Pattersons who emigrated to Canada 1820's

gerry55 · Post by **gerry55** » Wed Oct 07, 2009 10:45 pm

Hi everyone, I just recently joined Talking Scots and I'm looking forward to sharing information with you and learning more about life in the Highlands in the early 1800's. javascript:emoticon(':)')

Presently I'm looking for information on my gg grandfather (William Patterson) and any of his siblings who may have emigrated from the Scottish Highlands to eastern Ontario, Canada between 1820 and 1822. Although the surname spelling in Canada is with 2 "t"s, it may have been spelled differently prior to their leaving Scotland (Pattison, Patrison, Petteson, Patersoun or some variation of these).

Unfortunately, records in Canada do not indicate the name of the county where my gg grandfather was born so it is quite difficult to narrow my research. I've read that a large contingent of Scots left the Assynt area for Canada in 1820 with Dr. Norman Macleod. As well hundreds of settlers from Perthshire, Agryllshire, and Renfrewshire counties emigrated to the Rideau River Valley in eastern Ontario during 1820-21. However, many of the ships passenger lists for that period are either incomplete, lost or simply too vague to be much help in determining if my gg grandfather or his siblings were on board.

If anyone has information on Pattersons who emigrated to eastern Canada between 1820 - 1822, or can offer any suggestions on where I might find detailed lists of emigrants from the mentioned counties, it would be great to hear from them.

Gerry58

Post by **SarahND** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 10:11 am

Hi Gerry,
Welcome to [talkingscot]

!

As you know, it's very difficult to trace people who emigrated before the first useful census in 1841. Do you have William's marriage and death records? I don't suppose by some miracle his parents' names were mentioned?

I do sympathize, having similar problems in my family history.

All the best,
Sarah

gerry55 · Post by **gerry55** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 3:34 pm

Hi Sarah,

Thank you for the kind greeting javascript:emoticon(':)')

Unfortunately, William's death was never formally registered, and the church record of his marriage only provides the date of the union and witness names, basically just bare bones info. To further complicate things, the local newspaper that would have published his obituary notice lost their archive records to fire around 1912. Other papers in the area were not yet established when William died in 1879.

Gerry

KarieK · Post by **KarieK** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 4:20 pm

Hi Gerry
Are you talking about Perth, Smiths Falls area or further east north of Cornwall area. Years ago I bought a book by Ian White who is a historian of Highland families that emigrated to the Rideau area listing the names of the parents, children, ship name and dates and where they settled. Some of the info was submitted to him by researchers.
Karen

gerry55 · Post by **gerry55** » Thu Oct 08, 2009 10:08 pm

Hi Karen,

From what I read, I understood it to mean Perth, Smiths Falls, Kemptville and other points along the Rideau Valley as far south and east as Winchester, Chesterville and communities bordering the Petite Nation River that eventually flows into the Rideau River.

Would you happen to have the name of the book?

Gerry

KarieK · Post by **KarieK** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 3:17 pm

Hi Gerry
The author's name is Donald Whyte (not Ian), there are I think two versions one from the 1980's which is yellow and soft cover and the other is from 2004 hardcover. They are both published by the Ontario Genealogy Society (OGS). The title is "A Dictionary of Scottish Emigrants to Canada before Confederation". I bought mine at a local bookstore but you could probably buy directly from OGS.
Hope this helps.
Karen

Post by **emanday** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 4:40 pm

Hi Gerry and KarieK,

See Amazon...

http://www.amazon.com/Dictionary-Scotti ... 0920036090

gerry55 · Post by **gerry55** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 10:38 pm

Hi Karen and Mary,

Thanks for the info. I spent the afternoon in my local library and was fortunate to find the book there so I didn't have to wait for the mail. Provides excellent detail and William is listed in Volume 1. Regrettably it doesn't indicate his home county in Scotland, but does confirm the date of his arrival as 1820.

Now, if I could find the ship's name on which he sailed it would really give me something to work with.

Thanks to both of you

Gerry

Post by **emanday** » Fri Oct 09, 2009 10:52 pm

Hi Gerry,

It isn't impossible to trace your ancestor. It's often a case of trying searches on the most unlikely places.

I know this is hardly "informed" advice, but I'd never have found the death of my maternal great grandfather without a bit of "lateral" thinking and a search on a previously unknown source. A member on this board found his wife and kids on a Glasgow Poor Relief application.

There he was, washed overboard, two years after he abandoned my great grandmother and their four daughters to the charity of the parish poor relief system.

Never give up - your rellie is out there somewhere

gerry55 · Post by **gerry55** » Sat Oct 10, 2009 1:38 am

Thanks for the encouragement Mary.

I think my search would have been much easier if gg grandfather had as a first name Egbert or Alfred or Sylvester .........anything other than William.

Oh well, I guess if searching for our ancestors wasn't painful, it wouldn't be fun

Gerry