Seeking death record for Thomas J. Lapish, died in April of 1873, buried in Mooretown, Ontario, Canada

Question

I recently realized that I've yet to be able to find the death record for my current brick wall ancestor - my 3xgreat grandfather Thomas J. (perhaps Joseph or Josiah) Lapish. He was born in 1809 in an unknown part of England, immigrated at some unknown point to Wolfe Island, Frontinac County, Ontario, Canada and later moved to Sombra, Lambton County, Ontario, Canada where he later died. His gravestone indicates April of 1873 as his deathdate and this is in Mooretown (in Lambton County), so I am assuming he died there - but he could have died anywhere in Ontario or perhaps in Michigan.

Note:

- The surname is "Lapish" but I have seen many inventively bad spellings in transcriptions (Lafesh, Lafush, Lesich, Lapioh, etc.)

- The death record of his son, Alonzo, notes his full name is Thomas Josiah Lapish, but as I have not found a birth record I am taking this with a grain of salt.

- He is most often noted as just "Thomas Lapish" or "Thos. Lapish".

- There is another Thomas Lapish in the same area (Thomas Clark Lapish). This is a different person and I have yet to figure out if this is ar elative of my Thomas Lapish.

Here are the sources I have for him so far:

• "Canada Census, 1851," database, FamilySearch (
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MWTS-MGQ
 : 10 November 2014), Thomas Lapish, Wolfe Island, Frontenac County, Canada West (Ontario), Canada; citing p. 25, line 27; Library and Archives Canada
film number C_11721, Public Archives, Ontario.
• "Ontario Census, 1861," database, FamilySearch (
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MQ7Z-M6J
 : 8 November 2014), Thomas Lapish, Wolfe Island, Frontenac, Ontario, Canada; citing p. 27, line 35; Library and Archives Canada film number C-1023-1024,
Public Archives, Toronto; FHL microfilm 2,435,847.
• "Ontario Deaths, 1869-1937 and Overseas Deaths, 1939-1947," database with images, FamilySearch (
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JJ7C-4G7
 : 11 December 2014), Thos Josiah Lapish in entry for Alonzo Lapish, 12 Jul 1930; citing Sarnia, Lambton, Ontario, Canada, 21273, Archives of Ontario,
Toronto; FHL microfilm 2,313,255.
• "Find A Grave Index," database, FamilySearch (
https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QVGM-2S8F
 : 13 December 2015), Thomas Lapish, 1873; Burial, Mooretown, Lambton, Ontario, Canada, Sutherland Cemetery; citing record ID 108892040, Find a Grave,

http://www.findagrave.com.

Comments

I live in Lambton County and I'm actually heading out to the archives today so I will have a look around and see if I can find anything on Thomas J Lapish. I can't promise I'll find anything but it's worth a look around the archives because they have a lot of information in one tiny  building!

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Much obliged! His wife, Abigail (Hitchcock) Lapish also died in Lambton County and seems to be missing a death record, as well. Funnily enough these are the 2 biggest brick walls I have so far.

Thanks for checking. Never know what hasn't been digitized yet!

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Ok so I found  a couple of things. Sutherland Cemetery has a listing for Thomas and Abigail:

Section 1 East, Plot 3

Thomas Lapish Died Apr. 29 1873 64 years 21 Days

Abigail H  His Wife Died Sept 21, 1879 age 64 years

Margaret Thomlin Beloved wife of Alonzo Lapish, Died May 11, 1884 aged 31 years, 2 months, 19 days.

( I have taken a picture of the listing and the cemetery map for you)

I also found a small obituary for Thomas in the local paper, however that obituary states he died on the 30th of April, that he was a native of Yorkshire,England and has his age listed as 66 years. Now the microfilm was blurry so I am going to go to the library and recheck their films and look for an obituary for Abigail as well. Once I get those obituaries and I am confidant of the dates I will have them pull the registers from those years, if they have them, at the archives, and see if their deaths are  recorded in the Moore Township registers, and  get copies for you.

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Thank you so much!

