August 29 - Who's out there?

To date I have connected with four distant relatives whom I found on ancestry.ca. They range from the quite close (3rd or 4th cousins) to those who are very distantly related but have lots of information about the family's origins.

Derek Atherton is one of the latter. He is from the UK and has been working on the Atherton One-Name Study for 2 years. I found him while trying to suss out information on Great Uncle William Joseph, the Montreal historian who was educated by Jesuits and wrote a 3 volume history of Montreal which we have currently but which is being returned to Tony.

Derek has over 10,000 names of Athertons going back a substantial time. Our family line goes back to a James Atherton born mid 1700's with 6 children of whom Aaron, born in 1801 in Lancashire is the next ancester.  Aaron's 6 children include William, who is born in 1924. Wiliam's son Joseph, born in 1847, is JJ's father and my great-grandfather.

I have connected with Derek on Facebook as well as on ancestry and his One-Name website. Murray Atherton (see below) and Lorne Atherton grandson of Peter have connected with Derek as well. Bill thinks he may have contacted him as well at some time.

A couple of puzzles this website has helped unravel include information about Dad's brother Ernie (Ernest John) The site shows no mention of wife but had three daughters (Patricia (Pat Hean?), Jean (Jean and Charlie Thompson?) and Beverly - whom I think are seen in the family puzzle picture - which means that the fellow beside JJ is probably Ernie - 14 years older than Dad.

Another puzzle for me was around TC Atherton (Great Uncle Ted) as the Kellys seemed to know him well and he is mentioned in dad's book. He married Maud and had 7 children - Cyril who died in 1991 - and whose son Murray is in touch with Tony through Facebook; Mary Evelyn who married Ernest Gagnon died in 1997  with no children (?); Theodore Bernard Atherton who died in 1983 and who had a son Ted; Rita Wilma (Reet) Atherton who married John Wichman and whose pics(including Great Uncle Ted)

are posted on ancestry.ca by daughter?; Leo Atherton who had 5 children - Dorothy, Mary, Cathy, Lindy and Edward - born 1959 and died in 2003; Peter born in 1923 who died in 1991 and who had 7 children: Gregory, Lawrence, Mark, Brian, Kevin, Jane and Jerome all born in the 50's and 60's. TC last child was Patrick on whom there is little information.

In 1907, it was probably to Ted and Maud's place in Calgary that Joseph and Sarah came when they emigrated to Canada with Nellie and her son Johnny, Margaret and Bessie. Ted himself emigrated in 1904/05 and came to Trout Lake to work with JJ. He was the 1st one to tell JJ about his drinking etc. then he left to go to Calgary.

Johnny later signed up and died in December of 1916 at the age of 18. His information and gravesite in France can be found at Canadian Veterans Virtual Memorial.

Next posting will be about the Kelly/O'Toole connections I have made.