Bretherton Brothers

My mother-in-law, Frances Ridley Olson, was a wonderful storyteller. She had the ability to grab your interest early and keep you eager to hear more. She told me many stories about her family. One that I remember concerned two of her uncles, her mother’s brothers. It seems they got so angry at their father that they got on a ship for America and never contacted anyone in the family again. Frances said she often wondered what happened to them. When she visited a new place, she would check the phone book looking for people with their names but never found them. Unfortunately she died before the explosion of genealogy documents became available on the Internet. When I started to research my husband’s lines, I decided to see if I could find out what happened to his grand uncles.

Frances’ maternal grandparents were Samuel Bretherton and Sarah Ann Barker. Samuel was born in Newton, Cheshire on July 26, 1840 to John Bratherton and Harriet Cork. In Cheshire records, the name is always spelled with an  “a”. When I started working on this family, I knew nothing about Samuel except that he was born in Cheshire. I found a likely entry in the BMD and ordered a copy of the birth certificate through Ancestry. It cost me $35 but opened up the entire Bretherton/Bratherton family for me. Worth every penny. 

Samuel was a sanitary engineer or “nuisance inspector”, a surveyor and by 1911, a farmer. Samuel and Sarah Ann were married on March 10, 1875 in St. Peter and St. Paul Church in Aston, Warwickshire. Their first child and only daughter, Ellen, was born about 9 months later. Ellen was baptised on April 16, 1876 in Fillongley, Warwickshire. Five sons, Samuel Ballard, George, Arthur, Frank and Albert, were born between 1877 and 1893. Of these sons, Samuel and George were the 2 who quarreled with their father and left home. Arthur stayed at home, never married and eventually inherited the farm. Frank died in 1910 at the age of 19. Albert has, perhaps, the saddest story. He fought in World War I, survived, came home, caught influenza and died in early 1919.

So what happened to Samuel and George. They both embarked on the ship Begenland on April 18, 1900 for Philadelphia. (1) They are listed as butchers. The Barker family were butchers and pub owners in Corley, Warwickshire and then Fillongley. I imagine both Bretherton boys worked for their uncle. They arrived in Philadelphia on April 30, 1900 and stated they intended to make their way to Canada. (2)

They were enumerated in the 1900 US Census in Philadelphia. Both boys had found lodgings in Ward 5 in Philadelphia.(3) I also found Samuel still in Philadelphia in the 1920 census but George disappeared. I have been unable to locate him in the US or Canada. Perhaps he decided that Australia or New Zealand were better choices for him. Or perhaps he died before 1910. In 1920, Samuel was 44 years old, still single and working in a foundry. He registered for the draft in 1918 and listed his father, Samuel, as his nearest relative.

I wonder just what the argument was about that made 2 young men get on a ship and sail away. And I wonder why they never contacted any of the family again, not even their siblings.

Do any Ridley/Brethertons have any changes or enhancements to this story? I would love to hear from you.

(1)Ancestry, "UK, Outward Passenger Lists, 1800-1960," database, ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 6 Jul 2014), Saml Bretherton sailed on Begenland; The National Archives, Kew, Richmond, Surrey, England BT27.  

(2) "Philadelphia Passenger Lists, 1800-1945," database, ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 6 Jul 2014), Saml Bretherton; Citing National Archives Micropublication T840, RG085, Rolls 1-181.  

(3)1900 U.S. census, Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, population schedule, Philadelphia, enumeration district (ED) 0106, sheet 7B, dwelling 93; digital images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T623, roll 1454.  

Migrations of the John Winegard Family

Migration patterns have been well studied and documented in the United States but not as much work has been done on them in Canada. I have a large pool of ancestors living in Ontario in the early 1800’s. I have estimated that I may be related to 50% of the people enumerated in the 1851 census in Mountain Township never mind the large contingent of Barkleys living in Williamsburg. I have found that there is relatively little movement out of Dundas and Grenville Counties in the early years. Some families moved farther west in Ontario toward Toronto and Lake Michigan or north to Ottawa and, of course, some moved across the St. Lawrence River in New York. There was considerable movement of people back and forth across the river from earliest settlement times. In my families, I don’t see much large scale movement until at least the 1850’s. The 1850’s was the beginning of the railroad push in the west which made it much easier for families to move long distances.

I see movement to the prairie states starting in the 1850’s. The first groups went to Iowa, Kansas and Nebraska. The settlement of the Dakotas didn’t begin until the 1880’s. In the 1890’s through the early 20th century, Canadians moved to the westward provinces - Manitoba and Saskatchewan and eventually British Columbia. Some in the lumber industry crossed over to Washington and Oregon.

I thought it might be fun to see how many of my ancestors settled in Iowa and when they first arrived there. So I ran a report in my Legacy software and started looking at families. The first couple I chose was Samuel McFarland and Amy Emma Winegard. I found that 2 of her siblings also settled in Iowa. This distracted me and I wondered what happened to the rest of them. 

John Winegard, b. Oct 1801 in Coxsackie, Greene, New York to Nicholas Winegard (1775-1838) and Mary (or Maritje) Fraser (d. Bef 1820), married Anna Maria Barclay (Barkley, Berkley) in 1824 in New York. They both were born in New York and lived there until sometime between 1841 and 1845. Then they moved to Mountain Township, Dundas County, Canada West. By this time both of John’s parents and his brother Abraham had died. His in-laws were still alive and living in Canada as well as his brother Peter. There was nothing holding him in New York.

