Beginner's Guide: Finding Ontario Civil Death Registrations

Along with people asking about finding Ontario birth certificates, which I discuss in my post "Beginner's Guide: Finding Ontario Civil Birth Registration", folks want to locate the death certificates for their long departed kin.

Ancestry.com, "Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947," database with images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 3 May 2013), entry for Luke McMullen, died 21 Oct 1906; citing Archives of Ontario; Series: MS935; Reel: 126.

Before I begin this guide, I would recommend people read the "Death Registrations" page from the Archives of Ontario along with their "Research Guide 202 - Vital Statistics Records" to gain a basic understanding of what is available and why.

Registration or Certificate?

Keep in mind that usually folks aren't actually looking for the death certificate but a copy of the completed death registration. When my father passed away a few years ago the paperwork that was filled in was titled "Statement of death - Form 15" and also included "Medical Certificate of Death - Form 16" completed my the physician. The "Statement of death" has all the details about someone's death such as when and the place where they died, where they resided, the names of their parents, and the name and address of the informant. The "Medical Certificate of Death" includes all the information about their cause of death. There is also the Ontario Death Certificate but that document usually only has a name, the sex, marital status, date and place of death, age, date of registration, and the registration number. 

As genealogy and family history researchers we generally want the document with as much information as possible. So if requesting a document concerning the death of someone and the records are only available through ServiceOntario via their "How to get a copy of an Ontario death certificate online" page you will want to try to get the "Certified copy of death registration" or even the "Certified copy of death registration with cause of death information". Of course, due to privacy reasons, not everyone can request a certified copy so you may need to have a relative make the application on your behalf.

Years Covered

Death registrations are only publicly available from 1869 to 1951 from the Archives of Ontario. For death registrations registered after 1951, those are still currently held by the Office of the Registrar General of Ontario and can only be requested via Service Ontario. The registrations that are no longer protected by the veil of privacy are transferred from the Office of the Registrar General to the Archives of Ontario on a yearly basis for safekeeping and public access.

Why 1869 and not 1867 when Ontario became a province of the Dominion of Canada? It wasn't until January 23, 1869 when "An Act to provide for the Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths" was assented to by the Crown. In that act it states that "This Act shall come into force on the first day of July, one thousand eight hundred and sixty-nine..." That is why you generally may not find any early deaths recorded in the civil death registrations. Although there are a few from before the July 1, 1869 date found in the records they were registered several years later after the death. But those very few entries are the exception.

Where are the Records?

Before diving into where the registrations may be found, it is worth noting that the format of the registration forms changed over the years. One may come across the form with six boxes per page, or with spots for only three registrations in a column format. The more recent registration forms only have a single registration of death on the page. 

However, there was also a registration form that is laid out horizontally. Both FamilySearch and Ancestry will generally only show you the left side of this two page register. So make sure you also get the second part of that register page!

Archives of Ontario

The Archives of Ontario is the repository for those registrations transferred from the Office of the Registrar General. If you are living in or visiting Toronto, Ontario then you can drop by the Archives of Ontario and look at the various microfilms in person. This includes the years 1948 to 1951 since they aren't available online yet. However, according to the Archives of Ontario site, the microfilms holding the 1949-1951 registrations aren't available since they are in the process of being digitized. So always check the Death Registrations page from the Archives of Ontario or email them for up to date information before visiting in person.

It is important to note that the Archives of Ontario does not have the death registrations available on their web site.

FamilySearch

FamilySearch has the digitized microfilms of the Ontario death registrations and indexes from 1869 to 1937 in their "Deaths - registration, 1869-1937 and index, 1869-1937" collection. This collection is freely available for use from the comfort of one's abode. FamilySearch also has their dedicated search page "Canada, Ontario Deaths, 1869-1937 and Overseas Deaths, 1939-1947" to aid you in your efforts to find a death registration so that you don't have to manually go through the digitized indexes and registrations.

You might notice that FamilySearch has "Overseas Deaths, 1939-1947" included in that search page. Those are the deaths of Ontarians who died overseas due to the Second World War. The images for those registration are found on FamilySearch in their "Ontario statistics overseas--deaths, 1939-1947" collection. Quite often the completed civil death registration is a bit sparse on the details but it is a great clue that you should probably look up that person's Second World War service file in the Library and Archives Canada "Second World War Service Files – War Dead, 1939 to 1947" database.

FamilySearch, in addition to their indexes created by way of their transcriptions of the registrations, also has the images of the government created Vital Statistics Index (VSI) for deaths on their site. In the days before the Internet and the mass indexing projects, the VSI is what folks would consult first on microfilm before looking on the applicable microfilm that held the registration of death form for the person they were seeking.

Ontario Registrar General,  Deaths - registration, 1869-1937 and index, 1869-1937, (Archives of Ontario, Toronto), 1913: extract from page for Carrick, Michael to Carscallen, Oswald Gurney; FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org: 27 Feb 2023), DGS 8105303, image 16.

Yet even now these Vital Statistics Indexes are still useful to us. One reason is that the indexes are alphabetical by surname. One can, with practice, quickly glance through the years for possible names that have been "interestingly" read and transcribed from the original documents.

You might notice that in the "CONT." column in the example above for the VSI there are two codes: 91 and 21. The 91 indicates that it is a death (9) and is the original entry (1) where as the 21 indicates that it is a stillbirth (2) original entry (1).

What about finding online those deaths after 1937? For those we need to turn to Ancestry.

Ancestry

On Ancestry we have their "Ontario, Canada, Deaths and Deaths Overseas, 1869-1948" collection which has the death registrations from 1869 up to 1948. That collection includes the deaths related to those Ontarians who died overseas due to the Second World War.

Other sites

Some might wonder where is Findmypast or MyHeritage in the list of genealogy sites to use to find Ontario civil death registrations? I wondered the same as I was writing this post. It seems that both Findmypast and MyHeritage don't have the registrations for Ontario. Findmypast has indexes for British Columbia, Manitoba, and Saskatchewan though.

One of the other sites I will sometimes use is The Ontario Vital Statistics Project. I like this site for a few reasons. The first is that the records are transcribed by folks not associated with FamilySearch or Ancestry. So they might see the written words differently. Also, the transcriptions are alphabetical in columns and I can quickly glance through a page.

Partial screen capture from The Ontario Vital Statistics Project for Ontario Death Registrations "McL-McY" Surnames page.

