By Alicia Bertrand, M.A.
August 25, 2023
On August 19, 2023, my dad, brother, fiancé and I travelled to several cities in Prince Edward County to search for my ancestors’ headstones. There were highlights and challenges that I’d like to share with readers so that if anyone wants to go on a similar journey, you can learn from my experience. It’s important to be prepared with proper attire and equipment. Prior research and any photos will be your first helpful task before going on a cemetery search. Having a plan and plot numbers are important.
Important Tip #1
Bring appropriate clothing, umbrellas, shoes, bug spray, sunscreen, etc. My fiancé and I made the mistake of believing the weather station when it said the day was going to be 25°C and sunny. Unfortunately, it ended up being a freak autumn-feeling day in August. It was incredibly windy and chilly that day. It also rained on and off all day. I wore inappropriate shoes for the rain. They got soaked when walking in one of the cemeteries’ grass. Before we left my parents’ house for Prince Edward County, we had to go to a store and buy long-sleeved shirts and pants, since we were an hour’s drive from home without appropriate clothing choices. By the end of the day, I had a bunch of mosquito bites because I did not bring bug spray. I DID, however, wear sunscreen for the sunny day that never occurred. Be prepared! Bring extra clothing if you’re driving hours away from home. Bring sneakers for walking through uneven ground in the cemeteries. Some of the cemeteries we visited had hills in them and would be more difficult to traverse.
Camera Equipment: We used our cell phones to take photos of headstones that day. Ensure you have a fully charged battery or an external charging bank with you, especially if you’re travelling out into the countryside. There are no outlets in the cemetery!
Other Equipment: Can you take a shovel into a cemetery without getting stopped by police? We’re not sure! We did not attempt it. However, a small trowel would have been a good item to take with us. My brother and dad used sticks and a water bottle to uncover a heavily grass-covered headstone that was flat in the earth. Many old headstones are like this. If we had come prepared to unearth the rectangular original shape of the headstones that are grown over with a century of dirt and grass, we could have gotten better photos. Other items I suggest you take on your cemetery journey are paper and graphite blocks or pencils. Some of the headstones will be degraded, damaged, or have growths on them. Don’t try to break these mineral growths off, as it might cause more damage to the headstone. Instead, use paper and graphite to rub over the engraved letters on the headstone. This will help in deciphering the text that your camera may not be able to capture due to shading issues.
Important Tip #2
FindaGrave.com is your friend. Volunteers have possibly already input the data of what plot your ancestor is buried in within a specific cemetery or resting place. There could also be a pre-existing photograph of the headstone so that you can gauge whether you want to brave the elements for your photos, or at least use those photos to help you find the headstone when you’re in the cemetery. We used a few pre-existing photos of headstones from FindaGrave.com to aid us in our search. However, it’s not perfect, and as you will read further in this article, we left one cemetery without photos of any of our ancestors because even FindaGrave.com could not help us.
Cemeteries of Prince Edward County and Ancestor History
On our journey into Prince Edward County, we first stopped at the Hicksite Burying Grounds in Bloomfield, Ontario. The Hicksites were a branch of Quakers established after a schism in the church in the 1820s. In Prince Edward County, there was further division within the group which led to separate meeting houses and cemeteries.[1]
Buried in the Hicksite Burying Grounds are my 4th great-grandfather and 4th great-grandmother, Silas Hill Jr. and Sarah Barker. Silas Hill Jr. was born on January 28, 1771, in New Milford, Connecticut, USA. Sarah Barker was born on December 1, 1777, in Dartmouth, Massachusetts, USA. They got married on November 8, 1795, in New Fairfield, Connecticut, USA. It is possible that Sarah and Silas moved to the Prince Edward County area of Ontario after her parents and siblings moved to Adolphustown, Ontario due to her father’s move with Major Van Alstine’s party of British Loyalists who immigrated to Ontario in 1784. In The Settlement of Prince Edward County, Nick and Helma Mika wrote that it was because David Barker sold cattle to the British that his farm was expropriated during the American Revolutionary War.[2] Silas and Sarah’s first son, David Barker Hill, who is also buried in the Hicksite Burying Grounds, was the only child Sarah gave birth to in the USA. Their ten other children were all born in Prince Edward County. That includes my 3rd great-grandmother, Sarah Jane Hill.
Sarah Barker died on July 22, 1842, in Picton, Ontario. Silas Hill Jr. died on February 10, 1847, at 4 a.m. in Picton.[3] Silas is the only one of his parents and siblings who came to Canada and died in Ontario. The rest of his family is buried in Vermont or Connecticut.
Our next cemetery stop was our most challenging. Cherry Valley United Church Cemetery is a large cemetery. There was no map to guide us in our search along the headstones. I had emailed the Cherry Valley cemetery staff years ago when I first began my research into where my ancestors were buried, but their records were difficult to find that far back. They, and FindaGrave.com, do not have any plot information on my paternal great-grandmother and great-grandfather, Mary Emma Gallagher and James Albert Bertrand.
Mary Emma Gallagher was born on October 18, 1874, in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada. Her grandfather, James Gallagher, immigrated to the area from Ireland and owned a plot of land beside the Dulmage family (a pioneer family name I saw over and over again in every cemetery in the county).
Mary Emma and James Albert got married on December 3, 1895, in Picton, Prince Edward County, Ontario. They moved to Michigan for James Albert to work as a train engineer, which his son, my grandfather, would also choose as a career.
James Albert Bertrand died on September 7, 1939, in Hallowell, Prince Edward County, Ontario. When Mary Emma died on November 18, 1954, her body was transported to Cherry Valley Cemetery to be buried near her husband. Although her Burial – Transit Permit from Michigan and James Albert’s death certificates state that they were to be buried in Cherry Valley, the cemetery custodians have to record where they are buried.[4] There is no plot information for them on FindaGrave.com. The four of us tried to traverse the cemetery to no avail. We could not find them. We searched all around the only Gallagher we found there but found no Bertrand headstones.
