In-depth Review of a Record Leads to a Genealogy Solution!

Several years ago I sent for a transcribed record. It was for a Joseph McGinnis who was being sent from Montreal to Hamilton in July 1846. I hoped it was my ancestor who I knew had arrived from Ireland in Upper Canada (Ontario) between January 1846 and  September 1847. Since ships passenger lists to Canada did not have to be kept before 1865, trying to find an ancestor's arrival is challenging. 

However I was disappointed because the abstract recorded Joseph with two adult females and no children. Since I knew that Joseph and his wife Fanny came during the Irish famine with a daughter under the age of 1, this record could not be the right family.

I didn't have access to the original record so I set the record aside but didn't discard the idea completely that somehow it might be my Joseph. Perhaps the record was in error and should have read Joseph and 1 adult female and 1 child? That was my rather vague hope. With the record tucked away I moved on to other research but it was always in the back of my mind. 

This year I had a chance to view the actual image of the record set that contained Joseph's name. To my disappoinment, the page definitely showed Joseph and 2 Adult women being sent on to Hamilton at the Government's expense. 

I decided to study the document carefully. My first puzzle was the ditto marks (") in several of the columns. If I followed up to where the ditto marks began on Joseph's page, it seemed to indicate that the numbers in the 4 columns were: 1, 2, 2, 4. There were no column headings on the page with Joseph's name but the most logical thing would be if those columns showed Adult males, adult females and perhaps male and female children.if so, this was most definitely not my Joseph.

So off I went to find the first page of this record set. What I found confused me even more because the 4 column headings were: Adults M (male), Adults F (female), Male Adults, Female Adults.

 

Why would the clerk record adults twice? That made no sense. Because it made no sense I knew that there had to be a logical explanation. Perhaps the description of this record set would help. 

Before I tried to find the description I had another puzzle to solve. Some of the numbers were written in the first set of 2 columns, but some were in the second set. They were never in both.

I knew I need to scroll back through the microfilm until I found page 1. 

And there it was - the answer to my question. Reading very carefully and thinking about this description, the answer became clear. It was in the phrase  "shewing [showing] the adult persons single or in families..." Aha! The clerk needed to differentiate between married and single individuals. The columns were obviously for married adult men, married adult women, single men and single women! 

That also explained why some individuals were marked in Column 1 or 2 (they were married!) and others in Column 3 or 4 (they were single) 

But what about those ditto marks? A careful look at  the whole page showed that they could not be ditto marks because the totals added at the bottom would not work out. Those totals only worked by adding the actual numbers in each column and ignoring the ditto marks. 

 

It was pretty obvious now that what I thought were ditto marks (") were something else. And in fact a better look at the very last column for destination showed that the clerk used "do" for "ditto". Those marks (") meant zero, that is, no number in that column. 

And then came the biggest AHA! moment of all! This record set only recorded the numbers of adults traveling westward! It did not record numbers of children in the family. 

Going back to Joseph McGinnis and his record I took another look. A theory was popping into my head and I wanted to be sure I understood his record before formulating it aloud.

 

The original abstracted transcript I had received several years before was correct. Joseph McGinnis and 2 adult females were being sent on from Montreal to Hamilton on July 9th 1846. But the very important fact that had not been sent with the transcript was that the number of children in families were not recorded! 

This could easily be my Joseph with his wife Fanny and baby daughter Bridget. As for the second adult female, I have a very good possibility for that woman. Joseph's brother Daniel married a woman named Margaret Downey in Upper Canada in late 1846 or early 1847. My Joseph McGinnis' wife was Fanny Downey. I have always theorized that Margaret and Fanny were sisters but have not yet been able to prove or disprove this theory. 

If I go with this theory then  there is a very good possibility that the adult female travelling with them was Fanny's sister Margaret.

The last clincher is the fact that my McGinnis family had strong ties with the Hamilton community. As well that would be the only way to get to the Guelph area in 1846 - by taking a steamer west to Hamilton or going by land, and then taking the only road north which was between Hamilton and Guelph.