Their children were:

1. Margaret Winegard (1825-1909) was the oldest child. She married John Barkley, her second cousin once removed. Margaret was born in New York as were all but the youngest 2 of her siblings. She and John moved with their 3 sons to Castle, McPherson, Kansas in 1876. John died there in 1884 but Margaret lived another 25 years and died in Kansas in 1909. In the 1900 census, she stated that she had 4 children and 3 were living in 1900.

There is a big gap between Margaret and her next sibling. John Winegard was enumerated in Westerly, Albany, New York in the 1830 census. His household contained 1 male under 5 and 1 female under 5. The female was Margaret; the male apparently died young. If I can find church records for this family, I might be able to identify him and possibly other children.

2. My second great grandmother, Charity Winegard (1833-1909), married Reuben Elijah Van Camp about 1854. This was Reuben’s second marriage so Charity had 4 step children to raise as well as her own 7 children. Reuben and Charity moved from Dundas County first to Leeds and Grenville County in 1871 and to Lanark County by 1881. They then joined several of their neighbors and relatives in the move to St. Thomas, Pembina, North Dakota in 1882. Most of their children went with them. Reuben died in 1888 in St. Thomas but Charity lived there until 1909.

3. Abraham Winegard (1835-1905) followed his father into the carpentry business. He married Lowanna Mills in Kemptville in 1858 and is enumerated in the 1861 census in Mountain Township, Dundas County, Ontario. By 1864 he is living in Lisbon, St. Lawrence, New York where he enlisted in the 39th New York Infantry, Company D. He saw limited action in Kentucky during the Civil War which enabled him to apply for and receive a pension in 1890. By 1870 he and his family are living in Clinton, Clinton, Iowa, close to one of his sisters. Lowana died in Clinton about 1873 and Abraham married Lucy Gallup in Iowa in 1882. The couple moved to Omaha, Nebraska before 1885 where their second child was born. Abraham died in Nebraska in 1905. Lucy then went on to claim Widow’s benefits under his Civil War service.

4. Amy Emma (1836-1910) who was called Emma married Samuel McFarland in 1857 in Mountain Township, Dundas County, Ontario.  Samuel was born in Ireland and came with his family to Canada as a young child. I could not locate them in the 1861 census. Samuel in the 1900 US census states that he had been in the US for 41 years. That would put him in the US about 1859. Their 2 oldest sons repeatedly state that they were born in Canada but the third son, William who was born about 1862 from time to time states that he was born in New York. Their fourth child and first daughter, Eveline, was born in Iowa in 1865. This family settled in Brookville Township, Clinton, Iowa. Samuel McFarland was naturalized in October 1886 in the Circuit Court in Jackson County which is next to Clinton. By 1900 the family had moved from Clinton to Sac County which is in the western part of the state. Samuel died in Sac County in 1909 and Emma followed him in 1910.

5. Polly Winegard (1839-1900) moved to Lisbon, New York, before 1860. She is enumerated as a domestic in Lisbon in the 1860 census. She met Charles Lennox who was born in Canada and living near Lisbon. They married in New York about 1864 and settled down to raise their 9 children.

6. Mary Jane Winegard (1841-1912) is also found in New York (Canton) in 1860 as a domestic. She went back to Canada and married Isaac Andrew Jackson in Kemptville in 1862. They didn’t stay in Canada for very long. They were living in Iowa by 1869 where their daughter Louanna was born. They settled in Harrison County, Iowa which is in the extreme western part of the state.

7. Matthew Winegard (1845-1872) was a carpenter like his father and brother, Abraham. He was born in Canada, never married and died at a young age in Lowell, Massachusetts.

8. The youngest, Isaac Jacob Winegard (1848-?), disappeared. I have been unable to find any trace of him after 1861.

In this family 5 out of 8 siblings moved into the Great Plains in the 1860-1880 time periods. Three went to Iowa, 1 to Kansas, and 1 to North Dakota. Polly stayed in New York and Matthew chose to head east to Massachusetts.  

Madeline Van De Veire – Early Years

Madeline Van De Veire was the sixth child, fourth daughter, born to Peter Van De Veire and Elodie Dobbelaere and my mother. She was born on January 29, 1918 in Paterson, New Jersey in a duplex home on Pennsylvania Avenue that my grandfather had just finished building. Her birth certificate was completed and filed by the midwife. On her birth certificate her father’s name is given as Nicholas. We are not sure where that came from. My grandparents had emigrated from Flanders, Belgium in 1901 and settled in Paterson because my grandfather had friends there.

Madeline at about 18 months.

My grandparents lived on the second floor of the duplex which had a full semi-finished attic to house their growing family. There were 2 bedrooms in the attic that were enclosed and lots of unfinished storage space. My mother shared one of these bedrooms with her next oldest sister, Margaret. She attended parochial schools graduating from St. John’s High School in 1937. Most of her youth was spent during the Great Depression and the hardships suffered by everyone made a lasting impression on her. For the rest of her life, her motto was, “Waste not, want not”. When we would go out to dinner, she would scoop up all the uneaten dinner rolls and stick them in her purse along with paper napkins, salt and pepper and condiment packets. If someone did not finish their meal, she would insist that we get a doggie bag. When we were kids, we used everything she salvaged too. “Here, you can make a sandwich out of this roll.”

