Ancestry has finally finished it!

This morning I switched on my computer to see the following headline on Anglo Celtic Connections:

Toronto records added to 1861 census on Ancestry 

What good news! 

The two sections of the 1861 census for Toronto that Ancestry have just uploaded are very important. 

The St James’s Ward section covers the northern part of the ward: from a block or two south of Carlton Street north to Bloor Street, and from Yonge over to Jarvis. The people who lived there were, to use their term, in “comfortable circumstances” compared to those living to the south, the west and the east. Many surnames that link with long-lived Toronto businesses will be found there, along with those in academic professions—both the Normal School and the original Medical School run by Victoria University were located there.

The other microfilm reel covers only the westernmost 40 houses in St Patrick’s Ward, but amongst the householders were two sons of the Dension family, one of the earliest to settle in the neighbourhood. The remainder of this reel is titled “Institutions”. What institutions you may ask? First, the ones you might think of: the Jail, the general hospital, the two hospitals for the mentally troubled, and orphanages and convents. But, in addition, are the inhabitants of Toronto Island, the students at the theological colleges, and most important of all from a worldwide genealogical point of view, the soldiers at Old Fort York and the New Barracks. There were more than 400 people listed, not all of them soldiers—many had their wives and children with them. Birthplaces are given and this should allow family historians to trace these families from posting to posting. There are many Gibraltar references, for instance.

Five years ago I transcribed Toronto 1861 myself, I am so pleased that it is now online for all to see.

We all make mistakes

Some days I work on the census and its associated databases for far too long. Last evening proved to be one of those times.

I have been collecting portions of articles from the Dictionary of Canadian Biography to match against Toronto 1861 census entries. A few days of experimentation had led to a routine and I was just starting on the matches for the third of the seven wards.

It is quite easy to copy and paste portions of the DCB articles into a memo field in my own database--I doubt if my DCB table (or at least this field in the table) will ever see the light of day so I am not really worried about plagiarizing. But I did want to remove the asterisks that followed many names. The DCB uses these asterisks as hyperlinks to other articles. The hyperlinks themselves do not automatically copy into my database, so there is no point in keeping the asterisks that accompanied them. I decided to remove all of them in one "find and replace" operation--temporarily forgetting that an asterisk is a WILD CARD! I was left with 569 entries with blank memo fields--details that had taken two days to accumulate. Aaaarrghhhh!

Fortunately the 56 articles that had already been matched to people in the census had other fields filled in and were therefore identifiable. I am now proceeding to collect the data for these entries from the DCB again.

Why bother with the Dictionary of Canadian Biography? Each biographical article starts with a short paragraph giving the individual's dates and places of birth and death, the names of their parents, and, quite often, marital data as well. If the marital data is not in the opening paragraph, it is quite often found somewhere else in the article. Migration details (something I consider important facts in a person's life) are also there. Other significant relationships where business and family mix are also mentioned. The articles can sometimes hide extensive family trees--sufficient to convey how the Family Compact got its name.

Another tome, available on the web, which also yields the same kind of information is Biographical Sketches of the People of the County of York and the City of Toronto. This book came out circa 1895 and facts were obtained by circulating questionnaires to families in the community. It has its disadvantages: vital dates get omitted; people often go on at length about a single adventure and omit other details which might interest the 21st century genealogist; sometimes it is difficult to know whether the writer is describing his own life or that of his father. All the same Sketches can be useful for people who did not merit inclusion in the DCB.

You Lucky Ladies of 2012

I just matched up the Dictionary of Canadian Biography entry of Michael Willis, minister and prof of theology, to his entry in the 1861 census.

A sentence from the DCB: "The name of his wife is not known."

What did he call her in the 1861 census? "Mrs"

And that was life for a great many women of the middle of the nineteenth century.

Last week I came across Mr Cooney, a blacksmith, whose household list of inhabitants started with himself, proceeded to a female servant and her two children, and then to a married Bridget Cooney and two more children bearing the surname Cooney. Hmmm.

I hope they all knew their place.

Looking at the Dictionary of Canadian Biography

When I recorded the census form of

Rob't C Todd, 52, born England, artist and ornamental painter, married to M A, with four sons aged 11 down to 2.

