Baby Wilfrid Harrison

If you don't know history, you don’t know anything. 

You are a leaf that doesn’t know it is part of a tree. 

 Michael Crichton

  Wilfrid Harrison (my paternal grandfather)  age 2

By Cathern Agnes Harrison       September 2004    revised in 2016  

Last weekend when the Quebec cultural weekend events were published in the Montreal Gazette I decided that one of the places I was going to check out was the Quebec Family History Society on Cartier Avenue in Pointe Claire.

Dragging my husband with me and off we went to have a look at what was available…

And came away with information I never went in looking for…. Its enough to make me want to learn more about my roots as well as my husband’s.

 We tried finding his grandfather first because Drury is a less common name than Harrison. The search didn’t go far although we were able to get his parental grandparent’s birth dates the well more or less ran dry after that, as we didn’t have names and other info with us. I plan to pursue it though if not for my husband, for my own sake as well as my desire not to regret trying to tie up loose ends for our sons and grandchildren.

Because I have a bit more information to go on for my relatives, the president of the society was able to find on-line via ancester.com the 1891 England Census and my 10-year-old grandfather. Because his given name was Wilfrid it made the search for the common surname Harrison easier.  Knowing the year of his birth 1880, also helped

 He printed the page off for me as well as a copy of the hand written census page my grandfather is on… More about that  later.  

The president went on to look for the 1881 British Census Household Record which lists my grandfather as a 9 month old.

That census gave me a bit about my grandfather’s family, my great-grandparents and their children.

Great Granddad James Harrison was 30 at the time and his birthplace was Salford Lancashire England Occupation:  Market Gardener with two acres (Not Dom) meaning it was explained to us, worked for himself… I knew they had a nursery as we call it today but now because of that census know the name of it because of the dwelling: Chorley New Rd Lostock Nursery. He and his 24-year-old wife Elizabeth, birthplace Bury, Lancashire had 3 young children.  My baby grandfather was the youngest. There was Sarah E. who was 5  a scholar and 3-year-old Ethel.

There is one person that stood out in the household; Great–Grand Uncle Joseph Harrison who was also a Gardener.  He was 22 at that time.

In the 1891 census there are 3 more children but no great-great Uncle Joseph. The 3 children are Jessie who was 8, Joseph Henry 2 and James 1.

 My 10-year-old grandfather is now listed as a scholar but he’s the only one that is despite all the girls ( Sarah 15 and Ethel 13) being of school age or by today’s standards at least. 

Another interesting fact is that  the ROAD, STREET, No. or NAME of  House  is now 39 Parsonage House and my Great Grandfather James is ticked off as an employer,   a Nurseryman & Florist

Great-Grand Uncle Joseph is missing from the household.  However, there’s now a boarder, Thomas Jackson listed as being 48 and employed as a Clerk of Waterworks.

Noticed this as we drove home from the Society offices -  the next household to be listed is 40 Parsonage Cottage has  Joseph Harrison 32 as the head of the household and a gardener (nursery). The last person on that census page is 64 year old Mary Ann Roberts mother is says.

Guess I need the next page to see the rest of the household.

On the 1881 census my Grandfather’s name is spelt Wilfred but on the 1891 census it is WILFRID. Easy to see how names etc can get confusing…

And that was how easy it was to entice me beyond names and  dates when I said I wasn’t interested as I found the many list of names and dates in the many family trees I had come across on the internet very boring - they told me very little about anyone. It was not how I wanted to meet my ancestors. However, it did give me a good idea of how far back my given name was popular because that is how I came across other women with the name Cathern when I searched for my uncommon name. Usually they were long gone but soon realized they had lived around the mid to late 1800’s and possibly early 1900’s.

It was finding out how much information could be gleaned from censuses I was hooked.

 

Back home I searched though the information I had, and the dates my sister had recorded from the Harrison Family Bible.  The Bible recordings had started with our great-great grandfather John Harrison and his wife Mary Ann Barrington. Recognize that given name?

The Bible is now with a nephew who is the 6^th generation and the last direct line, male Harrison.

Much more is known about the Harrison Family now however,  for now will add that MARY ANN Barrington wife of James Harrison remarried in 1881.  She had been a widow for a few years when she remarried. Not sure what happened to her second husband but when I learned to go through everything with a fine tooth comb realized it was  was the Mary Ann Roberts on the 1891 census as mentioned - also noticed she was blind. Yet ten years later she was Mary Ann Harrison again and one of her daughters was living with her.

I have given her a bit of a life which I have done for many other ancestors and will  share them too  down the road .