Creating Family Timelines

I have found when researching my family, it is helpful to make a Family Timeline with all of the events and sources that I have gathered. As I find more sources and events, I add them to the timeline. This way, it is easier for me to see if there are any gaps that need to be researched and filled in.

For example, I am researching my Loyalist Haines family at the moment and have made a timeline for them. Since my two Loyalist ancestors are father and son, I have included both of them and included only my direct line. Joseph Haines, Sr. is proven to have descendants in the Loyalist Directory, but Nathaniel Haines hasn’t had any descendants proven yet, although his children are listed in The Loyalists in Ontario: The Sons and Daughters of the American Loyalists of Upper Canada. I guess I will be the first in the Nathaniel Haines family to prove descendancy.

Haines Family Timeline:

1750’s – Joseph Haines immigrated from Germany to Johnstown, New York. 28

>1783 – Joseph Haines, Sr. married and had seven children. 1

>1783 – Joseph Haines, Sr. and family lived in Johnstown, New York. 1, 28

>1783 – Joseph Haines, Sr. served in the Butler’s Rangers and went to Lachine, P.Q. with the rangers. 1

>1783 – Nathaniel Haines served in the Butler’s Rangers and went to Lachine, P.Q. with the rangers. 1

1784 – Joseph Haines, Sr. family was in Niagara, U.C. 35

1784 – Nathaniel Haines was in Niagara, U.C. 35

1786 – Joseph Haines, Sr. family was in Niagara, U.C. 1. 2

1786 – Nathaniel Haines was married in in Niagara, Upper Canada and received rations there. 1, 2

1792 – Nathaniel and Lydia Haines’ son, Andrew, was baptised at St. Mark’s Church, Niagara. 3

1796 -Joseph Haines, Sr. was granted a patent of land in Grantham Twp. in the Home district of U.C. 4

1796 – Nathaniel Haines was granted a patent of land in Grantham Twp. in the Home district. 4

1801 – Joseph Haines, Sr. and Peter Whitney purchased mill. 5

1811 – Nathaniel Haines died?

1818 – Philip Haines died in fire in York, U.C. 5, 6

1818 – Joseph Haines, Sr. deeded the mill to grandson, James Haines after his father, Philip Haines, died in a fire. 5

1818 – Joseph Haines, Sr. died.?

1835 – Benjamin Haines and Sarah Freisman were married in Niagara, U.C.?

1836 – Nathaniel’s son, Benjamin, is listed in the book, Sons and Daughters of American Loyalists and had an Order in Council as a SUE on Nov.3, 1836. 7

1837 – Benjamin Haines was granted land in Middlesex Cty.? 8

1844 – Feb. 23rd – Benjamin Haines’ son, John, was born in Niagara. 9, 24

1851- Benjamin Haines was living in Niagara Twp. with his wife and family. 9

1851- John Haines was in the 1851 census of the family. 9

1871 -Benjamin Haines was living in Aldborough Twp. Elgin Cty. 10

1872 – John Haines married Harriet Fernetta Doan in Welland, Ontario. 11

1881 – John Haines family was in the census of Welland. 12

1891 – Benjamin’s widow, Sarah Haines was in the census of Aldborough Twp., Elgin Cty. 13

1891 – John Hines family was in the census for Aldborough Twp., Elgin Cty. 14

1892 – Sarah Haines died in Rodney, Elgin Cty. 15

1894 – William Edgar Hines, was born in Aldborough Twp., Elgin Cty. 16

1897 – John Hines’ family moved to Essex County and were in Rochester. 17

1901 – John Hines family was in the census for Rochester, Essex County. 18

1906 – John Hines family were in Gosfield North Twp. in 1906 when their youngest daughter
died. 19, 20, 24

1911 – John Hines family were in Maidstone Twp. in the 1911 census. 21

1917 – Oct. 6 – William Edgar Hines married Josephine Desbiens and lived in Essex, Ontario. 22, 27
1926 – Aug. 14th -Earl Douglas Hines was born on Arthur Ave. in Essex. 23

1932 – March. 13th -John Hines died in Essex, Ontario. 24, 25

1935 – Dec. 2oth-Harriet Doan Hines died in Essex, Ontario. 25

1957 – Apr. 20th – Earl Hines married Marian Neil in Essex County, Ontario. 26

1958 -Sept. 30th – Earline Hines was born in Windsor, Ontario. 29

1964 – Earl Hines purchased property in Cottam, Ontario. 34

1976 – May 28th – Earline Hines was married to A. Morrison in Comber, Ontario. 30

1975 – Earl Hines sold property in Cottam and relocated to Leamington, Ontario.34

1977 – Mar. 29th – William Edgar Hines died in Essex, Ontario. 25, 32, 33

1977 – July 29th – B. Morrison was born in Leamington, Ontario. 29, 34

1979 – Jan. 22nd – K. Morrison was born in Leamington, Ontario. 29, 34

1983 – Earl Hines was divorced. 31

1984 – Earline Hines was divorced. 31

1985 – Mar. 9th – Earl Hines was married to R. Watkins Harris in Windsor, Ont. 34

