(Beginnings of a) Research Plan : William Granger/Grainger's Death and Burial

Objective: To find out when William Granger/Grainger died and to locate where he is buried.

Known Facts:

• Located William and wife Mary (with William's brother and William's son from his first marriage) in the 1871 census (Fitzroy tp., Carleton co., Ontario, CAN).
• Have not located William in the 1881 census and after (wife Mary died in 1874 and son Thomas married in 1872).
• William was not found in the St. Mark's Anglican Cemetery (Pakenham tp., Lanark co., Ontario, CAN) transcription with his wives and son.
• No death registration has been found in the Ontario Death Registration indexes (searched through both the Archives of Ontario in Toronto and Ancestry.com's version)
• William's son Thomas was listed as the informant for Mary's death in 1874 (William's second wife).

Working Hypothesis: William Granger/Grainger died between 1871 and 1874 and is buried at St. Mark's Anglican Cemetery, Pakenham, with the rest of his family.

Identified Sources:

• Burial registers for Pakenham, held at Anglican Diocese of Ottawa Archives, available for 1841-1970.

Research Strategy:

• Write to Anglican Diocese of Ottawa Archives asking for a Pakenham burial between 1871 - 1874.

52 Weeks to Better Genealogy : Week 8 - the results...

Amy Coffin of the We Tree blog presents "52 Weeks To Better Genealogy", a series of weekly genealogy prompts / suggestions / exercises that (hopefully) will help anyone to become a better researcher.

The challenge for week 8:

Discover online map collections. Historical maps are wonderful tools for historical research. Fortunately for genealogists, many map collections are located online. Some of the more prominent collections are: the American Memory Collection at the Library of Congress, the David Rumsey Map Collection, and the Perry-Castañeda Library Map Collection at the University of Texas at Austin. Take some time to browse each of these collections. You may also want to check the library web site of your local university (or one near your ancestral home) to see what maps they may have online. If you have a genealogy blog, write about any special maps you find during this activity.

The Results:

Even before I surfaced into the world of genealogy, the one resource I loved to look at were the hardbound county map books that are held by the main branch of my public library.  These measured 14" x 18.5" and were published for counties in Ontario originally in the 1870s-1880s.  They were reprinted in the 1970s-1980s by the Belleville company, Mika Publishing, which reprinted a lot of old Ontario books and atlases.

The books were held in a specially-built open-front cabinet with a sloped viewing top - much like a podium (which is, incidently, probably gone; the main branch has been recently undergoing renovations and though I have yet to have a peek, it definitely doesn't fit with the "modern" look of the architect.  Sigh.).  I remember pulling out a book at a time and slowly fliping through the large pages, peering at the tiny names printed in the various lots and reading the general histories and biographies.  I would have loved to take one home, but they were reference copies only.

Fortunately for me (now), there's the Canadian County Atlas Digital Project, provided by the Digital Collections Program, Rare Books and Special Collections Division, McGill University, and hosted through McGill library's website.  Originally launched in 1999, the site offers a short history of the county maps and their publishers, a short list of abbreviations, and the ability to order high-resolution copies.  Viewers can search the collection by either a last name (alone or with further qualifiers) or by place (generally by county, by either a clickable map or a list, or more specifically with pull-down lists by county, township, and/or town).

Fitzroy Township, Carleton County, Ontario, Canada.
Map originally published by H. Beldon & Co., Toronto, 1879. 
Image from The Canadian County Atlas Digital Project, McGill University, 2001. 
Accessed 8 December 2010.  Click to enlarge.

View of Concessions III and IV, Lots 5 and 6,
Fitzroy Township, Carleton County, Ontario, Canada.

"Thos. Granger" (blocked out in red) was my great-great-grandfather, "D[avid]. Story" (blocked out in green, but with his Story brothers all around) was Thomas' father-in-law and thus my great-great-great-grandfather, and "R[ichard]. Barber" (blocked out in blue) was also my great-great-grandfather.  Thomas' daughter Linda and Richard's son Michael were my great-grandparents!

For me (a city gal) to not only be able to see the extent of land that my forefathers owned (coupled with descriptions from the agricultural schedule of the 1871 census), but also the proximity that these families lived within each other has always been quite special to me.  Not only were their farms close by, but they most likely attended the same church (St. Mark's Anglican, ironically in the next township and the next county!) and went to the same social functions.  My "people" were farmers, descended from poor protestant Irish, who left Ireland before the famine to eke out a new life in a strange new country.  They didn't get much mention in the "official" record, and I have very little personal artefacts, so any little link to their lives is, for me, quite precious.


Please Note: This challenge was originally published the week of 20 February 2010 at GeneaBloggers.  I'm continuing the series on my own after a lengthy (cough, cough) break from genealogy...

Michael Barber's Death Notice

(click image to enlarge)

From the Ottawa Citizen, Friday April 29, 1955, p. 42: 

Died

BARBER, Michel James - At Kinburn, Ontario, on Friday, April 29, 1955.  Michel James Barber, beloved husband of Linda Grainger, in his 83rd year.  Resting at his home, Kinburn, Ontario.  Funeral service Sunday, May 1, 1955, at 2 p.m. to St. John's Anglican Church, Antrim.  Interment St. Mark's Cemetery, Pakenham, Ontario.

I've previously posted his obituary.  I have yet to locate his wife's obituary...

Grainger/Cavanagh Anniversary

(click image to enlarge)

I'm related to both the husband and the wife in the above article (transcription below), pulled from the Ottawa Citizen archives digitalized by Google News...