I found he had not left the reverse of the form blank. He filled in the section

Annual Product of Business or Manufacture:

Quantities: various;

Kinds: various;

Value: from $300.00 to $400.00.

[Further details were not transcribed.]

And ended with the remark, “Toronto is to New and two Poor to suport an Ornamental artist." dated 14 Jan'y 1861.

I felt so sorry. Here was a man for whom the streets of Toronto were not paved with gold. Every time I came across the record I wondered what happened to him. Were things really so bad that he starved, or did he go back to England?

Today I have been checking the people of St Andrew’s Ward against the Dictionary of Canadian Biography, and noting matching entries. Imagine my surprise when I found

TODD, ROBERT CLOW, artist and decorative painter; b. perhaps in 1809 at Berwick-upon-Tweed (Northumberland County, England); he was probably the son of John Todd and Alice (Alison) Clow; d. 7 May 1866 at Toronto, Canada West.

The DCB went on to say

Robert Clow Todd spent his youth as a painter of arms on carriages in Edinburgh and London before immigrating to Lower Canada about 1834. He lived in Quebec City and in suburban Montmorency before moving to Toronto in 1853 where he spent the rest of his life. Todd advertised himself during his stay at Quebec as a painter of signs, carriage insignia, and ornamental work, and in Toronto as a “Banner, Herald, Sign, and Ornamental Painter.” He may also have carved and gilded figures in wood. …

Todd is remembered mainly for his oil paintings dating from his Quebec years. These are principally portraits of horses commissioned by local sportsmen. Some picture horses and sleighs posed with their owners before the Montmorency Falls in winter. Typical is The ice cone, Montmorency Falls, now in the National Gallery of Canada in Ottawa. All these paintings are characterized by a vibrant linear quality and overtones reflecting an interest in genre. This same interest is found in works of such contemporaries as Cornelius Krieghoff and James Duncan. Other known Todd paintings give views of the Quebec lumber docks and Montmorency Falls in summer. One copy of an English print has been located. Allegedly he executed murals in at least one civic building in Toronto. …

How wonderful. He may not have lived another decade, but his work has been remembered. He wasn’t just another carriage painter.

Murdoch's Mysteries again

The episode of Murdoch’s Mysteries that has intrigued me most was Episode 6 in Series 4, entitled “Dead End Street”. An autistic young woman who was incapable of speaking had created a model of the street on which she lived and in one house a man is pointing a gun. This leads Murdoch to wonder if a murder had occurred in the neighbourhood even though one had not been reported. What interested me was the location of the drama—one of the little residential streets at the east end of St Lawrence’s Ward. The backdrop used on the set included St Paul’s Catholic Church rising high above the houses in between. The story was based around a series of events that took place during an Orangeman’s Day Parade on the 12 July—a parade that proceeded along Queen Street and all the inhabitants of the street had gone up to the top of their road to see it pass.

The episode had two links to my census work. First, I had been working on that part of St Lawrence’s Ward in the week before seeing the TV show. The area was not densely poplulated in 1861, but maps of the time indicated that it was shortly to become so. The picture of the street as seen on television will always be the vision of that part of Toronto in the latter half of the nineteenth century for me, no matter how true an image it is. Secondly, I recalled transcribing a census form produced in St John’s Ward. The form asked for reports of deaths during 1860 and one poor widow with twin infant boys reported that her husband had died after playing the fife in the Orangeman’s Parade. I really didn’t know whether to laugh or cry. The census--all life is there.

R & R for the Old Census Scribe

Shortly before 9 pm last evening I shut down the computer and resolved to spend the time until bedtime relaxing in front of the television. On offer last night was the general bill of fare: soaps, comedies, celebrity competitions, house renovations. BBC2 was offering a dramatization of Dicken’s Edwin Drood which I had thought of watching, but as I switched on I decided I wasn’t in the mood for it. But, on our cable channel that offers nothing but repeat crime series, Murdoch’s Mysteries was about to start.