1994 – July 4th – Josephine Hines died in Leamington, Ontario. 25, 32, 33

1996 – Feb. 7th – Earl Hines died in Windsor, Ontario. 25, 32, 33

2001 – June 2nd. – Earline Hines was married to R. P. Bradt in Leamington, Ontario. 30

2008 – Aug. 15th – Marian Neil Hines died in Leamington, Ontario. 32, 33, 34

Sources –
1. The Annotated Nominal Roll of the Butler’s Rangers 1777-1784 with Documentary Sources – Lieutenant Colonel William A. Smy, OMM, CD, UE
2. The Butler’s Rangers in the Revolutionary War – muster roll – E. Cruikshank
3. Baptisms at St. Mark’s Church transcribed by Bill Martin
4. Ontario People 1796-1803 – E. Keith Fitzgerald
5. The Economy of Upper Canada -Merchant Millers of the Humber Valley – Sydney Thomas Fisher
6. obituary – Death Notices of Ontario – W.D.Reid
7. The Loyalists in Ontario: The Sons and Daughters of the American Loyalists of Upper Canada-W.D.Reid
8. Canadian Digital Atlas Project
9. 1851 census Canada West, Niagara Twp, U.C.
10. 1871 census Aldborough Twp., Elgin Cty., Ontario
11. Ontario Marriage Records 1869-73- Ancestry
12. 1881 census Canada, Welland County, Ontario
13. 1891 Census Canada, Aldborough Twp., Elgin Cty.
14. 1891 Census Canada, Aldborough Twp., Elgin Cty.
15. Ontario Death Records – Ancestry
16. Ontario Birth Records
17. Ontario Birth Records – Fleming W. Hines – Jan. 18, 1897
18. 1901 Census Canada – Rochester Twp.
19. Ontario Death Records – Ancestry
20. Article in Essex Times 1906
21. 1911 Canada census Essex North
22. Ontario Marriage Records 1869-1924 – Ancestry
23. personal knowledge
24. Ontario Death records – Ancestry
25. Gravestone at Woodslee United Church Cemetery
26. Personal knowledge
27. Article in Essex Free Press, Oct. 1967 – 50th Wedding Anniversary
28. Loyalists Claims For Losses
29. Birth Certificate
30. Marriage License
31. Divorce Decree
32. Obituary
33. Funeral Card
34. present at event
35. The Centennial of the Settlement of Upper Canada by the United Empire Loyalists 1784-1884. – E.Ryerson

Now, it will be easier to find the documents that I need to copy and include in my certification application(s).

Filed under: Genealogy, ancestors, Haines, Haines Family Timeline, John Haines, Nathaniel Haines UEL, timeline, William Edgar Hines

Happy Loyalist Day! My Loyalist Ancestors

My Loyalist ancestors came from Tryon County, New York, Bucks County, Pennsylvania and western New Jersey.
The Haines family came from Germany and were living in Johnstown, in the Mohawk Valley when they had to make a choice, follow the crowd or do what’s right. They chose the latter and endured the wrath of the rebels. The able-bodied men were mustered into John Butler’s Corp of Rangers which later became known as Butler’s Rangers. Mrs. Joseph Haines, Sr. (her name is not known) stayed home with the four younger children until 1781 when the family went to Lachine, Quebec with the Rangers. They stayed there for about four years until they were granted land in the Home District. They were granted land in Grantham Twp., and purchased a mill on the Humber River in 1801 which stayed in the family for decades.
The Doan family, descending from early arrivals to Plymouth Colony, came from Bucks County, Pennsylvania and western New Jersey to the Niagara area after the war, some branded traitors and escaping rebel justice, others, being Quakers, called Loyalists for refusing to take up arms or pay taxes for religious reasons. Titus Doan, Sr. and Deborah Willson Doan were members of the Black Creek meeting after arrival in Upper Canada. They came with other members of the Willson family from western New Jersey and settled in the Humberstone Twp. and Crowland Twp. area and some are still living there to this day.
My great-grandfather, John Haines, aka John Hines, grandson of Nathaniel Haines, U.E., and son of Benjamin Haines, S.U.E., was born in Niagara Twp. in 1844. He married in 1872, Harriet F. Doan, great-great-granddaughter of Titus Doan, Sr. and Deborah Willson Doan, born in Dec. 1854 in Ohio, immigrated in Jan. 1855, daughter of Linus and Hannah Doan, living in Crowland Twp., in Welland and lived there for a few years before relocating to Elgin Cty., and then to Essex Cty. about 1895.

John Hines & Harriet Doan Hines grave, Woodslee, Ontario.

My husband’s Loyalist ancestors came from the Mohawk Valley and Albany, New York. His 4th great-grandfather, Myndert (Minor) Bradt, U.E., was a private in the Butler’s Rangers, and several of his relatives served in the Rangers as well.

