Sunday, July 27, 2014

52 Ancestors: James Hadden (abt 1804-1871)

James Hadden is my 4X great grandfather. I really don't know that much about the life that lead but various records tell me that he was born about 1804 in Fetteresso, Kincardineshire. 

I have searched Scotland's Old Parish Registers and could find no baptismal record for James. This suggested to me that either the register book containing the baptismal record for James no longer exists or James' parents, William Hadden and Agnes Robb were not 'church going' people and the baptism of their son was not a high priority for them.

What the Old Parish Registers do inform me is that James Hadden married Mary Smart on May 25th, 1833 in Inverurie, Aberdeen, Scotland. James was about 29 years old and his bride, Mary was 25 years old.

The young couple settled into life together in New Hills, Aberdeen, Scotland, a small village near the location of the present day Aberdeen Airport. James seemed to do well working as a farm overseer. Mary and James also started a family; their first child, a daughter whom they named Mary was born December 31, 1833. A son, Alexander 'Bean' Hadden was born in 1837 and another daughter, named Jane was born in 1837.

Their apparently happy existence was cut short however when Mary died suddenly in 1840. Eventually James re-married. His second wife was Janet or Jessie Jamieson and unfortunately I could find no record of their marriage in the Old Parish Registers of Scotland but other records do provide confirmation that they were married, likely around 1847 as their first of two known children (both sons - James George Wood Hadden and William Hadden) was born in 1848.

James continued farming up until his death from bronchitis on March 12, 1871 in Aberdeen.

Curiously, several years ago while suffering from a concussion that caused severe headaches and an inability to focus for more than 20 or 30 minutes at a time, I decided to 'kill some time' by searching Google for images of James Hadden. I had no realistic expectation that I would find a 'photo' of my 19th century ancestor but what I did find astonished me nonetheless. A photo was found of James' gravestone!

The photo had been taken by Colin Milne in St. Peter's Cemetery on King Street in Aberdeen. Colin had taken photos of several gravestones that he referred to as 'strays' and then posted them on his website in the hope that family members might one day find them. I contacted Colin and he kindly provided me with a copy of the original digital file for my use.

James Hadden gravestone, St. Peter's Cemetery, Aberdeen, Scotland (photo courtesy of Colin Milne)

I then contacted City of Aberdeen staff who informed me that the people listed on the gravestone do not represent the names their records show are buried in the plot. The gravestone lists seven family members: Mary Smart, William Hadden (James Hadden's brother), William Hadden (son of either William or James), James Hadden, James G. W. Hadden, Jessie Jamieson, and Alexander 'Bean' Hadden.

As it turns out, Mary Smart is not buried in this plot. Her name on the gravestone is a 'memorial' only. The same is true for James' brother William Hadden. James Hadden and Jessie Jamieson are buried here along with James George Wood Hadden, Helen B. Smith McKnight, James Reid, Elspet Scott, John McKnight, and Christian Mackie. 

The City of Aberdeen staff informed me that James Hadden bought the plot in section 39 of the cemetery in 1842. "In the olden days in Aberdeen it was not uncommon for family's to use graves for close friends or even neighbours as money was so tight."  I was able to identify that John McKnight was James' step-son so perhaps Helen was John McKnight's wife and I have no idea as to who Elspet Scott, James Reid and Christian Mackie are? Identifying them and their relationship to James Hadden is another task to add to my genealogy to-do list!

Sunday, July 20, 2014

52 Ancestors: John Jacob (John Jacob) Hailer 1804-1882

I decided to stick with my wife Ellen's family lineage this week, in part because I have a real fondness for the history of Waterloo County in Ontario, Canada and in part because the only true family artifact that we possess is one that belonged to this week's subject Johann Jacob (or John Jacob) Hailer, Ellen's third great grandfather. He is perhaps better known simply as Jacob Hailer.