Madeline wanted to be a nurse. Her father was opposed to this idea. He broke his leg in the early 1900’s and spent time in a hospital. His view of nurses was that nurses were nothing but servants cleaning and waiting on sick people. My mother’s oldest sister, Mary, stuck up for her and convinced their father that she should follow her dream. So my mother went back to school to take all the science courses that the Catholic high school didn’t offer and then enrolled in the nursing program at Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital in New York City.

She loved nursing. Madeline was an extrovert and always related well to people. She told me once that even if she didn’t like a person, she could always find at least one good quality they possessed.  The people were not a problem. As daughter number 4 in the household, she never got to cook and did not even know how to make a cup of tea when she got to nursing school. She took a lot of ribbing from her classmates because she was such a novice in the kitchen. She never really liked cooking and was always willing to let someone else do it. When I was young, my mother would give me a choice, “Would you rather cook or iron?” I always chose cooking. She was always happier ironing.

It was in nursing school that she met my father. He was a medical student at New York Medical College finishing his last 2 years of clinical studies. We heard much bantering when we were kids about who pulled who into the linen closet for a kiss. My mother would also visit my father in the lab where he had student employment taking care of the mice and rats. My mother claimed he would terrorize her by chasing her around the lab while carrying a mouse. She always hated rodents. Ah, young love!

On a picnic with friends at the Bronx Zoo in the spring of 1941.

My mother graduated in February 1941 and was awarded her R.N. shortly thereafter. My father graduated in June 1941 and headed out to Lincoln, Nebraska for an internship. Many letters were exchanged debating whether they should get married now or wait or even get married at all. Finally, she said Howard called and said, he thought they should get married now. So she packed up her stuff and took the train to Lincoln. She got a job as the head nurse in the nursery at the hospital and on September 21, 1941, Madeline Van De Veire and Howard Baldwin took the train to St. Mary, Kansas and were married, a day my mother described as the happiest day in her life.

Wedding Day, September 21, 1941

Two Women Named Elizabeth Van Camp

In his book “Loyalists in Ontario, The Sons and Daughters of the American Loyalists of Upper Canada”, William D. Reid lists 2 women named Elizabeth as daughters of Jacob Van Camp.(1) Both received grants of 200 acres from the crown as the daughter of a United Empire Loyalist. This has caused a lot of confusion in on-line trees. Most trees that I have seen list one Elizabeth Van Camp with 2 husbands. Essentially, they are saying that Elizabeth Van Camp was a bigamist with 2 husbands and 2 sets of children. I highly doubt this. I thought it would be useful to examine the evidence and see where that leads us.

Jacob Van Camp and his wife Annatje (or Hannah) Buys (or Buis, Boice, Boyce, Bice) had 11 children, 6 sons and 5 daughters. I have located petitions from the 4 youngest sons and 5 daughters (including the 2 Elizabeth’s). I have not located a request from the 2 eldest sons. Matthew supposedly returned to New York and died in Saratoga. Peter stayed in Ontario, settling in Durham County. Jacob’s daughters were named Catherine (b. 1775, m. Joshua Lossee), Rachel (b. 1779, m. Amos Knapp), Mary (b. 1792, m. Abraham Knapp), Elizabeth (b. 1783, m. Benjamin Mosher) and Jannetje (b. 1790). I have been unsuccessful in finding any information about Jannetje. But we do have the second Elizabeth who married Edward Van Arnam according to Reid. The Van Arnams were UE Loyalists. The father, Jacob, settled in Sorel, Quebec and his sons settled in Ernestown and Augusta, Ontario. But none of these sons were named Edward and I have been unsuccessful locating any information about Edward Van Arnam.

So I began to wonder if perhaps Reid was wrong and one of these Elizabeths had a different father. There were 3 men named Van Camp who were given United Empire Loyalist status, Peter Van Camp, his oldest son Jacob and his youngest son John. Peter’s two other sons fought for the British but chose to remain in New York instead of settling in Canada. Neither Peter nor John had a daughter named Elizabeth as far as I know. I decided to obtain copies of the petitions for both Elizabeths and see for myself. Here are my transcriptions of the relevant parts.

Elizabeth I

     The petition of Elizabeth Mosher of the Township of Marlborough in the District of Johnstown and province of upper Canada, wife of Benjamin Mosher humbly represents,

     That your petitioner is the Daughter of the late Jacob Van Camp of the Township of Matilda in the Eastern District of the aforementioned province. A loyalist who adhered to the unity of the Empire and joined the Royal Standard before the year 1783 - that your petitioner is married and has not hitherto received any lands or order for lands from the Crown.(2)

This petition was dated 24 February 1808 and signed by Elizabeth Mosher. Order in Council dated 17 March 1808. This signifies that her request was granted.

Elizabeth and Benjamin Mosher were both born in the US. They were married about 1807 and had 7 children between 1808 and 1832. Benjamin died about 1832. We do not know when Elizabeth died. One of their sons immigrated to Wisconsin and in both the 1880 and 1900 census reported that both of his parents were born in New York.