Still Can't Find it!

It could be as simple as the death may not have been registered with the civil authorities. For a number of years, even decades, the civil registrations of births, marriage, and deaths in the Province of Ontario fell far short of 100% coverage. In one case I was looking at the mother's death wasn't registered but her young son's death the following year was. According to the law no one should have been buried without a death registration filed but often it slipped through the cracks.

So where else can one look for clues concerning a death if it can't be found in the civil registrations? Some possible sources include:

• Newspapers: I couldn't find a civil death registration for William Henry Chipman who died in Ottawa, Ontario on 10 Apr 1870. However, I did find his death in various newspapers since he was a member of the first parliament of Canada.
  
• Parish registers: It is important to remember that parish registers generally only record the burial of someone. If we are fortunate we will find that the parish priest or clerk will have also recorded the date of death in the register.
  
• Cemetery registers: Much like parish registers, cemetery registers are there to record the date of the burial. But since a person is not supposed to be buried before they are dead it can set an upper limit for the date when a person passed away.
  
• Monumental inscriptions on marker and memorial stones: However, don't necessarily trust the year or exact date found on a marker or memorial stone in a cemetery or graveyard. Sometimes the stone is a replacement and the date may be based on the memory of whomever is paying for the new marker. See my post from 2013 "Zombie in the census?" for an example of this issue. Also, just because a person has a marker in one place doesn't mean that they died in that community or are even buried in that cemetery.
  
• Schedule 2, "Nominal return of the deaths", from the 1871 Census of Canada: This schedule was supposed to record all deaths that took place in the year prior to the start of the 1871 Census of Canada which was 2 Apr 1871. Just like any other record made weeks or months after the event, the date in this schedule may be based on someone's faulty memory.
  
• City Directories: Sometime a clue can be found for the death of the male head of household. The directory entry may switch from his name to that of his wife and she will have "widow of..." after her name.

Even if the death has been registered and one has a copy of the registration, see if you can find other records about the death. I have run into a case where the civil registration of death has the wrong date recorded. Both the grave marker and the newspaper have a date several weeks before the "official" date in the civil registration. Since a newspaper doesn't often report on a death before it has occurred, in this case I actually trust the newspaper more than the government record.

Hopefully some of the guidance in this post will help you find those sometimes elusive civil death registrations in Ontario.

Beginner's Guide: Finding Ontario Civil Birth Registrations

One of the most common questions I see asked in the various Facebook groups related to genealogy is along the lines of, "How do I find an Ontario birth certificate for a relative?"

 

Registration or Certificate?

Keep in mind that usually folks aren't actually looking for the birth certificate but a copy of the completed birth registration form. When I was born back in the 1960s the paperwork that was filled in was titled "Statement of Birth". That document has all the details about my birth such as my parents, their age and province where they were born, and other details about my birth. There is also the Ontario Birth Certificate card but that only has my name, date and place of birth, and the registration number. As genealogy and family history researchers we generally want the document with as much information as possible.

Depending on the year the Ontario birth registration form that is publicly available may be one with space for recording the details of six children or the form may be a two page form with each line an entry for a child. If the registration is found on a two page form then make sure you also download that second page!

Years Covered

Before even starting to answer the question we need to know the approximate time frame when they suspect the birth took place. If it is between 1869 and 1917 then the initial short answer is often to have the original poster visit the "Ontario Vital Statistics Home page > Birth Registrations" page from the Archives of Ontario and read what  has been written in their various pathfinders and also in Research Guide 202, Vital Statistics Records. I strongly recommend everyone at least read that Research Guide!

Why 1869 as the starting year?

On July 1, 1869 CAP. XXX, An Act to provide for the Registration of Births, Marriages and Deaths came into effect in the Province of Ontario. That was the date people were supposed to start registering births with the civil authorities. The magic word is "supposed". In the paper "Incomplete Registration of Births in Civil Systems: The Example of Ontario, Canada, 1990-1960" that originally appeared in the HISTORICAL METHODS, Volume 23, Number 1, Winter 1990 by George Emery of the Department of History at the University of Western Ontario it states that:

"...the provincial inspector of Vital Statistics guessed that the returns for 1898 were only 80 percent complete..."

This was almost 40 years after the act came into effect. No wonder we sometimes have challenges finding the birth registrations in Ontario!

What about the 1917 as the ending year?

As I write this there is a 105 year privacy veil over the Ontario birth registrations. After the 105 years have passed the Office of the Registrar General for Ontario transfers the indexes and registrations to the Archives of Ontario. Based on communications with the Archives of Ontario, it won't be until sometime in 2024 that the 1918 birth registrations and indexes for Ontario are made available to the public.

If looking for a birth registration before 1869 you might get lucky and find it as a delayed birth registration. Otherwise you will be looking at church registers for baptism records...assuming the denomination the family belongs to practices infant baptism...and hoping the priest recorded when the child was born.

If the birth is from 1918 or later then one needs to apply though ServiceOntario at the Official government ID and certificates page. Note that there are restrictions for who can request the records and a fee is charged. Make sure that you request the "Certified copy of birth registration" copy. It is a little more expensive but it "...contains any changes that have been made to the birth registration including any name changes and corrections of information (as a historical record)" and is a copy of the original registration.

Where are the Records?

Archives of Ontario

For those living or visiting Toronto, Ontario, Canada then you can visit the Archives of Ontario and look at the various microfilms in person and also access the digital images for the registrations up to 1917.

FamilySearch

FamilySearch has the digitized microfilms of the Ontario birth registrations and indexes in their "Births, stillbirths, and delayed registration with indexes, 1869-1912" collection. What is really nice about using FamilySearch is that the site is free. If you don't want to have to manually go through the various microfilms, FamilySearch has a collection specific search page "Canada, Ontario Births, 1869-1912". There you can search by name, place, year range, and even by the names of the parents.

Screen capture from FamilySearch of the "Canada, Ontario Births, 1869-1912" database with images search page.

Why search by the names of the parents? You might just find children who were born and died between the census years, what I often call the "lost children".

However, FamilySearch in their "Births, stillbirths, and delayed registration with indexes, 1869-1912" collection also has the index pages created by the government. In those tricky cases when I can't find the birth registration using the usual search tools I may manually look through these index files to see if I can spot the name I'm looking for and then, with the registration number, look up the registration itself in the digitized microfilms. 