Yes, Murdoch’s Mysteries is available here in the UK. I came across it first about five years ago and since then have watched a number of episodes, but I don’t put it in my diary for watching week after week. Toronto in the 1890s was probably quite different from Toronto circa 1861, but it is still a lot closer to the 1860s than Toronto as it is today. I view each episode with a fair bit of skepticism, always on the lookout for some point in the story line where the writers forget what year it was supposed to be. Surely Dr Ogden is a complete anachronism, but there has to be some love interest in the story. Besides they chose a name for the character that comes from nineteenth century Toronto—I hope the writers were paying tribute to Uzziel Ogden and not just picking a name from thin air.

Last night’s episode started with the discovery of a body of a man who had been murdered in 1862. “Aha!”, said I, “this one is going to be interesting”. Actually, it was very involved and concerned Canadian-American politics in both the 1860s and the 1890s. They even wrote Sir Wilfrid Laurier into the script.

Since I can’t keep my hands still while watching television I opened my new tablet computer to play a game or two. This is something I haven’t really got the knack of yet, so during the ads I downloaded Google Books. Four were being offered for free: Pride and Prejudice; Frankenstein; The Seventh Report from the Select Committee of the House of Assembly of Upper Canada on Grievances, published November 1831 by W L Mackenzie; and Winter Studies and Summer Rambles in Canada by Anna Jameson. You would almost think these had been selected for me personally.

Some day I might read Pride and Prejudice. Up to now I have satisfied myself with seeing both the film and the television adaptation more than once. Frankenstein is not my cup of tea. The Seventh Report…. is something I really ought to look into beyond the table of contents and the index that I glanced at last night. Winter Studies… is a book I have never come across before. I certainly was aware of it, and understood it to be a good read, but this was my first opportunity to open its covers. I could hardly wait for Murdoch to solve his mystery before getting down to it.

Mrs Jameson travelled to Toronto from New York in December 1836—that meant up the Hudson River by a steamer armed with an ice cutter on its prow, across country from Albany to Niagara by stage coach, and across Lake Ontario on a ship that managed to sail between storms that would have made the voyage impossible. On arrival in Toronto she had to make her way on foot to her house on Adelaide Street West—one of the five brick houses on the corner of York Street that I mentioned in my blog just before Christmas.

She settled into the cold, cold like she had never come across in England, and into the life led by “Toronto society”, a life which she admitted she had previously avoided. I was very taken by a paragraph in which she described all the different types of sleighs in use. The diary has its peculiarities: in her day-to-day life she mentions no one around her, neither family or servants, although they must have existed.

Today I “googled” and “wiki-ed” Anna Jameson and found out a bit about her life from the outside, and about where those summer rambles would lead her once that cold winter was over. I am going to read more of it, and I’m not going to spoil the story for you if you want to do the same.

St Andrew's Ward and an Interesting Family

After "getting things in order" as described in my last post, the next priority was to redraw my map for St Andrew's Ward. It now looks like the diagram above which, I assure you, in another bit of software, I can blow up to something that can be seen.

Yonge Street is at the rightmost edge, Strachan Avenue at the left. Divisions One (pink) and Three (turquoise) stretch from Queen West in the north to Adelaide on the south. The east-west boundary between them was York Street. District Two was the Adelaide-King West corridor from Yonge to Peter Street, beyond the old grounds of Upper Canada College. Divisions Four and Five stretched from Queen to King. Division Four started at Peter and ended at Portland Street, Division Five continued on from there to Strachan.

With all that done I could get back to inspecting the households and matching the inhabitants up to the city directories. Division Four started at the southwest corner of Queen and Peter, a tavern named "The Toronto Inn" run by Mrs C McDonagh. From there to Portland Street were two bakers (and another one on the southwest corner of Queen and Portland), a confectioner, one provision dealer, four grocers and a flour dealer handily situated to serve them all. The aroma early in the morning must have been quite something.

By Mitchell's Directory of 1864 a lot of the businesses had changed hands. The flour dealer had died and his business had been taken over by someone else. Police Station No 3 had appeared in the middle of the block between Peter and Brock. William Stewart, a painter living at 367 Queen, had become an artist.