Thus it makes sense that Joseph would be sent to Hamilton and from there he would have to arrange a cart or coach to continue on to the Guelph area. 

I believe this is quite likely a record of my Irish ancestor's arrival from Ireland at the height of the Irish Famine. I will of course continue to research my theory by  looking for other records to support or disprove it. 

What did I learn from this? 

1. Always try to find the original, unaltered record

2. Study the original record. Analyze it. Question it. 

3. Study the record again. Make sure you completely understand how it was recorded and why it was recorded.

4. Develop a theory based on that record and seek evidence to prove or disprove your theory

5. Never give up - pull out records you found years ago and go through them again.

Determining the Accuracy of Census and Other Genealogy Records

Mariann asked Olive Tree Genealogy a great question about the accuracy of ages on census records.

Do genealogists often find a lot of  inaccurate ages (and projected birth years) on the US Census? I've been using ancestry.com, and relatives often seem to vary their stated ages (thus birth years) from one census to another. Then when I see a Death Certificate, the stated birth year sometimes doesn't agree with any of the census dates. There can be a variation of as many as 5 or 6 years. How do I know which date is the closest to accurate?

Mariann, 

This is a really important question. As you research ancestors you will often find large discrepancies in ages from one census to the next. There are several reasons for this:

1. People often did not know exactly when they were born. There were no ID cards, credit cards, Driver's Licenses and so on in the 1800s and earlier. These are all items that require an exact date of birth and so it is imperative that we know when we were born. But before the 20th century it was not important. In fact I have a copy of a letter written in 1841 by my 2nd great grandfather Levi Peer asking his mother to check her Family Bible and tell him when he was born.

2. We do not know who provided the answers to the census taker's questions. Was it the head of house? Was it a spouse? Was it an older child or a neighbour? Not knowing if it was the individual giving the answers means we do not know how accurate the information is

3. Different census years had different questions re ages. For example the question on age might be phrased as "Age at last birthday" or "Age at next birthday"  or simply "Age" And of course the census taker might not ask the question as specified.  Of course that won't give a 5 or 6 year variation in answers but it does account for some.

4. Women in particular often lied about their ages. Many individuals didn't trust the census or the census taker and would simply give whatever answer they felt like giving.

So there you have four reasons why census ages can't be trusted. You mention Death Certificates not agreeing with census records and that's another problematic record. A Death Certificate has information that was not provided by the deceased! So depending on who the informant was and how much they knew about the deceased, the information provided can be completely inaccurate.

I have a good example of a Death Certificate that is completely wrong but will, I'm sure, be accepted as accurate by researchers. My grandmother's 17 year old brother was the informant for their mother Mary Peer's death. He has given the wrong mother and father for his mother. Her parents were Isaac Vollick and Lydia Jamieson (this is proven with  documents such as her marriage record and census records). But he has said her parents were Stephen Vollick and Mary. Such a discrepancy took me awhile to solve.

Then I realized that in all likelihood, in his grief and confusion when the clerk asked him "Father's name" he gave his own father's name (Stephen). When asked "Mother's name" he gave his mother's name - Mary. Thus the entirely fictitious couple Stephen and Mary Vollick were created. Researchers finding that death certificate who have not yet found Mary's marriage record will have no idea that they are looking at completely erroneous information.

The bottom line is that it is wise to study all records and determine their validity by looking at who gave the information contained in each record. 

So for example a death record or a gravestone for example may not be accurate because the person themselves did not provide the information.

A birth record is considered quite accurate because the information is usually given by parents. But there's a caveat - if you are not looking at the original record there is a chance that errors crept in. Each generation of a record increases the chance of errors. You may want to read my article I Found My Great-Grandfather Online - Now What?? for more information on how much an original record can change.

Just to make things more confusing, remember that individuals might lie for various reasons. That is why we should always gather as many records as possible for each individual. Calculate the trustworthiness of each one. Then study them as a group. Sometimes you have to be content with an estimated year for an event based on all the records you've found.