Is it easy? Not necessarily but once you get used to the process it actually isn't too hard.

But what about after 1912? For that we need to go to Ancestry.

Ancestry

Ancestry has their "Ontario, Canada Births, 1832-1917" collection. Wait a second...1832? Yes, there is an entry that states that Henry Purdy was born 31 May 1832 and registered in the County of Carleton in the Division of Huntley on 25 Sep 1883. [Note: this image below was taken in 2022 before Ancestry made available the 1917 birth registrations on their site.]

Screen capture from Ancestry.ca of the "Ontario, Canada Births, 1832-1916" search page.

Much like FamilySearch, you can search this Ancestry database based on a number of categories. There have been times where I've searched just on a first name, a specific year, and a county to find a last name that has been incorrectly transcribed either due to the poor quality of the image, horrible handwriting, or the failing eyesight of the transcriber (at least that's what I hope it is!).

You can access the search results in this collection if you have a subscription to Ancestry or from most Ontario public libraries for free.

What Ancestry doesn't have is the original indexes created by the government. Fortunately for us Wayne Bower was kind enough to digitize the 1914-1917 index images from the microfilms from the Archives of Ontario and make them available on his page "Ontario Birth Registers 1914-1917". Notice that Wayne includes the index pages for the 1917 registrations. 

Screen capture of part of a page of the Ontario Vital Statistics Index for 1917 for the letter M p. 12 from Bower-McBurney Genealogy - Ontario Birth Registers.

Between FamilySearch collection and Wayne Bower's work we have all the vital statistics indexes from 1869-1917 with the exception of 1913. We can't win them all but I know I will gladly make use of what I can find!

MyHeritage

MyHeritage also has the Ontario birth registrations. For those who are members of Ontario Ancestors, AKA Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS), we have access from home to the library edition of MyHeritage. Even some public libraries have this access so check with your local library. There we have access to their "Ontario Births, 1869-1912" collection. Unfortunately it is only an index.

Screen capture from MyHeritage from the Ontario Births, 1869-1912 collection for Margory May Payne, born 12 May 1910.

But...

If you look closer at the information in the index entry you will notice a Digital Folder Number along with an image number in the returned information. That "Digital Folder Number" is the "Image Group Number (DGS)" on FamilySearch. The Image Number is the number of the image (good name isn't it?) found on that digitized microfilm roll. So if one wants to see the image (we always do, right?) then we can search for the Digital Film Number on FamilySearch and, once it is located, go to the image number indicated.

Findmypast

For those using Findmypast the Ontario civil registration of births can be found in their "Ontario Birth Index 1860-1920" collection. There we will find the transcription and a link to the images. I know it says it is up to 1920 but since the Archives of Ontario doesn't even have the 1918 registration yet something must be a little strange. The 1920 birth registration is actually the back side of a 1904 Delayed Registration of Birth and is not a birth date at all...oops

Based on the index copyright notation on the transcription it would appear that Findmypast is making use of the index from FamilySearch to aid in the searching of this collection.

Other Sites

One of the other sites I will sometimes use is The Ontario Vital Statistics Project. I like this site for a few reasons. The first is that the records are transcribed by folks not associated with FamilySearch or Ancestry. So they might see the written words differently. Also, the transcriptions are alphabetical in columns and I can quickly glance through a page.

Screen capture from The Ontario Vital Statistics Project for Ontario Birth Registrations "Maa_Maq" Surnames page.

Of course the local historical or genealogy societies might also have created indexes to help you in finding the civil registration of birth. So check your local societies or public library for those works.

Still Can't Find It!

It could be as simple as the birth may not have been registered. The paper by George Emery, "Incomplete Registration of Births in Civil Systems: The Example of Ontario, Canada, 1990-1960" which I mentioned in the Years Covered section goes into some detail about this issue.

Don't be fixated on the year or place that you may have found for that person via other records. People may not even know the year they were born so at some point they may have settled on a year that they felt they looked like as an adult. Also if the mother-to-be is having her first child or experiencing a difficult pregnancy then she may have gone to live with her mother or an older sister for support and help with the birth. These folks may live in another county, province, or even country. So be open to possible suggestions and hints from the various genealogy sites.

An alternate source and often the most promising one for the 1869-1917 period, and of course the time before civil registration, are the parish registers of the various denominations in the area the family resided. It will all depend on what church they attended as to whether the records have been digitized and placed online for easy access. Sometimes, if you know the religion the family followed, it is easier to write an email or letter to the local churches asking if they can look for a possible baptism entry in their registers. Hopefully the priest or clerk also wrote down the date of birth in the register.

You can also find in the 1901 Census of Canada the recording of the date of birth for everyone listed in the household. However, I always take the date recorded there with a huge grain of salt. If all the other dates of births in that census for the other family members of household can be corroborated as being accurate then the odds are that one birth date are you are looking for is correct.

Hopefully some of the guidance here will help you locate that elusive Ontario civil birth registration or at least confirm the date of birth in other records.

[8 Jun 2024: updated for 1917 birth registrations that are now available through Ancestry]

My Top 10 Fee-Based Genealogy Sites

We all have genealogy sites that are our go-to places when doing any of our research. It has been a long time since I've listed mine so I figured I'd take a stab at it today. There will be two separate posts. The first, that of my top ten fee-based sites, and the second, to be published later, will be the list of my top free genealogy sites that I use often.

As with any top ten list there will be disagreements as to the order or why a site is included or missing. These are my top ten sites that I turn to regularly in my research. Your favourite site might not have made the cut due to various factors such as it was number 11 (or 12 or 13...) or I haven't had a subscription to it in the past year. A two sites that I make use of periodically that didn't make the top ten cut for me are Fold3¹ and MyHeritage³.Yes, they are useful but not vitally so over this past year.

Counting down from number ten...

10. The New York Times TimesMachine

In my research of a branch of my extended family that originally settled in New York City in the late 1800s the ability to read the death notices and even a few marriage announcements has answered a quite of few questions when trying to locate the next generation. As long as I've had the death date from a death index or registration more often than not I've been able to find a notice in The New York Times fairly quickly.

9. American Ancestors by New England Historic Genealogical Society

I don't have a current subscription but when they have had their free access periods their databases have shed light on a number of my early European settlers in the United States. Even their free databases have been useful to point me to documents I need to find and read at a later time.