Elizabeth II

     The Petition of Elizabeth Varnum of Augusta humbly showeth

     That your petitioner is the daughter of Jacob Van Camp of Augusta, a UE Loyalist and that she has never received any lands or order for lands from the Crown

     Elizabeth Varnum maketh oath and sayeth that She is the person she describes herself to be in the above petition and that she is married to Edward Varnum of Augusta and has never Received any land or order for land from the Crown. (3)

This petition was dated 16 September 1815 and signed by Elizabeth Varnum. Orders in Council dated 30 November 1815. (Note that 2 of her brothers filed petitions and stated their father was from Augusta. Jacob apparently moved down the St. Lawrence River. Maybe he deeded his land in Matilda to his eldest son, Peter. I need to do some land research.)

The first thing to notice is her husband’s name is Varnum, not Van Arnam. Edward Varnum does appear in records both in New York and Ohio. This family immigrated to Ohio and is found in the 1850 and 1860 censuses in Williams County, Ohio. In both census years, Edward Varnum states he was born in Vermont and Elizabeth states she was born in Canada. Their first son was named Willard, named after Edward’s father, and their second son was named Jacob after Elizabeth’s father. Willard Varnum lived in Washington County, New York. This is the same county where Edward Varnum served in the militia in the 1810’s. Their son, Jacob, born around 1820, claims he was born in New York. Elizabeth and Edward had 6 children born between 1808 and 1831.

My working hypothesis at this time is that Elizabeth II is Jannetje, probably Jannetje Elizabeth. It would be helpful to find a christening record for Jannetje and a marriage record, although both records tend to be scarce on the frontier in the early 19th Century. It is definitely clear that we are dealing with 2 different women both daughters of Jacob Van Camp and both going by the name Elizabeth. It is definitely not unusual during this time period for a favorite name to be given to several children.

(1) Reid, William D., The Loyalists of Upper Canada, The Sons and Daughters of the American Loyalists of Upper Canada, Lambertville, New Jersey, Hunterdon House, 1973, Pg. 323. (Reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore)

(2) Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG1L3, Vol:333A, Bundle:M8, Petition:218, Microfilm:C-2947, Library and Archives Canada(http://www.bac-lac,gc.ca/eng:accessed 28 Feb 2015).

(3)Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG1L3, Vol:514A, Bundle:V10, Petition:24, Microfilm:C-2196, Library and Archives Canada(http://www.bac-lac,gc.ca/eng:accessed 28 Feb 2015).

What happened to Peter Van Camp?

John Van Camp and Mary Frees had 4 daughter and 3 sons. Every one of their children applied for a land grant as a son or daughter of a United Empire Loyalist except for Peter. What happened to Peter? Did he die early? Or did he move back to the United States? He had 2 uncles and many cousins living in New York. That would be a logical place for him to go if he was looking to make his fortune. I decided to try and find Peter.

John Van Camp was the youngest son of Peter Van Camp and Phoebe Bergen. He, his father and his 3 brothers all fought for the British during the American Revolution. After the war, two sons, Jacob and John, accepted a land grant from the British and settled in Dundas County, Ontario. Two other sons, Simon and Teunis, returned to New York. Each son had a son named Peter for a total of 4 Peter Van Camps born between 1771 and 1798.

Jacob, Peter and Phoebe’s first born son, married Annatie Buys about 1769 in New York. Their first son was named Peter Van Camp after Jacob’s father, following Dutch naming conventions. Peter was born on 11 May 1771 and baptized at the Reformed Dutch Church at Schaghticoke, Rensselaer, New York shortly thereafter. His grandfather, Peter Van Camp, was one of his sponsors.  Peter, son of Jacob, went to Canada with his parents, married Rhoda Brundage before 1792 and moved his family to Darlington Township, Durham, Ontario, Canada. Peter and Rhoda had many children but none named Peter. Peter died there on 25 Feb 1848.

Simon Van Camp married Sarah Buys, sister to Annatie Buys, about 1775. They named their first born son Peter following tradition. Peter was born on 26 July 1777 and baptized in 1778 at the Reformed Dutch Church at Schaghticoke. This Peter followed his Uncle Teunis westward and settled in Onondaga County New York. He married Martha Ostrander about 1798. Together they raised 4 sons and a daughter but did not name any of their sons Peter. Peter died in Skaneateles, Onondaga, New York on 25 February 1851.

Teunis, Peter’s and Phoebe’s third son, married Elizabeth La Grange about 1785 and settled in Courtland County, New York. Their first child, a son, was born in 1786 and they named him Peter. This Peter married a woman named Phoebe and moved to Onondaga County and died there about 1846. I have only been able to identify 2 children for this Peter, both sons and neither named Peter.

So now we get to Peter born 1798 in Canada, son of John and Mary Van Camp, my mystery Peter. When you search for Peter Van Camp in the 1830 US Census on Ancestry, 3 entries pop up. One Peter Van Camp in Skaneateles, Onondaga, New York. This is the son of Simon and Annatie Van Camp. The second one is in Tully, Onondaga, New York. This is Peter, the son of Teunis. And the third Peter is living in Rockdale, Crawford, Pennsylvania. This household has 2 males under 5, 1 male 30-39, 1 female under 5 and 1 female 20-49, a total of 5 people. This male would have been born between 1791 and 1800. This is the right age for Peter son of Mary and John. When you search the 1840 census for Peter Van Camp, the same 3 entries appear, the 2 in Onondaga, New York and 1 in Pennsylvania but now he lives in Delaware, Mercer, Pennsylvania and he has a total household of 9. Peter has 1 male under 5, 1 male 5-9, I male 10-14, 1 male 40-49, 1 female under 5, 2 females 5-9, 1 female 10-13 and 1 female 30-39. This could be the same Peter Van Camp household. Fortunately, we were able to find a Peter Van camp household living in Independence, Cuyahoga, Ohio in 1850 that fits nicely with the family from both the 1830 and 1840 censuses. Here is the family that was enumerated in 1850 in Ohio. When you plot this family out against the 1840 census, the eldest son is missing. But he would be between 20 and 25 and is not expected to still be at home.