But of course you should keep looking for a record that will give a first-person account of the event. In any record you should think about who provided the information. If it was not the individual then the accuracy is immediately in question. And even if it was the individual, did they know the answer? Did they lie?

Genealogy research is never easy but analyzing records is part of the fun!

Take It With a Genealogy Grain of Salt

I've been sorting through old papers for the past two days. Tucked away in a folder in a filing cabinet in the basement was a magazine dated 1988. It's a  Financial magazine, all about making money, investing wisely and so on. This particular issue featured stories of people who had invested wisely and retired early, or were successfully juggling a career with pursuing a dream.

I was puzzled as to why I'd saved it but figured there had to be an article featuring someone I knew. Sure enough there was. The article was a glowing report of a man, we'll call him Sam. Let me preface this with the fact that I knew, and still know, Sam very well.

The article revealed that Sam had a  high-paying career and was also a rather successful emerging artist (I use the word artist to describe actors, writers, poets, painters, sculptors). Sam worked part-time to support his art and his yearly wages which were given in the article were extremely good.

The article portrayed Sam as a very successful person pursuing his dream while earning a more than decent living. A descendant finding this article 50 or 100 or more years from now would be thrilled to think their ancestor was such an amazing person!

But the author of the article only knew Sam for a brief moment in Sam's life. I've known him for a very long time and also know what has happened to Sam over the past 24 years since the article was written. 

The truth is that Sam has made bad choices in his life. The details are personal so I will simply say that his path in life was a downhill one, not the successful one portrayed in the magazine. He is not a successful artist. He no longer has a high-paying career.

He's a very different person from the person portrayed in the magazine article. Reading it made me realize that as genealogists we should not rely on one article or one obituary to paint the full picture of an ancestor's life. These are all subjective views written at a specific moment in time. Take it with a grain of salt. Or at least recognize that it's only one small piece of a person's entire life.

Update on the Search for Susan (a Step by Step Analysis part 2)

A few days ago I wrote  A Step By Step Analysis of a Genealogy Search outlining my search for Susan, the grandmother of my aunt Marge Cahoe. 

Several readers commented on that post and thanks to them, new ideas and clues arose.

Taking a Second Look

So I decided to take a closer look at a marriage I had found, but dismissed. The marriage was for Annie Angelina Gavin to John Mason in 1881. Those who have read my first post may recall that there was a 3 year old Angelina Gavin living with a mother Susan in 1871, and a 14 year old Amy or Annie Gavin with mother Susan in 1881. But I could not say with certainty that this was the same Susan with daughter born circa 1868.

Annie's marriage record was found but the record stated she was born in Guelph (location was right) to parents William Gavan and Susan Hambridge. So I dismissed Annie Angelina as being Annie, the daughter of "my" Susan.

But could Angelina the 3 year old in 1871 be Annie the 14 year old in 1881? Were they the same Susan? I was puzzled by the 1871 census since Susan's daughter Elizabeth born circa 1861 should have been there with them. I also thought Susan's maiden name was Cowan (or Gowan) and that she married John Gavan. So John Gavan should also have been with the family in 1871.

Reader to the Rescue!

Then a reader found the birth of an illegitimate daughter named Georgina Lillias (Lillian?) to Susan Gavan in 1873 in Eramosa. Aha! The wheels in my head were turning.. was Susan ever married to anyone called John Gavan??

Another Look at the Death Record Image Leads to a New Theory

I took another closer look at the image for Susan's death in 1926. What I had read as Cowan a reader pointed out was almost certainly Gowan but on a very close inspection I realized the name could actually be (drum roll please) GAVAN! 

So Susan was never married to a Gavan. The births of her first two daughters were too early for Ontario Civil Registrations so I couldn't use that method to verify my new theory. But I'd also found a Susan of the right age living in the right place with parents John Gavan and Martha in 1851. I theorized she was "my" Susan. 

