Monday, April 13, 2009

Reprobate ancestor

I have spent many hours searching Ontario death records on Ancestry.ca. The death records usually are quite factual: name, residence, cause of death, informant, etc. Imagine my surprise one day to run across the following death record for my third great granduncle, John N. Talbot.

The cause of death:"partly old age; but also the effects of bad conduct in early life"
Under occupation:"Farmer, auctioneer, alderman, path finder, constable, tavern keeper, pawn broker, marine, stone man and at last ??; leaves two widows and several children"
Religious Denomination:First a Protestant of Orange, then a Roman Catholic, then again a Protestant, but at last not known to have any religious belief at his death
Detail comments:Name: John Talbot
Death Date: 21 Aug 1873
Death Location: MiddlesexGender: Male
Estimated Birth Year: abt 1798Birth Location: Ireland

http://content.ancestry.ca/iexec/?htx=View&r=5543&dbid=8946&iid=ONMS935_7-0257&fn=John&ln=Talbot&st=r&ssrc=&pid=1814890

It would seem the registrar, Alex A. Abbott, had some personal knowledge of the deceased :D This the only time I have come across a death record that added much more information than the register requests.

Black sheep certainly add spice to family research.

3 comments:

  1. I love it. Wouldn't we all love to find an ancestor's record that provides so much colourful information.

    Lorine

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  2. Greetings Linda,
    What a great find! Glad to have you participate in the Canadian Genealogy Carnival.
    Kathryn
    www.looking4ancestors.com

    ReplyDelete
  3. What a great reason to be combing through old records - you never know what you'll find!
    Thanks for sharing,
    Evelyn in Montreal

    ReplyDelete