Peter   age 57     birth year 1793       born NY

Maria       44                1806            VT

Peter       20                1830            PA

Mary        22                1828            PA

Jane        18                1832            PA

Nancy       16                1834            PA

William     13                1837            PA

Caroline    11                1839            PA

Edward       9 or 7?          1841 or 1843    PA

I decided to see if anyone claimed this family in Ancestry trees. I found several trees and picked one that had several records attached to it. This person did not have parents for Peter but was speculating that they might be John Van Camp and Mary Frees. I e-mailed the tree owner and told her my story of looking for Peter and I thought I had found him. She shared some of her family history with me and shared a couple of stories that have been passed down in her family. Supposedly Peter told his sons on his death bed that they should go to Canada because there was an inheritance waiting for them there. He may have been referring to the land grants. An even more interesting story is that Peter said he was run out of Canada by one of his sisters who was toting a shotgun and told him she would kill him if he came back. He must have believed her. It makes you wonder what he did and which sister had the gun. 

The Family of John Boyce and Mary Van Camp

I have been going back through my tree and trying to fill in the information for brothers and sisters of my direct line. I have found that this is necessary if I want to connect with relatives through DNA tests. It is amazing to me how many people do a DNA test with little to no information about their ancestry. And there are a lot who can only go back 2 or 3 generations. So if I hope to make any connections with these people, I need to know what names I should be looking for in the 20th Century.

I have been working on my Van Camp line. I am starting with Peter Van Camp (or Van Campen) and Femmetje (or Phoebe) Bergen. Peter is one of my United Empire Loyalist ancestors. He and Phoebe had 9 children, 4 sons and 5 daughters. I have been working on his oldest daughter Mary Van Camp. Mary married Johannes Buys. I have not found a marriage record but I have found baptismal entries for their 2 oldest children in the Dutch Reformed Church in Schaghticoke, New York. The name Buys has morphed into various names depending upon the branch of the family. This branch seems to have settled on Boyce.

I started with a list under the name, ”Boyce, John of Matilda” in Loyalists in Ontario by William D. Reid.[i] Reid lists 15 names under John Boyce of Matilda. I have been very skeptical that these were all children of John Boyce and Mary Van Camp. These are individuals who applied for a grant as a son or daughter of a Loyalist. Grants were given to children who had reached the age of 21 or girls who had married. So if a young man is applying for a grant in 1836, we know that he was born at least in 1815. Most of the pedigrees on the Internet list the following children for John Boyce and Mary Van Camp: John(b 1767 in NY), Phoebe(b 1769 in NY), Peter(b 1772 in NY), Matthew(b 1775 in NY), Simon (b 1778 in NY), Jenny(b 1784), William(b 1786 in Matilda), Sarah(b 1788 in Matilda), and Mary(b 1789 in Matilda).

I decided to locate the grants for all people listed under John Boyce and determine if I could sort out any relationships. I went to the Archives of Ontario (See my posts on the UEL toolkit here.) I looked up Boyce and Boice and made a list of all individuals from Matilda or those on Reid’s list. I was missing several but, since women are listed under their married and maiden names, I searched for Jenny Pedge and found her under Bice. I found 3 others listed under Bice and one woman listed as a Baice. I found everyone on the list except for Elisher (Eleazer?). But since Elisher and William had the same dates for filling, I was hoping to find his in the documents.

I found lots of interesting information. One of the Mary’s on my list stated she was the daughter of John Brundage and was married to Peter Van Camp. I found an Elizabeth under Boyce but not on the original list. She stated that she was the daughter of Peter Prunner and married to John Boyce. I could not find requests from Peter, John or Simon but did find them from Sarah and Jenny. From reviewing all the rest of the grant requests, I was able to determine that John Boyce,Jr. was also a United Empire Loyalist since children born in the 1810s could not be children of Mary Van Camp. She would have been in her 60’s at the time. I even found one grant request where the child identified her father as John Boyce, Jr. I am just not sure of an entry for Mary. Was she the daughter of John Boyce and Mary Van Camp or the daughter of John Boyce and Elizabeth Prunner?

Not bad for a day’s work. Now I have to get all this information documented in my database and the documents labeled and filed.

---

[i] Reid, William D. The Loyalists in Ontario, The Sons and Daughters of the American Loyalists of Upper Canada, Hunterdon House, Lambertville, New Jersey (1973). Reprinted by Genealogical Publishing Co., Inc., Baltimore.

Howard Baldwin, My Dad

At the January meeting of our local genealogy society, our speaker was David Kendall, the author of “When Descendants Become Ancestors: The Flip Side of Genealogy” (available on Amazon). His premise is that as genealogists we should be documenting the events in our lives for our descendants so they don’t have to wonder about things. This got me thinking that I know a lot about my direct ancestors, my parents. Besides living with them for 18 years, I have heard many stories about their lives that I should write down for my children and grandchildren. I decided to start with my father. My children were still fairly young when he died so I am fairly certain they never heard his stories about his childhood.

