Need help finding Daniel Reid 1815-ish Hastings county, Ontario Canada

Question

I'm looking for info on a Daniel Reid approx birth 1800-1820 ish. Married to a Mary Green about the same age as Daniel. They raised a son born 1844 called George Reid, they all settled in Hastings county, Ontario. I have only seen Daniel and Mary's names on Georges Reid's marriage record when he married Rachel Ann Chase. Apparently Daniel was born in Donegal, Ireland. Not a lot to go on, I've done dna through Ancestry and still have a total brick wall. Any help and ideas would be very greatly appricated

Answer 1

Hi Karen,

Have you tried checking the Library and Archives Canada census records? If not, you can find them here:

https://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/Pages/census.aspx

Let me know if you need any tips on how to search the databases. It can be a bit tricky at first.

They also have other resources for genealogy. Worth exploring the site to find more.

Answer 2

Hi Karen,

My suggestion would be to make sure you're on firm ground before going back another generation. Can you add the marriage record you mentioned to George's profile? Any census records that would help support George's date of birth? Also, I think you must have the wrong mother attributed to George's son Charles -- Rachel would have been in her 60s.

Also one or more sources showing Charles is George's son would be a good idea.

If you're sure of all that, your best bet for finding info on Daniel and Mary would be the 1851 and 1861 censuses (for approx. date of birth, location of birth, and religion). You could also try Hastings County deed and probate records, and Upper Canada land petitions at LAC.

I'm not at all an expert on Irish records, but my general sense is it will be hopeless to find things there without more specifics on where and when to search (that are likely only to be found in Canadian records).

Answer 3

I looked at the profiles for the family on FamilySearch; I think at least two different families are conflated there. Rachel Ann Chase is attached to two sets of parents, but the marriage record states her parents are Nelson and Elizabeth Ann Chase. George Reid has a 1901 census attached married to a different woman (Mary R Reid born in 1875); if it's the same George Reid, he may have remarried, a second marriage record might give more info on his parents. Then there'd probably be a pre-1900 death record for Rachel in Madoc, Hastings to find. The Rachel/George marriage record in 1871 and 1915 death record for George both state his place of birth as Canada, so maybe not Ireland? I'd work on finding the birth and marriage records for each of the children, to confirm their mother is correct and that no other Reid family has been conflated with this one.

There's a historical newspaper archive for Barrie online, it could have some useful info assuming Madoc, Hastings is close enough geographically to show up in those newspapers: https://news.ourontario.ca/Barrie/search

Comments

Barrie is awful far from Madoc, so Barrie newspapers are unlikely to be helpful. Kingston is closer, and newspapers.com has back issues of the Kingston Whig-Standard. Quinte Branch of Ontario Ancestors should have useful resources.