Johann Jacob Hailer


Jacob began his life in Wilferdingen, Baden, Germany on December 20, 1804 and records indicate that he was baptized just three days on December 23, 1804. Jacob was the son of Christian Hailer and his wife Maria Barbara Zachmann. It's possible that Jacob was not seen as a healthy baby so the need for a baptism as soon as possible. Perhaps the baptism occurred quickly with respect to the Christmas festivities.

In 1911, one of Jacob Hailer's grandsons, William H. Breithaupt, who was also the first president of Waterloo Historical Society, wrote a book that includes the story of Jacob's immigration to North America. In short, we know from passenger lists that Jacob Hailer, described on the list as being a "turner" by profession, arrived in the port of Baltimore, Maryland sometime between July 1st and October 1st, 1829. On board the ship that carried him across the Atlantic Ocean were members of the Riehl family, noted by William Breithaupt as being a father accompanying his son and daughter to the United States. Once in Baltimore, Jacob was introduced by the senior Riehl to another daughter Margaret and her younger brother who had sailed to the U.S. in 1828.

Jacob followed his new friends, the Riehls, when they moved to Buffalo, New York in 1830 where that same year, he married Margaret. Records show that Jacob and Margaret Hailer established a home across the river in Chippewa, Upper Canada (now Niagara Falls, Ontario) where their first child, a daughter they named Margaret was born in 1831. Just a few months after the child's birth, they moved again, this time following the trail laid out over the previous three decades by various small waves of the group known as the 'Pennsylvania Dutch.' It was a long difficult journey on rough hewn roads, passing around and over swamps near present day Hamilton, Ontario, to reach Waterloo Township.

For their first year, the Hailers lived in a log house in German Mills, a tiny village located just north of the village of Doon. In 1833, Jacob Hailer purchased one acre of land, located at what is now the intersection of Scott Street and King Street East in central Kitchener, from Bishop Benjamin Eby. This was the same Benjamin Eby who suggested the name of Berlin for the town which beforehand had often been referred to as Ebytown due to five of the villages six houses being occupied by members of the Eby family.

Jacob immediately established a home for his family along with a woodworking shop in which he could ply his trade of manufacturing wooden furniture, including chairs, spinning wheels and lamp stands.

Jacob is described as a deeply religious man who was instrumental in establishing the Evangelical Association (sometimes referred to as the German Methodist) church in Canada. Jacob used his workshop as both a church meeting place and Sunday school. Travelling ministers would preach in the workshop and then stay in the house as guests of the Hailer family. It was through this that the Hailer's eldest daughter Margaret met and married a young Rev. Jacob Wagner. The Hailer's second eldest child, also a daughter, Catherine, married Jacob Wagner's best friend Philip Ludwig 'Louis' Breithaupt.

In 1876, although there was no apparent milestone type of event, Jacob was presented with a monogrammed walking stick or cane. It is ivory handled with a gold band covering the joining of the handle to the wooden cane. On that gold band is inscribed "J.J.H. 1876." We aren't certain as to exactly how it happened, but that cane, once presented to Jacob Hailer has passed down through five generations of family hands to my wife, Jacob Hailer's great-great-great granddaughter.

The ivory-handled grip of Johann Jacob Hailer's cane, presented to him in 1876

Jacob was about 72 years of age when he received the presumed gift of his monogrammed cane. He would die six years later of "old age" on March 6, 1882 and be interred in Kitchener's Mount Hope Cemetery. Years later Jacob, purported to be the first German to settle in the area currently renown for it's German heritage and annual Oktoberfest, was inducted into the Waterloo Region Hall of Fame.

Johann 'John' Jacob Hailer with his cane, probably about 1880

Of course, it is only circumstantial evidence that the cane belonged to Jacob. It bears Jacob's initials and has been passed down and retained by the family and, there are no other ancestors for whom those initials and timeframe fit. Could the cane have possibly belonged to someone else with the same initials and just by happenchance it fell into the Wagner family. The 'clincher' was finding a photograph, taken by photographer C. R. Lundy of Berlin, Ontario, probably about 1880, of Jacob posing with his beloved cane in hand. For Ellen, it makes holding her ancestor's cane all the more a connection to her family's history. 



