HEATH/MORRISON/FORD:  Sometime after the death of her parents, Margaret Ford had an inscription added to the family’s elaborate granite tombstone in which she gave herself full credit for its erection.  This claim angered her family, apparently because it was not true.  Biding their time, they called in a stone … Continue reading Carved in Stone, or Maybe Not

HEATH/CROWELL  In 1907, Charles Samuel Leonard Crowell (1881-1964) married May Pearl Groombridge at Windsor, Ontario.  Several years later, the couple posed for a studio photograph (right) with their daughter Dorthea.  The resulting picture was typical for the times, static and rather formal.  But the photograph taken of them in about 1950 (left) was … Continue reading Family History on the Move

HEATH/CROWELL:  Unlike death notices, which give comparatively little genealogical information, obituaries such as that published for Oliver Crowell (1841-1925) are far more useful to family historians.  Often times, the details provided can be followed-up for a better understanding of an ancestor’s life.  Although Oliver Crowell’s obituary did not include … Continue reading The Value of Obituaries

ST-DENIS/PRIDDLE:  The above extract illustrates the importance of being able to read cursive script, or the handwriting of our ancestors.  Written by Sarah Priddle (1829-1868) to her Johnson brothers in Hamilton, Ontario, it provides valuable insight into the family’s state of affairs in November of 1853.  It also reveals the … Continue reading On the Importance of Cursive Script

ST-DENIS/PRIDDLE:  In 1874 John Priddle of Houghton Township, Norfolk County, Ontario, married Hannah Brinn of adjacent Bayham Township in Elgin County.  They lived a happy life together until February of 1919, when John suffered a paralytic stroke while out hunting one day.  In May of … Continue reading Till Death us do Part

HEATH/MORRISON:  The soldier in this portrait is Robert Morrison, a sergeant in the Number 6, Wardsville [Ontario] Infantry Company, 26th Battalion of Middlesex Militia.  During the Fenian Raids of 1866, Morrison’s Company was sent to Sarnia, Ontario where an attack was expected. Presumably, Morrison’s portrait was based … Continue reading A Canadian Militia Sergeant from the Time of the Fenian Raids

HEATH:  Frances Heath (1810-1891) was already an old lady when she immigrated to Canada with several of her grown children in 1873.  Ten years later, she was living with her son, John Heath (1848-1925), when Canada adopted standard time.  Upon being told that London, England was five … Continue reading A Standard Time Denier

HEATH:  After the first Beaver Mills burned in 1894, John Heath (1848-1925) and his brother Thomas Heath (1853-1922) set out for British Columbia to work in the logging camps south of Vancouver and in the vicinity of Richmond.  The destruction of the old-growth forests of the west coast apparently … Continue reading Logging out West

HEATH:  After the destruction of the first Beaver Mills in 1894, John Heath (1848-1925) built a second grist mill on the same site.  This mill continued to operate until 1910, when it too was destroyed by fire.  By the time of the second conflagration, John had … Continue reading The Second Beaver Mills

HEATH:  The Beaver Mills was a grist mill in Wardsville, Ontario owned by John Heath (1848-1925), a millwright from the Market Drayton area of Shropshire, England.  John apprenticed for seven years to learn the milling trade before immigrating to Canada in 1872.  After working in mills … Continue reading The Beaver Mills