Minor Bradt and Eliza Bradt grave, Dunnville, Ontario

Filed under: Family Files, Genealogy, Loyalists, Special Events, Benjamin Haines SUE, Haines, Happy Loyalist Day, John Haines, Nathaniel Haines UEL

Mystery May Be Solvable

I have been contacted by a fourth cousin yesterday who may have solved the mystery of why my great-grandfather changed our surname. She was told by a family member that John Haines was being harassed by the telephone company because he had the same name as another man in the area who was being sued. She said that he had the name legally changed, so now I’m on a hunt for any records of the legal name change.

Update:
I couldn’t find any records to support the story about a legal name change, for any reason. If there was a legal name change it would have been recorded.

Filed under: Brick Walls, Genealogy, Haines, Surname change

COG #68 – A Tribute to Women – Sarah Haines, UEL

I received this from a descendant of Joseph Haines, Jr.. The author, Pergrine Otway-Page was the son of Sarah, born 1814, died 1904.

“It was about the year 1776, after the loss of all their property because of loyalty to their King and Crown, that my ancestors on my mother’s side were forced to migrate to Canada. However, it is uncertain from what part of the United States they came. They reached Canada after a long, dangerous journey of much suffering and privation. Arriving first at Fort Niagara and there resting a few days, they were transferred to Canada under the British flag.

The family consisted of my grandfather, the late Joseph Haines, his wife, four sons, Peter, Philip, Edward* and Joseph, and two daughters Sarah, my mother, and her sister, who afterward married a Mr. Whitney. When about one day’s march from the frontier, Sarah who was but eight years of age, while bringing water from a nearby spring, was seized by two squaws and wrapped in their blankets and carried away. It was in the early evening after a whole day’s weary travel, but her brothers pursued them and shot one when the squaws quietly let loose their little captive, and she was thus recovered in perfect safety. The same gun had been their protection upon other occasions during their escape to Canada, and I have it to this day in my possession in perfect order.

My grandfather, Joseph Haines, was granted 200 acres of land on the Four Mile Creek in the township of Niagara, His son Joseph was also granted 200 acres adjoining his father. Peter received his grant in the township of Ancaster, near Hamilton. Mrs. Whitney got her 200 acres on the Humber, and Sarah was granted 200 acres in Darlington twp. My grandfather, Joseph Haines, died at the Humber at the reported age of 130 years.

My father, Thomas Otway-Page, came to Canada form England in 1792. He was highly connected by blood, the eldest brother of the eminent Gen. Sir Loftus William Otway and Admiral Sir Robert Wiler Otway, but he attached his mother’s maiden name Page on reaching Canada. In England he was a Tory and a fast friend of Gen. Maitland, afterwards Governor-General, but his fearless advocacy of free speech and equal rights to all caused a rupture with Gov. Maitland because he could not condone the outrage committed by the order of Sir Peregrine Maitland upon one Robert Randall under the form of the law. and also for having caused Mr. Forsyth’s house to be tumbled into the Niagara River at Niagara Falls, and for which Sir Peregrine Maitland was recalled by the home government.

“My grandfather subsequently became a staunch Baldwin Reformer of influence. He was inofficiously educated and a man of wide and liberal views. My mother was a widow, Bland by name, with two children, Philip and Margaret, when my father married her in 1808. In the meantime my father had bought among other lands in Bertie lot B.F.L.E., Point Albino, which was granted in 1797 to one Timothy Skinner, a U.E. Loyalist, who had migrated from the States contemporaneously with the Haines family. My mother sold her grant in Darlington, and they moved to Bertie on Lot 32 B.F.L.E., where the family has always resided since 1808.

During the War of 1812 my father joined a detachment of the 89th Dragoons, to which he had belonged in England, and while he fought throughout the war with Captain Chambers in defense of his home, King and country, my mother looked after the farm, and she even prepared and wove the clothing from the flax worn by those on the farm, in addition to her household duties, etc., and was frequently obliged to ride to Niagara in the dead of night, a distance of thirty miles, on horseback.

During one of those nocturnal trips to Niagara, taken in the evening of the 12th of October, 1812, being about to leave Niagara towards morning, having just secured her countersign, she heard the battle of Queenston going on and shortly after saw Gen. Sir Isaac Brock and his aide-de-camp, Col. MacDonnell, ride away to the scene of action, to their fate. It was she who remarked that Gen. Brock had forgotten his sword, a very strange incident, but he refused to return for it and remarked that he had a presentiment that it would be his last battle, which subsequently proved only too true. She remained at Niagara until victory crowned ore arms, and in the evening of the same day she realized how dearly that victory had been bought when news reached Niagara that the mortal remains of Gen. Sir Isaac Brock and his faithful aide-de-camp were on the way to Fort George, where, in the presence of Gen. Roger Sheaffe, both bodies were laid to rest in one grave with the tears and sorrow of the whole country.”

“In July 1814, my mother, having learned of the firing by the Americans of the village of St. David’s, promptly sent all her able-bodied farm servants to the seat of war, and the next day, the 25th of July, 1814, the terrible battle of Lundy’s Lane was fought. She also sent her only son, Philip, who was but sixteen years of age, and he was orderly for Gen. Drummond during that day and night of carnage.

