Silverthorn Challenge

I have unsuccessfully attempted to learn the identity of Elizabeth Silverthorn (b. ~1801 in England). As Elizabeth appears in both censuses and wills with my 3rd great grandmother, Leurania Green Mitchell, (b. about Sep 1835 in either the Township of Toronto or Brampton, Home District, d. 23 Jun 1907, Buffalo, Erie, New York), I suspect that she is related.

Leurania Green married Joseph Stoddart (b. 29 May 1826, Township of Toronto, d. 13 Aug 1889, Buffalo, Erie, New York). Unfortunately, I have not been able to locate the birth or marriage records of Leurania or Joseph, which undoubtedly would provide some clues. As the couple appears in the 1851 Ontario Census (Peel, Township of Toronto, Ward #5, Page 169, Line 22) living with Joseph's parents, Dr. John Stoddart and Margaret Lindsay, clearly they were married before 1851. John and Margaret Stoddart immigrated from Edinburgh in 1819 and settled on Crown Land at Concession 5, Lot 13, in Toronto Township, Home District about two lots away from the areas that would later become Grahamsville and Malton (now Missasaugua). Although Silverthorn and Green are common names in the region, I have been unable to make any connections in spite of many interesting clues which seem to tie the family back to some of the most important people in the area including: Chisholm, Mitchell, Graham, and Elliott. (So, you'd think this would be easy, wouldn't ya? )

The following timeline may help clarify a bit about the mysterious Elizabeth Silverthorn:

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1801/2 Elizabeth Silverthorn was born in England and was a Primitive Methodist throughout her life
(Source: 1851/2 and 1861 Canadian Census).

~1828 Possible daughter of Elizabeth Silverthorn, Mary Green, was born in England
(Source: 1851 Canadian Census)

~1834 Possible son of Elizabeth Silverthorn, John Green was born in Upper Canada
(Source: 1861 Canadian Census)

~1835 Possible daughter of Elizabeth Silverthorn, Leurania Green Mitchell was born in Toronto Township and/or Brampton.
(Source: 1851, 1861, 1871 Canadian Census)

1852 The widowed Elizabeth Silverthorn is living in Chinguacousy, Peel and listed in the census living with the following Mitchell children:

Elizabeth Silverthorn England Primitive Methodist 50 Widowed 3 boys attending school
1½ storey frame house 1 family occupying house
Mary Mitchell Canada Yeoman P. Methodist 24 Single
George Mitchell Canada Labourer P. Methodist 21 Single
John Mitchell Canada Labourer P. Methodist 19 Single
Matthew Mitchell Canada Labourer P. Methodist 14 Single

1852 Mary Green is living in the household of Dr. John and Margaret Stoddart along with Joseph and Leurania Stoddart in Toronto Township Ward #5 (Concession 5, Lot 13)

1861 Elizabeth Silverthorn is living and/or working in the home of the prosperous Brampton businessman and politician, Kenneth Chisholm. It is interesting to note that this was just a few years before Chisholm moved his household to the lavish estate Alder Lea on South Main Street in Brampton.

The land on which Alder Lea was built was originally the farm of John Elliott, the man who is credited with founding Brampton. In the early 1860s, the Elliott family sold part of the lot to their son-in-law Kenneth Chisholm to build an estate residence for his family c1864-70.
See http://www.accessgenealogy.com/scripts/data/database.cgi?file=Data&report=SingleArticle&ArticleID=0031638

1861 Brampton Township, Peel Census

Kenneth Chisholm Merchant U.Canada P. Methodist 32 M M
Mary " " " 33 F M [probably Kenneth's wife, Mary Elliott]
Mary Jane " " " 11 F S
John Green Clerk " " 27 M S [possibly Elizabeth Silverthorn's son]
T. P. Wolfe " " " 24 M S
Mathew Elliott Merchant " " 24 M M
T. B. Grimshaw Clerk " " 22 M S
John Wallace Laborer Ireland " 26 M S
Catherine Nagle Ireland R. Catholic 19 F S
Elizth Silverthorn England P. Methodist 48 F W

1865-68 Elizabeth Silverthorn is living in Toronto Township, Peel [Source: Amaranth Land transactions]

9 Jan 1865 Elizabeth Silverthorn purchased 100 acres in Amaranth (West half of Lot 19, Con 1), Wellington from George McRindley Mitchell of Chinguacousy for 50 pounds

11 Nov 1868 Elizabeth Silverthorn, widow, sold Amaranth property to Joseph Stoddart for $500 (Witnessed by Thomas Graham of Village of Brampton)

1871 Elizabeth Silverthorn is living in Amaranth, Wellington North (1871 Canadian Census, Page: 7) with Joseph, Leurania Stoddart and their three children.