Sunday, July 13, 2014

52 Ancestors: Rev. Louis Henry Wagner (1857-1945)

Amy Johnson Crow of the No Story Too Small genealogy blog suggested a weekly blog theme of '52 Ancestors' in her blog post "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks." I decided to take up the challenge of the 52 Ancestors blog theme as a means to prompt me into regularly sharing the stories of my ancestors. So over the course of 2014 I will highlight an ancestor, sharing what I know about the person and perhaps more importantly, what I don't know.

A switch again this week to one of my wife Ellen's direct ancestors. This week the story of her paternal great grandfather Rev. Louis Henry Wagner. 

Rev. Louis Henry Wagner (photo taken about 1918)

I have always found Louis to be an interesting man. Born in New York State, he was raised and received his early education in Berlin, Waterloo County, Ontario, apprenticed at a young age as a tanner and leather belt maker, attained post-secondary education in the State of Illinois as a land surveyor only to return to work in Ontario as an accountant and salesman before settling into life as an itinerant preacher for the Evangelical Association.

Louis Henry Wagner was born in Grove, Alleghany, New York on April 11, 1857. His father was Rev. Jacob Wagner, an Evangelical Association preacher whose 'territory' included not just western New York state but also parts of southern Ontario. On his trips into Ontario, and the German community in Berlin, Jacob would stay with Jacob and Margaret Hailer. Jacob Hailer was said to have been the first German to settle in Berlin and he would offer up the space of his woodworking shop to serve as a church gathering place for the Evangelical Association. It was here that Jacob Wagner met his wife, the Hailer's eldest daughter Margaret (or Margaretha), the mother of Louis and his older sister Catherine, or 'Katie' as the family called her.

Before he was a year old, Louis' family was moving to Berlin to live close to his maternal grandparents because his father Jacob Wagner had decided to change careers, moving to the business world, establishing a tannery in partnership with his friend and by then brother-in-law Louis Breithaupt. Mere months after the family move was complete, and just one week after Louis' first birthday, Jacob Wagner died.

Fortunately for Louis, his family rallied around and supported him, his mother and sister. It appears that Jacob Wagner had died intestate, that is, he did not leave a Will naming a guardian for his children and the laws at the time did not automatically cede guardianship to the mother. So on September 3, 1859, letters of Guardianship were granted by the court to Jacob Hailer for both Louis and his sister Catherine. With his Berlin pioneer grandfather as his guardian, Louis went to live with his uncle Louis Breithaupt, after whom he had been named. Interestingly, Louis took up maintaining a diary as a teenager in December 1872 and much can be learned about 19th century Berlin, Ontario life in the pages of Louis' diary volumes. His first diary entry, dated Sunday, December 15, 1872 begins with "We were all in church as usual ...." 

Over the years, the maturation of Louis is evident as his writings evolve from descriptions of the numerous times he was off to church, to his arguments to be allowed to apprentice in his uncle's leather business, to his frustrations with the apprenticeship progress and his desire to find excitement in life, eventually leading to the anguish he experienced when his wife Mary Staebler died of typhoid fever in 1887, leaving him a widow with a one year old son.

Louis was educated as a land surveyor at Northwestern College in Naperville, Illinois although he does not seem to have ever practised that profession. When he returned home to Berlin, he took up employment as an accountant and salesman - again with his uncle Louis Breithaupt's Eagle Tannery. In 1882, he made his final career change. After having been so involved in his church, Louis applied to the Canada Conference of the Evangelical Association, who that year were meeting in nearby St. Jacobs, Ontario, and on April 20, 1882, he was granted his first preacher's license as a "Preacher on trial." His first appointment was as assistant pastor in Sebringville, Ontario. 

