X00241: Are Ann Hardy Barnhill and Mary Hardy Hyatt Sisters?

One of families that I’m researching at the present time is the Hardy family who came from Farndale, Yorkshire, England to what is now Peel Region in Ontario Canada in the 1840s. Lancelot Hardy and Ann Wood had several children and I’ve been able to trace most of them to Ontario.

Right now I’m trying to determine if Ann Hardy Barnhill and Mary Hardy Hyatt are sisters.

Ann Hardy married John Barnhill (1824-1868) around 1862. They had two children (that I have been able to identify so far): Nancy Maria Barnhill (1863-1929) and William John Barnhill (1867-1909).

Mary Hardy married Matthew Hyatt (1846-1909) around 1869. They had several children before she died in 1884. Matthew remarried after she died.

I’m definitely sure that Ann Hardy is the daughter of Lancelot and Ann; one record I’ve found gives their names as the parents. I haven’t found the same for Mary yet, but Lancelot and Ann did have a daughter named Mary and the information is definitely consistent with their daughter being the same one that was married to Matthew Hyatt. But I have yet to find definite proof.

The two families were definitely close. They lived in the same area and after Mary died, some of her children started living with the Barnhills and adopted the surname Barnhill. So, it's very likely.

X00199 - Solved!

A couple of years ago I went to the Peel Archives to look up the Perkins-Bull collection for the surname Hardy. In it, I came across this record:



The record indicates that Lancelot Hardy the younger lived from about 1860 to 1896 and was buried in St Peter’s Cemetery in Erindale.

According to the record above, there was a Lancelot Hardy who was born about 1860 and died in 1896 and was buried at St Peter’s Anglican church in Erindale. The problem is that:

• I can’t find a death record in the Ontario death registrations for a Lancelot Hardy in 1896
• The cemetery transcriptions for St Peter’s Cemetery do not show a Lancelot Hardy
• I’ve contacted the Anglican Church archives and they don’t have a burial record

I also went to the cemetery and couldn’t find a stone.

I was about to conclude that Perkins-Bull had the wrong information, or that no stone existed, but then I checked the cemetery transcription for the nearby Erindale Cosmopolitan Cemetery and found a listing there.



Then I went to cemetery and actually found the stone. It’s very worn and difficult to read, but you can make out some of it.



Next, to see about finding a death or burial record.

Finding Margaret Farriage: X00055 Analysis

Some time ago, I had posted that the Margaret Farriage that is married to George Miller is not the one born in Rothbury, England in 1804. So, it's time to re-evaluate and take a look at what is known and what is unknown.

Known facts about Margaret Farriage:

• The only source that I have found that gives her full name is from the Marriage Bonds of Upper Canada p 239 [D00800]
• She married George Miller, carriage maker on Oct 25, 1832 in Toronto Township (now Peel Region). Church not known. [D00800]
• At the time of her marriage was living in Nelson Township (now Burlington, Ontario) [D00800]
• She appears to have given birth to two sons, John born about 1833 and William born 10 May 1834. I don't have sources identified at this time to confirm John Miller's birth, so that may not be reliable.
• William Miller's Marriage Records lists his parents as George & Margaret Miller [D03152]. No maiden name given.
• She likely died some time between May 10 1834 (likely date of birth for William Miller) and Dec 9 1835 (likely date when George Miller married Amelia Grant Munro) [need source]
• According to the 1891 Census, she is of Scottish Origin [D00772]. That being said, this was several years after she had died and William Miller would have been very young when she died.
• At some point, the Miller family moved from Nelson to Cooksville [Need Sources].

Analysis:

• To this date, I have not found the surname Farriage elsewhere in Halton, Peel or southern Ontario for that matter, so I am questioning whether or not that is the real surname. On the marriage licence record itself, the name Farriage was spelled exactly like carriage and marriage which also appear on the form, so it could easily be something that sounded like Farriage.
• Based on the fact that she was married in 1832 and George Miller was born in 1809, a likely range for her year of birth would be 1805 to 1815
• Based on her last child birth and when George got remarried, a likely range for year of death would be 1834-1835
• As mentioned in a previous blog post, there is a Margaret Farridge born in Rothbury, Northumberland, England in 1804 [D00089], but I have ruled out that individual as a possibility because she died in 1809 [D01638] [See D03104]. I have checked the Baptism registers to see if the family renamed a later child Margaret but did not find anything.

Research Strategies:

1. Investigate the possibility that her last name was not Farriage. There is only one source that mentions a name. Note that the written name Farriage appears exactly as carriage. Could it have been that the person writing the bond spelled it the same way as carriage or marriage? We can rule out this possibility if we find a second source that corroborates the name. Some things to pursue:
   • Look for a second source that mentions the marriage and check the name: church records, newspapers, etc. George Miller was strongly Weselyan Methodist
   • Look for a marriage record for William Miller & Jane Hardy (married 1857) [D03152] Marriage record does not mention a maiden name
   • Look for records (marriage, death, census etc) for John Miller born 1833 [X00223]
   
   
   
2. Look for records of a Margaret Farriage, or Farriage family living in the Burlington Area
   • Check with the Burlington Public Library for directories, news, anything from the time period
     • Gravestones/cemetery records
     • Directories
     • Tweedsmuir Histories
     • Newspapers
     • Old books on early settlement
   • Check Hamilton Public Library - same list as above
   • Check Mississauga Public Library - same list as above
   • Check Halinet search
   
   
   
3. Investigate the possibility that William and/or John were born later than 1834. Look for:
   • Birth information for William Miller [X00158]
   • Birth information for John MIller [X00223]
   • 1851 Census information for the Miller family [X00082]
   
   
   
4. Look for a Margaret Farrish (or other variant names) born in Scotland around 1810
   • Check with Scotlands People