March 1880 Daughter, Leurania G. Stoddart is administratrix of the will of E. Silverthorn, Amaranth, Dufferin (I haven't obtained a copy....yet!)

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I'm guessing that this all is clear as mud! I've been working on this timeline for weeks and even I am confused by all the possible connections.

It is interesting to note that in 1892, when Leurania administered Joseph Stoddart's estate, the following men acted as witnesses to various documents:

John Mitchell, farmer of the Township of Trafalgar, Halton
James Lindsay of the Town of Milton, Halton (possible relative of Margaret Lindsay, wife of Dr. John Stoddart)
Matthew Elliott Mitchell, Town of Milton, Halton (This was the son of John Mitchell and Margaret Campbell)

I spotted another Elizabeth Silverthorn in the area who married John Terry and died in 1841....so, I don't think it's my Elizabeth!

Elizabeth Silverthorn (b. September 06, 1802, d. April 20, 1841)
Elizabeth Silverthorn (daughter of John Silverthorn and Esther Corwin) was born September 06, 1802 in Stamford Township, Lincoln County, Ontario, Canada, and died April 20, 1841 in Oakville, Trafalgar Township, Halton County, Ontario, Canada. She married John Terry on October 17, 1822 in York, Ontario.

My BIG assumptions are: Elizabeth Unknown married Unknown Green in England. She immigrated (perhaps to Pennsylvania or Welland/Niagara before Toronto Township) between 1828 and 1834. After the death of her first husband, she married Unknown Silverthorn. OK, ok then....who are these Mitchell children and who do they belong too? The irony of all this is that Elizabeth Silverthorn may not be the mother of Leurania Green at all and just a wandering widow! But that seems unlikely.

Lost Gravestones

Earlier this year, I blogged about a new Canadian genealogy television series, Ancestors in the Attic and described the producer’s call for interesting family mysteries. I submitted a short essay about my fourth great grandfather Stoddart’s missing gravestones that sparked their interest.

I was contacted by the producers and I was thrilled to learn that they were attempting to determine more about the grave markers that were removed from my family’s small private cemetery in Brampton, Ontario. They planned to film their search for the lost Stoddart gravestones and include it in the first season of the series.

Unfortunately, they really didn’t discover anything new about the Stoddarts despite the fact that the film company and research team is based in the Toronto area and had access to the local archives. I suspect we will never learn what really happened to the family markers.

Yesterday, the producer emailed me:

Your segment about the “Lost Stoddart Gravestones” has been launched on our website. Go to:

http://www.history.ca/microsites/AncestorsInTheAttic

and click on VIDEO and then LOST GRAVESTONES.

It was felt that the challenge of resolving this question [of locating the missing grave stones] made the search less than perfect. However we still wanted to show the challenges and inherent dilemmas of genealogy — our compromise was to include the clip online.

I think that broadcasting the five minute segment on the web was a great solution and I am pleased that their efforts yielded something positive. I hope that my fellow Stoddart family researchers enjoy it as much as I did.

Unfortunately, the series will only be shown in Canada (starting this evening!) and there are no plans for it to be broadcast in the lower 48 states at this time.

Ancestors in the Attic

An award winning, Toronto-based production company, Primitive Entertainment, is producing a new television series called Ancestors in the Attic to be broadcast this fall on the History Television. Last year, they made a call to Canadian family researchers requesting submissions of genealogical stories that explore the multi-cultural foundations of Canada for consideration for a feature on their program.

Primitive Entertainment has started production of a "13 x 30 minute program that will take viewers on a road trip across Canada and on a worldwide search for their ancestors. Part personal drama, part forensic investigation and part historical revelation, Ancestors in the Attic will reveal....in an intimate and dramatic [manner a new approach to learning more about your Canadian] roots."

To learn more, go to http://www.history.ca/microsites/AncestorsSearch/.

I submitted the following essay that apparently sparked their interest. Look for a segment about Ontario pioneer cemeteries later this year.

Public Works Misplaces My Ancestor’s Gravestones

In 1974, the Board of Public Works of Brampton removed all the gravestones from a small abandoned cemetery in the former township of Chinguacousy, Peel, Ontario. At that time, they placed the nine markers in the City of Brampton Public Works yard. In 1981, a local historian reported that the stones were still stored in the works yard. That same year a cairn was erected and a historical plaque was placed at the site.

