Ancestors of Agnes Mary Seymour

Question

Hi all,

I have a brick wall and I don't have access to American/Canada research other than Family Search. The parents of Agnes Mary Seymour are Joseph Seymour and his Irish wife Bridget. Joseph was enumerated in the 1900 US Census living in North Dakota. He said he was born in May 1861 in Canada. He also said he arrived in the USA in 1864. He moved to Saskatchewan where he said he was born in Quebec of French ancestry. Four of his children were born in New York, another born in Maryland, and the last in North Dakota. I've searched all over the New York entries on Family Search and cannot find either births or his marriage. It is quite possible the name was Simard but it was changed when his father came to the USA.

Answer 1

hi Elizabeth,

the 1900 census for the family shows him born May 1861, Canada (Eng).  So not likely the last name was Simard at birth.  There are Seymours in this province in the time period, but no Joseph found.  The only approximation I have seen of the name Seymour was Simmeurs (written by someone who did not speak English).  I checked 1859-1863 for any presence of Seymours in this province in IGD, since birth years are sometimes off.  Quite a number of them present, in various regions.  Unfortunately, IGD's indexation stops in 1861 for baptisms currently, not sure all the parishes are done either.

Since it shows him as migrating in 1865 to the USA, 1870, 1880 and 1890 censuses of the US  might be the place to  look for further data.  I know, needle in a haystack, but I think you can limit searches by age.  Other than that, his marriage needs to be found.

PS: Source #2 on Agnes's profile is a blank.

Comments

Thanks, Danielle

I think I've got to file this one under "brick wall". I bought a 24 hour access to Drouin and there are no Josephs born in May 1861. Some in July. Then I found another census where he would be born in 1857. Still no absolute proof any of them were the Joseph I was looking for. Another possible last name is Cinqmar. I suspect the name was changed to Seymour when coming to the USA in 1864. I cannot find the marriage at all.

Thank you for the mention of #2 being blank. Those pesky quotation marks. I forgot the second one.