My mother garnered the grain with the help of small boys that summer, and with horses all disabled by the incidents of war. I was born the 22nd of August in the same year and was named after father’s fast friend, Sir Peregrine Maitland. My father had his horse shot under him at Lundy’s Lane, and received a musket ball in his thigh which he carried with him to his grave in 1832. Three of my uncles were at the battle of Sandwich under Gen. Brock, including my uncle Philip, who was burned to death in Toronto shortly afterwards.

My father belonged to Captain Chambers’ company of fifty picked men. They were the terror of three hundred American frontier cow tails who were reputed to harass the inhabitants. They once took possession of our farm, and loaded nineteen wagons with all our grain, hay, provisions, etc., in the fall of 1814, and we were compelled that winter to pay $16.00 per barrel for our flour.

It was at this time, when I was but a few months old, they came near pelting me to death, sportively, with our fine golden pippen apples. They sacked our cellar, taking there from all our winter’s meat, including four saddles of dried venison, and stole mother’s carving knife, a relic she had brought from her home in the United States, but it was returned and is still in our possession in fair order. The soldier who took it was ordered by the captain to apologize to my mother for the theft, and was also reprimanded for using impudent language towards her.”

“I can never cease to admire the resolute bravery of my mother, who in many respects was a most remarkable woman. While father was a large and powerful man, mother was small in stature, dark complexioned, with piercing black eyes, very small feet and small slim hands. Her hair was black as a raven, and so extremely long that she could stand erect on it trailing on the floor. A fearless rider on horseback, she was as resolute as she was active. One incident proves this; about 1822, a mischievous boy set fire to a cat, which dashed up a steep ladder into the garret of our house, where father kept his store of gunpowder covered with cotton waste. Smoke issued at once. I screamed fire to my mother, and she took a two pail bucket of water and ascended the ladder and extinguished the fire, but not until three of the hoops were burned off one of the powder kegs.

After the war, times began very much to improve. My father took a position as acting sheriff under Sheriff Hamilton for the united counties of Welland and Lincoln in 1816, and acted in that capacity until 1822, the family, with my mother at its head, remaining on our lands here, My father, however, commenced a business in Toronto shortly after 1828, and while attending to his business as storekeeper he died there in 1832.

In the meantime, he had left a kind old gentleman and a fast friend to our family on Point Albino, by name Dennis, under bond to dare for that part of our estate, and as it was useless for farming purposes, he subsisted chiefly by cultivating a few acres, fishing and netting pigeons. Mr. Dennis furnished us with barrels of salted pigeons on condition that I would not destroy his pigeon business by shooting them, and so expert did he become at pigeon-netting that he considered a take on one day of less than fifty dozen during the season a poor day. He often exceeded that number very much. This kind old man died in 1834, full of gratitude to our family. In the meantime I had grown from an infant hunter of four years of age with a pack of wolf-dogs that protected me from rattlesnakes and carrying a musket with flints, to an age when I should make it the rule to shoot off the heads of wild pigeons with my rifle.”

“When I was about 10 years of age, our place being terribly infested with rattlesnakes, I was bitten by one in the top of my foot. This nearly proved fatal. It was many months before I recovered, and then I became subject to fits until I was 15.

The Rebellion of 1837 broke out when I was about 18 years of age. My mother, ever imbued with a martial spirit, advised me to turn out, which I did, and I was the second recruit to volunteer under Col. Kirby, leaving an eccentric philosopher named Brandyman, who had been my tutor from childhood, with my mother on the farm, and I was mainly instrumental in causing the volunteers to be armed with muskets, which were not at first issued to them. I had no trouble in instructing the recruits to shoot, for I was about as perfect a marksman in those days as could be found anywhere.

I was married in April, 1839, to Miss Magdaline Snider. She was a most dutiful wife and fond mother to my four children and her 19 grandchildren, but to our great sorrow and grief, she passed over to the majority in 1890, aged 75 years, regretted by all.

My mother died in 1852, full of years, aged 84, and she was laid to rest, by her special request, on the bank of Lake Erie, on Lot 32 B.F.L.E., overlooking Point Albino Bay, a most beautiful spot in front of a few garden acres which had been her delight to cultivate during her earlier years, but now for years overgrown with wild sweet balsams. This little plot had been consecrated as the burial-place of pioneers many, many years previous to 1852, and was made more sacred as the last resting-place of all that was mortal of one who was a noble heroine, and with all the attributes of the kindest mother.”

* I haven’t found any record for Edward or Peter, possibly a lapse of memory on the author’s part. Children of record are : Philip, Joseph, Jr., Nathaniel, Sarah, Margaret and Mary upon arrival in Niagara. One son was killed in the Revolutionary war.
– Loyalist Claims for Losses #988

Filed under: Carnival of Genealogy, Carnivals, Family Files, Genealogy, Haines/Hines, Loyalists, Bland, COG, COG#68 Tribute to Women, Haines, Otway-Page

Brick Walls – Lyddie ?, married to Nathaniel Haines

I have another brick wall to post, my 3rd great-grandmother, Lyddie or Lydia, married to Nathaniel Haines in Niagara, Upper Canada in 1786. The only info I have on her is that she was the daughter of a loyalist. That’s not much to go on, most single women in Niagara at that time were daughters of loyalists.