From the Ottawa Citizen of March 26, 1959, p. 28:

55 Years Spent On Farm, Couple Mark Anniversay
KINBURN (Special) - A couple who have spent all their married lives on their farm on the fourth line of Fitzroy, celebrated their 55th wedding anniversary at an "at home."  Some 100 guests signed the guest book for the happy couple, Mr. and Mrs. George Cavanagh.  They were the recipients of many gifts and messages.  A 55-year scroll was received from Erskine Johnston, MLA, and a gift from the school section.  Mrs. Cavanagh is the former Annie Grainger, daughter of the late Mr. and Mrs. Thomas Grainger, and Mr. Cavanagh is the son of the late Mr. and Mrs. William Cavanagh, all of Fitzroy township and Kinburn community.  The couple were married in St. Mark's Anglican rectory at Pakenham by Rev. W. Warren.  Their attendants were the groom's sister, Mrs. Emery Dean, and the late Mr. Dean.  They have two sons, Merville and Elmer of Kinburn; and three daughters, Mrs. Robert (Effie) Holmes of Kingston, Mrs. William (Verna) Scripnek of Kingston, and Mrs. Grant (Lola) Smith of Peterborough.  They also have 16 grandchildren and one great-grandchild.

Blogger reader = Google = Ottawa Citizen = genealogical happy dance!!

While browsing my blogger reading list (I'm not a fan of the Google Reader), I happened to come across the most recent entry (February 2nd) from the "Librarians Helping Canadian Genealogists Climb Family Trees" blog: "Google makes Historical Ottawa Citizen available online"  Wow!

The short entry barely gives anything away, merely excerpting a small clip from a (current) Ottawa Citizen article by Kelly Egan and stating digitalized copies begin (roughly) in 1890.

Deciding to give it a go (though my ancestors lived throughout the western reaches of the Ottawa valley, they rarely strayed (in official records, anyway) towards the city itself), I clicked on the Google link.  Typing in a few keywords ("barber" and "pakenham") and entering "Ottawa Citizen" in the source box, I hit the enter key.  Little did I expect one of the first entries to jump right off the page...

From the Ottawa Citizen, May 2, 1955, p. 4:

Michael Barber
KINBURN (Special) - Funeral service for Michael James Barber, a resident of Kinburn all his life, was held in St. John's Anglican Church, Antrim, Sunday afternoon.  Mr. Barber died at his home Friday after an illness of several weeks.  He was 82.  Rev. P. Caiger Watson conducted the service.  Burial was in St. Mark's Anglican Cemetery.  Mr. Barber leaves his wife, the former Linda Grainger; three daughters, Mrs. Beattie Timmins, of Pakenham, Mrs. Amy Cameron of Arnprior, and Miss. Pearl Barber of Ottawa; and a son, Norman, at home.

http://news.google.ca/newspapers?id=uc0wAAAAIBAJ&sjid=-dwFAAAAIBAJ&dq=barber%20pakenham&pg=4291%2C25754

(click image to enlarge)

(Did I do my genealogy happy dance?  You bet your bottom I did - and startled the dog and the cat in the process! ;-)

This is my great-grandfather!!! 

This (the Ottawa Citizen), is a resource I wouldn't have thought to check.  Arnprior (where my grandmother lived and is closer than Ottawa), had it's own newspaper (Arnprior Chronicle) which I have earmarked for further study (I've previously went over a few surviving issues that the Archives of Ontario had).  I can't wait to explore further...

Pater Genealogia

Irish emigrants leaving home with the priest's blessing, in 1851,

from The Illustrated London News, May 10, 1851.

Credit: National Archives of Canada

My research interests lie with my paternal family (since my mom is reasearching her lines...), all of whom immigrated from various locations in Scotland, Ireland, and England to the Ottawa Valley (Carleton, Lanark and Renfrew counties) in Ontario, Canada.  Main names of preoccupation include Barber, Cameron, Cavanagh, Code, Duke, Evans, Gillespie, Grainger, Latimer, McNee, Needham, Rivington, Story, Tomlinson and Walsh. 

Below is the linear representation of my paternal ancestors, with each generation a different colour (the oldest of which dates back to the 1770s/1790s).  All of these are either immigrants to Canada or Canadian-born - I have yet to cross the hurdle that is the Atlantic Ocean.  No dates are included because a.) this is only an initial outline and b.) it would take me days to dig those out of the wreckage... 

Cameron, Jenn (me!)

d/o Cameron, B. & Hurlburt, W.

gd/o Cameron Ellwood A. & Barber A.

ggd/o Cameron, Joseph O. & Evans, Lavina

ggd/o Barber, Michael J. & Grainger, Linda

gggd/o Cameron, Archibald G. & McNee, Isabella

gggd/o Evans, George T. & Tomlinson, Mary

gggd/o Barber, Richard & Cavanagh, Elizabeth

gggd/o Grainger, Thomas & Story, Elizabeth

ggggd/o Cameron, Alexander & Gillespie, Flora

ggggd/o McNee, John & ?, Margaret

ggggd/o Evans, Richard & Code, Rachel

ggggd/o Tomlinson, William & Walsh, Mary

ggggd/o Barber, John & Rivington Mary

ggggd/o Cavanagh, John & Rivington, Jane B.

ggggd/o Grainger, William & Duke, Esther

ggggd/o Story, David & Needham, Jane

gggggd/o Rivington, Michael & ?, Catherine

gggggd/o Story, John & Latimer, Margaret