Women's History Month: Setting My Ancestor in History - 5th Great Grandmother captured during War of 1812

Over on Olive Tree Genealogy blog there's a meme for Women's History Month  This is Number 5

We have all had many female ancestors who have lived through and perhaps witnessed incredible historical events. But like many stories most get lost to time. I remember my Step Grandmother telling me about the horrible things she witnessed during the Blitz in London during WW2. But today I am thinking about my GGGGG Grandmother Mary Jane Montgomery.

In 1812 Mary Jane and her husband were on a ship from Ireland bound for New York. They were going to start a new life in the United States but unfortunately the War of 1812 got in the way. The ship they were on was captured by the British Navy coast of Newfoundland and all on board were taken to Canada against their will. I can only imagine what that would have been like. I suspect it was not only a great disappointment but a little bit frightening.

So as prisoners of war they where taken to St. Johns, and detained four weeks. Upon their release they had to make their way to Quebec, British subjects not being allowed to travel to America during the the war they had to wait until 1816 to finally reach the USA.

Doing More DNA Testing. Will it Show my African-American Heritage?

My 23andMe DNA kits arrived yesterday. I already had my Y-DNA tested at Family Tree DNA but wanted to try another company and see what kind of results I get.

My Haplogroup is RM-269 and I'm still reading up on this to understand it better. I know that to get my terminal branch of the Y-DNA tree I need to order the order the National Genographic Geno 2.0 chip but it's almost $200.00 so will have to wait while I save my pennies!

It's been a very successful journey through FamilyTree DNA. You can read about how my DNA results allowed me to find and meet some new cousins on my Massey lineage, at The Massey DNA Connection

23andMe focuses on genetic health issues and that's intriguing. But I'm also hoping for confirmation of my African-American origins. My 4th great grandfather Jonathan Butler was a black man who came from the United States and settled in Ontario Canada some time before 1824. I know very little about him

You can read about Jonathan and see a photo of his beautiful granddaughter at The Challenge of Finding Our Black Ancestor's Origins

I'm hoping 23andMe will provide more interesting details on my ethnic origins.

Next step: I'll provide the test sample and mail it back to 23andMe, then I wait.

Maxwell Factory In St.Marys Ontario

This is a photo of my Great Grandfather John Massey at work in the Maxwell Factory in St.Marys Ont. John is the guy in the middle with the funny look on his face. I am told he was a bit of a clown at times so the photo would seem to back that up. I think the photo was taken around 1920.

William Massey Paid A Heavy Price

When I found out that the next topic for the Canadian Genealogy Carnival is Black Sheep Canadian Ancestors I thought to myself, "This is a Genealogy Carnival that I can take part in" For if there is one thing that I seem to have an abundance of it's Black Sheep Ancestors. The only hard part about participating in this Blog Carnival is deciding what ancestor to talk about. There is my great grandfather the hard drinking Sunday school teacher who wrote racist poetry as a hobby. Also my ancestor the railway worker who was arrested for stealing Winchester rifles from a boxcar. My bigamist ancestor. The Gambler. The rum runner and his wife who ended up in a penetentiary. And of course we can't forget my ancestors who were mixed up in the massacre of the Donnelly family. Canada's notorious family, the Black Donnellys, were massacred February 4th, 1880 by a vigilante committee.

However my favourite Black Sheep Ancestor is William Massey. William was my 4th Great Grandfather and he lived in the small town of St.Marys Ontario. The details are sketchy but it seams William worked for the Wells Fargo company in the early 1860s as a stage coach driver. One of the things that Wells Fargo did was transport money from place to place. One day for reasons we will never know William decided to help himself to over $888 dollars. This may not seem like much money to us today but back in 1863 it was a lot of cash.

Well I guess William was not the smartest criminal who ever lived as he soon found himself in front of the local magistrate on an indictment of larceny. I do not know much about the workings of the Canadian Justice system in the 1860s but it seems that this Court appearance was some kind of preliminary hearing to see if charges were warranted. Sort of like a Grand Jury in the United States. One interesting little side note is that one of the jurors was Timothy Eaton. Mr Eaton went on to found the Eaton department store chain. For you Americans out there, Eatons was Canada's equivalent of Sears.

Anyhow it would seem that the jury thought there was enough evidence to warrant charges so William was sent home to await his trial. However old William did not want to take his chances in court. He decided to get the heck out of Dodge and head south for the border, and a few weeks later he was in Massachusetts where he enlisted in the U.S. Army to fight in the Civil War.

Now it appears William being the crafty criminal mastermind that he was may have enlisted under the alias of John Smith. However William, or John Smith, did not much care for Army life for he soon deserted and made his way back to St.Marys just before his death in November 1865. It is hard to say what William's reasons for going back to St.Marys might have been. One can only speculate. His daughter claimed that he was so broken in body and spirt after the war that he died soon after returning. Whatever the reason it would seem he paid a heavy price for that $888.00 in stolen Wells Fargo money.

'Walking In A Winter Wonderland" A Cold Day For A Wedding

This is the only photo taken of my Massey Grandparents on their wedding day, Dec 31st 1939. The wedding was a small affair as it was the depression and they did not have a lot of money. My Grandfather was employed a delivery man for a bake shop at the time and my Grandmother was a bar maid in a local hotel. I don't know how much money they were making but I am sure it was not much.
They had only been married a few minutes when my Grandmothers father suggested that they should get a picture. And as cameras did not have a built in flash back in the days of yore, you had no choice but to go out side no mater how cold it was. And as it happened it was a typical freezing cold Canadian Winter day. My grandmother not having a coat on hand grabbed a old ratty sweater off the back of the door and out they went. I think the sweater actually belonged to my Great Grandfather.

So that is the story of my Grandparents only wedding photo. They may not have had a lot of money but the marriage lasted 50 years so I guess they had what matters.