A death record ties family to Abraham Ramsay and Ann Dancy.
We have my husband > his mother > Her parents John Christie and Mildred Frieda Allan > Daniel Allan m Esther Ramsay > George Ramsay m Mary Eliza Patterson > Abraham Ramsay m Ann Dancy in Ireland. Their names come from George's death record 20 Sep 1911, place of birth, Ireland, so George was 99!
My husband has not been interested in doing DNA but he might be persuaded if someone interested him - just started getting a tiny bit interested in this.
This is what I wrote in 2015 which is after that original post. I have not done much with it since.
George Ramsay was born about 1825 (1826 or 27) in Northern Ireland. His parents, listed on his death certificate, were Abraham Ramsay and Ann Dancy - or Davey - (believe it to read Dancy, not Vancy). He immigrated to Canada sometime between 1841 and 1850 (census records). I think 1841 is the likely date, since he probably gave that date himself in 1901. In 1911, a younger daughter likely gave the 1850 date, if it was his daughter he was living with as the census states. She would have been quite young to be his daughter, and I have found no evidence of a remarriage.
This timing would fit in with the early era of the great potato famine in Ireland; a time when three million of a total of eight million inhabitants of Ireland died of starvation or disease. Many persons were shipped over to the new world, and especially to Canada.
I have have found records and censuses for George, and for a William Ramsay, about two years younger, possibly his brother, and a Margaret Ramsay in Seneca, Haldimand County, Ontario in 1871, all three living at different addresses. Margaret is 22, but the two men are about the right age to be brothers at 46 and 44 and each is a head of household, and all three were born in Ireland, which few Ramsays in Canada were, generally being from Scotland. Unfortunately the census transcriptions do not list other members in the families. George was Anglican/Church of England, which Esther lists on her Wedding Certificate (Episcopalian). William, if he is George's brother, was born in County Monaghan, Ulster, Ireland (from death certificate), and the 1871 census record lists him as Wesleyan Methodist. He died of diabetes at age 56; I don't know if he had any children, but I suspect that he did as a head of household. Margaret is not George's daughter, she could be William's. And elderly Ramsay cousins are mentioned in the 1977 letter, Ethel Ramsay and Helen Ramsay Winger (married Earl Winger), although they could also be grandchildren of George's (or of William's) since I do not know their ages. Helen and Ethel lived together in Caledonia, near by, in 1977 so would likely to have been born between 1890 and 1910.
Aside from William being from County Monaghan, George's mother, Ann Dancy is a clue. I found no Vancy's in Ireland, certainly not Northern Ireland, but though rare, there is one family in County Monaghan. However there are five Dancy families in Cavan, and one in Down. County Cavan is next to County Monaghan. For what it is worth, the 1848-64 Valuations list three Ramsay landholders in County Monaghan: Elizabeth in Currin, Joseph in Currin (part of Clones of the famous 1834 Cholera Epidemic) and one James Ramsay of Donaghmoyne.
By 1881, George is a farmer and a widower. Living with him are his children, William, James, Abraham, Annie (an Anna Ramsay of same age later lives with Esther and Daniel in Rochester), Easter (Esther? born abt 1860, she seems to have changed her birth date as she was several years older than husband, Daniel), Robert, Jane, and the youngest, Mary. The younger Mary was born in 1870; George then being widowed six years later. Research turned up an Ontario Death Certificate for Mary E. Ramsay, Seneca, Haldimand, who died in 1876 at the age of 44 after a long illness, of cancer. George lived well into his 80s, until after the 1911 Census, in Seneca, Haldimand, Ontario, first as a boarder in 1901, later with an even younger daughter, although again, I did not find evidence of a remarriage.
Ontario Deaths 1869-1947
George Ramsay
Death date: 20 Aug 1911
Age at death: 86 years
Death place: Seneca, Haldimand, Ontario
Birthdate: 12 Jul 1812 (note: if above is correct, and censuses, then birthyear would be 1825)
Birthplace: Ireland
Gender: Male
Marital Status: Widowed
Father’s name: Abraham Ramsay
Mother’s name: Ann Dancy
