I had started down the rabbit hole of genealogy research, Ancestry established their Canadian website.  The fact that the majority of records at that point in time were from Ontario was not a deterent as a high percentage of my ancestors lived in Ontario before and after Confederation.  I dove in and searched for birth, marriage, death records as well as census of the known ancestors whose lifespan were covered by the available records.

My Great-Grandparents: Thomas Edward Bates & Elsie Pearl Mumberson

One day I found the marriage record for Thomas Edward Bates and Elsie Pearl Mumberson, the parents of my maternal grandmother Martha Jane Irene (nee Bates) Schell.  As I perused the document on the screen and started entering the information into my database, I did a double take and had to look closely at the computer screen in front of me to ensure that I was correctly reading the date of marriage.  The date was listed as 'Jan 11 05' and was registered 'Jan 19 1905', consistent with the registration dates of the other entries on the page.

Why was I surprised at the date?  All my life I knew my grandmother's birthdate to be June 5, 1905.   That birthdate was confirmed by her birth registration.

This would mean that my great grandmother was several months pregnant with my grandmother at the time of the marriage.  Certainly not scandalous today, but in rural Ontario in 1905?  Similar circumstances for great-grandparents on my father's side in the 1870s, but the family never kept it a secret.  Was this a known detail in the Bates/Mumberson families and I had just never heard of it?  Or had I found the proverbial skeleton in the family closet?

The next day I phoned my mother to ask if she had been aware that her grandmother was pregnant when she got married. She admitted that she had not been aware of that detail "but it would explain alot" as well as being hypocritical on their part.

When I asked her what that meant, her response was that her mother and grandmother were always judgemental and critical of unmarried females and "shot-gun" weddings.  She also speculated that it would also explain why those two women had done certain things over the years.  Although Mom did tell me what she meant (more skeletons), some is still unproven speculation on her part or small town gossip which I have not yet been able to prove - so I won't publish it here.

Since that day of discovery, I found a newspaper article published January 19, 1905 when the small town (New Lowell) news reported:

"Jan 15 - A quiet wedding took place on Wednesday last, when Miss Pearl Mumberson was married to Thos. Bates of Brentwood.  The ceremony was performed at the bride's home here by the Rev. Mr. Follett.  The best wishes of the community are extended to the young couple."

The newspaper article also confirms the January 1905 marriage date.  Given the time period, I have to assume that if the community was extending best wishes to the couple, Pearl's pregnancy was not public knowledge.  But I'm sure there would have been a lot of finger counting of the months between January and June when baby Martha Jane Irene was born on June 5, 1905.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 16 (Storms)

My mother, Eveleen (nee Schell) Allen has always spoken of nature providing a major snow storm around March 20th.  During her teenage years, there had been a blizzard on March 20th and her mother and sister had not been able to get home from a trip into Barrie Ontario (normally about a 15 minute drive - maybe 30 minutes in those days).  They were snow bound, along with several other travellers, at someone's home for several days.

During my life time, even if the Canadian winter weather turned mild and it appeared as if spring had arrived, Mom would always maintain to not get too excited until after the 20th of March.  And she has usually been right!  The snow storm may not be a blizzard, but there would be a significant fall of snow.

My brothers usually drive from Kingston Ontario to Florida in early March to visit the baseball spring training camps.  One year, they were snowed in for a couple of days in Pennsylvania enroute to Florida.  That storm was in early March, so it does not necessarily fall into Mom's prediction.

Another storm that had impact on my family was the January 1998 ice storm in eastern Ontario and southern Quebec.  The storm started during the night at my husband Terry and I were awakened to  popping sounds - transformers on nearby hydrolines.  I had a phone call from my supervisor informing me that our place of work, Queen's University, was closed.  The university rarely closes as most of the student population lives on, or near, campus.  My brother worked in the downtown area which still had power as the hydro lines in that section of Kingston were underground, so he had gone to work.  But as the storm worsened and no let up in sight, he booked a room in a downtown hotel owned by his employers.  His intention had only been for himself and our brother and mother who both live with him.  Mom took it upon herself to invite me and Terry to join them.

Driving from our home to the downtown hotel should have only required a drive down one street, about 10 minutes.  But we had to keep making detours due to fallen trees blocking roads, as well as hydro lines which had falled to the ground due to the weight of the ice.

My step-children were at their mother's but when they were going to have to evacuate to a shelter the following day, Terry and I picked them up and brought them to the hotel as well.  On the Friday night, there were 7 of us staying in one hotel room.  Talk about family togetherness!

