Elizabeth née Tolson in Collingwood ON c. 1880

[Lisa in California]

…There are two references:…

Thank you for posting the images.  What appear to be dashes between Elizabeth’s information in the second image are interesting.  Are you able to view other attestation papers (hopefully written by the same person) to see if he/she placed dashes between the words? If those are dashes I would wonder if Collingwood might be a place rather than her surname.

If you are able to view other images:
were only towns and countries written down, or
were just countries written down?
Did any images include county names as well?
Perhaps there was a good reason for it, but I think it’s a bit odd to not include the Canadian province especially when Collingwood was possibly not a large (well known) city.  Wouldn’t it be unusual to write something like Shipley, England rather than Shipley, Sussex, England?  . I wonder if looking at images near Edward’s image might show a pattern of how names and places were recorded.

[Lisa in California]

I wondered if she was a home child.

https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/home-children-1869-1930/immigration-records/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=2980

Which has taken me here

https://www.notlmuseum.ca/research/british-home-children


No 1208 on this list,  but no further information added.

https://www.notlmuseum.ca/research/download/81/11/120

I'm certain you are right - thank you very much. This website (http://www.britishhomechildrenregistry.com/Person/bhcInfo/18220) says that Elizabeth's home institution was the Marlborough Union, which matches the 1871 census entry I mentioned in my original post.

I plan on letting the website know about Elizabeth's history as I understand it: her 1859 birth in Cornwall to Sarah and (possibly) Joseph, and her census entries for 1861 and 1871.

I'm now looking to find out under what circumstances she moved from Niagara-on-the-Lake to Collingwood. They are both in Ontario, but quite distant from one another.

Thanks again.

Perhaps the children were sent to homes where they were needed/wanted, near or far away?

[mckha489]

Regarding other attestation papers.

I’ve only looked at a couple either side.  They are not all in the same handwriting.
Details for next of kin are very variable. But it seems not unusual to enter it in that same form.

Eg.  Relation, Christian name, village, county.

Some have the full works, with street address and multiple family members named.

[nicholastolson]

Regarding other attestation papers.

I’ve only looked at a couple either side.  They are not all in the same handwriting.
Details for next of kin are very variable. But it seems not unusual to enter it in that same form.

Eg.  Relation, Christian name, village, county.

Some have the full works, with street address and multiple family members named.

Thanks for this. (Note to Lisa: I don't have access to these papers myself.)

When you say you've looked at a couple of papers on either side of Edward's, is it possible they've been collated at some later date, perhaps alphabetically, so that the ones you looked at were quite separate from Edward's in their date of composition?

Ideally, one would find papers that had been written around the same time and in the same office, but I don't know if the papers are organised so as to allow for that kind of search.

[oldohiohome]

At ancestry, I looked for anyone named Elizabeth born 1859 +/- 2 years in (exactly) England, living in (exactly) Collingwood, Ontario, in 1880 +/- 5 years ... and found no matches. There were four results at ancestry. Two had middle or first given names that were not Ann. The other two were daughters in the household.

I didn't try a similar search at familysearch.org.

-----------
I'm starting to wonder if William even had a clue where his sister was, but just knew she left as a home child for Canada and hadn't heard from her since. Have you looked for her in the U.S?

Edited: Obviously he must have heard from her by 1876 or the word "Collingwood" wouldn't be on the record, whatever it refers to. Still, I am not finding her in Ontario or in Canada at all.

[nicholastolson]

The Canadian census for 1901 (but not 1881 or 1891) shows date and month, as well as year, of birth.

I've therefore searched for Eliz*, with no surname, in the whole of Canada, using the two dates of birth associated with her: 3 Nov 1859 from the birth certificate, and 24 Dec 1859 from the baptismal record (not committing to either one). Unfortunately I've found nothing. She may not have known her birthday, or perhaps she had died by 1901.

I shall probably have to put the search for Elizabeth on hold for now, with thanks to you all for your contributions - especially mckha489, who came up with the idea that she was a British Home Child.

[jorose]

Middle name is wrong, but how about Elizabeth J(ane) Tolson who married in Michigan in 1885?

1885 marriage gives her born England 1862.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NQ3P-J2J

1900 census gives her birthdate as "Dec 1861" and emigrated to US 1872 but these dates move around in other censuses:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MS37-X8G

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/219359435/elizabeth-jane-weston
She died in 1954

Now I can't find any proof that this is your Elizabeth. But I can't find anything to rule it out so far, either.
There are some pictures of her daughter Mabel Towlson Weston here:
https://archive.org/details/capgown1910univ/page/334/mode/2up?q=Weston
https://archive.org/details/capgown1911univ/page/422/mode/2up?q=Weston

[nicholastolson]

Middle name is wrong, but how about Elizabeth J(ane) Tolson who married in Michigan in 1885?

1885 marriage gives her born England 1862.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:NQ3P-J2J

1900 census gives her birthdate as "Dec 1861" and emigrated to US 1872 but these dates move around in other censuses:
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MS37-X8G

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/219359435/elizabeth-jane-weston
She died in 1954

Now I can't find any proof that this is your Elizabeth. But I can't find anything to rule it out so far, either.
There are some pictures of her daughter Mabel Towlson Weston here:
https://archive.org/details/capgown1910univ/page/334/mode/2up?q=Weston
https://archive.org/details/capgown1911univ/page/422/mode/2up?q=Weston

Thanks for the suggestion. I've now looked for this name (and variants) in immigration records (not just for 1872) and also for plausible births or baptisms in England, but without any luck. I'll just tuck it away in case it comes in useful.

As for "my" Elizabeth, I wonder if some of the Home Children were adopted, more or less formally, into local families and would have changed their names. I'd still hope to find Elizabeth using her date of birth but, as I've mentioned before, even that isn't known for certain.

I'm putting this search on hold for the moment, but suggestions are always welcome.