My father was born and raised in North Dakota. I think of him as a farm boy but his father didn’t really farm until my dad was 13 or 14 years old. Prior to this time, he managed a farm implement store first in Grand Forks and then in Langdon, ND. My grandfather had the personality of a successful salesman. My father remembered getting their first Model T when he was about 9 years old. One day his father said, “Howard, come with me. I need to catch a train.” So my Dad got in the car and rode with his father to the depot. Once they got there, my grandfather told him to drive the car home. So my Dad drove the car home. One problem though - he didn’t know how to stop it. I asked, “What did you do?” He replied, “I prayed real hard all the way home that I wouldn’t meet another vehicle and when I pulled into the yard, I yelled for Ed (his big brother).” He learned real quick where the brake was.

They moved to a rural township before 1925 and my grandfather started farming. I know that Dad went to St. Thomas to live with his grandparents when he attended the first year of high school. He was very homesick so did not go back for more schooling. He completed high school in Grand Forks, graduating from University High School which was part of the University of North Dakota. For many farm children, it was the only way to get the required courses for admittance to the University. After graduating from high school, Dad continued into his undergraduate work and earned both BA and BS degrees, graduating in 1937 and going directly into medical school.  While he was in Grand Forks, he worked for his uncle in the summer. Uncle Bill Baldwin’s farm included vegetable farming and he hired my father to drive his produce to market. This was Grand Forks about 40 miles south of St. Thomas. My Dad told me he drove this ratty old truck that was always breaking down and continually needed fixing. One day after he had made his delivery, he was returning to St. Thomas when he realized he didn’t have any brakes. North Dakota is very flat; you can see for long distances in every direction. As he was driving, he noticed a horse and buggy coming toward the intersection ahead. It looked like the horse and the truck were going to meet in the middle. He tried to slow down as much as possible using the gears and he prayed real hard. The horse just cleared the intersection before the truck arrived. Phew.

Another job he had as an undergraduate was selling aluminum cookware. Aluminum was a new material for cookware and Dad sold this product by going into homes and cooking a meal. Usually the hostess would invite several friends and neighbors to come and eat too. Dad always was a good cook and very personable. He was one of the top salesmen for the company and they offered him a permanent job when he finished school but he wanted a career in medicine so he turned them down.

The University of North Dakota Medical School is a two year program. After completing these 2 years, students have to go elsewhere to complete their clinical training. My Dad went to New York Medical College which was affiliated with Flower Fifth Avenue Hospital in New York City. This is where he met my mother. Dad found an unheated attic room and managed to complete his training with very little money. He would go to a restaurant and order tea. Then he would take the hot water and add catsup to make tomato soup. He ate lots of cheese sandwiches because they were cheap and had protein. He told me it was so cold in his attic room that he would have to study by flashlight under a pile of blankets. He vowed that he would never be cold again. I remember how fussy he was about the furnace. He wanted the most reliable, most efficient furnace. And outside of an ice storm or two, it was never cold in our house.

It is humbling to know how much our parents sacrificed and how hard they worked to become the successful people they were. All I know is his hard work made my life very comfortable and secure. Thanks, Dad.

Building an UEL Toolkit, Part II

In my last post, I talked about building a toolkit for researching my United Empire Loyalist (UEL) ancestors. Find it here. I started by listing three books I consider invaluable resources for searching for Loyalist ancestors. Today I want to list some of my favorite websites. My Loyalists were primarily from New York State so I have not paid any attention to the large amount of information on Loyalist who settled in New Brunswick and Newfoundland. I know that ships took Loyalists from along the eastern seaboard from Charleston to Boston on to New Brunswick and Newfoundland. Most of these Loyalists stayed in these eastern provinces.

The UEL Association of Canada has a website with a lot of good information. This is usually my first stop to find my Loyalist ancestor. First, they maintain a list of all know Loyalists. They tell you if your ancestor is on the list, was on the list and was removed, or removed and reinstated. For a lot of the entries there is very little information. If a Loyalist has been proven, that means a descendant has proved his lines of descent and is a member of the UEL Association. For some entries there is a gold mine of information. For instance, if you happen to be descended from Peter Van Camp, like I am, his wife and children are listed, his military service is there, his death date and place are given and one of his proven descendant’s line back to Peter is also given. So a lot of information. But this site has more than just a list of Loyalists. It has lists of Loyalist Regiments with links to several web pages and resources you can use in researching your ancestor’s involvement in the War of American Independence. There are also links to websites where modern military units have encampments and reenactment of battles. The UEL Association has a good overview history of each Loyalist unit and has links for further research. Find the UEL Association web page here.

No Loyalist research can be complete without looking at Upper Canada Land Petitions. Fortunately, Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has placed the digital images of all these petitions on line. Ken McKinlay, in his blog Family Tree Knots, has written an excellent description of how to locate these petitions. You can read his blog here. He gives you links to the LAC finding aid and the actual petitions. These have been archived by LAC and can be difficult to find. Read Ken’s blog and bookmark his links and you will never have to struggle with the question, “How did I do this, anyway”. Spellings of names in the finding aid may not be what you are expecting so be prepared to get out your list of alternate spellings; you will need it. Also daughters of Loyalists are listed with both their maiden names and married names. This can be helpful especially if you have a last name with a lot of alternate spellings. I have used this to my advantage on more than one occasion.

