Another Mystery Solved: John Miller Moreland's Second Wife

My great-grandfather John Miller Moreland's (1882-1940) life story has always been filled with some surprises, some challenges and even more unknowns.

John Moreland was only six-years-old when his mother Agnes Bell Hind died and, because his father was at sea (worked on ships as a "fireman" and later remained in Melbourne Australia), John was sent with his sisters to a Scottish workhouse and later enlisted in the British Army. 
 

My great-grandfather John Miller Moreland (1882-1940)

 This fall, I have embarked on two quests to learn more about my great-grandfather:

1. Getting John Miller Moreland's personnel records for the period from 1919 to his discharge in Kingston, Ontario 19 of August 1937. This remains a "work in progress" as I had applied under the Access to Information Act with the Department of Defense who directed me to Library and Archives Canada (submitted another ATI) who said they did not have the records. I contacted the Department of Defense again who sent me back to Library and Archives Canada.
2. Finding out who "Mrs. Moreland" is. John Moreland's first wife (Florence Curd 1886-1915) died in 1915 in Halifax. John was later sent overseas to fight in WWI (leaving his two daughters in a foster home) After he returned home after the war, government records show a “Mrs. Moreland”  (John Moreland's 1940 death certificate and the 1935 Kingston Voters List) and no one seems to know very much about her ..... until now! I finally found out who she was this week.

Mrs. John Moreland

The 1935 Voters List shows a Mrs John Moreland living at 416 Montreal in Kingston Ontario with my great-grandfather who is listed as a "soldier".

Source: Canada Voters Lists, 1935-1980; Kingston City, 1935

The "person giving the information" on John Moreland's death certificate in 1940 is "Mrs. John Moreland"

Source: Ontario Deaths: Ancestry

Finding Women In Historical Records

I loved taking on this challenge. Women in the history books and records are often incredibly hard to find!

So I started with what I knew - my grandfather John Moreland - and looked for marriage records in Halifax at https://www.novascotiagenealogy.com/ and I found a record for a Florence E. Holmes

Screenshot: https://www.novascotiagenealogy.com/

The writing was very poor and difficult to read so I went to Family Search (Nova Scotia Marriages 1907-1932) and was able to read the record by enlarging it:

Screenshot: Family Search https://www.familysearch.org/search/collection/2241441

 This confirms that this is my great-grandfathers 1919 marriage because it names his parents Charles Moreland and Agnes Bell and we learn that he married:

• Florence Emily Holmes (father William Misner; mother Mary Conrod) and that she is a widow (John is a widower)

 I then looked for Florence Moreland's death certificate and I found this 1947 record:

Source: Ontario Deaths: Ancestry

This death certificate yielded more information:

• seven years after my grandfathers passing, his wife Florence Moreland is living at 416 Montreal in Kingston and the informant, a nephew Alfred Fields, is living there too.
• all searches for obituaries in the online newspapers did not yield any results
• on Florence's death certificate, it states that she was in the province for 18 years meaning that John and Florence Moreland left Halifax in 1929. For context, his eldest daughter Dorothy Moreland married Fred Creighton Oct 15, 1929 in Halifax, Nova Scotia which makes me wonder, did John and Flo ever know any of their grandchildren? My aunts and uncles?

416 Montreal, Kingston, Ontario

I am happy to have filled in some more blanks on my Moreland family tree. Here are some previous links on the Moreland family:

Moreland Blog Posts

• Beloved Matriarch: Dorothy (Moreland) Creighton  My grandmother had an incredible life. It was hard, but she was brave and a true role model for a young girl like me. I have so many questions that I wish I would have asked her
• Quilts & Crochet: I was lucky to have a grandmother who loved to sew (Rhea Coughlin Moynahan) and a grandmother who loved to knit and crochet (Dorothy Moreland Creighton
• Into Tuft's Cove: Aunt Barb Floats About Until Rescued By Nana! The fact that my grandmother (Nana) never learned to swim and that my Aunt became a great swimmer makes this news story even more incredible!
• The Curds of Dover, England. My great grandmother Florence Curd  met John "Jock" Moreland while he was stationed with the Royal Garrison Artillery (RGA) at Dover (Dover Castle) and they fell in love. He left for Halifax in 1907 and sent for Florence to join him in 1908.
• The Visitors From Australia - NOT Our Moreland Kin: this photograph remains a mystery . I am grateful for the Australian descendant of  Susan (Marrinan/Willis) Moreland (her grand-daughter) who helped with the photo identification ( and it was a great excuse to write about our Moreland/Australia connection. 
• On This Day: October 10: John Miller Moreland Died . I had some unanswered questions about my great-grandfathers headstone, his second wife and the Scottissh workhouse he was sent to ... I still do
• ThrowBack Thursday - a fun photo of my mother with her mother and aunt (Dorothy and Flo Moreland)
• John Moreland: From Workhouse to War: My great-grandfather went from a Scottish workhouse as a boy to the army and then to Nova Scotia at the beginning of the twentieth century.  As a soldier, he survived  WW1 and was training soldiers in Kingston, Ontario, in Canada in 1940 for WW2 when he died as a Quarter Master Sergeant. He is buried at the Cataraqui Cemetery in Kingston, Ontario.