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Research in Other Countries => Canada => Topic started by: puzzlnut on Friday 04 March 11 18:02 GMT (UK)
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Thanks to everyone who helped with this. I think I've found out just about everything I can with the Fields and am amazed at how much I was able to get with your assistance. Thanks so much!
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Can someone help me wrap my head around what Durham County was around the time of the 1861 Census?
I'm attempting to find my GGgrandmother, Harriet (Field) Bullen. She might have been in the Bowmanville area during that census. Her husband, Jonathan Bullen, had gone to Victoria, B.C. (1860) and she followed him with their 2 daughters, Eliza Jane and Sarah, a few years later. She was born Harriet Field in 1831 to Jeremiah Field and Harriet Howlett, London, England (christened 1833 at St. James, Clerkenwell, London, England) Harriet Howlett was Jeremiah's second wife, the first being Hannah Westley.
I've never found record of Harriet (Field) Bullen or her 2 daughters in Ontario, in spite of the fact I know they were there - somewhere in the Bowmanville area.
I think I've finally located her father in the 1861 census in Darlington Township as a farmer. His wife (Eliza) is not Harriet's mother but I think it's him because in the 1871 census there are Howletts living with him and it seems like too much of a coincidence.
I've paged through the Darlington Township 1861 census pages without success, but what I don't know is - what does this township encompass?
A family Bible shows Harriet Field, Darlington, 10 April 1849 as the possessor, so obviously the family emigrated prior to the 1851 census, although I've never found any sign of them. There should have at least been Jeremiah (b. 1799), Harriet (b. 1831) and Eliza (b. 1833). Eliza married William Doidge in 1860 (Oshawa)
The other thing I'm trying to understand is, did Jeremiah move around or did place names just change? 1861 - Darlington Township. 1871 Pickering. 1881 York.
I live in British Columbia (near where Jonathan Bullen and Harriet Field settled) so am not that familiar with the area.
Big thanks to whoever can help.
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Hi there,
Perhaps I can help a bit. Darlington Twp was certainly in old Durham County. If you look here, you can see the historic townships of Durham county - and their major towns.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Durham_County,_Ontario
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~canon/research-area-durham.html
Pickering would be in old Ontario County:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~onontari/
As you can see, it was between Durham County and York County.
York County encompased Toronto and the surrounding areas.
I find the County Atlas Project to be a great source for historical maps (as well as locating ancestors)
http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/CountyAtlas/search.htm
Just go to the maps button and type in the county you want. This is a fabulous resource.
It is certainly possible that your family moved around between these areas - mine did :)
RK
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Thanks so much for your information, RunKitty. It has helped and I will certainly check the links out.
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Hunting around for other maps of the area, I stumbled upon this:
http://olddurhamcounty.webs.com/darlingtonmap1861.htm
A closer inspection showed names on land plots. It's fuzzy, unfortunately, and I haven't found my Fields yet, but I'm going to compare with some of the names on the 1861 census to see if I can narrow down the area. What I don't know is do the names on this map mean the people who owned the land or who were farming it?
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http://www.islandnet.com/ocfa/search.php
Ontario Cemetery Finding aid.
Enter Surname
Enter Durham in county box. and name of cemetery (Pine Grove Albert)
Names will appear. Note the ID number. Then you can contact the library (Oshawa)in that area to see if you can get transcription of the stones. You might also contact the Durham Genweb, or Oshawa library might be useful.
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Hi there,
Just a couple of notes about how a lot of Ontario farm land is divided (sort of like latitude and longitude):
Running east to west are parallel, numbered Concession roads. These numbers go up as you go north. They are often expressed as Roman Numerals.
Then the land is further divided into Lots. So, if you have an "address" of Concession VI, Lot 9. It is sort of like "Bingo" - count up to find the concession road (often shown on the side of the map as a roman numeral), then count over to find your lot number, and there you have it. Lots can be further divided into halfs or quarters, so you might have the north east quarter, or the west half or something.
If you have an "address" from the 1861 census (or if you can find the agricultural schedule to the census), you could get the co-ordinates from there.
I would suggest that you pull up the Darlington Township map from the Digital Atlas project site that I sent to you. If you have a laptop, turn your computer sideways because Lake Ontario should be to the SOUTH in this map. Somebody thought it would be a good idea to put the map on its side!! You can blow the map up as needed - to see the concession roads/lots and get an idea for locations. The Concessions are numbered on the edge of the map and the lots are shown as tiny numbers on the north side of the map (opposite from the lake). If you can get your bearings on a more easily readable map , this may help you to make sense of the "fuzzy" 1861 one.
I see on the site where you found the 1861 map - there are some references to books about the history of the area. It might be worth seeing if you can get these through interlibrary loan.
RK
** added - the link to the Darlington TWP map on the Digital County Atlas site:
http://digital.library.mcgill.ca/countyatlas/SearchMapframes.php
OOPS - it didn't go straight there. Just select Darlington from the drop down list of Townships.
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Thanks for all your suggestions, RunKitty. By checking the maps, I found the Ontario County map (made, I guess, in the 1880's) and found T. Field who I believe to be Thomas Field, Jeremiah's son. They show up on the 1871 census in the Pickering area. Thanks for your help.
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Hi,
I see that there are some early census records for Darlington Twp.
http://www.ontariogenealogy.com/Durham/census.html
You know that your ancestors arrived sometime between 1831 and 1849, so they should appear on one of these censuses.