Power was gradually being restored around the city.  The power at my mother's house was back on by Saturday, so we relocated there.  Her neighbours across the street were still without power, so they ran extension cords from her outside electrical outlet to their homes.  The power to our house was restored the next day.

During the storm, a friend was planning on getting married.  The power had only been restored to the church earlier in the day of the wedding, but the reception was in the suburbs were hydrolines were underground and therefore not affected.  It was her third marriage and she took the ribbing well that only she would get married during an ice storm.  Unfortunately, that marriage did not last either.


Some areas of the city were without power for many more days than I or my family experienced.  And of course, we all had to deal with the after affects of freezers and refrigerators being without power for several days.  Since it was an ice storm, the weather temperature was only around the freezing mark, which was not cold enough to maintain frozen food.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 15 (Taxes)

I had difficulty thinking of what to write for this week's topic of 'Taxes'.  I have yet to spend time researching tax records of my ancestors, so I have not been able to draw upon such resources.  Most of my ancestors have been farmers - of small family farms, not large ranches.  Many did move around, but I'm not aware of any of the moves being initiated by "loosing the farm" due to unpaid taxes.

The only tax related thought that kept coming to mind was my father, Jack Allen, filing his income tax each year during my lifetime.  When I would question him why he seemed to be thrilled having to send a cheque along with his income tax submission, despite his employer withholding funds for income each pay cheque.  But when I had a better understanding of his earlier life, I had a better understanding why he felt it was an honour to have to pay additional taxes above and beyond what his employer had already collected on his behalf.

He grew up on his family farm in Simcoe County, Ontario, the second oldest of ten children.  His older brother, Ab, had left the farm before World War II to work in Toronto but there were four other sons as well.  When my parents married in 1949, Jack wanted a better life for his family and around that time had been hired as a plumber by a mechanical contracting company doing work at nearby Camp Borden.  He learned the trade on the job, as well as welding, steam fitting and other related trades.  He obviously impressed his employer as he continued to work on their other projects around Ontario and eventually was assigned to set up an office in Kingston Ontario.

From a childhood on a small family farm in rural Ontario, he became a well respected Manager of a construction company - with the appropriate salary.  The reason why he would have to submit more money each year for his income taxes, above and beyond what had been deducted from his weekly paycheque?  Investments.  Over the years, in addition to be able to provide (quite well) for his family, he had been able to invest money.  When he dead unexpectedly in 1990 at the age of 67, he had still been working and was able to leave a good nest egg for my mother so that she had no financial worries.

52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks - Week 14 (Maiden Aunt)

Although a cousin rather than an aunt, my focus this week is Ethel May Adelaide Allen.  She is a first cousin of my father, but as my father's father had been the youngst of 12 children, many of my father's cousins were more like aunts and uncles.

Ethel was born December 30 1909, the third child of Robert Herbert Allen and Ida Mary Halm, in Sunnidale Township, Simcoe County, Ontario.  Ethel was only 16 years old when her mother died in 1925.  Neither she or her only brother, William "Bill" George, ever married.  The two lived together in their family farm house until their deaths.  They never had electricity installed in the house. 

During my childhood, Bill and Et, were kept apprised of the happenings of my father's immediate family by my aunts and uncles who still lived in the Brentwood area.  As there was no electricity, there was no telephone, so my aunts and uncle had to make personal visits to inform their cousins of deaths in the family.  These aunts and uncle have spun many a humourous story of the experiences visiting the rustic home.  One time, my uncle Garnet went to sit down and the couch moved: it was Bill laying on the couch.  But as the house was in darkness, Garnet had not been aware of anyone already on the couch.

I cannot remember Bill's appearances, but Ethel always managed to get to the family funerals.

On one occasion, our family was enroute from Kingston to the funeral home in Creemore.  As we passed through Brentwood, we recognized Ethel standing on the side of the road near the laneway to her house.  Our car was full and my father felt bad not being able to stop to pick her up.  We were most surprised when we arrived at the funeral home, after having stopped for gas, and Ethel was already there!  Apparently my Uncle Ab had also spotted Ethel on the road and was able to stop to give her a ride and would have passed us when we stopped for gas.  Ethel's explanation:  she knew that there would be a number of family members going past her house enroute to the funeral home, so she positioned herself out at the road knowing that someone would stop to pick her up!

In later years, a nephew would escort her to family funerals.

Ethel died on February 13 1995 and is buried with other family members in the Angus Union Cemetery in Angus, Simcoe County, Ontario.