Talbot Settlement and Survey Maps 1793-1849 Online!

January 2018 has been a GREAT month for genealogists wanting to access early Ontario Land records.

A new project to digitize Ontario land records by Family Search and the announcement of the first phase of the OnLand web portal (in alpha phase) are definitely worth watching as new records will be added throughout 2018.

Genealogists know that land records are a gold mine of information and one of the challenges is locating the property details for our Ontario ancestors.

An Online Ontario Land Records Trifecta!

The good news for folks with ancestors in south-western Ontario is that a third Ontario land record resource is now online!

The Elgin County Archives (in agreement with the Archives of Ontario's Digitization Loan Program), has completed a digitization project and published the following important records:

• Archives of Ontario's Thomas Talbot fonds, F 501 (45 maps from 1802 to 1832, displaying early settlement grants and dates of occupation in the series of townships where Talbot controlled land allocation.)
• Ministry of Natural Resources fonds, RG 1-470 (33 maps from 1796 to 1844, displaying early surveying efforts in approximately the same area, alongside names of settlers) 

If your ancestors lived in south-western Ontario between 1796 and 1844, these records would be well worth investigating.

My 3rd Great-Grandfather Denis Moynahan 

(1787-1885)

Was A Talbot Settler

My Essex county Moynahan ancestors were settled by Thomas Talbot in the early 1800s and I had learned this from a trip to the archives in the early 1980s.

The document below was one of my greatest finds back in those early days! It shows my 3rd great-grandfather Denis Moynahan land petition (spelled Minehan) dated 1847 but with information that Col. Thomas Talbot located him to 6 South Middle Rd., Maidstone (then known as Sandwich) in the year 1830!

One of the very first documents that I found at the Archives of Ontario (c. 1980)

I had several Moynahan ancestors who were part of the Talbot settlement and you can visit my previous posts here:

• 52 Ancestors #19: Maidstone Ontario: Talbot Settlers 
• 52 Ancestors #23: Matthew Moynahan 1770-1860

From my early research, I mapped out where all of the early Essex  county, Ontario Moynahans lived in relation to each other:

My hand drawn map of my early Essex county Moynahan ancestors

The Talbot Fonds

When I explored the Thomas Talbot fonds, F 501 online, I quickly confirmed my Moynahan ancestors in the Talbot Fonds index:

Source: 1824 Plan of the Townships of Maidstone, Rochester and Sandwich, County of Essex - F 501-1-0-0-18

Source: 1824 Plan of the Townships of Maidstone, Rochester and Sandwich, County of Essex - F 501-1-0-0-18

Once I located these Moynahan ancestors on the indexes, I looked for them on the corresponding maps:

Source: 1824 Plan of the Townships of Maidstone, Rochester and Sandwich, County of Essex - F 501-1-0-0-18

The above map enlarged and showing the location of the Moynahans along the Talbot and Middle roads
Source: 1824 Plan of the Townships of Maidstone, Rochester and Sandwich, County of Essex - F 501-1-0-0-18

Ministry of Natural Resources Fonds

In the Ministry of Natural Resources fonds for Essex county, there are four maps ranging from 1790 to 1824

Source: The Ministry of Natural Resources Fonds, RG 1-470

I was not able to explore these records at the time of this posting. I attempted to open RG 1-470-0-0-225 several times with no success. I'm not sure if this is an issue at their server or on my computer. If you are successful, I would love to hear what you found.

Other Ontario Land Records Links 

• Part I: Historical Books: First Registration Book: where genealogists can find their ancestors Crown Patents etc.
• Part II: Historical Books: Abstract/Parcel Register Book: where genealogists can find all the entries of every transaction on their ancestors land from the date the Crown Patent was issued (all instruments recorded) up to January 30, 1981
• Part III: Historical Books: General Register Index: where genealogists can locate information about their ancestors wills, etc.
• Part IV: Historical Books: Canada Lands Index:where genealogists can find information about public lands under the Canada Lands Surveys Act, Navigable Waters Protection Act, Transfers of Jurisdiction and Control, Indian Reserves and National Parks
• Family Search: Digitization of Essex County Land Records 1779-1955 

