What's New - May 2020
Genealaogy Stuff
Jeremiah Simpson
The pandemic has forced many people to be at home instead of at work and that has resulted in the unintended concequence of lots of family history work being done. I have received several emails from folks in exactly this situation and one of them was very interesting in relation to the Simpson family of Brighton.
One of Obediah Simpson's sons was Jeremiah, and he had a large family, born in the Brighton area. However, later in life, he moved to Kent County, Ontario with several of his younger kids. In fact, he was joined by other Simpson relatives and in-laws in the same area. The person contacting me was a descendant of this large tree of Simpson folk who populated western Ontario.
As always happens in cases like this, this contact gave me the excuse to dig deep into work done 15 years ago and shore it up a good deal. So, now there is lots more into re this part of the Simpson clan, including more connections to other Brighton area families and some additional generations into modern days. Everyone should feel free to contribute to this development.
Pierce Family of Waupoos, Prince Edward County
A friend of mine was curious about their Pierce family history so I did some work to fill in more information about this early settler group in Marysburgh Township, Prince Edward County, near the village of Waupoos. The result is a lot more info for this and associated families in that area of The County. Feel free to add to the mix.
Chatten Family History
A good friend asked me to summarize the Chatten Family of Hilton, north of Brighton, and that reguired a full review of the earlier generations, back to Thomas Chatten who came from England and settled first in Percy and then Cramahe Townships. This is a large group which includes many who settled north, into the Peterborough area, as well as a bunch who became orange growers in California. As a result of this review, there is a lot more complete information for the Chatten clan - and I am always looking for more.
McNalley Family History
An email contact resulted in an in-depth look at the McNalley family who lived near Codrington, north of Brighton. Similar to many others, this early family divided over time with some staying in the area and some going off to other places. Nothing unusual there.
What is fascinating about this group is that there seems to have been a major migration of most of the younger and older members from the 1840s through the 1880s. This was not unusual at the time because large families were moving west to find land. However, some of the records indicate that there may have been another reason for the moves. Through marriage, this family was connected to people who may have been sympathetic to the Riel Rebellion in Manitoba, thus painted with the same brush in Ontario and forced to flee to Michigan, out of the reach of Canadian authorities. It is a tantilizing story that adds a little juice to the mundane work of gathering family history details. After all, the folks we study were impacted by the forces of their times. More info re this would be welcome.