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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!]
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this site (names, locations, etc.): 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 Home Blog Archives Reports Obituaries Memorials Photos Tombstones Ancestors Links Copyright © 2001-2010 Katherine Palmer. All rights reserved. |