Surprising Findings re Annie Angeline Gavan

I looked again at Annie Angelina Gavan who married John Mason in 1881 in Ottawa. I found her death in Ottawa in 1896. She was listed as Annie A. Gavan (odd that she wasn't listed under her married name of Mason) she died at the age of 29 years and was born in Rockwood Ontario. Rockwood is very near Guelph. Again, the right area for birth, the right age and the right last name. Unfortunately parents' names are not noted on death records for that time period so I really wasn't any further ahead. 

Then I remembered that burial records for Beechwood Cemetery  in Ottawa are online on Ancestry.com .  I had a search through them and there she was, listed as Mrs. Annie Angeline Mason. Best of all the burial records give parents' names! Her mother was given as "Susan Gavan" and father's name was left blank. Susan Gavan! That added more weight to my new theory - that Susan never married a Gavan but was a Gavan (not Cowan or Gowan) by birth. 

Questions, Questions and More Questions

Why Annie Angeline Gavin's  mother's name appears as Susan Hambridge in her 1881 marriage, but as Susan Gavan in Annie's 1896 death is a mystery. Perhaps the minister blinked when transcribing the marriage record to the sheet to hand in to the registry? Perhaps he mixed up the surnames and the father is William Hambridge with mother Susan Gavan? Perhaps Annie was too ashamed to admit she didn't know who her father was?  I don't know the answer. But I do know that Annie Angeline is "my" Susan's daughter. 

Summary

Here's a summary of what is known  about Susan and what I theorize. You'll see that there are many discrepancies!

1851 Eramosa: Susan Gavan age 14 with parents and siblings

1861 Eramosa (Misindexed as Gueris on Ancestry): Susan Gavin age 23 with what looks like a daughter Mary E. possibly age 3 (hard to read) and parents and sibling.  I suggest that Mary E. is the Elizabeth Gavan who later married James Swindlehurst in Guelph in 1881

1871 Eramosa: Susan Gavan age 28 with daughter Angelina 3. I suggest that missing 10 year old daughter Elizabeth is living with other relatives or as a servant in another home

1873 Eramosa: Susan Gavan has an illegitimate daughter Georgiana Lillias (Lillian?)  born in Eramosa. No father's name given. 

1881 Guelph. Susan is now Susan Kehoe living with husband William Kehoe and 3 Gavan daughters Elizabeth, Annie, Teno [Tina? Gina?]

1881 Guelph. Elizabeth Gavan marries James Swindlehurst. She gives her parents' names as John Gavan and Susan (no maiden name). In reality John Gavan is Susan's father's name. Did Elizabeth think John was her father? Did she know John was her grandfather? Or was she confused, or too ashamed to reveal she didn't know who her father was? 

1891 Guelph. William and Susan Kehoe are found with children Amy/Annie age 22 and Norman age 7. Both children listed with Kehoe surname

1891 Ottawa. Annie Angelina Gavan marries John Mason. Parents' names given as William Gavan and Susan Hambridge. 

1896 Ottawa.  Annie Angeline Mason dies. Mother's name given as Susan Gavan

1900 Detroit Michigan. Sally [sic] age 51 and son Norman Cahoe born 1883 living Detroit. Susan says she bore 4 children but only 2 are alive. This agrees with what we have found so far - 3 illegitimate Cavan daughters named Elizabeth, Annie Angelina and Georgina  and a son Norman Cahoe. Elizabeth and Norman marry and have children. Annie Angelina dies in 1896. I have not discovered what happened to Georgina and do not know if Annie Angelina had children before her death.

1910 Border Crossing Canada to USA: Susan Cahoe age 60 and son Norman age 28 say they have been at Susan's daughter Elizabeth Cahoe Swindlehurst's home in Canada and are going to Detroit Michigan

1911 Guelph. Susan Cahoe age 58 and son Norman age 25

1926 Guelph. Susan dies. Her son Norman is informant. He gives her parents' names as John Gavan and Mary Thompson. I suggest Mary Thompson is the wife Martha recorded in 1851 and 1861 census of Eramosa with her husband John Gavan and  daughter Susan living with them. 

Brainstorming Welcome!   