8. Genealogy Quebec²

If you have ancestors that resided in Quebec then this site needs to be in your genealogy toolkit. They are constantly adding new images from various parishes in Quebec that you probably won't find any where else. They are also the home of the Drouin Collection Records. Yes, the Drouin Collection is available on other sites but Genealogy Quebec I consider the master source and all others will be behind the times when it comes to new additions. The site also has The LAFRANCE collection with early Quebec parish records starting from 1621. There is also a large obituary collection and a notarized documents collection. If that's not enough they have a collection of marriage and deaths records recorded in Quebec between 1926 and 1997 collected by the provincial health services.

7. The National Archives at Kew, England

The National Archives (TNA) in England (not to be confused with the other national archives around the world) has both free and fee based access to records. With the restrictions in place due to COVID-19 The National Archives has opened up their digital record downloads for free when normally some of these records could only be retrieved for free at their site or by paying a nominal fee. That is why they are in this list and not in my top ten free list. That said, this site is an important one for my British Isles and early Canadian research. Why Canadian? Prior to Confederation, many of the records headed back to England for government use and storage and thus ended in TNA. If you have come across WO or AO record mentions in your Loyalist research, those are collections originally held by The National Archives. Some of those collections are also held by Library and Archives Canada but it is always good to check the TNA site too.

6. General Register Office of England and Wales

We are all probably familiar with the various England and Wales birth, marriage, and death (BMD) indexes available on many genealogy sites. However, in order to make sure you have the right person you really need to order the certificate and, for England and Wales, this is the place to do it. It isn't inexpensive, £11 for a BMD certificate sent by post, but they do offer £7 for a PDF of a birth (1837-1919) or death certificate (1837-1957) sent by e-mail. One new feature is when you search the birth index on the GRO site the mother's maiden surname is now provided in the results. This can save you money or even provide a clue that helps you in your research without paying a penny.

5. GenealogyBank

This newspaper site is invaluable if you have branches of your tree that lived in the United States of America. This site has digitized newspapers that can't be found on other sites. In addition to digitized newspapers, some going back to the early 1700s, the site has a searchable copy of the Social Security Death Index (SSDI), an obituary collection from modern newspapers, some digitized books, and census records. All searchable by name, keywords, date ranges, and location (where applicable).

4. Newspapers.com¹ Publisher Extra subscription

Edging out GenealogyBank for newspaper collections is Newspapers.com with the additional Publisher Extra add-on. Much like GenealogyBank, the primary focus is on US newspapers but with the addition of the Publisher Extra add-on one has access to a number of Canadian newspapers too. The Canadian newspapers are heavy on the western side of Canada especially British Columbia but any indexed and searchable Canadian newspaper collection is a good thing in my books. Newspapers.com also has newspapers from Australia, England, Ireland, Northern Ireland, Panama, Scotland, and Wales in their collection. 

3. ScotlandsPeople

If you have any Scottish roots this is the one site you need to visit to locate the images of birth, marriage, and death statutory (civil) registrations, census returns, and parish registers that can't be found elsewhere online from home. Many sites will have the indexes of those records but not the images. Unlike many other fee-based genealogy sites that are subscription based ScotlandsPeople is credit based. For £7.50 you get a 30 credit voucher. The price for viewing and downloading, if you so chose to do so, is 6 credits for statutory BMD registrations, census returns, and church registers. Other records can be had for between 2 credits and 40 credits, depending on the collection.

2. Findmypast

Findmypast continues to be one of my primary research sites especially for the UK branches of my family. It isn't just because of their wonderful census, parish collections, immigration, and military collections that covers the British Isles and select parts of the world but also for their newspaper collections. With Findmypast I have access to English, Irish, and US newspapers from various other sites. There are also a number of Canadian newspapers buried in their collection.

1. Ancestry¹

There is probably no surprise that Ancestry is at the top of my list of fee-based genealogy sites. Combined with their record collections and DNA testing they have been my go-to site for many years. My primary cousin-bait tree is hosted on that site and I make use of the good...and not so good...user created trees to provide me with clues as to where to possibly look next for records in my research when I hit a stumbling block.

 

These are my top ten fee-based sites and they probably differ from yours. I'd be interested in hearing from you as to your favourites (and why) that I didn't include.

Stay tuned in the coming week or so for a list of my favourite free genealogy sites.

---

Full disclosure

1. As a member of the Ancestry Canada Advisory Board this year I have been provided a free subscription to Ancestry, Newspapers.com with Publisher Extra, and Fold3. However, prior to this year I either held my own subscriptions or made use of those sites via other venues such as at my local Family History Center or a genealogy conference.

2. I was provided with a one year subscription to Genealogy Quebec last year. The subscription has since lapsed but my to-do list for that site is growing for the day when I can access those records at my local library.

3. In July this year I won a subscription to MyHeritage when I attended a Facebook presentation hosted by MyHeritage. I had a subscription in previous years but had let it lapse.

Same Name, Different Person?

In my post, Not Trusting Trees -or- Make Sure You Read the Records!, I focused on the parents of Louisa Coulston/Colston Golding and the challenge with figuring out the maiden surname of her mother, Susanna. In this post I will look at the husband of Louisa, one Reuben Charles Short of England later of London, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada.

According to the chart found in the family bible Reuben Charles Short was born 31 Mar 1807 and died 17 Mar 1880. As I had mentioned in the research concerning the mother of Louisa, charts found in family bibles always need to be taken with a grain of salt and backed up with other documents such as ecclesiastical and government created records. So far the information recorded in this specific family chart actually matches with the other records I've uncovered. So I trust it...as much as I trust any other record.

In the parish register for St. Michael Bassishaw in London, England we find a marriage recorded in Ancestry's "London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1932" collection between Reuben Short and Louisa Coulston Golding taking place on 24 Mar 1829. 

"London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1932," database and images, Ancestry Operations, Inc., Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 7 Sep 2020), Reuben Short and Louisa Coulston Golding, married 24 Mar 1829; citing London Metropolitan Archives; London, England; Reference Number: P69/MIC1/A/01/Ms 6990/1; Marriage register for St Michael Bassishaw, 1813-1835, p 63.