Filed under: Brick Walls, Family Files, Genealogy, Haines/Hines, Loyalists, brick walls, Haines

Why so much interest in the Doane family?

The reason is simple, two of my great-grandmothers, both maternal and paternal, were Doans. On my paternal side, Harriet Fernetta Doan, my great-grandmother, was the 2nd great-granddaughter of Titus Doane, Sr., great-granddaughter of Titus Doane, Jr., grand-daughter of Isaac Doan, daughter of Linus and Hannah (Doan) Doan. Harriet was born in Ohio in Dec. of 1854 and came to Canada Jan. 1855. The family must have been to Ohio visiting for Christmas when Harriet was born, as they lived in Welland County, Ontario. Harriet and John Haines/Hines were married in Welland, Ontario in 1872 and relocated first to Elgin County and then to Essex, Ontario between 1894 and 1897.

On my maternal side, Jessie Izillia Doan, my great-grandmother, was the 3rd great-granddaughter of Titus Doan, Sr., born in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, came to Ontario in 1793, 2nd great-granddaughter of Titus Doane, Jr., great-grand-daughter of Isaac Doan, grand-daughter of Linus and Hannah (Doan) Doan, daughter of Allan Clark Doan, Harriet’s brother. Jessie Doan was born in Pelham Twp., Welland County on May 24, 1875. The family was living in Essex according to the census in 1891. She married Robert Fairbairn on Nov. 1, 1893 in Essex, Ontario.

My 2nd/3rd great-grandmother, Hannah Maud Doan, was the daughter of William Doan, brother of Isaac.
Therefore, I have less surnames to research, and I have more Doan genes than any other. The Doane family history is readily available, as is the case for most ‘gateway ancestors’ , and I find their history interesting, so if I post alot of information about the Doane/Doan family, I’m not playing favourites.

Filed under: Doane/Doan, Family Files, Genealogy, ancestors, Doane, Fairbairn, Haines, Hines

My Brick Walls – Maria ? married to John Freisman

I am researching my great-grandmother’s family and I have an enormous brick wall as far as her mother, Marie, who was born in Quebec about 1780 . She married John Freisman and they had one child in Quebec before coming to Niagara. If the censuses are correct, John Freisman was born in England. I can’t find any records of their marriage in the Drouin Collection.

Their daughter, Elizabeth, was born about 1795 in Quebec (she said she was 50 in 1851 census of Niagara Twp. and her death record says her age was 97 in 1891) and I can’t seem to find any record of her baptism in the Drouin collection either. There is the baptism of John Freisman, son of John and Maria Freisman on Aug.16, 1807 at Fort George in Niagara. The Freisman family didn’t apply for a Loyalist grant when they came to Niagara, so I am thinking they came for the opportunity to own land. Their daughter, Sarah, married Benjamin Haines about 1836. Two of the children, Peter and Elizabeth, never married. John married and moved to Canboro Twp., Haldimand Cty.

From my research, I’ve learned that there was another Freisman family who immigrated from Holland in the later 19th century. I doubt that there is any connection to them.

Ben & Sarah Freisman Haines 1851 Niagara Twp.

Haines cont’d, Maria Freisman (widow) family, 1851

John Freisman family 1851 Haldimand Twp.

Sarah Freisman Haines census, Aldborough Twp., Elgin Cty. 1891

Sarah Freisman Haines death 1892

Holland-born Freisman census Niagara Twp. 1891

Elizabeth Freisman death 1891

Peter Freisman census 1891 Niagara Twp.

Peter Freisman death 1895

Filed under: Brick Walls, Family Files, Genealogy, Haines/Hines, ancestors, brick walls, Freisman, Haines, Niagara Twp., Quebec

Joseph Haines, Sr., UEL, my 4th great-grandfather

Joseph Haines, Sr. was born in Germany and immigrated to New York about 1760. He had a lease from Sir Wm. Johnson for a tract of 100 acres of land in Tryon County at a cost of 6 pounds a year. There, he raised seven children until the outbreak of the Revolutionary War, when his three sons went to serve in the King’s Royal Regiment of New York. One of his sons was killed. He later joined John Butler’s Corp of Rangers along with two of his three remaining sons. He and his family fled to Quebec with the Butler’s Rangers in 1781 and remained at Lachine for four years until they settled in the Niagara region.
Joseph Haines and son-in-law, Peter Whitney,purchased a mill at the Four-Mile creek in 1801. It was deeded to his grandson, James Haines, son of Philip, in 1818 after Philip’s death in a fire in York.

Joseph Haines, Sr and ?? had the following children:

i. Nathaniel Haines, born about 1765

ii. ______ Haines, died in Rev. war

iii. Joseph Haines, Jr., born about 1767, died Sept. 21, 1853

iv. Margaret Haines, born about 1777

v. Philip Haines, born about 1779

vi. Sarah Haines, born about 1768, died 1852

vi.Mary Haines, born about 1783, died June 5, 1849

United Empire Loyalists, Part II
The Evidence.

