Searching beyond expected dates

 

                                                                            The BCGS library in Surrey, BC

I've been at it again, trawling through LDS films old style. We met for another day long session at the BCGS library to do research together. Well, maybe not together, as we're not all researching the same things but researching at the same time in the same room. This time I was scrolling through a digitized microfilm of Ontario church records for Puslinch. I was looking for baptisms of Clark children.

When trying to figure out the family of Angus Clark and his wife, Margaret McPherson, it had seemed that they'd had a least 16 children together. At least that was how it appeared when I checked the 1861 and 1871 census records. That was until I looked up Ellen Clark, the oldest child, to see if I could find her in the 1851 census. There they were in Puslinch, Angus Clark with his children, Ellen, Mary, Catherine, John and Angus but there was no mother as Angus was a widower. That changed things.

To find out more I was looking for the baptisms of all the Clark children, both the first wife's and those of Margaret McPherson, the second wife. The hope was that those records would show more than when each child was baptized. I wanted to find out the first wife's name and see when Margaret McPherson had come into the picture. That would give me a better idea of when the second marriage took place.

The records started in 1835. Perfect, the first child, Ellen, was 12 in 1851. According to my math, she would have been born about 1839. I scoured the images for the '30s - nothing. Knowing there were children born later I carried on. There were baptisms of Clark children listed in the 1850's, but not to the right parents. I continued on.

Morning had turned into afternoon and I was getting discouraged. None of the Clark children that I'd noted down were for the right couple. I paused a few times. Went downstairs to look for a book. Then talked myself into continuing on further. Then there was the entry I'd been looking for:

Not only did that entry provide me with the name for his first spouse but after that I was prepared to find other late baptisms for Angus Clark's children.

I searched on, expecting to find further baptisms of Angus's children. If he'd done it for one, maybe he'd done it for them all. There was one entry I made note of, one with multiple children baptized. It was so close although the father's name was Donald Clark rather than Angus. But the woman's name was Margaret McPherson. Maybe the minister had the man's name wrong or she'd given her father's first name in error. The fact that the birth dates for the children were out, that could be down to faulty memories, or another ministerial mistake. I didn't put much store by the minister's records. Not when he'd noted down that the baptisms occurred in 1866 when the last child was supposedly born in 1867. My hopes were high but it was not to be. A closer check of the children's names made me realize that it was not the family I was looking for. I guess I'll just have to keep on searching.

Sources:

LDS film 8130297 Ontario church records available on FamilySearch at affiliate centres