Looking for Great Grandparents

[guest189040]

There are Canadian Directories available online but not via the likes of Ancestry.

Search for Henderson's Directories.

I used them to find out where my Grandparents were in the 1920’s and could trace them year by year to each house that they lived in.

[Maiden Stone]

Addendum:  In Canadian census materials, John was consistently listed as 3 years younger than Mary.  So if she was born in 1827, then his birthday would be closer to 1824...and not 1828.  Still...often I find that without the actual documents, people don't even remember their birthdates for censuses!!

You might like to check your maths.   If John was 3 years younger than Mary and if she was born c.1827 then he might have been born c.1830. (Several 'ifs') Ages are best regarded as approximate.

[mpa_web]

Reply to Maiden Stone:  Roman Catholic.  Yes--that's what I'm finding--records are incomplete. 

The marriage record of Patrick Flannery in Mara (1868) was only recorded by the parish priest--Ontario as a province was just one year old and the "records law" was not yet in place.  I'm lucky to have found a webmaster who answered my question AND sent me the record as well as copies from pages of a book chronicling the origins of Mara that included stories and even photos of my ancestors!  I'm tracking down that book now through my University's library!  To top it all off, he and I are related.  I LOVE doing this kind of research!!

Reply to OldOhioHome:  The Canadian records have been wonderful!  I also have French ancestors--I can go to the town websites and find just about anything!

Reply to Colin Lamb:  thanks for the resource...I'm on it!!

[mpa_web]

Reply to Maiden Stone:  Thanks for correcting my subtraction.  Sheesh.  So maybe the 1828 record is closer to the mark!  And you're right about birth dates--even the census information is taken 1-2 years before the date filed.

[mpa_web]

Reply to OldOhioHome:
"A tree at ancestry.com I'm looking at has both parents born in Kings Co, no source given, Mary between 1823 and 1831, and John between 1825 to 1831." 

That's where I found the Kings County reference; my cousin found the same reference for these ancestors. But sometimes the family trees in Ancestry are really off.....

[Maiden Stone]

Reply to Maiden Stone:  Thanks for correcting my subtraction.  Sheesh.  So maybe the 1828 record is closer to the mark!  And you're right about birth dates--even the census information is taken 1-2 years before the date filed.

I usually work backwards from known marriage year. Girls could marry at 12 and boys at 14 but I think that was uncommon. Marriage age tended to be later post-Famine than pre-Famine. It's easier working out possible birth years for a woman, calculating from ages of her children, providing you know them all. Btw, one of my Irish ancestors was allegedly born 1830/31 according to 1901 census. As she married in 1840, I knew the census age was wrong. Estimated birth years from census of all her children fluctuated wildly and one was more than a decade out on a death registration.
Even though I know where they were all from, I can't go any further back than the generations born c.1810-c.1830 because either records don't exist or there were too many people with the same name born in the same place around same time.

[mpa_web]

Reply OldOhioHome: 

That link you sent was great--thank you.  So there were FOUR Patrick Flannerys in 1871 in Ontario!  Made me a little crazy until I figured out that only one was my Patrick/Great-Grandfather.  This information was GOLD to me.  Thank you. 

[mpa_web]

Thank you, Maiden Stone.  I have also figured out that the wedding date is the best starting point.  Someone pointed out to me that none of us "remembers" our own birth dates but we all know when a wedding occurred.  What you pointed out (discrepancy in dates) is the same for burial sites...wrong dates. These Irish ancestors (all named Patrick or Mary) have been a challenge, for sure!

[oldohiohome]

That local history that I see referred to in the trees on ancestry.com, "They Came to Mara", was probably your best chance at a mention of a county of origin on the Canadian side of the Atlantic.

I'm getting various places of birth for sons James and Michael, sometimes Lower Canada (Quebec) and sometimes Ontario. But can't find either of them in either place anyway.

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1861 image says Flanary
Michael born c 1853 Lower Canada

https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1861/Pages/results.aspx?k=cnsGivenName%3A%22maryann%22%20AND%20cnsAge%3A%222%22%20AND%20cnsProvinceCode%3A%22CW%22&start1=41

2nd on the page: Maryann Flanary, age 2, Canada West (Ontario)

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Patrick Flannary's death record, December 29, 1935, Mara, Ontario
born: April 22, 1844, Ireland
parents: John Flannary and Mamie Cavin, both born in Ireland
informant: Frank Flannery, son, address: Redney? [can't read]
buried: Brichin [?], December 31, 1935
had been in Ontario 75 years, in Mara 46 years. [The 46 years sounds low, acc. to the other information]


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Would really like to find them in 1851 in Quebec, but not so far.