What's New - May 28, 2009
Health Update
At the end of December 2008 this page included information about my prostate surgery and recovery. Thanks for the good wishes! Suffice it to say, I'm totally recovered and going at things just like before. It wasn't fun, but at this point it seems like just a little speed bump. Oh, yes, special thanks to my sister and brother-in-law for service that only family can provide.
Info Added Recently
Dingman: Bowmanville - one more possible connection
An email query sugggest that one Lorinda Dingman, who had married Clinton Gifford, might be connected to the Dingman family tree in the Bowmanville area. Further investigation confirmed that this family lived most of their lives in Oshawa but the two were married in Bowmanville. While there was no Lorinda Dingman in my data, even after all that massive research several years ago, the 1848 Census records show that Jared and Roxy Dingman of Bowmanville had two unnamed daughters who were born in the time frame 1835 to 1840. One might think that these female children should show up in the 1851 Census but unfortunatley the 1851 Census for Darlington Township is not complete - there are none of this family in what has survived. Later records for Lorinda (Dingman) Gifford and her children do not confirm her parentage but I felt this connection was probable enough that I would build it into my database. Someone might also notice that I have changed the father's name from Jacob to Jared. This was done because the same email contact brought to my attention that various records show his name as Garrold or Jared or Jarid or Jerrid. After reviewing the info I saw that the name Jacob had been provided in other research but was not present in any contemporary documents that we had seen. So Jared Dingman it is. And he has a daughter named Lorinda now. Let me know what you think of this.
Rannie - Campbellford Area
An email contact provided family tree info for the Rannie family in the Campbellford area. This was not so much on a large scale but included some important connections with other families in the area such as Merrick and Donald. It also highlighted the Ferris family of Campbellford since some of the land of Ferris Park on the southeast side of Campbellford had been the homestead of the Rannie's.
Thayer
While doing other work around the Brighton village area, I realized there were several Thayer people not well documented yet. On further investigation, it was clear that this family is well documented online and I needed to build out my database accordingly. Early Thayer settlers in Brighton were Nathaniel Thayer (1791-1878) and his brother Isaiah Thayer (1798-1876) were well known residents of the town when it was first formed in 1831 and afterward.
Russ
The Russ family of Haldimand Township was present in my data but a query from an interested party kicked off some further research on this name. As a result, the info for Russ is more complete. Anything you can add, feel free to send along.
Johnson
I knew there were Johnson families in Cramahe and Percy in early times because I had seen stones at Red Cloud Cemetery, north of Castleton and the list of names in the data was getting longer, many unconnected. An email contact asked about one Daniel Johnson and his wife Deborah Simpson, a daughter of Obediah Simpson. We filled out that family a good deal and then started to wonder about Daniel's connections. Once I got going on this, many Johnson families came out of the woodwork. I don't think we have solve the problem of Daniel Johnson's parentage, but it was useful in any case. Most importantly for local early families, there was a William Johnson in Cramahe in the first decade of the 1800's and he appears to be the father of Isaac and Jacob who were the best know members of the group buried in Red Cloud. It appears that these people came from Hope Township. There are also several other Johnson's around the area not fully documented yet. Please add info if you can.
Cowan & Buchanan
This gets close to home for me. A few years ago we added a William Buchanan family around Carrying Place in the 1850's and 1860's who we believe to be a brother of my early settler Robert Buchanan. However, we could not come up with any real links between the two families, other than proximity and common names. Recently, while poking around re Johnson in the Brighton area, I refreshed the info for the McCready family - James Buchanan married Martha McCready and they lived in Brighton. Lo and behold, I found that a certain Thomas Cowan was a witness at three marriages in the early 1870's, some with the William Buchanan group and some with the Robert Buchanan group. Since William Buchanan's wife was Mary Cowan, we can expect that this Thomas Cowan is her brother. This, to me, suggests definite family ties. I also looked further at Thomas Cowan and found that he and his family (with elderly parents) moved to Manitoba in the late 1870's (veeerry early), including several Buchanan young people. The search continues!
McNalley (or McNally)
The name Bartholemew McNalley had been in my data for some time and I knew some of this family lived at or near Codrington, and down close to Orland, from fairly early times. Due to an email contact, I looked more closely at this name in the area and found lots more info both in ancestry.com and in other researcher's work in Rootsweb. There were several good connections with other local families and better info re one very early connection with a Turk who lived initially north of Codrington but then went to the northern part of Hastings County. Another brick in the wall.
Jones
Jones is a common name in the area and there were lots of people with that surname in my data due to links with other families. However, I have never focussed on it for reseach. Recently, a combination of the Johnson and Russ and McNalley work brought this name to the surface several times so I took some time with it. The results are meagre, at this point at least, so there is lots more to do, but its a start. I want to clear up the early connections for this name in Haldimand, Cramahe and Percy - and later in Brighton Township. Anyone who can help, please feel free.
Dingman and McNutt early connections
A small but imporant change is present in the data now regarding the names of James McNutt, father and son, both married to ladies named Sarah Eva Dingman. This is early times so information is sparse but here's where I rely on folks who are focussed more on one or the other of the families to come up with corrections. That's what happened here and the families are better represented in the data as a result. This is how it's supposed to work. Thanks!