I've found CAHOE recorded as KEHOE, KEHO and KEOGH. CAVAN has also been found as CAVEN, CAVIN. There may be more varieties in spelling that I haven't yet discovered. 

I neglected to point out that Guelph is a city in Guelph Township, Wellington County. Eramosa is a township in Wellington County (quite close to Guelph) Rockwood is a small town near Guelph. Ottawa is some distance away but finding that John Mason was a carpenter born in Ottawa helped explain why Annie Angelina would move so far away from her home.  

I would love to hear readers thoughts, comments and critiques of my theory and my findings.

 

A Step By Step Analysis of a Genealogy Search

A few days ago I spent some time looking over my McGinnis genealogy. I like to do that every once in a while. It helps to attack genealogy challenges with a fresh eye, and often I spot a clue I overlooked the first time around. Sometimes I spot areas where I need to find more to fill in gaps.

This time I realized I'd never gotten around to searching my aunt's family. My Aunt Marge was married to my father's brother. I knew her maiden name was Cahoe, her father was Norman Cahoe, her mother Jessie McMillan, and the Cahoe family were from Guelph Ontario, but that was it. I'd never asked my mother about her, and had not  searched for more details. I don't search back very many generations on collateral spouse lines but I do like to know a little more about each spouse.

Finding Norman Cahoe

I immediately headed to Ancestry.com where I found Norman Cahoe easily in the 1911 census for Guelph Ontario. He was 25 years old, born in Ontario in August 1885 according to the census) and living with his 58 year old widowed mother Susan. Susan gave her birthdate as July 1852 and place of birth as Ontario.  This was easy and I was confident the rest of my search would go well. I was wrong.

The next two pieces of information were also found fairly quickly. One was a Border Crossing Record for Susan and Norman dated July 1910. The index on Ancestry.com showed they were crossing at Vermont which puzzled me but a look at the image revealed that in fact they crossed at Port Huron Michigan. An interesting and misleading error with Ancestry's indexing!  Susan was said to be a 60 year old widow (which didn't match the 1911 census but as we all know, ages can vary from one record to another). Norman was a single man aged 28 and they were on their way to Detroit. They listed their nearest relative in Canada as Susan's daughter Elizabeth Cahoe Swindlehurst. Exciting - now I had another family member and what looked like her married name.

Finding Susan's Death Record 

Leaving that record for a bit, I continued my search for Susan and Norman in earlier records. I hoped to find Norman's father's name. But no luck. I did however find Susan's death registration and now my quest became more challenging. Susan died in Guelph in 1926. Her son Norman was the informant and she was listed as living in the same home as him. A researcher might assume that Norman would know quite a bit about his mother since he had lived with her for so long. And in fact he'd provided her father's full name (John Cowan born Ireland) as well as her mother's (Mary Thompson born Scotland).

But he'd also given her age as 89 years old and her date of birth as July 31, 1836. That was very different from the census and Border Crossing record, but it was definitely the right Susan Cahoe. But her date of birth in the census was 1852. According to the Border Crossing Record it was circa 1850. And now her death record (with info provided by her son) gave 1836.  That seemed wrong to me because it would make Susan almost 50 when Norman was born. Not impossible but something to keep in mind as I continued my search.

The Quest for Susan Becomes More Intriguing

And now my search became more difficult. Try as I might  I could not find Susan or Norman or Elizabeth (whose age I didn't know) in 1901, 1891, 1881 or earlier census records. I used wildcards. I used Susan* to allow for Susannah or Sussan. I tried Norm* to allow for a shortened name.  I tried C*ho* as the surname. Finally after many hours of searching I decided to use only first names, no surnames, and Norman's birth year plus/minus two. Bingo. There they were in the Guelph 1891 census as Kehoe. Kehoe? My heart skipped a beat. The Kehoe family first intermarried with my McGinnis family in  1831 - almost 100 years earlier.

The Kehoe (also spelled Keogh) family were among the first Irish settlers in Puslinch Township (very near Guelph). They had lived briefly in New York where two Keogh sisters met and married two McGinnis brothers. Then the families settled in Puslinch.  I was, as the British say, gob-smacked. I never realized that Aunt Marge connected to this family. I'm quite sure she had no idea either.