To add a little bit to the confusion to Louisa's middle name she writes it as "Coston". Why do I think it is her handwriting and not that of the priest or clerk? This is where we have to look at the page as a whole. If she didn't know how to write her name the signature would have been like that of the witness to the following recorded marriage, "Ann Pyatt her Mark X". Also the letters, especially the 'd' in Golding, look different when compared to the rest of the record and page.

Unfortunately, unlike in the civil marriage registrations that started 1 Jul 1837 in England and Wales, the names of any parents are generally not recorded in parish marriage registers. This leaves us with a challenge, who are Reuben Charles Short's parents and where in England was Reuben born?

Once again I turned to the family trees on Ancestry that have been created by users of that site for potential clues. And much like the challenges with figuring out the maiden surname of Louisa's mother, Susanna, we face some in interesting challenges. Here an example of one profile hint from Ancestry:

Screen capture of an Ancestry profile hint for Reuben Edward Short Sr.

A few things I need to address or point out.

• For the profile picture they are using the image of the family tree from the Short bible. That is the same family tree chart that I've also been using as a relatively trusted source. That document has recorded within the names of the children along with dates of significant events for that family.
• Reuben's full name, according to that family chart is recorded not just once but twice as "Reuben Charles Short". The use of the "Sr" (senior) may have been used to distinguish him from his son, Reuben Edward Short especially if only the first name is used in business or in the family. Even his grave marker, as you will read a little further on, records his name as Reubⁿ C Short.
• Reuben was born in London, Middlesex, England. However, some have him also baptized on 5 Apr 1807 in Swanage, Dorset, England.
  
• Reuben's father's name is Thomas Short and mother's name is Sarah Martin.
• Six children are listed: Matilda Susannah (1829-1885), Louisa Susannah (1832-1903), Reuben Edward (1935-1928), Sarah Ann (1838-1913), Eliza Jane (1938-1902), and Fanny Charlotte (1842-1918). However, in the family chart found in the bible there is one other daughter, Elizabeth (1841-?). She is listed under the deaths on the chart but without a date recorded. Possibly the creator of the family chart didn't know when she died.
  

Knowing the dates of when the children were born is another little tidbit that may help us out in locating or even dismissing records in England: Reuben Charles' son Reuben Edward was born in England on 18 Mar 1835 and the next child, Sarah Ann, was born in Canada in 14 Oct 1837 with the remaining children also born in Canada. Reuben is also found in the 1871 census of Canada in the Township of London, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada with wife Louisa and daughter Eliza Jane. His entry in that census is sandwiched between the family of his daughter Matilda, now married to William McKnight, and the household of his son Reuben. I've not yet found him in the earlier decennial censuses of Canada West.

So why do some have Reuben Charles Short born in London, Middlesex, England while also having him baptized some distance away in Swanage, Dorset, England. It comes down to two different sets of records. The first is a baptism record for a Reuben, child of Thomas and Sarah Short in 1807.

"Dorset, England, Church of England Baptisms, Marriages and Burials, 1538-1812," database and images, Ancestry Operations, Inc., Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 23 Sep 2020), Reuben, of Thomas and Sarah Short, baptized 5 Apr 1807; citing Dorset History Centre; Dorchester, England; Dorset Parish Registers; Reference: PE/SW:RE6; Parish of Swanage.

The other is the entry for Find A Grave for Reuben Edward Short Sr. in Mount Pleasant Cemetery and Crematorium in London, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada¹ where someone has written:

REUBEN EDWARD SHORT was born and lived near St. Paul's Cathedral, London, England. He, his wife, two daughters and his son-age one left England in 1836 in a sailing vessel that took 7 weeks to reach America. He settled in Toronto, Canada for four years then went to London, Ontario, where he lived the balance of his life. He was in the shoe making business with his brother and built a log cabin. [Source unknown]

What would have been really nice to read in that Find A Grave memorial page was the source of that information. Also, the memorial page for Reuben on Find A Grave is without an image so how do we know that it is Reuben Edward Short written on the marker? Well, it isn't. The CanadaGenWeb's Cemetery Project has taken photographs of many of the markers on the grounds of Mount Pleasant Cemetery and Crematorium and Reuben's is one of them. The name engraved on the marker appears to my eyes to be "Reubⁿ C Short"²

If that wasn't confusing enough, some people have linked a 1841 census of England to Reuben in their trees. Yet based on the places of birth for his children, he was residing in Canada by that time. That 1841 census of the Parish of Wimborne Minster, Dorset records a Reuben Short, age 35 years, born in Dorset County. Keeping in mind that in the 1841 census of England the ages were rounded down to the nearest multiple of five for those over 15 years of age, could that entry actually be referring to the the Reuben, child of Thomas and Sarah Short?

Curiously, on FamilySearch there is an indexed entry from the "England, Dorset, Parish Registers, 1538-2001" collection for a baptism of an Ellen Short, daughter of Reuben and Catherine Short taking place on 12 Jul 1840 in Wimborne Minster. In the "England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005" collection on FamilySearch we find a Reuben Short listed in the index along with a Catherine Mary Ann Primmer with their marriage registered in the 4th quarter of 1839 in the Southampton registration district.

The tricky part in using church records is that not all the parish registers have survived and not all have been digitized or even indexed. So where else can we turn to in these COVID-19 times when archives and libraries are effectively out of bounds for us? How about online newspaper collections. For this I looked to the British newspapers collection on Findmypast.

In the 19 Nov 1840 edition of the Dorset County Chronicle there is a servant, Reuben Short, recorded as a hedger³ with a master named Mr. Harry Small. He performed his hedging task in 2 hours 33 minutes. This was an actual event offered by the Blandford Agricultural Society in a Ploughing and Hedging competition on 11 Nov 1840. There are also mentions of Reuben Short in Lincolnshire and Wiltshire having to do with various criminal activities...all after when Reuben Charles Short was supposedly in Canada.

Could there be at least two Reuben Shorts born around the same time period in England? One that left England for Upper Canada and others that remained behind? The more I look at the records and explore other resources the more I have come to the option that there are indeed at least two people named Reuben Short.

What have we learned from this little exercise?

1. Family trees may not always be correct. It doesn't matter if they are online trees or books compiled a century ago. The information found within need to be looked at with a critical eye and, where ever possible, verified against surviving records.
   