On May 20, 1884. Louis married Mary Staebler in Berlin, Ontario. Their only child, Louis Jacob Gordon Wagner was born on May 10, 1886 in Hespeler, Ontario. On July 4, 1889, Louis married for a second time to Sarah Lodema Moyer with whom he had three additional children: Ida Louisa Wagner, Carl Henry Wagner, and Margaret Florence Wagner.

Louis spent the remainder of his long life continuing his work as a minister and officiating at many family events including the June 2, 1901 wedding of his cousin Albert L. Breithaupt to Lydia Anthes in which childhood friend and future longest serving Canadian Prime Minister William Lyon Mackenzie King served as Best Man.

Rev. Louis Henry Wagner holding his great grandson Carl Edward 'Ted' Wagner

Even late in life, Louis continued to officiate at family events including baptizing his great grandson Carl Edward 'Ted' Wagner, Ellen's brother. 

Louis Wagner died in his residence at 253 Weber Street in Kitchener, Ontario on January 8, 1945 at the age of 87. He rests in peace in Kitchener's Mount Hope Cemetery with his wife Sarah.



Rev. Louis Henry Wagner and Sarah Lodema Moyer gravestone, Mount Hope Cemetery, Kitchener, Ontario (photo by Ian Hadden)

Wednesday, July 9, 2014

The Case of George Irvine – An Enigma Wrapped in a Conundrum

My cousin Pamela Gaull posted some comments on my recent blog post about one of our common ancestors, Mary Jane Gaull. In one of her comments Pamela pointed out that George Irvine, born George Gaull, had listed his father as being George Irvine on his marriage registration. Pamela makes a valid point in suggesting that the father of the twins could have been a man named George Irvine just as ‘young’ George listed on his marriage registration.

It got me to thinking about George and what we really know about him from the records found to date. So here is my analysis of those records and the questions that I still have lingering in my mind.

We know from George’s birth registration that he was born on February 8, 1860 at Whitehaugh, Chapel of Garioch, Aberdeen, Scotland, United Kingdom. George was one of two twin boys, the other being John Gaull, and their mother was Mary Jane Gaull. The births were registered by the twins’ grandfather, Mary Jane’s father, John Gaull on February 28, 1860 at Chapel of Garioch. The births were registered as being “illegitimate” and no father is named for the boys. According to the birth registration, George was born at 3:00 A.M. and his twin brother John was born at 4:00 A.M.

We know from the 1861 Census of Scotland that George was ‘boarded’ out to the family of James and Isabella Hooey who lived in nearby Inverurie. James and Isabella Hooey (the spelling of this surname was offered as Howie in the Will of the twins’ grandfather John Gaull) were not a childless couple in search of a child, for the same census that records George ‘boarding’ with them also records that the Hooey’s had three daughters living with them in the household. These daughters were aged 22, 15 and 12.

Were the Hooey’s (or Howie’s) in search of a son? I don’t know. James Hooey was recorded as being 47 years old in 1861 and his wife Isabella was recorded as being 48 years old at the same time. Given the age of their youngest daughter in 1861, that is 12, the Hooey’s would have been 35 and 36 when that daughter was born respectively, therefore young enough to have had additional children. Their youngest daughter would have been born about 1849 thus pre-dating civil registration in Scotland. Each of the three Hooey daughters recorded in the 1861 census record are recorded as being born in Aberdeenshire suggesting a likely long-term residency for the family in the county. Yet the Old Parish Registers, Catholic Registers and the civil registrations do not provide any additional Hooey children either being born or having died. There were 39 births registered between 1835 – 1854 under the surname of Howie but none with the parents recorded as James and Isabella.

It is in my view then still a mystery as to why George, the oldest of the twins, was ‘boarded’ out. I also can find no record suggesting that there was a financial transaction involved in the ‘boarding’ out of George.

There is evidence that the family kept ‘tabs’ on George though. For example, in his Will, dated December 3rd, 1892, Mary Jane Gaull’s father, John Gaull refers to his acknowledged grandson George as “George Gaull sometimes named George Howie [or Heowie], sometimes George Irvine.” John Gaull, the grandfather, directed that one hundred British pounds sterling be paid to George from his estate. Clearly, John Gaull knew of George’s surname change(s).