988. Claim of

Name: Jos. Hanes , late of Tryon Co.
Claimt. says he was at Le Chine in Fall
’83 & the ensuing Winter.

Is a Nat. of Germ.
Came to America 23 years ago.
Lived at Johnstown on the Mohawk .
Came into Canada in ’81 .
Three sons joined Sir John Johnson , 1 was killed; two others served till end of the War.

Came into Canada because the Rebels persecuted him.
They would have taken his life if he had not came away.
Lives 4 miles from
Montreal , but has land in 4 Township.

Had a Lease from Sir Wm. Johnston of 100 acres,
Lease forever, paying Rent £6 pr. ann.
Cleared 50 acres.
Built house, Barn, &c., planted an orchard.
Lost his utensils, furniture, 3 Horses, 3 Cows, 24 sheep, grain, 300 Boards.
The Rebels took some, but his wife disposed of some & brought some to
Canada .

‘An Annotated Nominal Roll of the Butler’s Rangers 1777-1784 with Documentary Sources”
Lieutenand Colonel William A. Smy, OMM,CD,UE

Haines, Joseph. Private. [“Hains”,” Haynes”]Senior. From Tryon County, NY, where he had 100 acres from Sir William Johnson. His three sons served in the King’s Royal Regiment of New York. In Sep 1783, he and his wife, one boy and three girls over twelve, were drawing rations as refugees in Quebec. Settled at Lachine, Quebec. In Jan. 1797 he petitioned for land stating that he had arrived in the Province in 1786 with a wife and six children. To date, he had only received 200 acres on land in the Township of Niagara. he was granted an additional 350 acres as family lands. He estimated his war losses at 265 pounds sterling ($19,810 in 1991 US dollars). Children: Nathaniel, Joseph, Mary, Margaret, Sarah, Philip. All born in New York colony. Philip, Sarah and Mary granted land as children of UE Loyalist.

Sources:A. British Library -(26) – ADD MSS* – 21826. Return of Loyalists in Canada, 1778-1782.
C. Return Sep 1783
(* these Additional Manuscripts (ADD MSS) are commonly referred to as the Haldimand Papers)
D. Ontario Archives –
(2) Reports of the Department of Public Records and Archives of Ontario
G – Nineteenth Report (Toronto 1930)

E. Published Secondary Sources –
(13) – The Old United Empire Loyalists List (Toronto 1885)
(93) – Gregory Palmer. Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution (London, 1984) (100) – Thomas L. Purvis. Revolutionary America, 1763-1800: Almanacs of American Life (New York, 1995)

Old United Empire Loyalists List – served with Butler’s Rangers, Ontario People 1796 -1803 -E.Keith Fitzgerald

Here are excerpts from the book “Millers of the Humber Valley, a study of Early Economy of Canada” by Sidney Thomas Fisher: Haines Mill-
On 6 December 1798 John Lawrence’s grist mill on east bank of the Humber (Toronto) near the road to the ferry and including 30 acres on the west bank of the river, between the 2 roads was sold to Peter Whitney and Joseph Haines for 60 pounds, a fair indication that it was heavily encumbered with debt.(pg 60)”Information as to the location of early roads is so sketchy that one must give approximations. In this case, Lawrence specifically mentions the Lake Shore road. The other was probably one later known as the ‘Middle Road’ which was followed roughly in building the present Queen Elizabeth Highway. (#1,pg 167)
On November 2, 1799, John Dennis charged Reuben Riggs, a carpenter of York, with theft of timber that had come from his shipyard.In January 1800, Riggs was acquitted, “Dennis was on dangerous ground in attempting a prosecution, as his own actions were not above suspicion. In 1791 his neighbour, Joseph Haines, complained to Lieutenant-Governor Peter Hunter that Dennis had no authority to cut timber on private property, Haines wisely let the matter drop. If Dennis was guilty, he was not the only offender, for in 1811, long after Dennis had left the Humber, Philip Haines, who had taken over most of his father’s property was threatening to prosecute lumber thieves.” (pg 53-54)

“Joseph Haines and his family had made steady progress in developing the mill and surrounding property. Peter Whitney, Haines’s partner in the purchase from Lawrence’s executors, had left the Humber. He had sold his interest to Haines on 7 July 1801 and on 8 May 1807 he sold the adjoining lots which he had bought from John Wilson on 25 May 1800 to Joseph Haines Jr. The two Haines then owned all property on the east bank of the Humber from John Dennis’s shipyard to the Dundas Street crossing, where there was an excellent mill-site which Joseph Haines Jr. wold to William Cooper on 9 May 1807. Cooper promptly erected a grist mill and developed the property so energetically that he place the Haines mill at a disadvantage. In 1815, Joseph Haines Jr., who had gone to Niagara to live, sold the rest of the former Willson property to Cooper.

