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the Ancestor Movie
My
husband Rick created a moving tribute to my ancestors. (It is a
large file and may be too slow with dial-up connections.)
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the Family Tree
(5,000+ individuals)
The tree is a work in
progress. Some surname pages also have smaller versions.
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The
Foote Family
My
paternal grandfather
was William Albert Billings.
He was born in St. Thomas,
Ontario, Canada in 1893.
I never met his sisters
and his parents died
well before I was born.
My grandfather told
me a little about his
family, and what I know
from him and from further
research can be found
in the Billings section
of this site. I knew
nothing about his father,
John Albert, or his
grandparents, Edward
and Eleanor [Ellen]
Billings. I have been
slowly unraveling the
mystery of this branch
of the family, and have
only recently come across
some answers to the
puzzle.
The
Beginning of the Search
During
my research at the St.
Thomas Cemetery in December,
2001, I found John Albert,
his wife, and her sister
all buried in the same
plot. I also found an
Edward, Giles, and Sedric
[also known as Shedrick
and Shadrach] in the same
cemetery. Using the dates
found in these records,
I was able to go online
to the LDS records and
find that Edward and Giles
were brothers born in
Cornwall, England. Shedrick
may be a cousin, based
on LDS info, but he was
living with Giles at one
point in Canada. I then
found the Billings ancestry
all the way back to the
1600s in England. Amazing
what a little information
like some dates will do!
I
now sought to find out
more about Edward's wife,
Eleanor--my great great
grandmother. I found her
obituary in the George
Thorman Room of the St.
Thomas Library in June.
It says she was born in
Fairfield, New York, in
1819, and moved to Canada
when she was 15. She moved
to St. Thomas when she
was 49. It also said that
she was survived by her
sons, William Lodge and
A. Billings.
I had to mull this over.
I had never heard the
Lodge named connected
with this branch of the
family. I wondered if
it was William Lodge Billings?
I realized when I looked
at the dates again, that
she had married Edward
a little late in life
and began having children
when she was 37. Working
on the assumption that
she had been married before,
I began a new search and
found a "George William"
Lodge buried in St. Thomas
Cemetery. I then found
a message board posting
concerning the Lodge family
and wrote to the author,
Fred Meeks. He replied
that our information on
Ellen fit together. His
John Lodge had died in
1846 and he next found
the widowed Ellen married
to Edward Billings in
a census. So, my Eleanor
question was answered.
Now I set out to find
as much as possible concerning
this marriage and hoped
to pin down her maiden
name.
I
continued searching and
found this in the Elgin
County Probate Records:
LNAME:
LODGE;
FNAME: JOHN;
RESIDENCE: SOUTHWOLD DATE:
1846; FILE: 4 MFNO 1465
NOTES: - died at London
- death date uncertain
- petition filed December
23, 1846 by widow - widow
was Eleanor Lodge of Southwold
- Letters of Administration
granted December 23, 1846
to Eleanor Lodge
In
another search I found
this:
Marriages
by Rev. William Clarke,
Congregational Minister,
Jan. 13, 1840
John
Lodge to Eleanor Foote,
of Southwold.
Eureka!
Eleanor's maiden name
was Foote. Of course,
I can't rest with that
as proof, so I have since
found many many records
to point to this as fact.
First, I found this in
an LDS search:
Ellen
FOOTE Sex: F Event(s):
Birth: Abt. 1818 St Thomas,
Middlesex, Ontario Parents:
Father: Oliton Cushman
FOOTE Mother: Thina BULL
These
records are notoriously
incorrect, based on human
error of the "donors,"
but there is usually some
shred of fact. I thought
this may be her, based
on her birthdate of 1819;
however, Ellen wasn't
born in Ontario, and further
info told me that Oliton
Cushman Foote and his
wife, Thina Bull came
from New York originally.
Oliton was in the Buffalo
NY 1832 directory. Further
searching revealed that
he was living in a very
important place in the
1910 census:
Foot,
Olitan C.; State: New
York; Year: 1810; County:
Herkimer; Roll: M252_27;
Township: Fairfield; Page:
380 Image: 212 [Fairfield!]
Olitan
was in a Buffalo, New
York directory in 1832,
right near the Canadian
border, and Ellen's obit
says she moved to Canada
when she was 15, which
would be 1834. I think
I can "assume"
I have the correct family.
Genealogy is definitely
like a giant jigsaw puzzles
and finding the pieces
can lead to some exciting
discoveries, can't it?
I
have since found many
genealogies online that
fill in the gaps in the
Foote family until as
far back as Robert Foote
in the mid 1500s, and
the Foote descendants
that were involved with
the Mayflower. I will
post the report and tree
that I have since developed
here, but I have not confirmed
any of the sources of
the facts and dates about
the early ancestors. Doing
so will take me quite
a bit of time, but I will
verify all that I can.
Obituaries
Eleanor
Foote Lodge Billings,
died 1908.
Genealogy
Reports
The
Foote
report--last updated
August 21, 2002.
Archives
Rick
and I went to St. Thomas,
Ontario, where I finally
got to the cemetery. Story
and photos in December
2001 archives.
Links
The
Foote Family Association
of America
This
is an entire site dedicated
to Foote ancestry.
back to the
top
Search
this site (names, locations, etc.):
Surnames
on this site [more listed under "the Whole Family Tree"
section]
The Billings side: BILLINGS / BILLING, LANG, BERTRAND, WATSON, BROMELL, BOND, RICKARD, PETER, LEAN, HAWKIN / HOCKEN, HOSKYN, BROAD, RUSHTON, SCHMACHTENBERGER, FOOTE, BULL, LODGE, LAWLOR, REARDON, HOULE, SENECAL / SENICAL, BATZOLD, BEGGS, GUNGEL, MCGREGOR, MELLOR, BROWN, ANGELSEY, WILSON
The
Palmer side: PALMER / PALMORE, OBEROWSKI, OLESKY, KRUSCHINSKI, PILARSKI, OSTRANDER, BECK, VAUGHAN, EUDAILEY
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Copyright © 2001-2010 Katherine Palmer. All rights reserved.
This file last modified 09/11/08 |