29 October 2013

1921 Census of Canada is Now Available! So That's Where Daniel Dickson Lived!

This morning I discovered on GOOGLE+ that the Canada census for 1921 has been made available.  I know it's indexed on Ancestry.com but I haven't yet checked any of the other"standby's" for delving into census records.

But here's the surprise for me.  I have always had trouble tracking down my maternal great grandfather.  His name was Daniel Alexander Dickson.  I know his father, James Dickson, and his mother, Mary Jane Clement, were both born in Scotland.   They came to Ontario sometime in the mid-19th century.  Daniel married Margaret Meagher whose father was born in Ireland, her mother in Ontario.

Daniel Alexander Dickson (1849-ca1922)

I searched for quite some time to find birth and death records for Daniel to no avail.  The first clue to Daniel's fate came when the 1930 US census was released in 2002.  I found Daniel's son, my grandfather right where he should be, living next door to where I lived for the first 7 years of my life.  There I found Clement, my grandfather, his wife, Hazel, my mother, Beatrice and my uncle, Clement, Jr.  at 34 Tyler Street, Springfield, Massachusetts.

Here's the surprise: Included in his household was his mother, Margaret!  She just happened to be visiting her son at the time the census was being enumerated.  Not only did I now know about when she was born, but I learned that her husband, the elusive Daniel, had died before 1930.  She declared herself a widow which may have something to do with why she was spending some time in Springfield with her son's family.  Her occupation was listed as "Gentlewoman"!

So here comes the 1921 Canada census.  The first person I looked for was Margaret as I knew she was alive in 1921.  But Margaret was the head of household.  Did her husband die before 1921? Possibly.  But I still took a shot at finding Daniel.  For reasons unknown to me so far, Daniel was enumerated in Quebec in the household of his son-in-law, John D Hobus.  John's wife was Frances, the third "Frances" born to Daniel and Margaret.  The first 2 died within a year of their birth.  Classic case of a "necronym".  The best guess I have for Daniel's date of death is sometime between 1921 when he was certainly alive and 1930 when Margaret declared herself a widow.  More research.

So now I've got a bug to get more information.  Sadly, anyone who may know has died.  Thus my urging of this generation to INTERVIEW YOUR FAMILY!!  "nuff" said about that!

[caption id="" align="aligncenter" width="300"]English: The first-ever commercial radio stati... The first-ever commercial radio station, WBZA, originally broadcast from Springfield, Massachusetts in 1921. (Photo credit: Wikipedia)[/caption]

2 comments:

  1. Diane Robison LillieWed Oct 30, 04:18:00 PM EDT

    DT thanks for all your hard work. very interesting
    thanks
    CS

    ReplyDelete
  2. Handsome picture of Daniel Dickson, don't you think? Remind you of anyone you know.....ANYONE????

    ReplyDelete