  
Early Irish Settlers - Essex, Ontario

• The Irishman in Canada by Davin, Nicholas Flood, 1843-1901
• Commemorative Biographical Record Of The County Of Essex Ontario by J.H. Beers & Co. https://archive.org/details/CommemorativeBiographicalRecordOfTheCountyOfEssexOntario
• Madeline's Essex County: ( Interesting note: None of the Irish that Madeline writes about are Potato Famine Irish. They all arrived in Essex County quite a while before the famine.) https://alifeinessexcounty.wordpress.com/madelines-research-an-inventory/  (
• Essex County: Roads and Settlement: https://www.countyofessex.on.ca/en/government/roads-and-settlement.asp 
• The 'First Business of Government': The Land Granting Administration of Upper Canada http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/obj/s4/f2/dsk2/tape17/PQDD_0014/NQ28362.pdf

52 Ancestors #23: Matthew Moynahan 1770-1860

No Story Too Small has issued a New Year's Challenge: "Have one blog post each week devoted to a specific ancestor. It could be a story, a biography, a photograph, an outline of a research problem — anything that focuses on one ancestor.”

I am devoting this blog post to the oldest known ancestor in my Moynahan tree, Matthew Moynahan (born in 1770 in Kerry, Ireland and died in 1860 Maidstone, Ontario)

We have three sources of information for Matthew Moynahan for the years between 1830 (when he settled  in Ontario and 1860 when he died): His land records, the census records and his will.

Land Records:

As stated in an earlier blog post (Maidstone Ontario: Talbot Settlers), I learned a great deal about our Moynahan ancestors from doing research on early land records. With respect to Matthew, I learned that he was located on 100 acres by Col. Talbot in 1831 on 296 North Talbot Rd. (NTR) in Sandwich, Ontario.

Here is 296 NTR on the map in the early 1800s:

Remarkably, this is still fertile farm land as seen on Google maps (2014):

Most of this early information was found at the Archives of Ontario (AO) (not on any online indexes):

My handwritten notes from the AO

Matthew Moynahan: U.C. Land Petition/Grant dated 14 August 1846

The paperwork associated with land records is an incredible source for genealogical information. I also learned from the land records that Matthew had a son named Jeremiah from Detroit:

Original 1849 document evidence that mathew had a son named Jeremiah

My transcription of the original 1849 record

Census records:

This is the only census that I have been able to locate regarding Matthew. In the 1861 census Matthew has passed on and Honora (now "Ann") is with Timothy at 296 NTR.

1851 Census: Sandwich Ontario

From the 1851 where we learn:

• Matthew is living with (Honora his wife - 70 years old); John (born in US 10 years old); and there's a visitor Daniel Falvey (born in Ireland, lives in the US and is 45 years old)
• The family is living in a one story log home

Matthew's Will:

Burial record: St. Mary's RC Church, Maidstone, Ontario 1860

Here are some snippets of Matthew Moynahan's memorial will wherein we learn of his daughter Mary for whom he bequeathed "one bed and bed clothes".

Memorial Will mentions children Timothy and Mary, wife Honora
and "friends" Denis Moynahan and William Dupres Baby

Entered the 23rd of May 1860

Source: Archives of Ontario
G.S. 987; Deed Volume D; 1857-1860 (#581-993)

52 Ancestors #19: Maidstone Ontario: Talbot Settlers

My Great Great Great Grandfather Denis Moynahan was settled on 6 South Middle Road, Maidstone Ontario by Col. Thomas Talbot in 1830. 

The following chart and map indicate other early Moynahans settled by Col. Thomas Talbot:

Source: AO RG 1-100-0-0-1368 http://ao.minisisinc.com/FS_IMAGES/I0050834.jpg

Col. Thomas Talbot

Large areas of Essex County came under the control of Colonel Thomas Talbot between 1802 and 1837. 

From 1814 to 1837 Thomas Talbot settled 50, 000 people on 650,000 acres (2,600 km²) of land. 

"Colonel Thomas Talbot contributed to road development, and Talbot Road was named for him. Talbot Road followed a natural ridge of glacial moraine which stretched from Windsor to Point Pelee."

The establishment of good roads led to further settlement along the 'Middle Road' and .....settlers of this era were often emigrants from Britain and Ireland.... The village of Maidstone was the centre of the Irish community...."

I failed to locate any information on my ancestors at the wonderfully compliled indexes at "The Upper Canada Sundries", however, painstaking searching through the original indexes did pay off:

• Crown Land Grants - Early 1820's to 1850's. (223 pages)
• Crown Land Sales - Essex County ‎(1800 - 1920's)‎ (184 pages)
• Western District - Locations and Grants from June 1820 to 1821 and beyond (375 pages)

The documents obtained by Denis Moynahan follow:

1847

1850