Jim Ward's Genealogy Pages
My Wards
New BMD information about the Wards in Perth, Ontario, and in Australia!
This page was getting a bit too large, so I moved all the hard data gathered from census returns, lookups, and other sources to my Ward2 Page. I built another page with information from my Uncle Ed's interview-style notes of genealogical information from his cousin Inez Bellows Strouse. Her responses were a pleasant surprise. It's on the inez.htm page.
New info about Anne Keating and her family in County Wexford, Ireland! Click here!
After gathering quite a bit of information about my ancestors with lots of help from others, I began to focus on my Ward ancestors. They are an elusive bunch, but, as with most people's ancestors, they did leave a paper trail. Locating that paper is the hard part! It seems that crossing a border to another country in search of your ancestors is more difficult than it should be. Why is that?
I have no idea what ship my great-great-grandparents Patrick Ward and Anne Keating sailed from Ireland on to get to Canada. I don't know when they arrived in Canada after their 11 Feb 1826 marriage in Ireland. What is known is why they made the voyage. Ireland in the 1820's was a miserable place to live, especially for farmers. Although the potato famine hadn't struck yet, there were many hardships, both political and economic.
While surfing for information, I was tipped on a site listing census data from parts of Canada's Bathhurst District, with some Lanark County Townships listed. The aptly named Granny's Genealogy Garden scored a hit, another step forward in my search. Their 1842 census listing has a Patrick Ward listed in Drummond Township, with 2 of the 9 household members born in Ireland, and the other 7 in Canada. At that point, I decided to join the Lanark County Genealogical Society to help in my search effort. While surfing their site, a member posted a request for information about immigrants who were not part of the Peter Robinson Expedition. I emailed her my basic information, and she generously dug up a bit for more!
The Lanark County Genealogical Society's website has a page on the Perth Old Boy's Reunion in 1905. It listed the following Wards: Thomas, of Langeton (should be Langston), Michigan; John, of Burke Flats, Australia; and James Ward, of Castlemaine, Australia. Each is in the state of Victoria. Castlemaine is about 100km northwest of Melbourne, and was described as an old gold mining town. John "took off for Australia and was never heard from again," according to my Grandma Ruth. I now know that James did also, arriving in Victoria in 1852 and working in the Goldfields as a surveyor.
Recent information indicates that the Edward Ward I suspect is GGGrandfather Patrick Ward's father may be the same person who is listed in a book with wife Anastasia Molloy and son Patrick as witnesses to a marriage of their daughter Mary. The book is:
The Diary of Reverend John MacDonald, by Duncan MacDonald. Published by the Leeds and Grenville Genealogical Society, 1988, ISBN-0-921133-05-7, National Library of Canada, Ottawa.
The Rev. MacDonald was Priest of St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church in Perth. The entry about the marriage nearly confirms my hunch about the name of Patrick's father. The only problem is that the name Anastasia was not passed on to succeeding generations as one would expect.
Great-Great-Great Grandfather:
Maybe Edward Ward? Died between 1843 and 1851. His wife's name may have been Anastasia Molloy, but I'm a long ways away from proving it. Patrick & Anne married Ireland, but new info (see next paragraph) casts doubt on whether the Edward and Patrick in those land records are related.
Great-Great Grandparents:
Patrick Ward & Anne Keating. No exact birth date is known for Patrick. According to a book about grave marker inscriptions at the Craig Street Cemetery in Perth, Patrick was 51 years old when he died in 1849, putting his birth at sometime in 1797 or early 1798. An estimated birth date for Anne is November 1802, based on her death 11 Sep 1901 at he age of 98 years, 10 months. Anne & Patrick were married 11 February 1826, likely in Enniscorthy, Co. Wexford, Ireland. Being that Anne's uncle was the Bishop of Ferns then, maybe he was the priest who married them? Patrick died 16 February 1849, according to Surrogate Court papers connected with his Will. Read the text of Patrick's Will.
Edward and Frances Hudson. See the Hudson Page for census info about "Fanny" Hudson, her daughter Mary, and Grandchildren John and Mary Alice Peel, and their Gibraltar ties. Edward is also buried in the Craig Street Cemetery in Perth, but there is no marker. The same book with information about Patrick Ward has Edward's death at 10 March 1837, but St. John's Roman Catholic Church records put it as 08 March, with burial two days later. Frances passed away 7 May 1879 at the age of 90, according to the 9 May 1879 edition of The Perth Courier.. Also see the page about Inez Bellows and her recollection of how Edward and Frances met.
Great-Grandparents:
Edward Ward, b. 17 November 1826, Perth, Lanark, Ontario, Canada. Died 25 April 1900 in Langston, Mi., of tuberculosis, then called "consumption." His grave marker lists his birth on the same day and month in 1825, but this apparently is wrong, according to microfilm from the FHL of St. John the Baptist Roman Catholic Church Parish records.