Joseph Haines showed considerable courage in buying Peter Whitney’s share of the grist mill, carrying on the business with the aid on his son Philip, because after Willson left the King’s Mill the prospects of development there had faded, although William Jarvis was carrying on a commercial fishery at the mouth of the Humber and John Dennis was busily employed in his shipyard. With Joseph Haines Jr. in possession of the lands to his north, it looked as though the mill might be able to attract customers from that area and the settlement would be developed south and west along the road leading from “the head of the lake” (Burlington Bay) to York. He could not know that once John Dennis had served the government purpose in building a few vessels, the shipyard would be left idle and incorporated into a reserve that was to be hoarded by the government until the middle of the nineteenth century.

“From 1800 until 1807, prospects were good for the Haines Mill. Joseph Haines built a road from his mill to lot 36 where it connected with the road to the ferry. Until 1804 the ferry road was little more than an ill-kept track, but for the next two years there was steady improvements as Joseph Burton and his men widened and drained it, under a contract from the Commissioner of Roads, and ever inveiled some of his men into making some necessary improvements west of the Humber through the hitherto barely drained reserve. Burton had told these men that William Allan, one of the Commissioners for Roads, would pay them and Allan finally agreed to do so. These improvements contributed to the success that Clark and Lymburners had in attracting customers to the rebuilt King’s mill. Although the Lymburners continued to attract customers to the area until 1810, Haines began to feel the effects of competition from the two mills at Dundas Street by 1808 and , for a time, there was some competition at Weston where Conrad Countryman ran a small grist mill for which he was given the irons and millstones in 1807. Weston, however, did not become a real competitor on grist milling until 1819.

On 28 November 1810 Joseph Haines braced himself to meet competition by turning the grist mill over to his son Philip who added a saw mill. The heavy increase in lumbering that preceded the War of 1812 made plenty of work for all available mills. Meanwhile, Joseph Haines was providing custom for the grist mill by developing the agricultural potential of his property in a way that attracted tenant farmers, one of whom seems to have been John Chilson. When Philip Haines died on 22 July, 1818, Joseph deeded the mill property to James, Philip’s son. In this deed he should point with pride to the houses, outhouses, barns, stables, gardens and orchards that had transformed the place since Lawrence’s time . A cherry orchard on this property was said to date from Jean-Baptiste Rousseau’s tenure during the French regime.

Shortly before Joseph Haines made over the southern part of his property to his grandson, James he sold the northern portion to Daniel Tiers, an innkeeper. Two years later, this northern portion was bought by the Hon. James Baby, who’s name has become attached to the promontory that distinguishes it, Baby Point had sheltered the mill since John Lawrence had built it, and was to continue to do so, first for the Haines family then for two distinguished millwrights, Friend Wilcox and Rowland Burr and finally for William Gamble. The activities of Wilcox, Burr and Gamble belong to a later stage of the milling economy.

“By the time James Haines took over the mill, the grist mill at Dundas Street had so far outstripped him it is probable he confined himself to saw-mill operations. Hemmed in as he was with large reserves south of him and on the west bank opposite to him, he had little opportunity to expand. His uncle had sold the northern mill-site and its lands to Cooper and very little had been done to keep up the road to the ferry, In spite of the hard work that the Haines family had put into the mill and surrounding property, the Magistrates, in Quarter Sessions, dealt them a severe blow. In 1810 the overseer of the roads for the Humber was directed to use all the road money and all labour due from the settlers west of York in building and improving a road from James Given’s house in Lot (Queen) Street to the Dundas Street bridge where William Cooper’s mills were operating. How the Haines mill fared after it had been bypased so thoroughly, one does not know. The records are silent.”( pgs 61-65.)

“Philip Haines, son of Joseph Haines, had a grist mill on the Humber early in 1811′ The Lymburners had left their mill after a dispute over rent taking the logging chain with them. One of the settlers was seen carrying off two of the windows and it was suspected that a missing mill saw from Lymburners mill was in operation at Philip Haines’ mill on the east bank. (pg 46)

On 25 November 1815 Cooper paid Joseph Haines Jr. 320 pounds for all of Lot 5 and the remainder of Lot 4.”(pg 68)

The prices indicate that Haines had made considerable improvements on this land. The deeds are in YCRO, Old York Registry, nos.2620,3915.”(#31 pg 168)

While he lived at the King’s Mill (Thomas ) Fisher’s nearest neighbors, Joseph Haines and John William Gamble, were not men with whom he could carry on a general and informed conversation; Haines lacked education and Gamble, although he had been educated at Rev. John Strachan’s famous school at Cornwall, had too many irons in the fire to keep up an interest in books. Fisher and his other friends got much of their indoor relaxation from the books that they had bought and frequently loaned to one another.” (pg 112)

About 1837 Friend Wilcox, a competent millwright, rebuilt James Haines’s mill on the east bank of the river opposite Milton. Wilcox took a lien on the property in 1839 and he was followed by Rowland Burr in 1840.” (pg 118)

In 1851 he (John William Gamble, Esq,. of Estibicoke took over James Haines’s saw mill on the east bank and transferred his own saw-mill operations to the Haines mill. Haines began to operate a tavern on Gamble’s Dundas Street property.”( pg 139-140)

The arrangements to take over the mills were made by 1851, Haines appears in the census of that year as a tavern keeper on Lot 10, Con. C, Etibicoke and Gamble is listed as the owner of Haines’ mill lot. The sale, however, did not go through until 28 March 1853, see YCRO, Old York Registry, no. 48528.” (pg 175)

“Some of Thomas Fisher’s books have been preserved and are now held in the Humber Archives.”( #3, pg 172)

Orders In Council:

This article was written in springnote.

