Hi everyone! I am so glad I found you and so hoping someone will be able to help me!
I started tracing my ancestry 2 years ago with the intent on finding out about my Hardy ancestry (my maiden name is Hardy). So far, I've learned a lot about everyone else who has married into the Hardy line but I am unable to go past 1780 (accurately).
My original assumption was that they were from Ireland and moved to Canada around 1830. But, it frustratingly seems, that at the same time as the Francis Hardy that I am looking for lived, THREE OTHER Francis Hardys lived in various parts of the world AT THE SAME TIME. Like, all their names are similar from their wives to their grand-children. There is a batch in Ireland, a batch in England, one in Australia and one in the US. The thing is, I can't link ANY of them to my family. I know there must be something that went wrong at some point, but all the information I have up until the Francis Hardy of 1780 is accurate in terms of physical certificates and verifiable proof.
Here is the accurate timeline as I have it right now:
Francis Hardy 1920 to 1986 - born and died in Ottawa, Ontario
He married Peggy Clare 1924 - 1970. She was born in England/Ireland and came to Canada when she was about 2 years old.
Francis's father was Henry Francis Archer Hardy - 1888 - 1956 - born and raised in Ottawa Canada.
He married Mae Adela Gavin 1890 - 1940. She was also born and raised in Ottawa.
Henry's father was Joshua Hardy - 1845 to 1905 (this has always seemed strange to me as everything I have found on all the Francis Hardy's, I have never seen Joshua as a name but Henry's birth certificate says "Joshua").
He married Charlotte Rowles from Russia. She was born in 1847 and died in 1808. She had moved to Canada as a child from Russia. Her father was English but left Russia as he was being forced into playing a spy for Britain.
Joshua's father is Francis Hardy (I call him Francis JR). I have no other information than that for his name. No middle name at all, anywhere. I have found many, many Francis Evan Hardy's on Ancestry and there is a few Evans' in the family line so, it fits. However, Joshua's brother, Robert, married an Evans and they had a child they named Francis Evans. So.....I dunno.
Francis was born in 1809 in Ireland and married Jane Armstrong (though the Armstrongs used to be a prominent family in Ireland, by the time it got to Jane, it looks like her and her family lived in workhouses so I can't trace that lineage as I thought I could) in Canada in 1836. Francis died in Canada in 1899. I have looked up passenger records to find when he arrived, but nothing comes up. However, Robert Armstrong (Jane's father) and his three brothers are recorded on one of the Peter Robinson ships in the 1820s.
Francis Jr's father was...Francis Hardy. According to some records like Census and so forth (I cannot find any birth records for any of Francis JR's siblings), it seems he was born in 1780 and his wife's name was Mary. Ancestry is insisting her name was Mary Troy but I can't find any verifiable documents to support this.
In the last two years, I have followed every line of every Francis Hardy I could think of and there is no way to link any of them to my family. I have changed his name to John, Thomas, William....none of them turn up anything.
And then, on top of that, I have THREE Marys who all married a Francis Hardy (Francis Hardy SR's father) in the SAME DECADE (1760, 1762, 1766) - all different last names. Mary Woolhouse, Mary Brunt, and Mary Gettliffe. None of them amount to anything.
I KNOW there is something wrong - somewhere along the way, there was a mistake made maybe by my data or something, because it just doesn't make sense and is increasingly infuriating! I've even tried tracing the Masseys in Virginia (since a large part of the Hardys is made up of Masseys) to see if I can find any of them who may have married a Hardy (since they all seemed to stick to the same families) but I can't find anything. Though, in my tree, I have a few Masseys with Hardy as a middle name, but can't quite figure out how to trace that to find the "original" Hardy.
If ANYONE out there can help me, I would very much appreciate it! I know I just threw out a lot of dates and names, but hopefully something in there pops out!
And PS: in case it helps any, the Virginia Masseys moved from Cheshire England in the 1600s, so it's possible that that Massey line and mind line up, but again, can't find the link. Still though, along the Virginia Massey line, I can't seem to find a Hardy.
HELP!!!
