Finally Finding My Great Grandmother, Dora Annie Black’s Biological Mother!

When I first started researching my Great Grandmother, Dora Annie Black, I was on a mission to find out who her biological parents are. The only record I had at that point was the 1901 Census of Canada for Weldford, Kent County, New Brunswick, where she was listed as adopted daughter, living with Anne M Black and George A Black (Anne’s son). Dora was listed as Dora A, born March 13, 1884, 17 years old and born in New Brunswick. So, I had her date of birth, first name and middle initial to search by. I found a Late Registration of Birth for a Dora A Ward, born in Cail’s Mills, Kent County, New Brunswick, but her birth date was listed as March 13, 1883. Although it was off by a year, it was the exact day and month, and in the right county, so I felt it warranted more research. I phoned the local library and ordered the microfilm through the interlibrary loan program. I was ecstatic when I got the call that it was in. This document had no father listed, which was obviously a disappointment. The mother’s maiden name that was listed was Jane Ward, born Weldford Parish, Kent County, New Brunswick. The form was completed by a non-relative who stated “I have examined the records on file at the Old Age Assistance Board, which confirms the date of birth as above stated.” It was signed May 11, 1953. Dora’s full name on the form was “WARD, Dora Ann (Mrs. Wilson)”.

I immediately searched for a marriage record for Dora and a Mr. Wilson and found one for a William George Wilson, Farmer, Widower, 60 years old marrying Dora Annie Farrer, Housekeeper, Widow, 50 years on September 1, 1934. It also states she was born in Cail’s Mills, Kent County, NB. Bingo! This birth location and age for Dora Annie Black lined up with the information on the marriage record when she married John Henry Farrer (my Great Grandfather).

On the marriage record to her second husband, William George Wilson, it was very interesting, surprising and exciting that she listed her parents as Thomas Cail, born Pine Ridge, Kent Co., NB., and Jane Ward. This is very surprising since on the marriage record for her and my Great Grandfather, John Henry Farrer she listed her adoptive parents. Why would she now be listing her biological parents?! 

This is where I ran out of steam on finding solid leads for who Jane Ward is. There weren’t many options, and none in the immediate geographic location of Dora’s birth. I had a DNA test done with 23andMe to hopefully help break through this brick wall, however, even after four years, I was no closer to solving the mystery. Until now. And it didn’t even happen using genetic genealogy! It was good, old fashioned genealogy research! It was on a record I already had but I either forgot or missed a vital piece of information!

Every so often, I go back over old records for my "brick wall ancestors" to try and find a new lead. And boy, did I hit the jackpot! On February 16^th of this year I found Dora’s record of death. I think at the time I was researching Dora’s father, so I had just put this record aside. Looking at it again with fresh eyes the other day, I noticed her parents were listed as “Tomas Cail, born New Brunswick and Zillah Jane Ward, born New Brunswick”. I have to admit that at first, I assumed her first name must have been misspelled and maybe the “Z” was actually an “L” with a pen drag mark making it look like a “Z”. So, I didn’t even search for Zillah. I jumped immediately to Lilah, Lillian and any variation of that. After finding nothing, I finally searched “Zillah”. Three records came up. What?! Yes, her name is Zillah Jane Ward, and there were records there all along.

Source: Registration of Death for Dora Ann Wilson, 1961,

Provincial Archives of New Brunswick

Now, online I have seen trees attaching Dora to a Sarah Jane Ward, and I spent years following that trail with no DNA matches connecting me to that line. It is a great reminder never to blindly copy information from other people’s trees. They all seem to copy the same misinformation, so when ten matches show up in your search, it seems legitimate, but when I go in to each tree I see there are actually no records or genetic links to back up their claims, and they’ve all just been copying the same misinformation. Do your own research. Always. 

I found a death record for a Zillah Jane Tower. Her spouse was Alexander Tower (deceased) and her parents are James L. Ward, born Rockport, N.B., and Lavinia Cole, born N.B. The informant was her son, Murray Tower of Sackville, N.B. According to this record Zillah was born September 29, 1865 in Rockport, N.B., and died December 31, 1960 in the Moncton Hospital Annex, Moncton, N.B. Although the place of birth is different, all the other information lines up with this being the correct person. I mean, it’s not like I’m searching a Jane Smith here. Absolutely no other Zillahs showed up in any search at all!

I have made some more (a lot more!) progress on this line and may have also made a DNA connection, however, I will save that for another day!

Until next time, happy hunting, fellow gene geeks!

