Letter to a Researcher

Dear Anne,

Thank you for the copy of James Palmer’s will. It turned out to be a mixed blessing. When I ordered it, I did not really think he was the father of the family I am researching and at first glance thought, well, we ruled that out. But as I looked at it more closely, there were some similarities in spite of the differences.

His will mentions 4 sons and 4 daughters. My family had 4 sons and 2 daughters. The names are not all the same but some are. Then I realized my James Palmer was enough older than Angeline to have been married before and some of the children in the will could be from a first marriage, (though the will does not mention that). The information that really gives me pause is his wife’s name, Ann.

Is the Ann Palmer I am chasing in Vancouver this man’s wife? And is that same person Angeline Sibbald Palmer? The documentation I have is hanging by a thread: the possibility that the “John Sibley” listed as father on Ann Palmer’s death certificate in Vancouver, BC (mother’s name not listed) is really meant to be “John Sibbald”.

The only thing that gives me hope and keeps me picking away at it (like a scab on your knee you can’t leave alone) is a death certificate in Vancouver for Charles Sibbald Palmer, the same Charles Palmer whose death was noted in the Forest Free Press in Lambton County, Ontario. I had never seen Sibbald used as his middle name until I saw the death certificate. Unfortunately this man had the audacity to drop dead of an aneurysm of the aorta while at work as a teamster and the truncated death certificate has no family information at all! It simply says he was born in Ontario. It does not even give his residence at time of death. I have no inkling that he ever married, so perhaps there was no one to give any information.

Then there is his brother, George Palmer. I was exceedingly pleased to find a marriage record for George in Lambton County with both his parents listed: James Palmer and Angeline Sibbald. George married Corrie Shrier in June 1889. Hers is an unusual name, Corrie not Carrie. That should make it easy to trace, right? Wrong. The only George I could find after 1889 was George Clarence Palmer (first time I’ve seen Clarence) or George C. Palmer, sometimes, and records abound for him. If he is the George in my Palmer family, he married again in Manitoba in 1890, thirteen months after he married Corrie. I looked for a death record for Corrie and found none. I found a death record for his second wife though, in Winnipeg. He married again in 1895.

George Clarence Palmer had three children born in Winnipeg and then he moved to Vancouver, where he lived until he died in 1936. I eagerly looked for his death certificate in the Vancouver library and was left hanging again. The certificate has his parents listed as “unknown”. I have nothing but circumstantial evidence that George Clarence Palmer might be the son of James and Angeline Palmer.

So, Anne, let’s try this. Would you check the cemetery records again for Lambton County? I know that Corrie Shrier’s parents are buried in Arkona cemetery. Is there any possibility that she is buried in their plot and the record is misfiled? Can we check out that cemetery lot that J. Palmer purchased but which has no recorded burials in it. Is there a possibility that the lot was purchased at the time that Corrie might have died?

I am enclosing a check to cover copying and postage and thank you so much for following up on James Palmer’s will for me. I was fascinated with the history of Oil Springs; I never realized Lambton county, Ontario, had oil wells.

Best regards, Ethel

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James and Angeline Palmer lived in the Town of Warwick in Lambton County. This is about 15 miles northeast of Oil Springs. The James Palmer whose will I obtained lived in Oil Springs, his occupation: oil operator. It seems that the farmers in that area suddenly found oil coming from their fields. There was even a couple of respectable geysers. For a number of years the community grew rapidly as oil was shipped out but then the wells dried up, the boom was over, and the land reverted to farming. Was James Palmer, oil operator, the James that married Angeline? Or was he an entrepreneur who moved in to take advantage of a growing industry? I just don’t know – yet.

(Lineage for Angeline: Angeline Palmer-4, Lydia Sibbald-3, John-2, Alexander Douglass-1)

***

Additional Notes

When I wrote last month I was not sure about Martha Flewelling but since then I have accessed her marriage record and, indeed, the Martha who married Archibald McGougan in 1891 in Ingersoll, Ontario, was the daughter of Abel and Betsy Douglass Flewelling. She gave her age as 42 when she married Archie who was 35. In the 1891 census a few months later she was 2 years younger – 40!

In reality she was 52 when she married. It was Archie’s first marriage and since, even at 42, the possibility of Martha giving him sons was pretty slim, this was probably a marriage of convenience. Archie was the oldest of four siblings and if his mother had passed away, he needed a housekeeper. Martha had probably spent many years working for other families in the area, as she was doing when the census of 1871 was taken. By 1891 her parents were dead, all of her brothers had moved to the States and only three sisters remained in the area. Of course there were quite a few nieces and nephews in Oxford County still. A woman had to look to her future security and the oldest son on a farm would surely inherit the land.

Sounds like she made a pretty good deal to me. ###

Check additions to the Biosketches page for:

Alexander Douglass, son of Robert Douglass and Jane McGill

Alexander Frederick Douglass, son of William Douglass and Polly Gaukel

J. Hubert Douglass, son of J. Chester Douglass and Lucilda Cady.