Mary Hudson (Peel), b. 7 September 1834, according to the source above, in Perth, Lanark, Ontario, Canada. Died 8 April 1886, in Langston, Mi., of tuberculosis. See my Hudson page for more info on her family and my photocomp page for a pic that I believe is Edward & Mary.
Big mystery - Why are both Edward & Mary's birth dates wrong on their headstone?
The same microfilm has an incomplete record of a marriage of naming Edward Ward on 4 Jan 1872. The bride is not named. It seems as though the priest was interrupted while recording the information and never finished it. I'm told it was not unheard of then for a bride to already be pregnant on her wedding day, but Mary would have been nearly 7 months along! Hmmmm...
Edward
Ward's signature from an 1896 mortgage note.
Grand Parents:
Alphonsus Edward Ward, b. 15 August 1875, in Langston, Mi. Died 18 September 1948, in Lansing, Mi. See the Millers2 page for a pic of my father & Grandpa Phon. The 1900 Federal census of Montcalm County's Pine Township shows then-24 year old Grandpa Phon living with his Uncle Thomas K. Ward. The census was taken about 2 months after Edward Ward's death. Phon must have sold the house after his dad died? He also lived with his half-sister Mary Alice and her husband Elliott O. Bellows. See inez.htm for that account.
Ruth Mary Miller, b. 2 June 1885, in Stanton, Mi. Died 15 April 1988, in Lakeview, Mi., at the age of 102.
Notes:
See morewards.htm
for copies from a photo album sent by Cousin Tracey in Australia.
Edward and Mary are buried in an old Catholic cemetery in Montcalm County's Maple Valley Township. See my grave photos page for a peek at that granite marker.
The Canadian census was taken in April 1871, with Mary listed as a widow. St. John's Catholic Church records give a marriage date for Mary and first husband John Peel as 20 February 1854. The marriage produced a son possibly named John James, and a daughter Mary Alice, and more (see Hudson Page). Mary's first husband died before 1861, as she is listed as a widow in the census that year. Mary Alice probably moved to Michigan with her mother and step-father, and is listed in the 1884 Montcalm County, Michigan, census as Mrs. Mary Bellows (Elliott O.). According to the 1884 Montcalm County, Michigan, Census, Mary Alice and Elliott O. Bellows were married in Portland, Ionia Co., Michigan. No marriage date is on the census, however. She was born in Lanark County, Ontario, on 2 April 1859, and passed away 20 April 1904, in Stanton, Mi. See the graves page for a photo of the granite marker for Mary Alice. Two photos of her - age 20-something, upper 30s or early 40s. Also, check my photocomp page to compare her pic with one of a couple who might be Edward & Mary Hudson Ward.
Edward & Mary had three children:
Edith E. Ward was born in Canada 12 March 1872. She married Fred Moffatt in Stanton, Mi., 22 July 1895. She passed away in 1919 in Breckenridge, Mi. No children. She is buried in Forest Hill Cemetery, Stanton, Michigan, but Fred is not. See my Inez Bellows and the Hudson/Ward Connection page for more info about Edith. Newly rediscovered pix yielded this one of Fred & Edith. My Grandma Ruth identified it many years later, but could not remember the year it was taken. If only people back then had the common sense to label the photos...
Alphonsus Edward Ward was sheriff of Montcalm County from 1909 to 1914. He married Ruth Mary Miller on 8 July 1908, in Stanton, Mi. He died in Lansing, Mi., on September 18, 1948, after being hit by a car while crossing a street on his way home from work. See the graves page for images of the markers of Grandma Ruth and Grandpa Phon, and the links below for photographs of Grandpa Phon.
Blanche E. Ward was born in 1879, also in Langston. She married John Klees on 18 November 1895. 3 Children. See my Inez Bellows and the Hudson/Ward Connection page for more info about Blanche.
Text of Patrick Ward's Will! Click here.
New info on the Hudsons & Peels - click here.
A story about Thomas K. Ward, my GGrandfather Edward's brother, and his reported early demise - click here.
Photo Pages with Wards and Millers - Photo Page 1, Photo Page 2.
SOURCES:
1842, 1851, 1861, 1871 Drummond Township, Lanark County, Ontario, Canada Census.
1884 Pine Township, Montcalm County, Michigan Census.
The Stanton (MI) Herald Clipper (on microfilm), May 8, 1900.
Montcalm County Clerk's Office Death Record Ledger.
Cody/Coady Catholic Cemetery in Maple Valley Township, Montcalm County, Michigan.
The Lansing (MI) State Journal newspaper (on microfilm), September 20, 1948.
Montcalm County Michigan GenWeb.
The genealogy work of my Uncle Ed, the late A. Edward Ward, Jr.
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