SOURCES:
Ancestry.ca
Library and Archives Canada
Provincial Archives of  New Brunswick

DNA Matches, Process of Elimination, Conclusions? The Neverending Saga of Thomas Cail

The saga to figure out which Thomas Cail is my great grandmother’s biological father continues. To recap, my great grandmother, Dora Annie Black, was adopted by Anne M Black some time between 1891 and 1901. I’ve come to this conclusion because Dora was not listed with the family in the 1891 census, but is listed with them in the 1901 census. According to her late registration of birth, her biological mother was Jane Ward, born in Weldford, NB. The father’s name is not listed. When she married my great grandfather, John Henry Farrer, Dora listed her parents are William and Maria Black.  (Brief note about her adopted mother’s name: Going through all the records for this family it appears that she went by both her first and middle name, appearing as Ann Moriah, Anne, Ann M, Maria and Moriah. However, from the other information listed on the records it is very clear that they are all referring to the same person.)


Interestingly (and thankfully because it gave me a HUGE lead) when Dora married her second husband, William George Wilson on September 1, 1934 in Rexton, NB, instead of listed her adopted parents’ names, she listed them as Thomas Cail, born Pine Ridge, Kent County, NB and Jane Ward. Since I already have documentation that her biological mother’s name is Jane Ward, I have concluded that her biological father’s name is Thomas Cail. After a thorough search of records in New Brunswick trying to find out who Thomas Cail was, I pieced together a large family, and instead of finding one Thomas Cail, I found numerous ones. Ugh. I narrowed down my search to only Thomas Cails in the right age group and geographical location to possibly be Dora’s father. This still produced more than one Thomas Cail. There were three potential matches, all cousins: Thomas William Cail, Thomas Burgess Cail and Thomas Edward Cail. Since there were multiples matches I decided to get a DNA test done. I knew this would still be tricky since I will share DNA with descendants of all of them. It would come down to how much DNA I share with my matches.

I learned about my first match (I’ll call him MATCH A) in 2015 shortly after getting my DNA results from 23andMe. MATCH A is the great grandson of Thomas William Cail. Comparing our results, we share 62 centimorgans and 0.82% DNA, with a predicted relationship of 3^rd to 4^th cousins. If I was also a direct descendant of Thomas William Cail, we would be 2^nd cousins once removed, and should share between 75-360 cMs. Taking into consideration our amount of shared cMs and our traditional genealogy research, it is more likely that we are 4^th cousins once removed. This would mean it is more likely that Thomas William Cail is not Dora’s father. 


Thankfully, my second DNA relative (I’ll call him MATCH 2) is a descendant of one of the other Thomas Cails! MATCH 2 is the great grandson of Thomas Burgess Cail.  He and I only share 26.6 cMs, even less DNA than MATCH 1 and I share, so it is very unlikely that I could be a direct descendant of this Thomas Cail.

Although neither of these DNA relatives were able to help me confirm which Thomas Cail is Dora’s biological father, by the process of elimination, it seems likely that I am a direct descendant of Thomas Edward Cail. 


Going back to my genealogy records for Thomas Edward Cail this is what I know.


Thomas Edward Cail was born March 12, 1859 in Kent County, NB. He is the son of George Cail and Jessie Girvan. He was living with his mom (widowed) and siblings in Weldford County in 1871. In 1881 the census lists him as being married, however, on closer inspection, it appears he was living with his two sisters, Sarah and Jessie, and their mother, Jessie. 


Thomas married Emily McLeod Sullivan on September 22, 1885 and they had the following children: George William, Sarah, Frederick and James Edward. A note of interest is that the family was living in Pine Ridge in 1887, 1889 and 1891 according to birth records for the three eldest children, which is where Dora’s biological father was born.


Thomas Edward Cail was a farmer, and was living in Kingston (Rexton), Kent County, NB in 1892, 1894 and 1901, but relocated some time prior to the 1901 census to Richibucto, Kent County, NB. His wife, Emily, died September 27, 1913. Thomas married his second wife, Sarah Jane Walker on October 20, 1915. Sarah died in 1927. Thomas died September 17, 1928 and is buried in St. Andrew’s Cemetery, Rexton, NB, where his second wife is also buried.


Although this is a good lead, I still want to confirm it with DNA. I will continue to keep checking matches on 23andMe.com and GEDmatch.com. As well, I have just ordered an AncestryDNA kit. I am hoping a solid lead will help me confirm who Dora’s biological father is. I feel like if I finally close the door on that side, I can re-focus on figuring out who her biological mother is… who I strongly suspect is a relative of her adopted mother… It never ends! There is always a mystery to figure out in genealogy!