Filed under: Family Files, Genealogy, Haines/Hines, Loyalists, ancestors, Haines, U E Loyaist

We Met For The First Time …… Again

My husband in front of Butler’s Barracks,
Niagara-on-the-lake, Ontario

I met my husband for the first time in April of 1998, but something about him seemed so familiar, like we’ve known each other all our lives. As I started researching my family history, I researched his family, the Bradts. I discovered that several of his ancestors were Loyalists, and they served in John Butler’s Corp of Rangers. As a matter of fact, John Butler was married to Catherine Bradt.

I soon was reading all about the Butler’s Rangers and even bought a few books so that I could learn more about them, Ontario People 1796-1803 transcribed and annotated by E. Keith Fitzgerald, Butler’s Rangers, The Revolutionary Period by E. Cruikshank, and a few months ago, An Annotated Nominal Roll of the Butler’s Rangers 1777 – 1784 With Documentary Sources compiled and arranged by Lt.-Col. William A. Smy, OMM, CD, UE.

I learned a lot about where his family came from and where they ended up. Before the Revolutionary war, they lived in Tryon County, New York in the Mohawk Valley. They joined Butler’s Rangers and after the war, they were granted land in the Home District (Niagara region).

When I started reading my latest book, I discovered that my loyalist Haines ancestors came from the Mohawk Valley before the war. They came from Germany about 1760, in all likelyhood, at the request of Sir William Johnson, who wanted to create a town by inviting Scottish and German families to immigrate and lease land from him. According to the book, Joseph Haines, Sr. leased 100 acres from Sir Wiliam Johnson, and raised his family of seven there until the revolutionary war broke out. He and his sons served in the Butler’s Rangers, alongside the Bradts. They went to Lachine, Quebec with the Rangers at the end of the war and were granted land in the Home District.

My great-grandfather was born and raised in Niagara Twp., and moved to Elgin County in the 1880’s and to Essex County in the 1890’s. My husband’s family came from the Niagara area to Haldimand County in the 1870’s and then to Essex County in the 1890’s.

So, it seems like our ancestors were neighbours and possibly friends, so I like to think that it was with some help from both fo our ancestors that we met, and now, five generations later, the Bradt and Haines families are reunited.

Filed under: Brat/Bradt, Family Files, Genealogy, Haines/Hines, Loyalists, ancestors, Bradt, Butler's Rangers, Genealogy, Haines, John Butler, Mohawk Valley, Sir William Johnson

Haines Strains

I have been researching the Haines/Hains/Haynes surname trying to figure out just where my 4th great-grandfather, Joseph Haines, Sr., fit in. At the beginning of my research, I was researching the wrong surname altogether. I spent a good six months researching the Hines surname, only to find out that my great-grandfather changed our surname from Haines to Hines. It was news to me!

The reason for the change is a mystery, as is the fact that the males were raised as Hines from birth and the girls were Haines until they married, except for the last girl, who died in childhood. There is a page of marriage records with two childrens’ marriages on it, for the daughter, the surname was Haines and for the son, the surname was Hines, and the parent’s names were the same as the child.

Now that I am researching the right surname, it should be a lot easier, I thought. Well, there is a Haines family from England who immigrated to New Jersey in 1682, the Quaker Haines family of Richard Haines who died during passage. Some of his family went to Pennsylvania. Then there’s the Massechussets Haines family, who arrived from England before 1650. Some of this family got carried to Quebec by Indians and remained in Quebec. Then there’s the Godfrey Haines family who immigrated from Germany to Westchester County, New York. There’s also an Irish Haines family who immigrated to the Perry Sound, Ontario region in the 1800’s. And last, but not least, Alexander Haines family who came from Nova Scotia to Ontario about 1820. No connection! Apparently, if I am to connect my family to the other Haines families, I will have to find a connection in Germany. Our family came from Germany about 1760 to the Mohawk Valley in New York and leased land from Sir William Johnston, according to the Loyalist claims for losses. All of his children were born in New York.

There is a branch of the Quaker Haines family in Ontario from New Jersey and Pennsylvania, a branch of the Godfrey Hains family, some of the French-Canadian Hains branch, the Irish Haines and my family all in Ontario in the early 1800’s. What makes it worse is that the same common names, John, James, William, Benjamin, Joseph, Peter, Jacob, Mary, Margaret, Sarah were common among all of the Haines families.

I finally figured that I would narrow my search to my greatgrandfather’s family, the Haines family of Elgin County, but that still wasn’t specific enough, the Nova Scotia Haines’ lived in Bayham Twp. and my family lived in Aldborough Twp. after leaving Welland County.

Filed under: Family Files, Genealogy, Haines/Hines, ancestors, Genealogy, Haines, Hains, Haynes, Hines