An alternate title for this post could be "Finding a needle in a haystack" or "They obviously don't want to be found because if they did, they would have left better clues."
The question is, "Who were Henry Graves parents?" I believe they were George Graves and Catherine Percy but that's only a guess. Granted it is an educated, probable guess but at the end of the day it's still just a guess. I suspect if there were Methodist Church records from the Pittsburgh area for the early 1800's I could find their marriage date but it's not very likely. The Methodist church merged into the United Church in the early 1900's and at the time all the churches were supposed to send their existing records to the central headquarters. In 2008 the United Church is relocating their records so they are unaccessible for the moment, so I'm hoping for a miracle that as they move the records in Toronto, they will come across Methodist Church records for Pittsburgh Township that they did not previously know existed and I will find my missing family. This is genealogy. Stranger things have happened.
I want to be very careful with my sources for this post. Everything I know about Henry's family growing up and everything I assume needs to be carefully documented in case I don't find them and at some future date a relative takes up the search I don't want he or she to reinvent the wheel. And that's why I'm putting all this on the internet.
The oldest known record is the 1851 census. Don't be fooled by the date because this census was officially completed in 1852. The age column is the "age next birthday" so to determine the birth year, I've subtracted their age from 1852 not 1851. William Germain was the enumerator for the area of Pittsburgh, district #1 and he wrote the following about his work for the census.
"Enumeration District No 1 Township of Pittsburgh County of Frontenac is [bounded] as follows,
On the South side by the River St. Lawrence a distance of about ten miles, on the East by the surveyed lines running between lots No 15 and 16 across the broken Front, and five Consessions a distance of about Eight Miles. On the North and West sides by the Rideau Canal a distance of about 14 miles. The District is intersected by three leading Roads. One follows the Banks of the St. Lawrence River over a rugged, hilly Country in rainy weather almost impassable.
The second called the middle road takes a north easterly course for about four miles, then due East and forms a junction with the above described road, about ten miles for Kingston, after passing through a fine level country, it is capable of being made an excellent road with small outlay. The third is called the Perth Road and takes a north Easterly direction following the Banks of the Rideau Canal, and is generally speaking in a wretched state, a great Portion of this part of Pittsurgh is nothing but a barren rocky wilderness with but very few cross roads open.
I beg most respectfully to state for the consideration of the gentlemen Composing the Board of Statistics, that owning to the unprecedented fall of Snow, and the Ruggedness of this part of the country, coupled with the very limited number of cross roads open I experienced great difficulty in procuring the required information, twenty-four days is the amount of time I spent in completing the census of this District.
In this Enumeration District there are
One English Church
Three Sawmills
Six Schoolhouses
Six Taverns
William Germain, Enumerator"
What a priceless description of the land at the time and the work that Mr. Gemain went to to enumerate the township.
The website automatedgenealogy.com has transcribed a portion of the 1852 census and made it easy to search by name. There are 153 GRAVES' in Canada West on the 1851 census and 17 live in Pittsburgh Township, Frontenac County. They appear to be split into three families. Two of the families live in District #1 which was west of lot 15 and one in District #2 which was east of lot 15.
The columns are as follows: Name, Profession, Born, Religion, Age, Gender, Married or single
Family #1 District 1, Page 47 or 24a (William Germain wrote No 24 on this page) Lines 48-50, living in a log house, 1 story, 1 family
<1807> Cath Graves, Widow, Canada West, English Church, 45, female, widow
<1827> Henry Graves, farmer, Canada West, English Church, 25, male, single
<1832> Michael Graves, farmer, Canada West, English Church, 20, male, single
Family #2 District 1, Page 53 or 27a (William Germain wrote sheet no 27 on this page) Lines 45-50, living in a log house, 1 story, 1 family
<1822> Elizabeth Graves, Canada West, Presbyterian, 30, female, single
<1834> John Graves, Labourer, Canada West, Roman Catholic, 18, male, single
<1837> William Graves, Labourer, Canada West, Presbyterian, 15, male, single
<1839> Hannah Graves, Canada West, Presbyterian, 13, female, single
<1844> Sarah Graves, Canada West, Presbyterian, 8, female, single
<1846> Susan Graves, Canada West, Presbyterian, 6, female, single
Family #3 District 2, Page 93 (19a) (Hugh Cowan wrote page 19) Lines 22-27, log house, 1 story, 1 family
<1814> James Graves, farmer, born Canada, Church of England, 38, married, male
<1826> Jane Graves, born Canada, Catholic, 26, married, female
<1847> Maria Graves, born Canada, Catholic, 5, single, female
<1849> Julia Graves, born Canada, Catholic, 3, single, female,
<1850> James Graves, Labourer, born Canada, Catholic, 2, single, male
<1851> George Graves, Labourer, born Canada, Catholic, 1, single, male, born in 1851
Summary and questions resulting from the 1851 census:
Based on ages alone, James Graves and family could have been a brother or cousin to Cath Graves' dead husband.
The family names directly above and below these families on the census' are
- Taylor, Balsh, Cath Graves, Taylor, Irwin
- Carter, Garde, John Graves, Babcock
- Livingston, McIntyre, James Graves, Marceline Lapage, Bryant, Taylor
Why does unmarried John Graves seem to be the head of the household when there are so many young children in his house? The most likely explanation are these are his siblings. Was his mother also Cath Graves? Did they have two homes? Or were they all living in the same home but Cath, Henry & Michael were visiting friends when the enumerator came to the door and recorded with the wrong household? They are both said to be living in a 1 story log home. Perhaps it was the same house.