Another website that has a lot of information is Olive Tree Genealogy, developed and maintained by Lorine McGinnis Schulze. She has information on Loyalists, as well as Native Americans, Palatines, New Netherlands, Ships Passenger Lists and American and Canadian Military. I use this site for New Netherlands, Palatines and Loyalists. Lorine provides links to other sites. If you are looking for early New York church records, this is a good place to start.

I hope these links help you in your search for your Loyalist ancestors. 

Building an UEL Toolkit

Rootstech 2015 is over. There are a lot of great training videos posted to their site. I would recommend that you take advantage of this opportunity to listen to some great lecture and increase your knowledge base. One of the videos I watched is Building a Research Toolbox by Thomas MacEntee. I like to bookmark sites that I find useful but have run into a couple of problems with using the bookmark feature in my web browser. First, I tend to get a lot of bookmarks. Even when I try to categorize them, they tend to get lost. The other and bigger problem is that they are not portable. I don’t have my bookmarks with me at the library, for instance. Then I have to spend time trying to find that website with all the answers. So I watched Thomas’ presentation and decided to make a toolkit for myself. You can watch the rootstech videos here. Thomas gives you a link to his toolbox and encourages you to take it and personalize it for your own use.

I decided to try and make a toolbox specifically for my UEL research. So far I count 7 direct ancestors who are listed on the UEL lists, never mind assorted uncles and relatives by marriage. If I were Canadian, I would have lots of opportunity to join a lineage society.

Here are the resources I have found so far by category.

Books:I go back to these 4 all the time.

1. Merriman, Brenda Dougall, CG; “Genealogy in Ontario: Searching the Records”, Fourth Edition; Ontario Genealogical Society; 2008. There is a newer edition of this book, the 30th Anniversary Edition, 2013. Chapter 11 is devoted to Loyalist Ancestors and discusses Loyalists lists, military service, land grants, claims for losses and the UEL Association of Canada. Merriman’s book is a good place to start. If you are doing a lot of research in Ontario, you may wish to purchase a copy for yourself. It is $30 and can be purchased from the Ontario Genealogical Society. A search on world cat located 2 copies of this book within 10 miles of my home.

2. Reid, William D., “Loyalists in Ontario; The Sons and Daughters of The American Loyalists of Upper Canada”; originally published by Hunterdon House, Lambertville, New Jersey, 1973 and republished by The Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore. Reid was an archivist for the Province of Ontario. During his career, he accumulated information on land grants given to the sons and daughters of the Loyalists. They are arranged by family groups and are invaluable information for the genealogist. I also own this book; I use it constantly. Also available in my local library.

3. Crowder, Norman K., “Early Ontario Settlers”, Genealogical Publishing Company, Baltimore, 1993. This book is also in my personal library and is also available locally. Crowder has taken military records, muster rolls and provisioning list from 1783 - 1789 and reproduced them in an indexed book. Crowder provides extensive notes on his sources so you can determine exactly where the data on your ancestor was found and validate it yourself. His Bibliography is also worth a review.

4. Fraser, Alexander,Provincial Archivist, “Second Report of the Bureau of Archives for the Province of Ontario, 1904”, L.K. Cameron, Toronto, 1905. This report includes all the loss reports filed by Loyalists and recorded in Canada. These reports were given in person to the committee and each Loyalist presented a witness to the committee to corroborate his testimony. I purchased this book on CD from Quintin Publications. It is available in its entirety on archive.org. You can get information on relatives such as parents, where the Loyalist lived in the United States, where he currently resides and a good idea of his net worth before the war.

I have too many resources for one post so I will continue this later.

Maria Winegard, Smashing a Brick Wall

     Most of us have lots of female ancestors without maiden names. That is one thing I like about researching my Dutch and Flemish ancestors - the woman keeps her maiden name for life. I think we should all do that. Imagine how much easier it would be on all us genealogists if we didn’t have to scramble to find a woman’s maiden name and birth family. 

     I had one such female ancestor, Charity Winegard. Charity married Reuben Van Camp about 1854. Since this family was Methodist, outside the official church, the Church of England, they were probably married by the Methodist minister in South Mountain, Ontario. He would have reported the marriage to the Eastern District office and it would have been copied into the marriage register.(On my to-do list!) The Winegard family was enumerated in the 1851 Census of Canada in Mountain Township, Dundas, Upper Canada. The family consisted of the following:

         

          John Winegard, carpenter, age 50, born in

            United States, Episcopal Methodist

          Mariah, age 44, born Canada

          Charity, age 18, born Canada

          Abraham, age 17, carpenter, born Canada

          Amy, age 15, born Canada

          Polly, age 13, born Canada

          Mary J., age 11, born Canada

          Mathias, age 7, born Canada

          Isaac, age 4, born Canada

     I got a hint on one of the message boards that Mariah was a Barkley (or Barclay). So I went to the Web and looked at family trees to see if I could find a Maria Barkley married to a John Winegard. Bingo, a plethora of family trees showing a family for Maria. According to the consensus, Maria (or Anna Maria) was the daughter of Mathias Barkley and Margaret Cook (or Kock). This sounds good. Maria named one of her sons Mathias. I was able to find an 1830 US Census return for John Winegard living in Westerlo, Albany, New York. In this household were 1 male under 5, 1 male 30-39, 1 female under 5, 1 female 20-29. So it looks like there were at least 2 children older than Charity.

