Lockhart in Ramsay Township

[heiserca]

John Lockhart left Scotland and arrived 1821 in Ramsay Township, near the village of Almonte, SW of Ottawa, with his wife, Jane McMillan, and 3 daughters, Elexis, Ann & Margaret. 

Elexis was born 30 Oct 1816.  An online tree reports that she died at Ramsay Twp on 30 Oct 1840, her 24th birthday!  I think that is likely an error.  What evidence exists of her death?  Might she instead have eloped to get married?  A woman named Ellen Lockhart, also born 1816, appeared out of nowhere at Troy, New York and got married in June, 1840.  Elexis = Ellen?

[aghadowey]

Have you tried to contact owner of tree that gives her date of death as 1840?

This pay site has an online Lockhart tree which gives her name as Alexis and lists 7 siblings:
http://www.mytrees.com/newanc/Scotland/Born-1793/Lo/Lockhart-family/John-Lockhart-s2493148-78.html

If this isn't your post on another board it looks like someone else is researching the family:
http://boards.ancestry.co.uk/surnames.lockhart/1196/mb.ashx

John Lockhart buried Auld Kirk Cemetery, Almonte- have you checked records/gravestones to see if a daughter Elexis/Alexis mentioned?
Picture of John's headstone:
http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~onlanark/cemeteries/AuldKirk/auld_kirk_cemetery.htm
Also here:
http://www.bytown.net/auldkirk.htm

[heiserca]

The tree showing her death in 1840 is on a pay site - credit card required to reply.  I won't do that for every speculative item.  I have indeed replied to the ancestry board message that you mentioned.

Photos of John Lockhart's headstone pose another problem: they show he died 21 Feb 1871, buried at Almonte, Ontario.  But the census taken in April 1871 shows John Lockhart still living, age 78, at Ramsay Township near Almonte!  Puzzling... did the census-taker count bodies in the cemetery?

[polarbear]

Hi there.

Looking at the 1871 census entry for John Lockhart ....

The top of the page his entry appears on reads "Nominal Return of the Deaths within last twelve months" so it appears John was deceased on the night of the census. The death date is given as Feb.

PB

[heiserca]

Ah..  I missed that notation at the top!  Thank you for pointing out my error, Polar Bear.  Now I can concentrate on the daughter, Elexis: did she really die in 1840, on her 24th birthday?  Or did she elope to get married in Troy, New York?  One problem per day, all my poor brain can handle.


 

[LindaGW]

The Lanark County Genweb site (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~onlanark/) is an excellent resource.  (Ramsay Township is in Lanark County.)  Near the bottom of the homepage there is a search function - a quick check for Lockhart brought up several dozen hits, including some for John Lockhart.  The site also lists volunteers who do lookups.

[heiserca]

Thank you.  I tried to use their search function but it wouldn't "function".  It simply brought up another page, asking me to register my website!  I don't have a website.  I'd like to search for Elexis Lockhart, to find whether she really died in 1840, as one online tree alleges.  I think that information might be an error.  Can anyone confirm?

[LindaGW]

I've had problems with their search function, too, but recently it seemed to be working better, for me at least.   Sorry you had a problem with it today.
Here is the link to the results of the search for Lockhart (hopefully this will come up for you.) http://search.freefind.com/find.html?id=3317349&pid=r&mode=ALL&n=0&query=lockhart
Unfortunately there doesn't seem to be anything here about Elexis. 
On the website, however, there is also information about where to find BMD records for each township in the county and perhaps something there or somewhere else on the site will provide a lead.   

Good luck!
Linda

[heiserca]

That actually is helpful!  The absence of a burial record for Elexis keeps alive a theory:
- Elexis did not die in 1840 but left home about that time;
- she somehow got to Troy, New York, where she called herself Ellen;
- there in 1840 she married James Clezie, born 1816 in Berwickshire, emigrated to Quebec in 1832, resettled in Toronto by 1836, then curiously found himself at Troy, where he married a mystery woman called Ellen Lockhart, who seemed to have no past.

What an odyssey!  Indications are that Elexis from Ramsay Township might = Ellen of Troy.

This is all hypothetical... looking for evidence.

How hard was it to get from Ramsay Township to Troy in 1840?  What was the likely route?