2. Find A Grave entries or those found on any other grave marker site, unless accompanied by the image of the marker, should be treated as suspect.
3. Newspapers can help when looking for a person. Of course, they may just highlight the issue of "same name, different person" like in this case.
4. Family bibles and family charts can be invaluable but, like online family trees, the events recorded need to be corroborated.
   

So, at least for now, the names of the parents of Reuben Charles Short will have to remain a mystery.

---

1.  Find a Grave, database and images (https://www.findagrave.com : accessed 22 September 2020), memorial page for Reuben Edward Short Sr. (1807–17 Mar 1880), Find a Grave Memorial no. 33292270, citing Mount Pleasant Cemetery and Crematorium, London, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada ; Maintained by Find a Grave (contributor 8). 

2. CanadaGenWeb, CanadaGenWeb's Cemetery Project, digital images (http://cemetery.canadagenweb.org/  : accessed 4 Sep 2020), memorial page for Reuben C Short (1807-1880), citing Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Middlesex County, Ontario, Canada; photographed by Margaret Yasui.

3. Hedger? What's a hedger? Someone who makes and trims hedges of course! It was considered a skilled art.

Not Trusting Trees -or- Make Sure You Read the Records!

When I'm stuck researching a family line using Ancestry I will often turn to the family trees created by others. Before you get in an uproar over how suspect they may be, take a moment to hear me out. I'm generally not looking at those user contributed trees for answers but instead I'm mining them for possible clues. I approach everything in those trees using my genealogy research mantra of "Trust no one, verify everything, and even if it is written in stone it might be wrong."

So let's take a look at the marriage of Charles Golding and Susanna. This is from a branch of a tree that I'm exploring for a friend and sort of a dead end on this branch for me. I wanted to learn what the maiden surname is for Susanna.

First I need to take a step back and start with their daughter. Initially all I had was the name Louisa Colston/Coulston Golding. According to the family chart of the Reuben Charles Short found in the family bible she was born 25 Aug 1802 and died 4 Sep 1873. Now blindly trusting family bibles can be fraught with challenges. However, I've been able to corroborate the information recorded on that family chart with parish and civil records so I'm trusting that document as much as I would any ecclesiastical or government generated record.

Here is her 1802 baptism record from Upper Maudlin Street church in Bristol, England, a Moravian church which means this is a nonconformist church, a non-Church of England church.

"England & Wales Non-Conformist Births And Baptisms," database and images, Findmypast, Findmypast (www.findmypast.com : accessed 7 Sep 2020), Louisa Colston Golding, born 25 Aug 1802, baptized 12 Sep 1802; citing The National Archives (Kew, Surrey), RG/3/1361B; Upper Maudlin Street (Moravian): Births, Baptisms and Burials.

In the baptism record the minister was kind enough to state where and when Louisa was born. It is really nice that the date of her birth matches what is recorded in the family chart. in the baptism record Louisa is recorded as the daughter of Charles and Susanna Golding. Unfortunately they don't state her mother's maiden surname.

As an aside, the place of her birth, Kingswood led me down some interesting paths as I tried to place it into a county. Some sites had it in Gloucestershire, others in Wiltshire, and one in both. That had me scratching my head. So I turned to GENUKI to see what it stated. The reference on that site for Kingswood in Wiltshire stated, "... Previous to 1844 it formed part of the county of Wilts, but is now annexed to Gloucester."¹ Prior to 1844 Kingswood, Wiltshire was an enclave completely surrounded by Gloucestershire. This means that when Louisa was baptized she was born in Kingswood, Wiltshire, England and not Kingswood, Gloucestershire, England. It is a minor but important distinction when one strives to record where an event took place at the time.

I now know the names of her parents, Charles and Susanna, along with the general location where she resided and the religious following of her parents. This helps quite a bit when it comes to researching in parish records. Of course, this led me down another path where I needed to learn more about the Moravian church in England and how it affected finding records. The one important item to note is that between 1754 and 1837 only Church of England marriages had been legal (Quakers were exempt from this law)². This means that I should probably not limit myself to Nonconformist records when looking for a marriage between the parents of Louisa.

This is where the various user contributed family trees on Ancestry come into play. Practically all of the trees have her parents as Charles Golding and Susanna Coulston or Colston Here is an example of one of the family tree profile hints for Louisa.

Screen capture of an Ancestry family tree profile hint for Louisa Coulston Golding (1802-1873).

The profile has a number of sources and records attached to it. However, generally when I see a profile hint on Ancestry with one more source than the number of records that's a good indicator that other family trees many have been used as sources. That is exactly what has happened here.

Since I've not found the maiden name of Susanna recorded in the documents I had come across I wanted to find out where these Ancestry members got their information. So I looked at each tree hint for Louisa and followed their tree to her mother, Susanna. For the associated sources for Susanna's name they all came from baptism registers and only had her first name mentioned. However, there was a marriage registration between Charles and Susanna that everyone pointed to. Even better, the source had an image connected to it. That's always a win!

"Bristol, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1935," database and images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 Sep 2020), Charles Golding and Susanna Golding, married 9 Oct 1793; citing Bristol Archives; Bristol, England; Bristol Church of England Parish Registers; Reference: P/B/R/3/c; Parish of St. Mary, Bitton. 

Only one little itsy bitsy problem. That record doesn't state Coulston or Colston but Golding!

One Ancestry tree profile even commented on that recorded fact with the statement:

"Susanna's name on Marriage Record is listed as Susanna Golding. Assuming since Louisa was her only daughter and she gave her the middle name of Coulston that that [sic] could be her maiden name."

They read the evidence but just didn't believe their own eyes and came up with an explanation of their own.

It just wasn't in the recording of the names of the parties but in the place where the parties signed their name. Maybe she couldn't write so the priest made the same mistake twice. This is where looking at the whole document is important since the next marriage, that between John Bush and Ruth Gunning, for the husband the signature is "The mark of  + John Bush" and the next marriage record one after that has "The mark of X Ann Bryant". So it appears that Susanna could write her own name and knew what it was.

Since the marriage was performed after the Banns of Marriage were read I searched for the record of banns. Maybe they would clarify the matter and give a different surname for Susanna. I got lucky and found them relatively quickly in the same collection.

"Bristol, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1935," database and images, Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 16 Sep 2020), Charles Golding and Susanna Golding, banns read 15, 22, 29 Sep 1793; citing Bristol Archives; Bristol, England; Bristol Church of England Parish Registers; Reference: P/B/R/3/c; Parish of St. Mary, Bitton.