     This opened up the whole Barkley clan. Matthias’ father was Heinrich Adam Barkley, born in Baden-Wuerttenberg, Germany. His father was Eberhard Buercklin. Eberhard came to Philadelphis in the 1750’s with his wife and 6 sons, He moved to the Rensselaer plantation in the Albany, New York area and farmed there until his death on 1788. His wife died in 1797. Three more sons were born in New York. According to some reports, all but one of these sons were Loyalists and fought with the British. One son, Michael, served in the New York militia and received a pension from the US government in the 1830’s. I know that Andrew, Christian, Everhart and Peter Barkley all received land in Canada for their service from the British government.  After the end of the war, all sons went back to Albany and were enumerated in the 1790 census. I think they went back to support their parents and did not permanently move to Canada until after 1800.

     Heinrich (or Henry) died in Albany about 1800. Two of his sons moved to Canada but did not apply for any land as a child of a Loyalist so I am not sure if Henry served in a Loyalist regiment or not. (More things on my to-do list.) Mathias and his wife, Margaret, had 13 children. The first 3, Jacob, Johan and Anna Maria (my direct ancestress) were born in the United States and the rest in Canada. So this family moved sometime between December 1808 and January 1811. The Winegard family followed them but not until after April 1841. All of the Winegard children from Charity through Mary, stated many times that they were born in the United States and specified New York on various US Censuses.

     John Winegard died in 1858 and I was lucky enough to find that his wife remarried in 1860. There was an index only record of the marriage on Ancestry. I believe it can be found in Eastern District Marriage Registers since in the 1861 Census of Canada, Maria and her new husband, William Taylor, state that they belong to the Church of Scotland. In this record, Maria says she was born in the United States and that her parents are Matthew and Margaret Barkley. I think I have some good evidence that I am climbing the right family tree.

Ellen Wilson

Ellen Wilson is another of my brick walls. She is one of my second great grandmothers. She was born in Ireland and immigrated to Canada as a young girl. What I know about her was hand written on the top of a typed pedigree chart. This was part of my father’s collection of family stuff. It said that Ellen came to Canada at the age of 12. She was from Enniskillen, County Fermanagh. The trip took 6 weeks. When they arrived in Canada, they settled on Concession VII, lot 5 in Edwardsburg.

I have accumulated several documents from Canada that relate to Ellen. The first was a copy of the marriage record. Eleanor Wilson and Daniel Baldwin were married on the 3rd day of January 1833 in Mountain after the publishing of banns. Witnesses were Samuel Gainsey and James Nettleton. Signed by Ezra Healy, minister of the Methodist Episcopal Church. The couple settled on Concession IV, Lot 18 in Mountain Township, Dundas County, Upper Canada (Ontario was not in existence yet) and started a family. Ellen was a farmer’s wife and I am sure worked hard all day long.

She was enumerated with her family in the Canadian censuses in 1851, 1861, 1871 and 1881. By 1881, farming duties had been assumed by their youngest son, William, my great grandfather, and Daniel and Ellen were able to enjoy their grandchildren. Ellen died on 16 February 1891 at age 83. Her death was duly registered by her daughter, Sarah Van Camp. She was buried with her husband and a beautiful tombstone was erected by the family. The information on the tombstone agrees with the information on her death certificate.

From the information I have, I calculate she was born about 1808 and she came to Canada about 1820. This was a time that the waves of immigrants were just beginning. The Napoleonic Wars ended in June 1815 and a period of economic hardship followed. The market for grain collapsed because there were no more large armies to feed. At the same time, blights hit the Irish crops several years in a row so yields were down significantly. The ads for cheap land in Canada must have been appealing. All it took was the price of a ticket on a sailing vessel and you could be off to your new life.

The fact that we have a township, concession and lot number where Ellen and her family settled makes looking up land records very easy. Edwardsburg Township in Grenville County was one of the first ones surveyed and settled by soldiers in Jessup’s Corps after the American Revolution. So there should be records in Grenville County, now Leeds and Grenville County, dating back to the original crown land grant. I decided to see if I could determine if Wilsons lived on this lot in the mid 19th century. McGill University has digitized old county maps that have the landholder’s name printed on them. You can access their database at http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/countyatlas/. The 1861 atlas for Grenville County showed an N. Wilson on lot 5, concession VII. I went to the Canadian census for 1861 and located a record for Newburk Wilson living in Edwardsburg with a wife and seven children. Wow! Could this be Ellen’s brother, or cousin?

I ordered the film for Grenville County land records indexed by concession and lot from the Family History Library. I was disappointed to find that the first entry for anyone named Wilson occurred in 1910 when Newbuck Wilson’s son John Wilson, granted land to his son Royal Wilson. So by 1910 John Wilson owned at least the East one half of the East one half of Lot 5 (about 50 acres) if he was able to transfer it. How did he become the owner? There are no transactions listed any earlier. This is not too unusual since in the nineteenth century no one considered it important to register a sale until they themselves were going to sell it. Often you will find a sale registered in say 1851 but the date on the document was 1820. I tried to find the film where Book U transactions were filmed so I could look at the actual document but I could not find any film entry listing Book U. So that’s where I stand. Sometimes genealogy can be very frustrating. Sigh!