Quest for Great-Grandparents: Canada Edition

Question

For the third attempt at this sort of a challenge, I have chosen former Prime Ministers of Canada.

All of the people on this list are already connected to the main tree, but most of them do not have a full set of great-grandparents listed on WikiTree. In order for us to add this list to the Relationship Finder Quick Links page, each person on it needs to have at least one line going back as far as their great-grandparents (and, of course, preferably all eight great-grandparents).

For those former Prime Ministers who don't already have eight great-grandparents listed on WikiTree (or have "Unknown" people listed within three generations), the task is to seek out, source, and add profiles for as many missing great-grandparents as you can find. As you take on a Prime Minister, and add a new great-grandparent, please post a message here, so we can keep track of how we're doing.

If you can add sources, photos, or biographies, add siblings, children, aunts, uncles, etc., or improve the profiles of these former Prime Ministers or their family members in other ways, so much the better!

Name	Great-grandparents	Working on
John A. Macdonald	0
Alexander Mackenzie	0
John Abbott	3
John Thompson	0
Mackenzie Bowell	0
Charles Tupper	8
Wilfrid Laurier	8
Robert Borden	6
Arthur Meighen	3
Mackenzie King	4
R. B. Bennett	4
Louis St. Laurent	5
John Diefenbaker	6	Jelena Eckstädt
Lester Pearson	8
Pierre Trudeau	8

P.S. I'm not a WikiTree Leader, and have no authority to assign points, credit, or anything like that. My intent with these challenges is for them to be a fun little break from whatever you're doing regularly. (Well, that, and preparing lists of different kinds of notables for the Relationship Finder Quick Links page.) There's no time limit, there are no prizes, and if you have fun finding and adding relatives, then you win. (And WikiTree wins in any case, because the more connected profiles we have, the better the tree is for everybody.)

Comments

P.P.S. If this challenge intrigues you, and you think you might like to try finding great-grandparents for other notable people so they can be added to the Relationship Finder Quick Links page, you can find other threads in this series on the How to increase a country's presence on WikiTree page.

If you'd like to try your hand at connecting unconnected branches, there are threads for that, too: you can find them on the Places to find unconnected profiles page.

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Looked at cousin Pierre Elliot Trudeau, the only missing links at that level are from Scotland, so need some assistance from that side of the big pond I think.

Wilfrid Laurier has all of his already.

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Somebody found another great-grandparent for Louis St. Laurent, so that leaves this challenge in tenth place in terms of percent complete, at 50%. In terms of great-grandparents still to find, it's in 11th place, at 60.

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Somebody added a great-grandparent for Robert Borden, and two for Arthur Meighen, leaving this challenge in 12 place in terms of percent complete, at 52.5%, and in 11th place in terms of great-grandparents still to find, at 57.

Answer 1

I'm just trying to source a bit more the paternal grandfather of Diefenbaker. I think I found a baptism entry in Germany for him, but I'm not too sure as there are no parents for him recorded on WT. The age would fit quite well. I found a death entry for an uncle of Diefenbaker and a marriage entry for his aunt. That might be a little help at least. 

What do you guys think: is that the correct grandpa of Diefenbaker (name change documented in grandpa's profile) "Deutschland Geburten und Taufen, 1558-1898," database, FamilySearch(https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:V4RT-CDF : 11 February 2018), Johann Georg Diefenbacher, 20 Aug 1835; citing ; FHL microfilm 1,272,379.

Edit: In the 1891 census grandpa Diefenbaker appears on the end of the census page. I still don't know how to navigate on the LAC site to arrive on the next page of the census. 

Comments

I've added in the 1891 census entries for the rest of the children.

(For future reference, you can change the last digit of the URL when you're looking at the scan.)

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Thanks. And via grandpa's death certificate with his birthdate I also found the baptism entry index of him, it's NOT the one I thought before, it's a different one, I will enter it now. There are his parents named.

Edit: Parents added, so one more pair of Great-grandparents of Diefenbaker is available.

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Excellent!

Answer 2

Found a baptism record and 1851 Census for grandma Diefenbaker, born Lackner. Will add it soon, am just a bit hungry. Dinner is waiting.

Comments

Added Margaretha's Baptism and Census 1851 record. Added her parents, but didn't add her siblings yet. I'm not sure if Conrad from the Census is a sibling or a cousin of Margaretha.

Answer 3

Thanks for starting this, Greg. Always good to get more sources and ancestors.

Comments

Agreed! 

Answer 4

I still didn't find evidence for the parents of the paternal grandmother of R.B.Bennett. I found her in the 1861 Census when she was married and her FAG memorial, so I sourced her, but I still didn't find her in her unmarried stages.

Answer 5

I found the paternal grandmother of John Abbott. The combination of names is obviously very popular in the second half of the 18th century in England. I not only sourced her, but also the uncles and aunts of the PM.

Comments

Yeah. The funny thing is that, even though this is a list of Canadian Prime Ministers, the lines usually go back to Europe within a generation or two. Maybe I should have named this the "European Edition". 

Answer 6

hi Greg! This is a great idea!  Is there somewhere i can see a refreshed list of how many g grandparents each of these PMs has now?

Comments

Shirlea, I edit the list every time somebody posts here to say that they've added any great-grandparents. I just checked the list this morning, and Robert Borden now has four great-grandparents (up from three the last time I checked), but there were no other changes.

Answer 7

I didn't find ggrands of Arthur Meighan, but added some aunts and uncles for him.

Comments

Thank you!

Answer 8

I don't have any information yet for Louis St-Laurent's Irish great-grandparents, but I was able to add some information about his maternal grandparents from their burial acts.

Comments

Merci beaucoup!

Answer 9

Robert Laird got added a great grandmother, some great aunts and uncles will be also added

Comments

It took me a bit to realise that you were talking about Robert Laird Borden.