Stelling family from York, England to Canada circa 1829

[elsie ellen]

Hi From Australia!

I am trying to find  emigration/immigration details for Richard Stelling, his wife Mary Ann Stelling (nee Ward) and their three year old daughter Mary Ann. I have been told they migrated from Yorkshire, England to Canada, circa 1829, but that has not been confirmed.

The other snippet that might help is that Mary Ann married in Chatham, Canada...any chance that might help guess an entry point as a starter?

Any suggestions or help to find them would be appreciated.

Thank you

Elsie

[jorose]

It's nearly impossible to find records for those dates for England --> Canada.  Records weren't kept regularly for either those leaving England or ships coming into Canada, although a few scattered records remain (for example, archives.gnb.ca has some port records for St. Johns, 1816-1838, but no Stellings there).

You're going to have to be more specific with 'Chatham', since there is a Chatham in Ontario, one in Quebec, and one in NB.  Ontario is most likely.  There's this, from Ancaster Parish Records (Ontario):
http://my.tbaytel.net/bmartin/jmiller.htm

June 20th, 1835.-Married (by license) Richard Stelling and Anne Ward, of the
Town of Hamilton, Gore District, by me, John Miller.
Witnesses-Caroline Miller and Margaret Palmer.

http://boards.ancestry.co.uk/mbexec/message/5538/surnames.stelling/16

[elsie ellen]

I was thrilled to receive your reply today...thanks.

"By Licence" - does that mean one or both were underage? If yes, do you know what age is referred to as underage to get married?

On one of the certificates I have for my gr grandfather, Raleigh Plains is mentioned. Does that help at all?

Appreciating your assistace.

Cheers

Elsie

[jorose]

I presume it meant by license rather than by banns, as this appears to be an Anglican church and some  - they either didn't want to wait the three weeks (banns having to be read on three consecutive Sundays), or there were special circumstances (for example, if they didn't live in the parish).

Raleigh Plains - probably referring to part of Raleigh township which is in the same area as Chatham in Ontario.  Possibly the Stellings had land there at some point?

http://www.rootsweb.com/~ongenpro/census/html/co/Wentworthpre1851.html - since they were listed as being in Hamilton at the time of their marriage, it might be worth trying to get hold of the 1842 census; I'm not sure how much information is on that.

The LDS have also some interesting stuff for Raleigh township.

http://www.ogskent.on.ca/holdings.htm - you can also get this info from the Kent OGS.

You have other certificates for your gr grandfather? Did they stay in Canada or move elsewhere?

[eillo]

As Jorose has told you, those early passenger lists to Canada are a challenge! There are some,it just takes a lot of work to find them. I'd start with http://shipslists-online.rootschat.net/ and choose CANADA

There is a chance that you could get lucky, given your year of 1829 or so... If your ancestor arrived from the UK you may find him/her in lists pertaining to British-subsidized immigration schemes for the period 1817-1831. 

You might also find an ancestor in correspondence of the Secretary of State on immigration for 1817-1857.  There are lists of immigrants, mainly Irish though, and entry books re
immigration, and assisted emigration to British North America.

These must be ordered offline . Details are given at
http://olivetreegenealogy.com/articles/immcanpre1865.shtml

You might also want to join the mailing list for immigration to Canada before 1865.  You can sub from the URL above.

Also try http://olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/tocanp01.shtml

On TheShipsList website they are including Quebec ship arrivals extracted from contemporary newspapers.

See http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/Arrivals/index.htm

The Hawke Papers, letterbooks of Chief Emigrant Agent Anthony B. Hawke  are also available. They cover the years 1831 to 1892. I'd try it, just in case. http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/db/hawke.htm

If you want to search online, you may have limited success because only a very small percentage of ships to Canada have been  transcribed and put online.

I would also try to narrow the settlement area to a province - in fact you MUST do this to be successful in your search. Have you tried Canada BDM Exchange at http://www.rootsweb.com/~ote/canada/

I would then look for land records in the CLRI IF they settled in Chatham Ontario  - see http://olivetreegenealogy.com/can/ont/clri.shtml for help with that.

jorose mentioned the 1842 census - great idea - for a list of questions asked on that year, see http://allcensusrecords.com/ anc click on CANADA then 1842.

There are also early tax and assessment records you can try (again assuming ONtario as the place of settlement - you do need to find out) If you think it's Chatham Kent ONtario also see the GenWeb site for that area http://www.rootsweb.com/~onkent/