The Peregrinations of the Mortons

When I began on Ancestry by entering myself into the database, I was soon given links or hints  -- my parents, grandparents, and a lot of so -ons-and-so-forths after that. Some lines went a long way back. Others not so far, but I have at least a few generations in each of my four grandparent lines.

Not so when I entered my beloved or her parents, which seems strange. It was like they didn't exist. Even two out of  her four grandparents drew blanks.

Her grandfather, Morton, however, led to the same information that P documented (see previous post), and the Morton line was more or less congruent between P and Ancestry for the next several centuries. There were a few times, when Ancestry didn't offer any hints, but then I would type in the information from P, and off we went once again.

Several centuries along there were some discrepancies with dates, but the characters seemed to remain true, at least until I got to page 1 (which I posted yesterday) and that was way back in the 15th century and to the beginning of the 13th century. Once again, I tip my hat to P, and while I can't know for sure that every person is 100% accurate, I do have a lot of confidence in her research. If there are mistakes five or more centuries ago, well, the world won't stop spinning.

I wrote that Sue's clan were De Martons before they became Mortons about a century and a half later in the 1400s. The Da Martons and Mortons lived in Bawtry for almost four centuries, and I suppose that many did long after that. I don't know if they were all Lords of Bawtry, and if not, when the title passed out of Sue's direct line.

Then, I saw a change, for George Morton, who was born in Yorkshire (1585) died in Plymouth, MA in 1624. There Sue's ancestors remained for two centuries. (I will post more of George later in one final Morton entry.)

Almost 200 years after George migrated from England to Massachusetts, I noticed that Silas Morton, who was born in Hatfield, MA in 1789, died in Keswick, Ontario in 1850. I found that he was married in MA in 1808, and his first six children, including Silas Jr (Sue's ancestor) were born in the USA (tip of the hat to Bruce Springsteen), the last being Friend [sic] Francis in 1819. He then sired three more children in Canada from 1825-1831.

Presumably then, he immigrated to Canada sometime around 1820-1824, and his son Silas Jr was still young and came with him.

Sue's Mortons have lived here in this province ever since, with both Sue and her parents being born and raised in Toronto. Sue then moved with me to Guelph where I finished university. We kept going westward in Ontario to London for College of Ed, and then to Sarnia to teach for 30 years.

While in Sarnia, daughters Shauna and Allyson were born. Shauna moved to Eastern Ontario, near Ottawa and Allyson moved west to Vancouver shortly thereafter. After my retirement, followed by my mother's passing, Sue and I decided to make the move to Eastern Ontario in 2005 to be closer to Shauna. Two years later, Danica was born, and Jonathan two years after that.

We are not terribly far from near Cornwall where my own ancestors settled. I probably should scoot down there one summer and nose around graveyards. How safe will it be to scoot about this summer, I wonder. September seems to be the estimated date when it may be significantly safer, but we'll have to see.