If you are reading this and are a descendant of Thomas Edward Cail and are interested in helping me confirm this match, I would love to hear from you!

SOURCES:

·         23andMe.com

·         ancestry.ca

·         archives.gnb.ca (Provincial Archives of New Brunswick)

·         automatedgenealogy.com

·         GEDmatch.com

SEARCHING FOR MY 2nd GREAT GRANDFATHER, THOMAS CAIL, BORN IN PINE RIDGE, NEW BRUNSWICK IN THE MID-1800s

This is a continuation of my search from last month. However, I am going to focus solely on the search for Dora’s biological father today. To help you understand how I came to my reasoning regarding who her father may be, I started with information directly from Dora. When she married her second husband, George Wilson in 1934 she listed her father as being Thomas Cail, born in Pine Ridge, Kent County, New Brunswick. This is interesting because on the marriage record to her first husband she had listed her parents as William and Maria (Ward) Black, who were her adopted parents. How peculiar that thirty-one years later she had listed Thomas Cail as her father along with Jane Ward as her mother, who I know from her Late Registration of Birth is Dora’s mother. Since we know Jane is Dora’s biological mother, it makes sense that Thomas Cail is her biological father. As well, since her father’s name is not listed on Dora’s Late Registration of Birth, I believe it is probable that Jane and Thomas were not married. A search for a marriage record between the two did not produce any results, nor did I find any other records to back up the idea that they were married.

Since Dora was born in 1883, I decided to search the 1881 census, specifically in New Brunswick, for Thomas Cail. This produced five results, three of which were in the right age range to have most likely fathered a child. Those three are:

1.       Thomas Kail, 21, Farmer, living in Weldford with his parents, Jonathan and Euphemia, and siblings, James, William and Frederick.

2.       Thomas Cail, 28, Farmer, living in Weldford with his wife, Jane, and children, James and Loria J.

3.       Thomas Cail, 28, Farmer, living in Weldford with a Sarah (23), both Thomas and Sarah have an M under marital status, a Jessie (20 yrs) and another Jessie (57 yrs) who is widowed.

My next step was to search each of these Thomas Cails, especially the second one, whose wife’s name is Jane to see if it was Jane Ward. This is what I pieced together:

1.       Thomas Kail on other records was spelled Cail. His full name is Thomas Burgess Cail and his parents are Jonathan Cail and Euphemia Burgess. Thomas was born December 1860 in New Brunswick. He married Agnes Lawson on September 30, 1886 in Brown’s Yard, Main River, Kent County, NB. Although their marriage record states they were married in 1886, their son, Frederick’s Late Registration of Birth states he was born August 25, 1883 in Brown’s Yard, Kent County, NB. In the 1891 census the family was living in Pine Ridge, Kent County, NB.

2.       Thomas William Cail, born January 10, 1855 in New Brunswick. His parents are Thomas W. Cail and Jessie Irving. He married Jane WALKER, date unknown, and they had their first child, James Walker Cail on October 14, 1876 in New Brunswick.

3.       Thomas Edward Cail, born March 12, 1859 in Kent County, NB. His parents are George W. Cail and Jessie Girvan. After much research I’ve come to the conclusion that the 1881 census has Thomas and Sarah wrongly listed as married. I believe Sarah (23) and Jessie (20) are his sisters, and Jessie (57 and widowed) is their mother. Thomas married Emily McLeod Sullivan on September 22, 1885. Emily died in 1913, and Thomas remarried on October 20, 1915 to Sarah Jane Walker, 48 yrs, spinster. According to his children’s birth records they lived in Pine Ridge, Kent County, NB in May 1887, April 1889, March 1891.

Once I had fleshed out my three candidates’ lives a little more, I was still unable to pinpoint which one Dora’s biological father is. Making it even more challenging is that once I pieced their families together, I traced them all back to one source, their grandparents, Jonathan and Christable Cail. All three Thomas Cails are first cousins. I had expected them to be related, so that wasn’t a surprise, but I had hoped that they would have been a little more spread out geographically to help me figure out who the correct Thomas Cail is that way. Firstly, they were all in Weldford, Kent County. Secondly, to give you an idea of how small Weldford is, Cails Mills, which is where Dora was born is less than 8 km from Pine Ridge.

So, then I decided to look at how close each of them lived to Dora’s adopted family, as well as any Ward families that may be relatives of Dora’s biological mother, Jane Ward.