In all of the records I have reviewed, it seems that there are only two likely candidates as the father of the twin boys. Alexander Glennie, the man who married Mary Jane Gaull just a few months after she gave birth to the twins, and George Irvine, the man named by twin George (Gaull) Irvine on his marriage registration in 1883. I am not convinced however that there is evidence, meeting the Genealogical Proof Standard, for a determination that either man is their father.

The only evidence in favour of the case for Alexander Glennie is the circumstance of his marrying Mary Jane Gaull six months after she gave birth to the twins. However, there is no evidence that Alexander accepted Mary’s child John and assisted in raising the boy. In the 1871 Census of Scotland, Alexander and Mary Glennie are found residing at Tillyfro in Cluny whereas the then eleven year old John Gaull is residing with his grandparents John and Mary Gaull in Chapel of Garioch. In 1881, the twin John Gaull was still living with his grandfather who by then was widowed.  
Both of the twin boys were married in 1883. John Gaull married Harriet McKenzie on June 15th at New Inn in Cluny and George (Gaull) Irvine married Isabella Watt on December 5th  at 48 High Street in Airdrie. As was required, both of the twins were asked to provide information about their parents as part of the registration process for their marriages.

John did not provide a name for his father, rather he simply indicated his mother to be “Mary Gaull married since birth of Bridegroom to Alexander Glennie and now his widow.” Twin brother George however provided the names of his father as George Irvine, a farm servant, and his mother as "Mary Irvine MS [maiden surname] Gall." Aside from the misspelling of the Gaull surname on George’s marriage registration, it is known that his mother Mary did not marry, and was not married at the time of George’s marriage, to a man named George Irvine. John’s marriage registration recording of his parent’s names is accurate whereas George’s is not accurate with respect to the recorded marriage of his stated parents. That Mary Gaull and George Irvine never married is fact however, that fact in and of itself does not rule out the possibility that a man named George Irvine was the father of the twins George and John Gaull.

In order to determine if George Irvine is possibly the father of the twins, it is necessary to find a man named George Irvine who was of an age and living in close enough proximity of Mary Gaull to be the father. There were six men named George Irvine living in Aberdeenshire in 1861, the year following the birth of the twins when the census was taken. One of these was just one year old in 1861 so he can be ruled out as the possible father. Two other men are unlikely to be the father because of their age; one was 77 years old in 1861 and the other was 55 years old and while they might have had the potential for fathering children, it is unlikely they would have been in an intimate relationship with a 22 year-old Mary Jane Gaull. 

Two of the remaining three men were of the ‘right’ age, one was 27 years old in 1861 so would have been about 25 in 1859 when Mary became pregnant but he lived in Fraserburgh, about 37 miles away. The other man was 23 years old in 1861 so he would have been about 21 years old when Mary became pregnant, that is, he was the ‘right’ age for a relationship with Mary but he lived in Foveran, a distance of more than 20 miles away. I think both of these men can be ruled out of fathering the twins because they don’t appear to have been living close enough to Mary to have been in a relationship with her.

This leaves only one George Irvine, who was recorded as being 20 years old in 1861 so would have been about 18 or 19 years old in 1859. This George Irvine lived in Old Meldrum, a distance of about seven and one-half miles away. He is also recorded as having be born in Chapel of Garioch so was familiar with the town and many of it's families. Of all the George Irvines in Aberdeenshire at the time, this man appears to be the most likely candidate to be the father identified by George Gaull Irvine. 

In addition to being about the right age and living in close proximity to Mary Gaull, this George Irvine was a farm servant, just as George Gaull Irvine would record for his father’s occupation on his marriage registration. George Irvine, the possible father, is recorded in the 1861 Census of Scotland as being a ploughman servant to David Philip, a farmer of 197 acres.