The family that grabbed my attention was that of William Reeves, the baker on the southwest corner of Queen and Portland. He was 53 and his wife, Mary, was 45. Their household included nine children, two living-in bakers--one of whom was probably a nephew, and William's father, Richard, aged 83. Richard, surprisingly, was not a widower but married. Down the street about half a block was a clerk in his thirties named Henry Floyd with his wife Christina, three children--and his mother-in-law, Christiana Reeves, aged 74. Christiana was married--just like Richard. How interesting. The bakery must have been so bursting at the seams that Mother had had to move in with a married daughter. I wish I could prove the relationship between Richard and Christiana, but the 1851 Toronto census is missing and the couple were probably married in Ireland in the early years of the 19th century.

Simply out of curiosity, I would like to know when Richard and Christiana died. But until 1869 and civil registration, the only deaths to be found online are of people buried in the Necropolis. The Reeves family weren't there. Mitchell's Directory does state that William Reeve's bakery had turned into a grocery store run by Mary Reeves, "widow of Wm", by 1864. The Floyds were one of the families to move away from Queen Street--they were found near Hayter on Elizabeth Street by 1864. I wonder if Christiana was still with them?

Getting Things in Order

I hope you all had a Merry Christmas. As you can imagine checking the census took second place this past week. However, it was still an excuse for a sedentary break from preparing a slap-up meal with all the trimmings, following the suggestions of a myriad of television chefs for this and that.

Two days before Christmas I reached what I thought was the end of Electoral Division Three of St Andrew's Ward. The last five households did not have a folio number and were duplicated--one almost immediately, the other four at the end of the whole ward with a change of address to fit in with their so-called neighbours in Division Five. Today I decided to append special notes to these five houses and their duplicates and to declare once and for all that they all lived on Nelson Street West in Division Three. I noted that the duplicates placed at the end of Division Five were labelled Division Three as were the 30 or so preceding households! What on earth was going on?

The Library and Archives film numbers for St Andrew's Ward are C-1101 (part), C-1102 (all), and C-1103 (part). LDS film 0390240 covers the whole of the ward and nothing else. I transcribed from the LDS film so I don't know where the breaks occurred between the LAC films. But I think an accident occurred when the census pages were about to be rubber-stamped with the chronological "folio" numbers. As a result the last 31 houses of Division 3 are hiding at the end of Division Five.

Census references in my transcription include the Electoral Division number, the folio number and a line number within each household. These 31 houses with their 213 inhabitants will now be placed in Division Three, but will retain the higher folio numbers which they received before microfilming.

The five divisions are now of reasonable sizes: 250 to 260 houses in each of the first three divisions, around 200 in each of Four and Five which are situated further west.

When I originally drew up the boundaries between divisions on a map of the ward I thought Division 5 was a peculiar shape. Now I can sort it out.

One Block in St Andrew's Ward

On the map brick buildings are outlined in red, frame buildings in grey. The dotted lines are the fences and walls between properties as illustrated in the Atlas.
Brown’s Directory indicates that 156 Adelaide was vacant when data was collected later in the year 1861. 150 Adelaide, the eastern-most of the brick houses on the corner of Simcoe, is not mentioned in Brown, but is included in Mitchell. There is also a 148 Adelaide in Mitchell’s Directory (1863-64). This may be a house built after the census.
I am assuming that the largest brick house in the block belonged to Joseph Dixon, the land agent. His census form describes his house as 2-1/2 storeys and built of brick and stone. The next brick house belonged to Frederick Upton.
A number of families and single inhabitants were found at 116 rear and 118 rear Adelaide West. These would appear to have been separate buildings at the back of the two lots and not flats in the main buildings entered by a back door.
James Paterson’s grocery had a York Street address, but it would appear to be equally a property on Adelaide.

The enumerator filed the forms in consecutive order west to east. It was great to be able to compare the list below with the map above, and also with the completely different atmosphere of the area today as shown on Google maps!