If John's household is part of Cath's family the religions are diverse with Cath, Henry & Michael going to the Church of England, John is a Roman Catholic and the rest of his household are Presbyterian. I found no record of the Graves family as baptized Presbyterians on LDS film #1307512 Registers of St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Kingston, 1821-1869 and no GRAVES as a last name on the Catholic baptisms on LDS film #1298763. We didn't find any GRAVES family names at the Anglican Diocese either. I've also been looking for spelling variants such as GREAVES.
The 1861 census only creates more questions. Unfortunately this census is not yet online, but I used LDS fiche 6117145 which is a transcription, not the actual image.
District 18, Page 4 Lines 40-50 and continues on page 5, line 1-5
<1799> Mrs Catherine Graves, 62, widow, Canada, PM (PM = Primitive Methodist?)
<1839> Hannah, 22, none, Canada, PM
<1843> Sarah, 18, none, Canada, PM
<1846> Susan, 15, none, Canada, PM
<1832> Michael, 29, married, Canada, Church of England, farmer
<1831> Margaret, 30, married, Canada, Church of England
<1856> George, 5, Canada, Church of England
<1858> Thomas John, 3, Canada, Church of England
<1860> Eliza, 1, Canada, Church of England
<1829> Henery, 32, married, Canada, Church of England, farmer
<1831> Sidney, 30, married, Canada, Church of England, farmer (should be Citney)
<1855> Sarah, 6, Church of England
<1857> William, 4, Church of England
<1860> Mary E, 1, Church of England
<1835> John, 26, Church of England
The 1861 census has the same names as the 1851 census except for Elizabeth Graves and William Graves. All of their birth years match or are within one year of each other except for Catherine (1799-1807).
Cath is not mentioned on the 1871 census, so I assume she died before then. I need to review the 1871 census to see who could have been living with Michael. I think there was a woman named Elizabeth Graves living with Michael and family. She was 60 years old, her birthplace was Quebec and was Anglican. Being that her birth year is calculated as 1811, it's not very possible she could be the same Elizabeth Graves on the 1851 census born calculated 1822 so perhaps she is a cousin or an aunt who came to live with Michael.
The 1881 census has Henry and Michael and their families living next door to each other. Their other neighbors are Butch's, McLean's and Moore's.
Henry died before the 1891 census, but Michael was still alive. On that census, they asked the birthplace of your father and your mother. Michael said that his father was born in the USA, but did not give a state.
The next clue is cemetery transcriptions. In the Milton Cemetery is a stone with the following written on it:GEORGE GRAVES his wife CATHERINE PERCY their children ELIZABETH, HANNAH DEVENPORT, MICHAEL GRAVES 1832-1892 MARGARET MCFADDEN his wife 1823-1902.
If this Michael Graves is the same Michael Graves who is Henry's brother, then it stands to reason that George Graves and Catherine Percy are their parents. On the tombstone their children Elizabeth and Hannah match names from the censuses.
One other small support that they are the parents of all the children is the Wesleyan Methodist Baptism Register. There are two Graves entries in Pittsburgh Township. One is for Michael & Margaret's son, Edwin, and the other is for a daughter, Sarah Bryant Graves, born March 19, 1843 to George and Catherine Graves. Again, this name and birth year are consistent with the 1851 and 1861 census.
The last clue is land records. I haven't got all the land records yet from the Library and Archives Canada, but they are on order so hopefully soon. In the County Atlas of Frotenac in 1878, Michael Graves lives on Concession I, Lot 11 and Henry Graves lives on Concession I, Lot 11/12. There is no other information for Henry, but Michael settled his land in 1832. That's the year he was born, so it would seem to me that probably that was the family land and that George would have passed the land down to his son, Michael.
At the back of the book Lilac's and Limestone An Illustrated History of Pittsburgh Township 1787-1987 Appendix One Part One lists patent holders of Crown Grantees with the date and location of their land. Concessions I, II & III, Lots 17/18 was granted to Captain (navy?) Adam Graves. Concessions I, II, Lots 11/12 was granted to Lieutenant (navy?) George Graves in February 1797. Their names are repeated in Appendix Two Grantees receiving 400 or more acres. Being that there was a George and Adam Graves receiving land in 1797, and that George Graves owns the same land that my ancestor Henry lived on in 1878, I assume that Henry's grandfather was named George and it was this George who received the land in 1797. Being that this George was a lieutenant, I'm going to try and check the navy records for England from that time period and the Canadian (British) records of the War of 1812.
In summary Henry's father could be George Graves who was born about 1800 and died between 1846-1851. He probably got married about 1820 to Catherine Percy and they could have had at least eight children:
- 1822 Elizabeth
- 1825 Henry
- 1832 Michael
- 1834 John
- 1837 William
- 1839 Hannah Devenport
- 1843 Sarah Bryant
- 1846 Susan
Henry's grandfather could be George or Adam Graves. Clues to his grandmother's maiden names could come from Hannah's middle name of Devenport or Sarah's middle name of Bryant (there were Bryant's in the Pittsburgh area; I have not heard of any Devenport's).
To date I haven't tried to find out anything about the Percy family. There is no one with the last name of Percy on the 1851 census in Frontenac. There are 47 individuals in Upper Canada in the following counties: Elgin, Hastings, Lanark, Leeds, Lennox, Ontario, Stormont, Wellington, and Wentworth. The only possibility of her parent(s) being still alive (if she was 45-50, her father would be about 65-70) is Robert Percy age 81 of Fredericksburgh Twp in Lennox County, J Percy (age 61) of Richmond Township, Lennox County or Thomas Percy of Pickering Twp, Ontario County. Fredericksburgh and Richmond Townships are close to Pittsburgh, so perhaps she was from there.
I've also found a Michael Ryan Percy (1795-1886) who apparently was the son of John Percy, UEL. in Portland. There was a Portland Township in Frontenanc. Perhaps this is Catherine's brother and her father was also John? She will be very difficult to find parents for.
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