Trying to find my Canadian Indian family

Question

Trying to fond anything on my Great Grandfather James Fraser who was born in Canada roundabout 1875-1885 we know that he was half Indian and a merchant seaman and he came to England sometime in the Ist world war

Comments

The website of "Mad" Frankie Fraser (aka "The Dentist") claims:

My father was born in Canada and his father was Canadian, his mother was a red Indian. He ran away to sea at 10 years of age, if he be alive today he'd be 117, 118.

So when he ran away to sea almost a hundred years ago, that'd be nothing unusual in them days. He joined the American Navy at 16; seven years there then back to the Merchant Navy. He came over in the 1st World War on a convoy of food, met my mother, fell in love and married. He went back to sea but time I was born he had to turn it in.

The content of the page is undated, but the site seems to have been created and last updated around 2002/2003. Based on this date the claims Frankie makes are that James 1) was born in Canada about 1885. 2) James ran off to sea about 1895. 3) joined the US navy about 1901 and served until about 1908. After 1908 he joined the mercantile marine before coming over to England.

The marriage record of James and Margeret Alice Anderson gives James' father as also being James.

Perhaps we can use this information to narrow down the 75+ possiblities that appear in Census 1891 - focus on records about with a birth of about 1885, a father named James, where a son named James appear in 1891 but not in later years.

I'm shutting down for the night but maybe I'll take another run at the 1891 Census tomorrow.

 

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Thank you Rob I really do appreciate your help.  Yes Frankie was my Great Uncle, my Nan Eva was his sister, he died in December last year and he was the last of my My great Grandmother Children that's one of the reasons I really wanna trace James Fraser as there has always been a bit of a mystery about him we always fought that he was hiding something in Canada, plus I love the fact that he was half red indian and I would love to know more about the Indian background

thank you again x

evelyn x

Answer 1

 

If you go to www.familysearch.org and put in the information you have given there are a number of James Frazer's because he was a seaman he might have been born in Nova Scotia?

James Frazer

Canada Census, 1891

Name:	James Frazer
Gender:	Male
Age:	11
Birth Year (Estimated):	1880
Birthplace:	Nova Scotia
Marital Status:	Single
Religion:	Church Of England
Province:	Nova Scotia
District:	Cape Breton
District Number:	28
Sub-District:	Balls Creek
Affiliate Film Number:	30953_148111

 

 

Citing this Record

"Canada Census, 1891," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MWKP-PLX : accessed 6 July 2015)

Comments

Thank you Chris I will check out this website, anything else you might know of where to look I would be most grateful for.

i have added more information to the replies I got from questions today and thank you again

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I see you said you know when he died and who he married. Could you send me his

profile and I will take a look again.

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Hi Chris don't really know how to send a profile new to this, but these are all the details I know on my great Grandfather James Fraser.

he was born in Cananda in 1881- 1885, we have two different dates one on his medal certificate for 1st World War giving the year of his birth as 1881, and the next on his marriage certificate as giving Dob 7-9-1885, his death certificate is the same as his marriage certificate and he married my great Grandmother in London in 1922 and he died in London in 1970.  My Grandmother name was Margaret Alice Anderson Dob 6-10-1898

We know that he served in the Ist world war in England and was given Marchant marine ribbon.   

He also said he served in the American Spanish War and the he was in the U.S. Navy for 7 years before joining the merchant Navy and that his family had something to do with the fur trade and that he lived or spent time on the Great Lakes.  Anything else we know I think I've already said

thank you so much for helping me really hope you can shed a bit more light on him x

Answer 2

As Kathie already said more information is definitely needed to make any positive ID's.

To give you an idea, in the 1891 Census of Canada, not including spelling variations, abbreviated forms of the name James, other errors in the originals or in indexing, there are at least 75 individuals named James Fraser born 1875-1885. This number also does not include people born in Newfoundland which was not part of Canada until 1949 - and depending on the source of the information that he was 'born in Canada' they might not distinguish that fact. 

The fact that he was Merchant Marine without knowing the name of the ship he was on is not particularly helpful - this page at the Library and Archives Canada talks more about researching members of the Merchant Marine.