Old Grahamsville Cemetery
A Heritage Cemetery in the City of Brampton

The history of this burial ground is very obscure, seemingly in use during the mid 1800s. This was once described as the "Old Grahamsville Cemetery." A Wesleyan Methodist Church, which was dismantled about 1869, and Chinguacousy School House No. 24 have both stood on this site.

The family names of the people who are resting here are:

Burgess Lindsay Stoddart
Burkholder Mercer Willcox
Cunnington Ramage
Ewing Sinclair

This cairn in memory of the pioneers of this area was erected in 1981.
A research report on the history of this cemetery is available at the Region of Peel Archives.

Unfortunately, no one seems to know where the original gravestones are stored.

Considering the years that have passed since my fourth great grandfather, John Stoddart was born in Scotland in 1792 and buried in this cemetery in 1854, his descendants have learned quite a bit about him. We know when he was born, where he married, the year he immigrated, and when he died, but his gravestone has been mislaid. As my family’s designated historian, I have made contact with many other Stoddart descendants, the author of the cemetery research report, and the City of Brampton, attempting to locate my ancestors’ gravestones. No one knows what has happened to the markers from this rural cemetery, but they all believe they still exist.

In 1933, Dr. Warren O. Stoddart described the old disused cemetery in a letter to his father. "There are a few tomb stones and a little wood that used to make fences about the plots, but not much else.... The place...is very small, and second growth bushes has almost covered it up...The stone I spoke about is a white one, square and about four feet high, by a foot each way. [One inscription reads:]

Doct. John Stoddart
Native of Scotland
Born
Feb. 14, 1792
Emigrated to the Township
of Toronto 1819
Died July 9, 1854

In this letter, he also transcribed the other entries on the marker including Margaret Lindsay’s and their children’s, James, Phillip, William, and Robert.

Also in 1933, the noted Peel County historian, William Perkins Bull, mentioned the condition of this cemetery and indicated that a transcription of the surviving tombstones and a history of the burial ground had been prepared. Unfortunately, the history of this particular cemetery is missing from the collection at The Archives of Ontario.

In 1974, a genealogist from nearby Mississauga visited the property and transcribed the tombstones from nine tombstones. Soon after, the tombstones were removed by the city. In 1981, a local historian published a report describing the history of the cemetery, but many questions remained after his study. The gravestones were apparently forgotten after this.
Although he wasn’t a person whose story has been documented in history books, John Stoddart was a man whose life experiences paralleled many early immigrants who settled in the wilderness area north of Muddy York (the town that later became the metropolis of Toronto) in the early 19th century.

John Stoddart, a sawyer from Pleasance, Edinburgh married Margaret Lindsay, the daughter of a laborer at St. Cuthbert’s Church in Edinburgh in 1811. Before immigrating from Scotland in 1819, John and Margaret had four sons, two of which lived beyond infancy. John settled briefly in York and later that year, 100 acres of wooded land north of York were assigned to him by the Crown. Stoddart built his family a log home on this property in the Township of Toronto and two years later, he purchased the title to the land which he and his family had been farming. John and Margaret had eight more children, each of whose names was carefully annotated in the preserved family bible. Typical of farmers of his day, John was a very strong man. Years after his death, locals spoke of him carrying two barrels of flour – one in each arm -- across a room and later carrying the contents of a barrel divided into two bags to his home. Stoddart later became a doctor and was certified in midwifery. Margaret Lindsay was buried at the later abandoned Grahamsville Cemetery in 1852 . Her husband, John Stoddart joined her two years later.

John Stoddart’s descendants are left with many questions:

• Where are the gravestones from this cemetery stored?
• Can the William Perkins Bull manuscript which discusses the history of this cemetery be located?
• What was the origin of this cemetery?
• Why did these families choose to be buried in this small cemetery even through there were other burial grounds established which were more convenient?
• How were the people buried in this small cemetery related?

Blogger Note: I would like to thank Jarvis Stoddart, both of the Margaret Stoddarts (!), Bill and Sally Stoddart, Lucinda Moss Brown, Neil Gilliat, and Patty Morse for generously sharing their Stoddart research with me. Some professional historians who have also assisted me greatly include: Gary Sumpter, Matthew Wilkinson, Bill McKinnie, Karen L. Wagner, Paul Webster, and Sheila Davidson. Without their efforts, this article and perhaps the television segment may never have been possible.