The family who will adopt Dora some time after the 1891 census and before the 1901 census are listed in the 1881 census as living in Division 3 of Weldford, Kent County, NB. The only Thomas Cail also listed in Division 3 on the 1881 census is Thomas William Cail. Here is the proximity of Thomas William Cail to them as well as the other Black and Ward families in that division:

·         P.11 – House #43 WARD, GRAHAM, WARD, (3 families at 1 dwelling)

·         P.12 – House #44 BLACK

·         P.13 – House #46 WARD

·         P.13 – House #47 WARD

·         P.13 – House #48 BLACK, William, Ann M, George B & William (Dora’s adoptive family on 1901 census)

·         P.16 – House #57 CAIL, Thomas (William) (28), Jane (24), James (4), Loria J (2)

Interesting thing to note here, which I won’t go into in this post since I’m only focusing on the Cail line right now, is that the family on p. 11, House #43 is Dora’s adopted mother, Anne M Black’s family. It is two of her brothers and their wives, as well as her parents, all living at the same dwelling.

The other two Thomas Cails are listed in the 1881 census in Division 2 of Weldford County:

·         P.3 – House #12 BLACK

·         P.4 – House #21 KAIL, Jonathan, Euphemia, James, William, Thomas (Burgess) (21), Frederick

·         P.7 – House #35 BLACK

·         P.10 – House #52 BLACK

·         P.38 – House #192 CAIL Thomas (Edward) (24), Sarah, Jessie (20), Jessie (57, W)

·         P.42 – HOUSE #288 Gordon family has an Eliza WARD (19) living with them, no relation or occupation stated

Based on these findings I feel my best lead is Thomas William Cail, however, without more information this will be a challenge to figure out. I have known of one DNA relative from the Cail line for a few years now, and I recently discovered another DNA relative to compare with. I will discuss that more in my next post.

In the meantime, if you are a descendant of the Cail line in New Brunswick, especially if you are a descendant of a Thomas Cail from New Brunswick, I would love to hear from you!

If you aren’t connected to the Cail family, but know someone with the surname Cail who has root in New Brunswick, please share this post with them!

Thank you! And… Happy hunting, fellow gene geeks!


SOURCES:

·         Daniel F. Johnson’s New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics, Provincial Archives of New Brunswick

·         New Brunswick Cemeteries, Provincial Archives of New Brunswick

·         Place Names of New Brunswick: Where is Home? New Brunswick Communities Past and Present, Provincial Archives of New Brunswick

·         Vital Statistics from Government Records (RS141), Provincial Archives of New Brunswick

·        1861 Census of Canada, Library and Archives Canada

·        1871 Census of Canada, Library and Archives Canada

·        1881 Census of Canada, Library and Archives Canada

·        1891 Census of Canada, Library and Archives Canada

·        1901 Census of Canada, Library and Archives Canada

·        Automatedgenealogy.com

·        Ancestry.ca

Are You A Descendant of Either The Ward or Cail Families in New Brunswick? I Am Looking For Help In Making A Connection.

This post is more of a request for help. I am hoping someone out there reading this has a link to the ancestors I am searching for.

I am looking for anyone descended from either the surname WARD or CAIL that lived in New Brunswick in the mid to late 1800s. My great grandmother, Dora Ann Black was adopted, however, I know the names of her biological parents: Jane Ward and Thomas Cail. As well, I have found a link to a genetic relative through DNA testing to the Cail line in New Brunswick. Unfortunately, even with that link confirmed it is too removed to confirm the exact identity of 'my' Thomas Cail. 

The challenge I am having with figuring out who Thomas Cail is, is that there are a few of them in the same area at the time that Dora was born, so without a closer match to a particular Thomas Cail, or finding more documentation to confirm his identity, I am stuck.

The challenge I am having with figuring out who Jane Ward is, is that I have not found sufficient documentation to confirm her identity and have found no genetic matches. I do believe that Dora's adopted mother (Anne Maria Ward) is probably related to her biological mother as they share the same last name, however, I don't have enough information at this point to confirm.

That's where you come in! If any of this information lines up with your family history, or if you descend from WARD or CAIL and have done or are willing to do a DNA test, I would love for you to get in touch with me so we can compare. 

I have copied and pasted my original post about my search for Dora's biological parents below, which has more information. 

Thank you!

From November 2015:

The Brick Wall

The biggest challenge in my genealogy research so far has been my great grandmother, Dora.  I knew as soon as I read the information my sister, Chandra had sent me, that Dora was going to be trouble. She was adopted. There I was brand spanking new to genealogy and I was up against an adoption. I toyed with the idea of moving on to an easier ancestor, someone more obliging to give me quicker results, but I couldn’t help myself. I wanted to find out who her biological parents were.