 

It is difficult from the little information given to even make any good assumptions on where even to look... there are so many different inferences one could possibly make... A somewhat Scottish sounding name and the claim of being "half-Indian" certainly makes me think of the Scottish settlements in the prairies in the late 1800's, but the name Fraser is also exceedingly common in Nova Scotia which has it's own substantial Métis communities.

Service in the Merchant Marine could equally point to someone who grew up on and around ships, favouring someone from the coastal provinces, or to a person who simply wanted to get as far away as possible from prairie life. The Merchant Marine tended to attract people who were not eligible to serve in the armed forces and those that were already employed on commercial vessels. In the years before the war James might already have been a sailor.

Comments

Hello Rob and thank you for your help, yes we do also know that his father/Grandfather was from Scotland, and apparently he served in U.S Navy for 7 years before he joined the merchant Navy and came to England in the First World War, apparently he came to England on a food ship?  We also know that he spent some time around the Great Lakes and that his family had links to the fur trade.  

Please read my answer to Katherine as I told her quiet a bit of information on there, also where is the Newfoundland and are there any records ?  

As for being half Indian he always said that was on his mothers side, and we all have that look about us, in fact his children really looked Indian my grandmother looked like a squaw, and her brothers definitely had the Indian look, I would be most grateful for anything else you could tell me as I've found your answer most helpful

Answer 3

Fraser

mentioned in the record of Fraser and Margaret A Anderson

Name:	Margaret A Anderson
Event Type:	Marriage Registration
Registration Quarter:	Jul-Aug-Sep
Registration Year:	1921
Registration District:	Lambeth
County:	London
Event Place:	Lambeth, London, England
Spouse Name (available after 1911):	Fraser
Volume:	1D
Page:	604
Line Number:	18

Fraser probably married one of the following people
Name:	James Fraser

 

 

Citing this Record

"England and Wales Marriage Registration Index, 1837-2005," database, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVZK-M2LY

Comments

Thank you Chris this is the right one, any idea where I could look up more information on him

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Usually when you have his wife's name, like you do and have his birth date it is possible to find the background. I have been looking all morning trying to find a native cree sounding name married to a Frazer. I will now try the Scotland lead you provided.

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Thank you Chris I really do appreciate your help, also did I say that his marriage record and medal record records 2 different dates of birth one 1881 and the other for1885 so he obviously lied about his age weather this was to join the navy or appear younger to my grandmother I d not know x

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I found a Simon Frazer involved with the Fur Trade.

"McDougall had been sent by Simon Fraser"

http://www.canada.com/vancouversun/features/fraser/story.html?id=ae12acad-6c77-4ab2-bfff-84f5933a5595

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I think you decendents could have come from a famous line Simon Frazer, was taught in Canadian schools as the man who they named Frazer valley after?

Canada.  There were a number of Fraser Loyalists who had come to America from Scotland in the 1750's and 1760's and then migrated to Canada after the Revolutionary War was over.  Among them were:

• Thomas Fraser who settled in Edwardsburgh township in Quebec and built a sawmill there.  His son Richard became a fur trader and prominent local businessman.  

• and Simon Fraser who worked for the Montreal-based NW Company and was responsible for the company's fur trading operations west of the Rockies.  In 1808 he explored what is now known as the Fraser river in British Columbia.  His exploratory effort in what was then uncharted territory was primarily responsible for Canada's border being established on the 49th parallel after the War of 1812.

Frasers also arrived directly from Scotland.   James Fraser reached Halifax in 1780 and set himself up as a merchant and trader along the Miramichi river in New Brunswick.  He later developed a shipbuilding business on Beaubear's island.  A descendant born on the island, John Fraser, rose to be a prominent New Brunswick politician in the late 1800's.

http://selectsurnames.com/fraser.html

We might be able to track your James Fraser if we knew any of his siblings?

He could very well have been named after the man above?

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Wow this would be amazing thank you, I know he had siblings, but not sure of there names was once told that he named his children after his siblings weather this is true or not I don't know but there names was James ( probabley after himself ). Margaret ( could have been after my Grandmother). Kathleen, Eva And Frankie

James and Kathleen twins

Margaret

Eva ( Evelyn)

Frank Davidson

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Also I should have said his Fathers name was meant to be James but I don't know if this is true or not x.