I was super excited when you mentioned an obituary! It's great to finally confirm that he did indeed come from Yorkshire - up until this point I had only assumed this was the case due to how many with the surname "Lapish" appear in that part of England. I'd been trying in vain to do research on various Yorkshire Lapish families to see if I could find one with am issing "Thomas" or one with likely similar names to his children's.

Margaret was Thomas' son Alonzo's first wife that died of consumption. As far as I know she did not have any children. I am descended from Alonzo and his second wife.

I appreciate all the help very much!

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No problem at all. I will continue to look for the death records for Thomas and Abigail Lapish. I have a few tricks up my sleeve and since I live in the county I know where to look for things! I also had a chance to look at Alonzo's  death certificate from the link you posted, I see he's buried at Lakeview Cemetery, do you have a picture of his  grave stone? I go to the cemetery all the time I can look up his section and plot number and get  a photo of his grave if you would like one. I can more than likely  get you a picture of the graves at Sutherland too if you are interested.

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If none of the Find a Grave memorial pages have photos, I don't have any stashed away sadly. No need to go out of your way to get a photo of them, but it may be nice if the Find a Graves do not have any attached.

Thank you again! I was actually born in Sarnia and many of my ancestors lived in and around Lambton County. With Thomas and Abigail here being such huge brick walls, I was starting to think I'd have to figure out some way to check out the Lambton County Archives to see if they held anything for them. (FYI - Abigail's birth location is a bit of a conundrum, too! Some Censuses say the US, some say Upper Canada. No clue on her parents, either. There was a fairly ell known Hitchock family in Wolfe Island where Thomas and Abigail were married and raised their children that is a potential.)

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I see Lakeview has 4 listings for Lapish:

Alonzo 12 July 1930 age 80

 Ester 25 Feb 1928 age 63

 Roy 10 Nov. 1918 age 18 years

they are all buried in Section I Plot 142

Leander Lapsih buried in Section I Plot 214, which oddly is the exact same plot as one of my Murray relatives. Is this Leander Lapish related to you? The date is 6 Sept. 1921 age 1 year.

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Yep! :) Alonzo and Esther are my 2xgreat grandparents. That is Alonzo's second wife, his first wife being Margaret that you saw earlier.

Roy/Rory is Alonzo's son - he died in the 1918 flu epidemic as far as I've been able to figure out from family lore.

Leander Lapish is actually my long lost great uncle - my great grandmother's first son that died in infancy.

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Well since Leander seems to be in the same plot as my Murray family I can't imagine that the other Lapish's are to far away. I'll grab some pictures when I'm out there next.

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There is evidence that Thomas Hitchcock settled on Horseshoe Island at the west end of Wolfe Island shortly after the War of 1812, and had moved to Garden Island by 1817.  On 28 Sep 1822, Thomas Hitchcock petitioned the Lieutenant Governor of Upper Canada, saying he had by then been resident on Garden Island about five years, and had cleared twenty of its 60 acres, which he had “under improvement.” Having again been informed that the island belonged to the Crown, he petitioned for the grant of it subject to reasonable terms, or at least a twenty-one-year lease.

So if Abigail Hitchcock Lapish was born about 1815/16, she may have been born on Horseshoe Island.
Brian

Answer 1

Son Alonzo Lapish,Died July 12 1930,Sarnia,Lambton Ontario,birth Sept 4 1851,Wolf Island,Father Thomas Josiah Lapish,Mother Ab.Abigail born in

Persi,Have not found where that is.

Comments

Huh. I had no clue the original document for Alonzo's death record noted his mother's birth place (I'm blind IRL and can't see the original documents - didn't think to ask anyone to read this one for me.)

There is conflicting evidence as to where Abigail was born in the other records - I had sort of narrowed it down to somewhere in Canada/Ontario, but had no idea where (there were a few families with the surname Hitchcock in Wolfe Island and I assumed she must be part of one of them - they owned a ferry boat and later an inn that is still there called Hitchcock House.) Due to her having likely been married in the late 1830s, all the Census records I've found with her only have her married name. And I think I read somewhere that the marriage register for that time period for Frontinac County may have been lost, so I may never be able to find the marriage record.

I also have not been able to find Abigail's death record (she died in 1879.)