Even that record had her surname as Golding. In both the marriage and banns records it is stated that she is a spinster. So Golding would appear to be her maiden surname.

But is this the right Charles and Susanna? I think so. Bitton is in the same neck of the woods as Kingswood, only about 3.8 miles apart so it is possible. According to Wikipedia (yes, taken with a grain of salt), until the early 19th century there was no Church of England church in Kingswood and they were served by the parish in Bitton. Also, remember that little detail about nonconformist marriages being not legal? St. Mary's in Bitton is a Church of England parish so it would make sense to get married there to be legal in the eyes of the government.

A further search of the nonconformist baptisms, using both Findmypast and Ancestry, revealed a number of children born in Kingswood to a Charles and Susan/Susanna/Susannah Golding:

1. Jeremiah, 1794-1803
2. Edward, 1796-
3. Daniel, 1797-
4. Philip, 1799-
5. Ebenezer, 1801-
6. Louisa Colston/Coulston, 1802-1873
7. Jeremiah, 1804-
8. Ephraim, 1807-1812

Yes, there are two Jeremiahs. The first was born just over a year after Charles and Susanna were married but died as a young child. I haven't gone down the branches of the various siblings of Louisa but in just glancing at the records there are some neat finds including that of Ebenezer Golding, boot and shoe maker, being admitted to the Freedom of the City of London on 8 Oct 1835 at Guildhall.

Just wait though, there is more to mess people's trees up when documenting this family group...

To add to the confusion in the records and what is recorded in various trees, I had found the baptisms recorded under "RG4: Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths ˃ Buckinghamshire ˃ Primitive Methodist ˃ Piece 1361A: Wooburn Green (Primitive Methodist), 1832-1836" in the "England & Wales, Non-Conformist and Non-Parochial Registers, 1567-1970" collection on Ancestry. This didn't make sense to me since I expected it to be Somerset, Gloucestershire, or Wiltshire as the county. If one looks at the reference plate included with frame of the original microfilm you will see that the collection is actually RG4/1361B according to the Public Records Office reference number. To really mess things up, "RG4: Registers of Births, Marriages and Deaths ˃ Somerset ˃ Moravian ˃ Piece 1361: Bristol, Upper Maudlin Street (Moravian), 1755-1837" is actually for the Primitive Methodist denomination in Wooburn Green. Big OOPS on Ancestry's part.

To wrap things up, and assuming that I have found the correct records, it would seem to me that the various trees on Ancestry are incorrect and Susanna's maiden surname is the same as her husband, that is, Golding.

---

1. The National Gazetteer : a Topographical Dictionary of the British Islands Compiled from the Latest and Best Sources and Illustrated with a Complete County Atlas and Numerous Maps, vol. 2 (London, England : Virtue & Co, 1868), p. 477, entry for Kingswood; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org : accessed 21 Sep 2020). 

2. The National Archives research guide on Nonconformists.

The Challenge of Being Challenged

Whenever you post a family tree online, whether it be in a one-world tree like on FamilySearch or WikiTree or in a self-manged tree like those found on MyHeritage, Findmypast, or Ancestry, you run the risk of someone saying that you are wrong. Hopefully, that person will provide a list of facts to back up their statement. Sometimes you are right with the information that you have, other times, the other person points out something that you had completely missed and caused you to follow the wrong family line.

Here is an interesting case in my own tree on Ancestry where a claim has been made and one piece of evidence provided that refutes what I had recorded. How you deal with such challenges is up to you but here is what I did in my case.

We need to set the stage first...

In the branch of the Fraser family on my tree on Ancestry I have Jane Fraser, born on 8 Sep 1839¹ in Upper Canada (what later became Ontario, Canada). 

L. A. Milne, Fraser : A Short History of The Fraser Clan and our own Branch of Frasers in Canada and The United States  (N.p.: L.A. Milne, 1943), p 59, photograph of Jane Fraser.

According to the Fraser book I have that was compiled by Louise Agnes (nee Fraser) Milne in the 1940s Jane was supposedly first married to "Manchester" (no known forename) and then to a "Wm Gould". I was able to locate Jane in the 1851/52, 1861, and 1871 censuses living with family in Drummond Township, Lanark County, Canada West/Ontario. In 1881 she is residing in the household of her older brother Thomas in Huron Township, Bruce County, Ontario. Where I next pick her up is in California, USA in the 1900 census. That find was based on a few premises:

• Comment in the Fraser book about after her mother, Sarah, passing away Jane went to California and married.
• Another comment in the Fraser book that stated "Old letters written to her people back home are full of expressions of affection for her husband and stepson."

So finding a Jane Gould in the 1900 Federal census of the United States of America in California living in Los Nietos, Los Angles County, California, USA with husband William Gould and an 18 year old James F Gould, recorded as a son to the head of the household, William, made sense. But then she disappeared.

That is what I had up until now when I started writing this post.

However, I'm in the midst of my review of my Fraser branches descended from Alexander Fraser and Sarah Howell and I decided to chase down Jane, their youngest daughter, before I continued with some of the other larger branches of Alexander's and Sarah's family since Jane didn't have any children listed in the Fraser book. That is when I came across this comment from five years ago attached to William Gould, Jane's husband, that I somehow missed:

"William Gould had only on wife Jane Fraser and James Fredercik [sic] Gould was there [sic] son  See the 1900 and 1910 census, married 24 years"

That comment came about since I had William Gould first marrying an Ellen Mourin before he married Jane.

With the number of records that have be placed online over the past decade I figured I'd have a good look at this family group and see if I could:

1. Confirm that Jane did marry a Manchester, and
2. Straighten out to my satisfaction that James Frederick Gould is a stepson of Jane.

The first thing I did was review the records that I had already found for Jane Fraser and make sure I had all the information entered into my master database in Legacy Family Tree. Just doing this sort of review can sometimes shed additional light on facts and events you missed the first time around.

As you can see in this clipping from the 1900 Federal census of the USA for the household of William Gould, it does state that Jane has 1 child born and 1 child still living.

1900 U.S. census, Los Angeles County, California, population schedule, Los Nietos Township, enumeration district (ED) 110, sheet 29A, dwelling 676, family 704, Household of William Gould; digital images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 Aug 2020); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T623.