1901 Census of Canada, Weldford, Kent County, NB

Armed with her adopted name (Dora Anna Black), her date of birth (March 13, 1883) and where she was born (New Brunswick), I began by searching census records on www.automatedgenealogy.com for her in the New Brunswick Census records. I found her on the 1901Census of Canada for Weldford Parish, Kent County, New Brunswick. She was living with her mother (Anne M. Black) and brother (George Black). The year of birth was off by one, but the day and month matched and she was listed as “adopted daughter”.

Late Registration of Birth for Dora Ann Ward

Then I searched the Vital Statistics in the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick’s database http://archives.gnb.ca/Archives/?culture=en-CA (PANB) and in the Index to Late Registration of Births I found a record for Dora Ann Ward, born March 13, 1883 in Cails Mills, Kent County. Her mother’s name was listed as Jane Ward.  The father’s name was not listed. Could this be my great grandmother? Did I just find out her biological mother’s name?  I ordered the microfilm through the library and not-so-patiently waited for the call that it was at my local branch. Once it arrived, I couldn’t wait to get to the library. I scrolled through the microfilm slowly careful not to miss it, and there it was; a copy of the actual record. Unfortunately, it didn’t give any information that could confirm this was my great grandmother, but it did give clues. I now had her married name as of May 11, 1953, Mrs. Wilson. It also specified that her mother’s name, Jane Ward, was her maiden name, and that she was born in Weldford Parish, Kent County. 

In the Vital Statistics records on PANB I also found the marriage record for Dora and my great grandfather, John H Farrer. On this record Dora’s parents are listed as William and Maria (Ward) Black. I haven’t confirmed that Anne M and Maria is the same person, but I suspect so from other records that I’ve found. What I do want to take note of here is that Maria’s maiden name is the same as Dora’s biological mother’s maiden name. Was she adopted by a relative? I was unable to find Dora on the 1891 Census of Canada, but I did find her adopted family. So where was Dora? I wonder if she was still with her biological mother in 1891. Perhaps her mother died sometime between 1891 and 1901 and that’s why she was adopted by Anne. Unfortunately, I have been unable to find documentation to support this theory.

I found a Jane Ward living in a nearby town but have been unable to find sufficient documentation to prove that she is Dora’s biological mother. With nothing to confirm her mother’s identity, and no information on her father the trail ran dry and remained that way for a long time. I moved on to other ancestors, but could never fully let it go, and would periodically search again. Then one day I found a document with some incredible information. It was the record from her marriage to her second husband, William George Wilson. WILSON! The same last name that was listed on her Late Registration of Birth in 1953! On this record her name is Dora Annie Farrer (her married name from her first husband, my great grandfather, John Henry Farrer); she is 50 years old, and a widow. It all matches AND confirms the Late Registration of Birth. As I continued to read through the marriage record, her parents’ names were listed as: Thomas Cail and Jane Ward! NOT William and Anne M./Maria Black, but Thomas Cail and Jane Ward! Her biological mother’s name matched, which would imply that the name under “Father” would be her biological father!  Did I finally know her biological father’s name? Also, her father’s last name is the name of where Dora was born, Cails Mills.

With fresh exuberance, I began searching for Thomas Cail in the PANB database. Considering that I already knew there was a Cails Mills in Kent County, I should have realized that this may be a big family with a long history… and multiple Thomas Cails. Which one was mine??? Next thing I knew I had diagrams, charts, piles of notes and a head swimming with too many Cails to count! I made a timeline of each Thomas Cail, noting when they were married, when their children were born and where they were living at the time of Dora’s birth to discern a probable match.

I spent months on this, going over each record with a fine tooth comb again and again. All the while I had the nagging thought, how does Dora know who her father is? What if the name she wrote on her marriage record isn’t correct? I could be spending all this time on a false trail. It was time to take it to the next level: DNA testing. I ordered a kit through 23andMe.com. It took a few weeks to get my results, but once I did I found out that I have over 900 matches from 2nd to distant cousins just on the 23andMe site alone (sadly the two 2nd cousin matches are anonymous and haven't responded to my request to share information). I have A LOT to learn about understanding my results, but I do know one thing for sure: I have a match that is a 3^rd to 4^th cousin from the same Cail line in New Brunswick! Which proves that one of these Thomas Cails IS my 2^nd great grandfather! Now I know I have the correct ancestral line! I still want to figure out exactly which one it is, but am still pretty excited that I've managed to piece together as much as I have. I also hope to figure out if the Jane Ward I think may be my 2nd great grandmother actually is, but I suppose I'll just have to keep digging for now.