Contradictions Galore

What else did I find? Many more confusing and contradictory details from various records came to light. Taking them all and studying and analyzing them carefully provided me with new clues and leads. I still have more to find but here's a summary of what I've found so far:

1900 Census Detroit Michigan - Sarah [sic] Cahoe, 51 born July 1848 [yet another year of birth!!], widow, had 4 children, 2 are living, father born Ireland, mother Scotland, immigrated 1890, says she is naturalized [note to self - hunt for her naturalization record] living with son Norman born August 1883. He says his father was born New York and mother in Ontario. Another clue revealing father's place of birth

1891 Census Guelph Ontario - William KEHO [sic] age 47 b USA, father born USA, mother born England with wife Susan, 46 [giving estimated year of birth as 1845], daughter Amy (or Anny) age 22 born Ontario and son Norman 7 born Ontario.

So it appears William Kehoe died between 1891and 1901.  I have not been able to find his death in Ontario or Michigan.

Birth Records Ontario revealed several children born in Guelph between 1881 and 1898 to James Swindlehurst and Elizabeth Gaven, with one record showing Elizabeth's surname as (drum roll please!) Keogh in brackets with the surname Gaven written above.  Their first child was named Susannah and was almost certainly in honour of Elizabeth's mother. But why the surname Gaven?

Marriage Records Ontario revealed a marriage in 1881 for James Swindlehurst and Elizabeth Gavin [sic] who said she was 21 years old, born in Eramosa Township to parents John & Susanna Gavin.  Bingo! Susan(nah) was apparently married twice - to John Gavin/Gaven/Gavan and then to William Kehoe/Cahoe/Keogh. And if daughter Elizabeth was born circa 1861 then Susan(nah) was surely at least 16 years old, so I might assign a tentative year of birth of 1845 or earlier. 

I love it when a genealogy search has so many twists and turns you feel like you're in a maze and can't quite figure out which turn to take next!

1881 Census Guelph - William Kehoe age 37, wife Susan 38 with 3 daughters: Elizabeth 21 (yay - she is the Elizabeth who married James Swindlehurst), Annie age 14 (she must be the child Amy/Anny age 22 in 1891) and another daughter age 7 whose first name is very difficult to read. It looks like Teno and I've not yet figured out exactly what the name says.

1871 Census Eramosa - Susan Gavan age 28 with daughter Angelina age 3. Is this the Susan I am looking for? Who is Angelina? Where is Elizabeth who should be 10 years old. Where is her husband John Gavan?

Ontario Death Records - John Gavin died August 1875 in Eramosa Township. He was age 77 and born Ireland. Is this the husband of Susan?

Still Searching

So I am still on the trail of the elusive Susan.

Here is what I have found:

* 1926 Death in Guelph
* 1911 Census Guelph, widow with son Norman
* 1910 Going to Detroit Michigan with son Norman
* 1900 Census Detroit Michigan, widow with son Norman
* 1891 Census Guelph with husband William Kehoe and 2 children (1 son, 1 daughter)
* 1881 Census Guelph with husband William Kehoe and 3 daughters
* 1881 Marriage in Guelph of daughter Elizabeth Gavan to James Swindlehurst

Where oh where is Susan before 1881??!!

Here is what I have not found yet:

* Death of William Kehoe between 1891 and 1901, probably in Ontario or Michigan
* Susan Cowan/Gavan/Kehoe in 1851, 1861 and 1871 census
* Deaths of John Cowan and/or Mary Thompson Cowan (Susan's parents)
* Census records for John Cowan and wife Mary (Susan's parents)
* Census records before 1881 for William Kehoe who was born circa 1846 New York
* Birth record for Norman Cahoe 1883-1885 in Ontario
* Marriage record for William Kehoe/Cahoe/Keogh and Susan Cowan Gavan circa 1875-1883
* Death record for Anny/Amy Gavan born circa 1869 Ontario