Brick Walls

With many of the twigs of my family trees, including myself, having lived in Ontario I have been fortunate that most of the Canadian content of Ancestry has been Ontario sources. When an individual "went west" in the early 1900s I wrote off being able to expand, or verify, that branch. As they were not direct ancestors, they were low priority anway.

One of my first thoughts when my husband Terry was transferred to Regina Saskatchewan in 2008, was "Great, I'll be able to work on my western branches". The Regina Public Library is currently offering a series a workshop on Genealogy. Workshops include visits to the Saskatchewan Archives and Saskatchewan Genealogy Society. Unfortunately both facilities are only open weekdays, so I'll need to take time off work to spend sufficient research time at those locations. However, some of the material is available to me at the Archer Library at the University of Regina where I am now working.

More important brickwalls to smash are a couple of direct ancestors:

My 3great grandmother: Isabella (Greer) Bates. Records indicate that she arrived in Canada, pregnant with one young son with her husband having died enroute to Canada. The 1861 census shows the two sons living with grandparents Greer, but no indication of Isabella. Family records show she didn't died until 1878. My assumption is that she remarried, leaving her sons with her parents. But who did she remarry?

A brickwall on my father's side is the death and burial of his great grandparents. 1891 census have Robert and Mary Anne Allen living with their youngest sons in Euphrasia Twp., Grey Co., ON. Family records indicate Robert died in 1892 and unknown date for Mary Anne with both being buried in Markdale Cemetery. I have yet to find either in the Ontario death records and I never made a trip to Markdale Cemetery before leaving Ontario.