Death in the Queen Street Lunatic Asylum, Toronto,

in 1874

The facts as presented: 

A man and his sizable family of descendants had been extraordinarily well researched and documented. After the 1840s, they had lived at different times in Quebec, Ontario, and the United States. But there were gaps in the knowledge that had been developed concerning several family members' time in Ontario in the 1860s, 1870s, and early 1880s.

The challenge:

Could anything more be discovered about the man, one son, and a few ‘in-laws’?

The records consulted:

This project saw the use of 1861 Census of the Province of Canada West schedules; 1871 and 1881 Census of the Dominion of Canada schedules; Ontario civil birth, marriage, and death registry records; a variety of newspaper searches - both digital and paper based; and much more. An entry found in one of the General Registers from the Queen Street Lunatic Asylum in Toronto, held the key that tied everything together. 

The results:

Gaps in the available records - records which had not survived from the places and times of interest, precluded finding much new information about the man himself, but a very significant new record was found concerning the son - a record of his admission to and death in the Queen Street Lunatic Asylum in Toronto. This tied a previously poorly known in-law branch of the family firmly to the main family of interest  – by names, time periods, locations, stated relationships, and occupations.

- - - - Project #210315  (completed 16 March 2021