Descendants of James Copeland Elliott

[aghadowey]

duplication deleted

[DonM]

Its an 1880 map.

It is possible your grandfather signed up for an assisted program which meant passage was paid but he would have had to agree to work in Canada for a set period of time.

These were government sponsored programs to entice people to emigrate to Canada.  During the time your grandfather arrived Ontario was strapped for Ag Labourers everyone was heading to the prairies they were paying more.

He would have earned at least 31.50/month less 10.00 for board there was no tax.  By 1910 Ontario dropped to 31.40 but the prairies were paying 5.00-8.00 more per month. These are average monthly wages from Stat's Canada.

Don

[kennbk]

Hi Don,
   Thanks for your reply.
   First your comment about an assisted program had me digging through my correspondence files. About a year and a half ago I inquired on-line to LAC about my GF. A reply by Richard Lelieve, Consultant had in a sentence “...files on immigrant assistance and/or placement for this period were not retained.”  So I think you nailed it. How could my GF afford those voyages (2 to CA, 1 to UK for himself and 1 to CA for his family) on his farrm laborer’s wages which were probably less then $1 day. I thought maybe he had to pay for those passages from his farm wages in Tweed. Well maybe “assisted” took a certain percentage of his salary to pay back to the British government. I am going to send another inquiry to LAC to elaborate on that assistance program. Any thoughts from you would also be appreciated.

   I have a 1911 Tweed census record and there is only James C. Elliott listed.
No other Elliott’s . Your map of 1880 shows 8-10 Elliott farms. Maybe the census I have is just the town (James moved into town) not the farms. I can’t imagine all those Elliott farms being sold or rented in 31 years and the other Elliotts disappearing.

[cosmac]

The 21 April 1906 arrival of Albert on the Lake Erie shows a stamp for British Bonus Allowed.  This was a commission paid to agents in Britain for obtaining qualified emigrants to move to Canada.  Your uncle would not have received any monies.  His point of landing was listed as St. Johns, N.B.

[kennbk]

  Thank you the Lake Erie information about my GF.

   I have a 1904 passenger list of the Lake Champlain with my GF arriving at Montreal on Aug 12 with destination Toronto, where he must have signed up for work or be put on a waiting list and then did something else—I don’t know. But he went back to England sometime between Aug 1904 and April 1906 but I have not found him booked on a steamship to England.
  He was there as you say to tell his wife to “pack up..we’re going to Canada—I’ve got a job and found a house for us” and then he leaves his family there and
sails on the Lake Erie back to Canada. Do you know his destination from the passenger list? If it was Toronto he hadn’t found a farm to accept him yet; if it was Tweed, he was on the way to James Elliott’s farm.
   He might have had a “report for (farm) work” day at the end of April 1906; otherwise why didn’t he stay with his family and they all leave together?
  Thanks for staying with my Rootschat request and contributing with your posts. I appreciate it.

[cosmac]

Curious - when you say your grandfather arrived in 1904 is this information based on family history - family history that details he made an initial trip to Canada before deciding to go back in 1906 permanently with his family.  I ask because the outgoing passenger list for the August sailing of the Lake Champlain shows Albert E. Baker and the corresponding Canadian record shortens it to Albert Baker.  That means he would have left England before the baptism of Albert Jr. on 17 August 1904.

[kennbk]

Hi Cosmac,
   I need to find those records. I have a copy of the 1904 Lake Champlain passenger list and it fits my GF in every column (there are no middle initials on the entire list). I received this list from my niece who was subscribing to Ancestry.com at the time.
   I don’t have a copy of the 1906 Lake Erie one.
   One of them is wrong. I think he either went over in Aug 1904 and stayed or went over in Apr 1906 and stayed. I don’t think he could have gone over and back and over again and then have his wife and boys follow on separate passage.
  Thanks for telling me about the baptism of Albert Jr? I don’t have a copy of it. Was it at St. John’s church in Bromley?  I think that it is Albert JAMES as the baptism date is reasonable as my father was born June 30, 1904.
  I can’t find family records of his arrival date and when he went to the Elliott farm in Tweed.
   Thank you for your research for me.

[kennbk]

The baptism record could possibly prove that the 1904 Lake Champlain passage was Albert E. Baker as you noted. “Baker” is such a common name and was in Kent County and many were immigrating to Canada around the same time. Albert E. could be the same age, be an Agriculture A laborer, be from Kent, be going to Toronto, as Albert W.

[cosmac]

The 1904 passenger list could be your grandfather and he could possibly have made two trips.  I just wondered whether you had oral history to support the two trips or were just basing it on the shipping records.
The 1911 census does indicate he arrived in 1906 although census records can be wrong.  The 1921 shows his place of birth as Ontario.
The fact that the 1906 passage was stamped British Bonus Allowed might be significant.  I don't know enough about that part of history to venture a qualified opinion.
It might indicate that he was first introduced to the idea of Canada in that year.