Since these are very early records, the geographical name of the area is different. You are now in Newcastle District, but "Darlington Township" is still called the same name.
Here are the microfilm numbers from the Ontario Archives. You ought to be able to get these through interlibrary loan. Just scroll down to Darlington Township.
http://www.rootschat.com/links/0c4j/
:)RK
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This is interesting-
I went to the Pickering Ajax Digital Archives site and searched for Jeremiah Field. I found this about his twin daughters in the Sparks family history -
http://www.pada.ca/search/results/?txt_a=jeremiah+field
I am not sure what the other find shows. He must be in there somewhere.
Are you interested in other memebers of the Field family in Ontario, or were you looking specifically for Jeremiah and Harriet in the censuses/maps? If you want to find out more, there are lots of links on the Canada Resources Board under "Ontario" that will help with research, now that you know the counties and townships to look for.
If you need help finding out anything about other members of this family, please let us know!!
RK :) :)
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RunKitty - you are a mine of information! Thank you so much for your help.
I'd actually seen Jeremiah before but didn't think he was the right one - and now I do. I think he's remarried for the 3rd time and has yet more children (Hannah Westley, Harriet Howlett, Eliza ?)
There actually is a mystery I'd like to solve. One of the records in the Bullen Family Bible lists:
Birth - Harriet E.J. Bullen July 30, 1850
Marriage - Thomas James and H.E.J. Bullen December 25, 1867
Death - Harriet E.J. James October 19, 1868
No locations are given. The Bible was for the family of Jonathan Bullen and Harriet Field (Jeremiah's daughter). I'd originally thought that the mystery lady was a sister of Jonathan's as the birth date predated his marriage to Harriet. Now I'm wondering if he was married before. The first child after the marriage was my Ggrandmother Eliza Jane in 1853 - might also be an 8 on the end because it's smudged. I don't think it was a child born to them before the marriage as Jonathan was extremely religious and a pillar of the Methodist Church in Victoria (not that this really means all that much, eh?) I've never been able to find out anything about my mystery lady, although my aunt said that there was a member of the family buried in the Bowmanville cemetery - perhaps HEJ James?
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Hi,
Ontario Deaths records - available on familysearch, Ancestry, microfilm etc,. - start in 1869, so your Harriet just missed being included in these records.
I checked the Ontario Cemetery Finding Aid (vbain posted the link) http://www.islandnet.com/ocfa/search.php
There are several people with the surname James in the Bowmanville Cemetery. There is a Thomas, but not a Harriet. This doesn't necessarily mean that she isn't there. Not everyone shows up in this index.
If you need a look up of the results of your search, try this
http://www.wightman.ca/~dkaufman/
and scroll down to Durham County. There is someone there who will do lookups in the Bowmanville area.
The OGS has transcribed the Bowmanville Cemetery records. A few are free to view, but the others have to be purchased (or viewed in your library - if it has the books, or has access to the Archives of Ontario microfilms via interlibrary loan). It is a lot to browse through!
http://www.ogs.on.ca/durham/cemeteries/bowmanvl.htm
http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/archival-records/interloan/cemetery-durham.aspx
Scroll down to Durham
You could also try the Bowmanville library. Now, the area is called Clarington!! They have an Ask A Librarian feature. They would likely have the cemetery transcripts. Since you know the date she died, perhaps there was an obituary?
http://www.clarington-library.on.ca/
The Oshawa library too.
http://www.oshawalibrary.on.ca/
Maybe someone on this list has access to the transcripts and can do a quick look??
Just some suggestions. I will keep looking though.
RK
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You probably know this already, but there are a few trees on Ancestry for Jeremiah Field 1799. None seem to agree on his marriages! It is a bit confusing. ??? If you haven't looked at them yet, you might find some information there that could be useful?
RK
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Thanks, RunKitty. I am familiar with the other public family trees - 1 of them is mine and another we started some time ago under a different account. And I've contacted the owner of another who has been able to help. And I certainly appreciate your assistance!
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Hi again
In your initial post, you said that you have not been able to find any Ontario records for Harriet (Field) Bullen or her daughters Eliza Jane and Sarah. I just found one!! Only because you mentioned that they were Methodists.
The Wesleyan Methodist Baptismal Register has Sarah Ann Bullen, daughter of Jonathan and Harriet Bullen, born and baptised in Bowmanville.
http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~wjmartin/wm-b_147.htm
RK :) :)
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Terrific! Proof positive that the Bullen family lived in Bowmanville! Thanks so much, RunKitty. I didn't even realize that pages like this existed. You must really know your genealogy to be on top of this stuff.
Sarah Anne (also Ann) was the beauty of the family. My grandmother gave me Sarah's locket containing the picture of her and her fiancee. She died in 1883 at the age of 23 before the marriage could take place. Cause of death wasn't listed on the death registration but I was told she died of tuberculosis.
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Hi,
Glad I could help :). I just happen to be familiar with the geography of that area because my own relatives settled around there too. It took me a while to sort it all out - and I live reasonably close!!
Poor Sarah Ann! I am glad that you have her locket - that is a very special memento of her.
I still can't see anything for your Harriet E. J. (Bullen) James. Maybe someone else will have better ideas of where to look? The Ontario section in the Canada Resources thread is a fabulous place to find leads.
:) :)