Surnames in My Tree
I’m adding short summaries for each family below, so check back as they grow. If you share one of these surnames, get in touch! Bolded surnames have a summary.
Cheatley, Cudlipp, Dever, Gallagher, Guinnessy, Harrop, Hodgins, Jeffery, Jillings, Jordan, Lee, Loftus, McHugh, McGowan, McMahon, McNamara, Melody, Moran, Mordy, Murray, Norton, Quigley, Potter, Prendergast, Reddy, Sharp, Stewart, Tipper
Locations: Canada of course – Montreal & Quebec City as well as the following Ontario Counties: Grey, Carleton, Renfrew, York, Wentworth, Dufferin, Wellington, Halton, Frontenac
Harrop – Lewis Harrop was from Lancashire, England, born about 1800. He is said to have traveled to Pennsylvania with a brother and owned a mill. He married Anna Eliza Stickle in 1837, and their first three children were born in New York. They moved to Etobicoke, York Co., Ontario, where Lewis died in 1861.
Hodgins – My Hodgins line ties in with the early Hodgins families that arrived in Canada. Thomas Hodgins (b. 1787) was from Tipperary, Ireland. Thomas’s first wife, Mary Ann, had four children before her death in about 1820. Thomas married a second time, to Elizabeth Cavanaugh, and eleven more children were born. The family has been well researched in the book “Hodgins, Kindred Forever.” My line is through the eldest son of Thomas’s first marriage, Richard Hodgins. He married Mary Powell, and they lived in Huntley, Carleton Co., Ontario.
Jeffery – Robert Jeffery/Jafferey (and many other spellings) was born in Scotland about 1796. He arrived in Canada and married Elizabeth Tipper in Quebec City in 1818. The family moved back and forth between Montreal and Quebec City, possibly for work; Robert was a stone mason. They seem to have had a troubled marriage, as the records have indicated.
Jordan – Samuel Jordan was born in Ireland about 1818. He and his wife Mary Quigley had a son, William, in Quebec City on Christmas Day, 1852. Samuel worked his life as a laborer, managed to avoid census records (the first census he is found on is the 1881 census), and passed away in Quebec City in 1886.
McMahon – Cornelius McMahon was an Irish farmer from O’Callaghans Mills, County Clare. He arrived in Canada in 1851 with his parents, Michael McMahon and Margaret McNamara, and siblings Edward (a Civil War veteran), Michael, John, and possibly more. He settled in Normanby Twp., Grey Co., Ontario in the 1850s.
Murdie/Mordy – Joseph Murdie, his wife Elizabeth Watson, and their three boys, George, Thomas, and Joseph, left Northumberland, England for Ontario in 1818. They first went to the Bathurst area and later made their home in Huntley, Carleton Co., Ontario. George Mordy is my ancestor, and he married Mary Potter in 1834 in the Parish of March. I have yet to uncover Mary Potter’s story.
Norton – Richard L. Norton was born in Great Yarmouth, Norfolk, England in 1819, to parents Jeremiah Norton (shipwright) and Elizabeth Sharp (widow of Charles Wright). In 1854, Richard married Hannah Pozer Jeffery, daughter of Robert Jeffrey and Elizabeth Tipper, in Quebec City. Richard was a sailor, likely working around Quebec City. He stayed in touch with his relatives who lived in Hackney, England. Richard died in 1893 in Quebec City, and his wife died in Montreal in 1917.
Stewart – William Stewart was born about 1804 in Perthshire, Scotland. It is unknown when he came to Canada or what brought him here. In 1846, he married a widow, Mary (Loftus) McGowan, who had three children. Together they added five children to the household and moved to Normanby Twp., Grey Co., Ontario. Many of the children moved to Minnesota and Montana, with some coming back to settle in Saskatchewan.
Tipper – John Tipper married Gertrude Cudlipp in Quebec in 1795; their first child, Anne, was born in Montreal. John was a soldier with the Royal Artillery, stationed in Kingston, Ontario, Quebec City, and Montreal. Gertrude died in 1805 in Kingston. John passed away in the cholera outbreak in Montreal in 1832.
Surnames in My Husband’s Tree
Armstrong – James Armstrong b. 1794 in Ireland came to Canada in the 1830s, the family settled in Melancthon, Grey Co.
Blair – Elizabeth Blair, wife of James Armstrong, they were married in Ontario in 1836
Burkholder – Matilda Burkholder born in 1838 in Ontario married John Whitman in Puslinch, Wellington, Ontario in 1860.
Gass – Rastadt, Germany – Texas arrived at Galveston in 1901 where the family lived for approximately 10 years before leaving for Canada. In Canada they settled in Rastadt, Saskatchewan where Ignatz was a Commissioner of Oaths and ran the Post Office.
Greber/Graber/Graeber – German from Russia, settled in Friedensfeld, Manitoba 1900. Edward Graber the son of Karl and Apolonia Kundt, was first married to Leokadia Ziebart and had seven children, two surviving to adulthood, Charles, and Edward. Charles died serving in WWI and is buried in France, Edward married late in life and had no children. Edward’s 2nd marriage was to Ottilia Wiesner, it took place in Friedensfeld, Manitoba. They had four children and Edward became sick and died of cancer leaving a wife with six children to care for. The two sons from the first marriage went and lived with Leokadia’s family, later moving to the USA with the Bresch relations.
Ottilia married Samuel Kowalsky and had 8 more children. Quite a bit of research has been done by the USA branch of the Greber family who found the family before immigration lived in Cholo, Masevckoe, Pruzanckogo, Grodno, Russia.
Hawkesworth – Yorkshire, England to Nova Scotia – family featured in the book Before and After Adam by Janetta Hawkesworth Dexter
Hodgson – from Fangfoss, Yorkshire, England settled in Tryon, P.E.I.
Schinkel – Friedensfeld, Manitoba 1890
Schmidt – Katherine Schmidt was the wife of Ignatz Gass
Whitman – John and his brother Samuel left Bramfield, Suffolk, England in 1856, both coming to Ontario, Canada. Samuel ended up in Keppel, Grey, Co. and John in Albermarle, Bruce Co.
Samuel married Maria Collins, and they had 14 daughters, they moved west and settled in Glenwood, Manitoba, John also moved west but chose Carlyle, Saskatchewan. John and his wife Matilda Burkholder had 10 children.
Wiesner – from Poland to Friedensfeld, Manitoba 1890
