Canniff Quest

After my huge disappointment from my visit to Family History Library, I have struggled to get back in to my research.  It seems like everything leads to dead ends.  Every time I decide to go back and search another branch of the tree, I end up going back to my great grandmother trying to find some hint that will connect her to the many, many Ontario Canniff’s .

I am fairly certain that the Thomas Canniff of Michigan that immigrated from Hastings, Ontario is either not the same as the Jonas Canniff in the 1881 and 1871 census, or if it is, he is likely not related to my great grandmother.  He list Jonas Canniff and Jane Lucas as his parents in his marriage license.  I had thought that Phoebe Canniff may have been another sister.  and was buoyed when I found her with her parents Jonas Canniff and Jane Lucas.  But alas, her parents lived much past 1868, thus eliminating them as parents of my Lydia Jane.

So, now back to DNA.  I was in high hopes that my 87 year old aunt would agree to testing, but when I visited her with test in hand she declined, feeling it was “creepy.”  But, all hope is not dead.  I was checking my nephew’s matches in ancestry the other day, and found one that not only has Canniff in his surname list, but he is a Canniff!  He is a 5th to 8th cousin to my nephew, even though he does not match me.  Ancestry has a new feature called “Shared Matches.” When I clicked on this new Canniff there were two more DNA matches.  Now we have a total of four, (6 with my nephew and I) certified CANNIFF matches!  All of us have Abraham T. Canniff b. 1770 d. 1843, m. Mariejte Tietsoort.  Three  have the next generation Jonas Weeks Canniff 1797 and the others have Isaac Canniff 1806.  It is ever so slowly chipping away.

I tried to join the Quinte Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society, but will wait until November when I can get a full year.  In the meantime I found the main branch Facebook page, and some very nice and helpful people.  They lead me to the Directory of Hastings County 1860.  This is two years before my great grandmother was born, so hoping to find her father here.  So far I have found a Jonas Canniff, Phillip Flagler Canniff, James Canniff and a few others.  Jonas owned a “flouring mill”, and was a trustee of the Weslyan Methodist Church.  Does this give me any hints?  Not really.  But it was fun to find.  It also listed the by laws of the county. The early homesteaders were given 100 of which they had to build a house and plant crops in at least 20 acres of the land within the first year.  Building the house done by the neighbors all pitching in and building a log house that was complete in 4-5 days.  They also had regulations for all the men and young boys, should a fire break out.  Everything from who would haul water to ringing the bell to warn and gather people together.  I felt like even though I didn’t learn any specifics as to who is the father of my great grandmother, it was fun to put myself in their lives for a few minutes.

I have ordered a book on the history of Belleville, Ontario.  It should be here in a couple days.  Can’t wait to start weeding through that one!

A Fated Trip to the Family History Library

When my husband and I were planning our summer vacation trip, I hinted that since we were going to be in Utah for a few days, I’d like to visit the Family History Library.  He was more than happy to schedule some time in to our itinerary. I was out of my mind happy and excited and started plotting my visits months early.  I visited the local Family History library to familiarize myself and to ask questions about how to make the most out of my time there. Thinking that he was scheduling me three days in Salt Lake, neither one of us considered that it was actually going to be shorter because by the time we got checked out of one hotel, travel to Salt Lake, get checked in, we would actually lose that first day.  Okay, so I can deal with two days.  But wait a minute, check out time is 11 am at the hotel, then we have to get to the next location to check in on time.  So now we are down to one full day.  Okay, I can handle that.  I can get a lot done in one day, and after all I had already decided to limited my search to my mysterious great-grandmother.  To make things quicker I made a list of everything I knew as fact about her; where she lived between 1871 and 1881, her marriage, where they lived and where each one of her children were born.  You know how when you are on vacation you kind of lose track of days of the week.  Since you are not working, a Saturday or Sunday is just like the rest.  But wait a minute…. my one day was a Sunday!  The Family History Library is owned and operated by the Mormon Church, and of course is closed on Sunday.  I was heartbroken and my husband felt bad for me as well.  So, last resort… I will be at the door at 8am sharp Monday morning, and get the most of my 3 hours instead of 3 days.  The people there are at the door, cheerful and ready to help in any way they can.  I was lead to the 2nd floor and introduced to a sweet lady that is from Canada and their resident “expert” on the area.  The only problem is, she is French Canadian and not familiar at all with Ontario or the Bay of Quinte.  But she trudged through with me trying to find my orphaned great-grandmother who was born in 1862 and married in 1881.  After a few minutes of searching we discover that their birth records for Ontario start in 1863, and death records (which would be for her parents who died in 1868) started in 1869,  NOTHING, NOTHING and more NOTHING!  So she finds a record for a book in the library that has Weslyan Methodist baptisms for the area, so I head up to the 3rd floor.  Sitting on the floor going through the book trying to find my great-grandmother, I again find NOTHING.  I did find some other books that I brought back to the 2nd floor with me and while I find some other Canniff’s that I am familiar with, still nothing to tie my great-grandmother with the rest of the Canniff families.  So she suggests I go to the microfilm to find her marriage record, hoping that it will contain more information than is listed. I start searching for it, as my minutes area ticking away.  I finally give up as I know that I have already seen it and it lists her parents as “unknown.”  She wanted so badly to help me find something, and I hated to disappoint her, so I just disappeared out the front door after re-filing the microfilm.  So now I am back to depending on DNA to find that connection.  I am going to ask my 87 year old aunt to do a test, just hoping she will say yes.