Folios 599-627: Adelaide Street West, north side, between Simcoe and York
599. Cornelia Paterson, widow of Archibald, boarding house at 158 Adelaide West.
600. John Ginty, contractor, living with mother & a sister. 154 Adelaide West.
601a. John Bishop, butcher, found in Caverhill and Mitchell at two other addresses in different parts of the city; not found in Brown at all.
601b. Mrs Susan Thomas. Although she follows Bishop and his family on the census form, she appears to be chief tenant or owner. Did not divulge her late husband's name. Found by Brown and Mitchell at 152 Adelaide West.
602. Adam Limberd or Lineberd, labourer. Name misread by both Ancestry and me. Only found in Brown (who can't be depended on to get surnames right either). His lodger Michael Sheils was not to be found anywhere. 142 Adelaide West.
603. Thomas Bryan. Name originally misread. Not found in directories after re-inspection. Had employed children, but they were not in directories either.
604. Chas Cline, tailor, from Witerburg, Germany. Not in directories.
605. Joseph Dixon, house and land agent. 5 children. Found in all directories on first run at 138 Adelaide St West.
606. Mrs Eleanor Hutcheson. Found in all directories, spelling consistent, on first run at 136 Adelaide West. Caverhill had house number as 126—perhaps a typo.
607. Richard Couch. Four different occupations all in the building trade. Found in all directories on first run. 134 Adelaide West.
His father, John Couch, part of the household, mentioned in Caverhill & Brown, died in 1863 and was buried in the Necropolis.
608. Fred'k Upton, wharfinger, 6 children, present in Caverhill & Brown--and Necropolis Burials. Brown had his address as 126 Adelaide West.
609. John F Corner, moulder. Found in Brown & Mitchell only. Household includes older lady identified as mother in law. 122 Adelaide West.
610. Samuel Bowman. No occupation in census or in any of the three directories. Always lives at 120 Adelaide West. His lodger, James Loaney was living at 116 Adelaide West in Caverhill.
611. Eli Hussey. tavernkeeper & chairmaker (!). 118 Adelaide West. Moved to Elizabeth Street, St John's, before Mitchell's Directory was published. Family includes married daughter.
612. Henry Johnston. printer at 116 rear Adelaide West.
613. Dan'l Dunning, gardener (surname deciphered after 3 attempts). Makes a long comment on census form (transcribed). Brown finds him at 116 rear Adelaide West. Otherwise, not found.
614. Anne Laid or Lord, fruit dealer, 60, widow living alone. Not found in any directory.
615. James Passmore, porter, with two servants (maybe they just lodged there). Found by Brown & Mitchell at 116 rear Adelaide West.
616. Amy Odell, sewing, widow with grownup daughter. Possible late husband found in Caverhill. Living at 116 rear Adelaide West in Brown, not found in Mitchell. Not in Necropolis burials.
617. Mary McCarty. Very popular name—as a result difficult to match with directories. No one of that name found at 116 rear Adelaide West or anywhere nearby. May have had a daughter working as servant with James Passmore.
618. Robert McCawley, labourer with servant. Not found in any directory.
619. Mary Bauldry, housekeeper. Surname completely misread on first run. Found in Mitchell at 118 rear Adelaide West with a slightly different name to that given here.
620. Ann Morris, widow of George. Caverhill's Directory and Necropolis Burials checked unsuccessfully for an entry for her late husband. Found in Mitchell at 118 rear Adelaide West.
621. David Heslip, labourer. Only sighting in a directory (taking all possible spellings into consideration) was in Mitchell when he lived much further west.
622. James Hart, tailor. Found at 3 different addresses in directories. Brown gave address as 116 Adelaide West.
623. Thomas Hoolahan (sp), porter, wrote his own census form. Why did the three directories given his name as Wholahan, Wholehen, and Wholohan? Address in Brown & Mitchell was 116 Adelaide West (lived elsewhere according to Caverhill's Directory).
624. Uphemia Thompson, boarding house with 3 lodgers and 2 daughters in their twenties. Found only by Brown at 114 Adelaide West.
625. William Hodgins, shoemaker. Found only by Brown at 112 Adelaide West.
626. Elizabeth Miller, nurse, sole inhabitant of 110 Adelaide West (114 in Caverhill)
627. Fred Milligan, innkeeper, no boarders. 108 Adelaide West.
628. James Paterson, grocer, with address 128-130 York on the corner of Adelaide.