George Light, a seaman of Port Burwell

In 1917 a Port Burwell man by the name of George Light was drowned in the harbour at Erie, Pennsylvania off the ship 'Earl Bess' of Port Burwell. It was the 4th time in his seaman's career he had been involved in a mishap with a ship on which he was employed. His first time was on the ship 'Erie Wave' of Port Burwell 30 years before.
The story of the 'Erie Wave' can be found here:

http://www.halinet.on.ca/GreatLakes/Documents/HGL/default.asp?ID=s087

His second mishap, he wrecked off Ashtabula and had to swim ashore. His third was in Lake Huron off Sand Beach when a schooner ran on the rocks. He rescued the captain's wife and child using a rope.

A story of George Light can be found in the St Thomas Journal, 11 April 1917.

Elgin County Link to the Titanic - McAdam Family

Henry W. McAdam who was born in St Thomas in the early 1880's married a woman whose father was a Swedish mining engineer who died in the sinking of the Titanic. Henry's father is buried in West Ave Cemetery, St Thomas.
See the story of the Titanic http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Titanic

See the obituary of Henry W. McAdam's father Joseph McAdam on the website.

One of Joseph's daughters, Agnes McAdam also married William Folger Nickle, MP for Kingston. Nickle was famous in his time for trying to push through legislation to ban the peerage being bestowed on Canadians. Nickle's second wife was the daughter of the principal of Queen's University.
http://www.publications.parliament.uk/pa/cm200304/cmselect/cmpubadm/212/212we28.htm

Does the information on the Elgin OGS web site offer genealogical proofs?

We have sometimes heard from researchers that information from our web site proves a relationhip. Unfortunately genealogists and researchers do not get proofs from our web site transcriptions. The branches of the OGS transcribe the inscriptions on gravestones and provide written extracts of many types of original documents but these transcriptions and extracts themselves do not constitute genealogical proofs. They are only aids to locating the original source documents. While there are no proofs of relationships that I know of on our Elgin OGS web site, there is much information that will hopefully lead a researcher to locating the evidence in primary sources that will provide the needed proofs.

What was a sparrow match in 1921?

In the St Thomas Times Journal in 1921, the young people of Eden where catching sparrows for the sparrow match to be held in the near future.
Does anyone know how a sparrow match was conducted?

Presbyterian Church, Port Burwell 1868 (Family names Burwell, Youell, Sutherland, McKenzie, Connor, Glover)

St Thomas Times Journal, Dec 15 1921, Page 8, c2 - In making a search for some old title papers in his office, D. H. Connor of Aylmer found some interesting old documents. One of them shows an old deed of a building site granted for building thereon a Presbyterian Church at Port Burwell for the nominal consideration of one dollar. All the parties to the document are now dead. The grantors were Mr and Mrs L. Burwell, parents of Mrs George Youell, who gave a liberal subsrcription to the building fund. One of the managers appointed to accept the property was Alexander Sutherland, whose granddaughter is Miss McKenzie, one of Mr Connor's staff. He is described as a lighthouse keeper but was better known as a magistrate, his sons looking after the work at the lighthouse, which is still done by his grandchildren. The deed is on a form printed for the Canada Presbyetrian Church and is dated Mar 1 1868, the conveyance being done by W. A. Glover and the witness, John R. Glover, his son. The latter's brother, now living at Chattanooga, was an Aylmer visitor last summer. A commodious church was built, but owing to removal of prominent members such as the Pousties and others, it was found impossible to carry on, so the congregation sold the building and it was moved to the front street and used as a livery stable till it burned about 8 years ago. The building site was sold later and since formed the lawn of a residence which stood behind the old church.

Google Maps address links from the Elgin OGS Cemetery Page

The Elgin OGS web site now has cemetery address links to Google Maps. Go to the Elgin OGS Cemetery Page to see these links.

Here is a quick sample of what the location of the Dunboyne Cemetery looks like in Google Maps.

FLICKR photos can now be linked to the Elgin OGS Cemetery transcriptions

Gravestone for Levi NICKERSON
Originally uploaded by BruceandLetty.

We are now able to link your Flickr photos of Elgin County gravestones to the appropriate Elgin OGS cemetery transcription page. This photo of Levi Nickerson is linked to the Dunboyne Cemetery page.

If you have gravestone photos and would like them linked let us know.