Unfortunately that is where the evidence seems to end. I am still left with two possible fathers for the twin boys, George and John Gaull. I have found no record in which John Gaull states the name of his father and the only record found to date in which George states the name of his father is his marriage registration. But that recording of the father’s name is built around a fabricated marriage between his mother Mary Gaull and a man named George Irvine.

My cousin Pamela might be right. A man named George Irvine could be the father of the twins. But until additional records are found, I am of the opinion that we can't definitively determine the identity of the father of the twin boys John and George Gaull. We can only determine good possibilities.

Sunday, July 6, 2014

52 Ancestors: Mary Jane Glennie (nee Gaull) 1837-1925

Amy Johnson Crow of the No Story Too Small genealogy blog suggested a weekly blog theme of '52 Ancestors' in her blog post "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks." I decided to take up the challenge of the 52 Ancestors blog theme as a means to prompt me into regularly sharing the stories of my ancestors. So over the course of 2014 I will highlight an ancestor, sharing what I know about the person and perhaps more importantly, what I don't know.

Mary Jane Glennie (nee Gaull) is my 3X great grandmother and one of several ancestors that I would love to have had a chance to meet. Mary didn't invent anything for the betterment of mankind; she wasn't famous at all but I have always had an impression that Mary was one of those 'tough-as-nails' on the surface but marshmallow interior individuals who all of us likely know at least one of. There is no singular incident that leads me to this impression. It based purely on my view of her life in it's entirety.

Mary Gaull was born around 1837 in Broomhill, Kintore, Aberdeenshire, Scotland. She was the daughter, and unusually it appears the only child, of John Gaull, a farm overseer, and his wife Mary Christie. It is likely that Mary's upbringing was comfortable for the times, but by no means extravagant, given her father's farming abilities. But her upbringing was also likely rather strict as her father appears to have maintained high moral standards.

Life for Mary Gaull thus became more difficult when she gave birth to twin boys, out of wedlock, in February 1860. Mary named her sons George and John but the name of the twins' father has not been found in any record to date. As was the practise in Scotland at the time, the birth registrations for the twin brothers clearly and boldly labels them to be "illegitimate" children. Mary's father, John Gaull even decades later in his will referred to them as his "illegitimate" grandsons.

I have commented previously that I do not know the reason but it is clear from all records that Mary 'gave' one of her twin sons, George, to the family of James and Isabella Hoey (or Hooey or Howie) who lived in Inverurie. George would later change his surname to Irvine. Mary raised her remaining son John (one of my great great grandfathers) in her parents home, but only for a few months, for in August 1860, when the twins were just six months old, Mary married Alexander Glennie at Chapel of Garioch. 

Alexander Glennie was a farmer who settled his wife, her son, and eventually the five known children that Alexander and Mary had together on a 60 acre farm at Tillyfro, Cluny, Aberdeenshire. Was it possible that Alexander Glennie was the father of the twin boys? Absolutely, but there is no evidence found to date other than the circumstance suggested by his marrying Mary so soon after she gave birth to the boys.

Sadly, Alexander died in February 1879 leaving the farm to his wife. Mary was aided in the running of the farm with monies from her husband's estate along with monies subsequently inherited from her father's estate when he died in 1892. 

When John Gaull died, according to his estate file, he left money for his grandson George Irvine and 'liferent' on the Gaull farm at Cairnley to his other grandson John Gaull. The residual of the estate went to his daughter Mary Glennie, minus the amount of 250 British pounds which John claimed in his Will that Mary had borrowed to aid in settling her husband Alexander's estate. Mary denied that she owed her father the money and John Gaull's estate executors finding no "voucher" nor other corroborating documentation of any such loan noted their finding in the estate inventory, deducting a single shilling from the estate seemingly as a token gesture to John's wishes. 

Mary thus continued to run the farm at Tillyfro, hiring farm hands as needed, until her own death at the age of 88 on the 30th of March 1925.  Mary Jane (Gaull) Glennie was laid to rest in the kirkyard of the church in Cluny, Aberdeenshire, in the same grave as her son James who had died six years earlier at the age of 51.