What isn't showing but is in other columns is that for the number of years in the USA and her immigration status it is recorded as "unknown". Even the year of her arrival in the USA is blank even though her stated place of birth is Canada Eng. The immigration details for James F Gould, the listed son, are blank and he was born in New Zealand. Something seems to be amiss here. With both Jane and James not born in the USA there should have been additional details recorded.

However, the 1910 Federal census of the USA tells a different story.

1910 U.S. census, Los Angeles County, California, population schedule, Los Nietos Township (part of Rivera Precinct), enumeration district (ED) 282, sheet 1A, dwelling 11, family 11, Household of Wm Gould; digital images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 Aug 2020); citing National Archives and Records Administration microfilm T624, roll 85.

Here it is stated that this is both their second marriage and they've only been married for 10 years. Also no children are recorded for Jane and, although not shown in this snippet from the page, it states that that Jane arrived in the United States in 1882.

Right away we have conflicting information from the census enumerations. Oh, joy! However, there is some hope now that the Fraser book was right and Jane did marry a Manchester before she married William Gould.

How about that supposed son of William and Jane, James F. Gould? What can we learn about him beside that he was born about 1881 in New Zealand.

For that I went to the New Zealand Government site for Births, Deaths & Marriages Online to search for historical records. I entered in the basic information I had concerning James:

• Family Name: Gould
  
• Given Name: James
  
• Search From Date: 01/01/1879
  
• Search To Date: 31/12/1883
  

I gave it a +/- 2 year range for the date of birth just in case and only three names that were registered in that time period were returned. One of them was for a James Frederick Gould, child of William and Ellen registered in 1881.

Wait a second, Ellen and not Jane? It is looking like the 1910 census might be right after all.

Since James isn't in the 1910 census with William and Jane he might have died, married, or moved away. A search for a Frederick James Gould that was born about 1881 in New Zealand find a Fred J Gould born about 1883 in New Zealand living with wife Jessie E in Los Nietos Township, Los Angeles County, California. Also, they've only been married for two years.

The California, County Marriages, 1850-1952 collection on FamilySearch is a wonderful resource for images of California marriage registrations. Keep in mind that not all marriages will be found here and the ones that are, not all may have images. But it is a good place to start to see if I can find a marriage for James F Gould and a Jessie.

We struck gold this time. A marriage license was found and the certificate of marriage include the Personal and Statistical Particulars.

It is a little faint to read but it states that James believed that his mother was Nellie Mourin.

Way back when, when I was doing my initial research, I had come across a mention of a marriage in the Perth Courier between Wm. Gould and Nellie Mourin. It was an interested notice since it stated that they married at Piccadilly, London.

"Gould-Mourin," The Perth Courier, 29 Sep 1876; digital images, PaperofRecord.com (https://paperofrecord.hypernet.ca/default.asp : accessed 9 Oct 2010).

On Ancestry in the newly available "Westminster, London, England, Church of England Marriages and Banns, 1754-1935" collection there is even a copy of the marriage record from Parish of St. James (Piccadilly) Westminster for a William Gould and Ellen Mourin that took place on 12 Aug 1876.

What about Jane's marriage to William Gould? Well a search of FamilySearch in the "California, County Marriages, 1850-1952" collection didn't uncover a marriage to a Jane Fraser between 1881 and 1900 but there is one to a Jane Manchester. Recall that in the Fraser book they said that Jane first married a Manchester. There a marriage is recorded taking place on 26 Jul 1898 between a William Gould, residing in Rivera, a native of Canada and Mrs Jane Manchester, residing in San Gabriel, a native of Canada.

"California, County Marriages, 1850-1952," index and images, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 11 Aug 2020), entry for William Gould and Jane Manchester, married 26 Jul 1898; citing Los Angeles, California, United States, county courthouses, California; FHL microfilm 2,073,995.

 

Curiously the witnesses are a W. G. McMullin, a resident of Los Angeles, and A. F. Mills, a resident of Pasadena. In my tree I do have a William George McMullin/McMullen, a sheriff in Los Angeles, and an Alexander Fraser Mills, residing in Pasadena around that time. Looks like she may have asked her nephews to act as witnesses.

What about a marriage to a Manchester? 

Again, FamilySearch comes through for us with their California, County Marriages, 1850-1952 collection. Here we find the marriage for James S Manchester, a native of Maine and a resident of Los Angeles, to Jane Fraser, a native of Canada and resident of Los Angeles, on 8 Sep 1885 with a George McMullen as one of the witnesses.

"California, County Marriages, 1850-1952," index and images, FamilySearch (www.familysearch.org : accessed 11 Aug 2020), entry for James S Manchester and Jane Fraser, married 8 Sep 1885; citing Los Angeles, California, United States, county courthouses, California; FHL microfilm 1,033,135.

The question that then arises for me is did James Manchester die before Jane married William Gould? That was answered through a paragraph in The Los Angeles Times found via a search on Newspapers.com.

"Pasadena - Brevities," The Los Angeles Times, 4 Sep 1891, p. 7, col. 1; digital images, Newspapers (www.newspapers.com : accessed 11 Aug 2020).

There is the A. F. Mills that was a witness for his marriage to Jane Fraser and I also have J. S. (John Stevenson) Mills in my tree and they are nephews by marriage to James Manchester.

What about Jane? Why did she disappear from the census records after 1910. A bit of search and I found her death registration in the "California, County Birth and Death Records, 1800-1994" collection on FamilySearch. She had passed away on 31 May 1916 in Rivera, Los Angeles County, California. The only glitch in the record is that they list her father as John Fraser instead of Alexander Fraser. But surprisingly the unnamed informant got her mother correct, Sarah Howell.

Using that same collection on FamilySearch I found that William Gould had predeceased her on 11 Oct 1913, also in Rivera. Their grave markers can be found in the Rose Hills Memorial Park in Whittier, California.

Jane Fraser had, for many a years, been one of my little annoyances. Until I decided to revisit her and see what new information could be found she had been one of my lost sheep. She is now welcomed back into the flock.

I have sent a reply back to the person that commented on William Gould's profile and included a link to this blog post for their reading confusion/enjoyment.

So take another look at those people in your tree that you had issues with finding more details about their life story. With new collections and records be added monthly on many of your favourite genealogy sites you might just find the answers you could find the first time around.

---

1. "Fraser : a short history of the Fraser clan and our own branch of Frasers in Canada and the United States"