The UP’s and Down’s of Research

I have two major quests of late.  One is my totally awesome newly found nephew, Charles Montgomery Cook.  Charles is the son of my late sister who was placed for adoption at birth. This search is one that is several blog posts in itself, and will be addressed more thoroughly later. We found each other through Ancestry DNA and have been looking for his birth father’s family since February of this year.  We are now awaiting the results of his Big Y test on FTDNA. In the meantime I have resumed my search for my great-grandmother Lydia Jane (Jennie) Canniff’s family.  This is another adoption story.

Jennie’s parents apparently died (or at least the mother), when she was 8 years old and she is found living with the Isaac Fox family in Hastings, Ontario.  She was still living with them ten years later in the same location.  She married my great-grandfather, William Henry Maxwell at the age of 19 and moved to Daisy, Washington.  I have been totally unable to get any information on her before the age of 8.  No birth records, no death records for her parents, nothing!  In the same years census her brother Jonas Canniff was living with the Abner Stratton family very near the Fox’s residence.  He was with them for 10 years.

The Canniff family was very large in Hastings and there is even a town named after them, Canniffton.  I found a book on the area that had a large section devoted to the family.  Still no hints of the illusive Jonas or James and Lillie, her parents.  There are many, many Jonas’s, but nothing that matches the approximate dates.  So, I decided to start a tree based on the original Canniff family in Canada to see if I could connect any Jonas and Lillie that could have been my 2nd great grandparents.  In building my trees, I do not use any member trees, unless I am connected by DNA and have had a chance to talk to the person and know that they have other sources for their information.  Even then, at times I have found errors in their trees.  But there were many dignitaries in the Canniff family so it was pretty easy to trace.  But still no luck.

I am always looking for the Canniff name in surname lists and one day I was in FTDNA and did a quick search of my DNA matches and found a Canniff!  I can’t tell you how elated I was to find this!  The first solid hit on my Canniff family!  Ok, so now to send an email off to this person… will they actually respond to me, or will this be another aggravating non-response?  Yes!  Just a couple of days later I received a reply.  It is from Robert Caverly, the administrator of his 1/2 first cousin Paul’s account.  Their great-grandmother is Caroline Canniff! She married Joseph Caverly.  With the measure of our DNA connection and the birth dates of their Caroline and my Jenny, they are most likely first cousins!  Hooray!  Who could ask for any better of a clue?  I started another tree with Caroline, researching every male born to see whom Jenny may have inherited that name and genes. So far, nothing.

Mr. Cavarly, the administrator, has been very helpful, going back in his data bases trying to find any connection with my Great Grandma Jenny.  He has found the information on her brother Jonas also, and believes that he may be the same as a Thomas Jonas that immigrated to Michigan.  This Thomas Jonas and my Jonas of Hastings have the same mysterious background, and I believe they are the same person.  The Maxwell family (Jenny’s husband) also has a history in Michigan, the same county which Thomas Jonas immigrated.  Many of my great grandfather’s siblings were born in Michigan.  I am thinking that we (the family that has been searching for Jenny) have all been limiting ourselves by searching for her family in Canada or Ireland.  What else would make this young man suddenly immigrate to another country, by himself to a county and state where he had never been?

Now my search continues in Michigan with Thomas Jonas Canniff.  If I can confirm that Thomas Jonas is actually the brother of my great-grandmother this will be a huge leap!  Unfortunately he had only girls so the Canniff name will not be perpetuated in Michigan, but I am follow  his girls trying to find another DNA connection.  One of the girls married a Houle.  It doesn’t seem to me to be a very common name.  I did a surname search and have found three DNA Houle connections in Ancestry!  I have sent messages to all three, but have yet to hear back from any of them.  As each day passes with no response, my hope is waning.  This really is an emotional roller coaster.  One day a solid hint appears, and the next it dead ends.  But, just the fact that I now have at least one genetic connection to our Canniff family, and have been able to verify four generations that are related to me,  it will keep me going and searching, even though I can’t find just exactly how Caroline and Jenny are related.

**** Pictured above: William Henry Maxwell 1862-1937, Lydia Jane Canniff 1862-1928 and their children Wilbert W. 1888-1912, Aden 1891-1960, Jonas Canniff (J.C.) Maxwell 1891-1976, Estella Arvilla 1897, Susie Alice 1898-1984.  There were four other children born in between these five, why they are not pictured I do not know, but this is how they have been identified to me.  My grandmother Cora Myrtle was the last to be born in 1903 and not pictured here.