Joshua Gallagher (my 2nd great-uncle) was buried in Block WEST, Range 10, Plot 7C
After the disappointing experience at Cherry Valley United Church Cemetery, we drove to Milford where the Dingman Pioneer Cemetery sits in the backyard of someone’s house. A humble sign resides on the side of the road beside the house that reads “Dingman Pioneer Cemetery”. The two-storey white house looks like it could be the original Dingman house from 200 years ago. I slowly walked towards the sliding screen door and knocked on the glass portion. I said in my nicest voice through the screen that we were just going to take a walk into the cemetery. No one came to the door. No one hollered back.
The path to the cemetery was mowed and taken care of. At the Dingman Pioneer Cemetery, we found the headstone of the previously mentioned Irish immigrant, James Gallagher, my 3rd great-grandfather. The stones are ajar and the lichens/mildew/moss have taken over the engravings.
James Gallagher was born in June 1808 (but also argued by some to be 1811 or 1812) in Ireland. Due to his common name and not knowing the parish he was from it has been extremely difficult to find any information about his life in Ireland. By 1851, James appeared in Canada’s Agricultural Census in Ameliasburg, Prince Edward County, Ontario. He lived his life as a farmer in Prince Edward County. He died on April 16, 1885.
His wife Elizabeth Hicks is engraved on another side of the same headstone. Elizabeth was born on April 25, 1808, in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario. Elizabeth’s father was a United Empire Loyalist (UEL). She first married Silas Hill III, the son of one of my ancestors mentioned above. (The communities were small. They did not travel too far for a spouse). She had two children with Silas Hill III, Caroline Hill and Abigail Hill. She then married James Gallagher and they had six children. She died on May 19, 1884. At 78 years old, she had suffered paralysis for 18 days before dying.[5]
Speaking of Elizabeth Hicks’ UEL family, next on our journey we departed the tiny Dingman Pioneer Cemetery in Milford and drove to another pioneer cemetery near South Bay, the South Bay Cemetery. Elizabeth’s dad, Joshua Hicks, my 4th great-grandfather, and his wife Elizabeth Dulmage, my 4th great-grandmother, have headstones that lay in the ground. The grass was trying to take the headstones over. It was raining when we got to the South Bay Cemetery, so we took the two photos and fled back to the car. If you ever go to South Bay Cemetery, please note the photo requests on FindaGrave.com that other descendants are looking for. I wanted to take photos for others, but the weather was not cooperative.
Joshua Hicks was born on November 10, 1774, in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, USA. When the American Revolutionary War broke out, his father, Edward D. Hicks, joined the Butlers’ Rangers in New York. Edward and his son Edward Jr. were caught by the Patriots and sentenced to death. Edward Jr. was able to escape the Patriot’s prison, but their father was hanged on October 17, 1779, in Minisink, New York, USA for being a British conspirator.[6]
Joshua’s mother, Elizabeth Elvina Lavina Cornell, moved the family out of the Patriot-led United States into Prince Edward County, Ontario. She married Joseph Wright within a year of her immigration.
Joshua Hicks and Margaret Dulmage married before 1801. They had 10 children, including the aforementioned Elizabeth Hicks. Joshua died on December 17, 1838, in Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario.
His wife, Margaret Dulmage, was born on October 14, 1773, in Albany, New York, USA. Her father, David Dulmage, my 5th great-grandfather, was born in Ireland to German immigrants. He then immigrated to the USA with other German families during an exile from Ireland to America. He married Mary Jennings in 1770, in Albany, New York, USA. He fought in the American Revolutionary War for the British and fled to Canada after the war. His three children who were born in the USA, including Margaret, came with him to Prince Edward County. Margaret first married Augustus Wright. They had one son, Rev. David Wright. She then married Joshua Hicks. Margaret Dulmage died on May 1, 1814, in Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario.
Our last ancestral cemetery journey took us into the heart of Picton, the largest town of Prince Edward County. Glenwood Cemetery included a large map near the chapel building, and by the administration building. However, thanks to FindaGrave.com, we knew the plots were in Section F. However, Section F was massive. After more rain, and having a soaked foot from a puddle hidden in the grass, we found one of our ancestors up on a hill. This is where the good shoes would have helped me.
Using the information about the blocks and rows on FindaGrave.com, we realized that some of the ancestors we were looking for were either grown over with grass, had a missing headstone, or were simply marked with “Mother” or “Father” stones that were nearby. We were unable to find a marker for David Wright Gallagher, Elizabeth’s son with James Gallagher. After researching her more in-depth for this article, I realized that perhaps she gave her son his name in honour of her well-respected older brother, David Wright. We found David Wright Gallagher’s wife, Roxy Ann Butts, and her parents James Scriver Butts and Sarah Jane Hill Kingsley Butts’ headstone.
David Wright Gallagher, my 2nd great-grandfather, was born in 1845 in South Marysburgh, Prince Edward County, Ontario. He married Roxy Ann Butts on January 1, 1874. He and Roxy had five children together. He then married Nancy Ann Roblin and then Mary May Baxter later in life. He was a farmer throughout his life. He died on March 9, 1927, in South Marysburgh. He is buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Section F Block 151 Grave 5.
Roxy Ann aka Roxann Butts was born in 1850 in Hallowell, Prince Edward County, Ontario. She died on October 4, 1890, of heart failure in Picton, Prince Edward County, Ontario. She is buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Section F Block 152 Grave 15.
Her father and mother, James Scriver Butts and Sarah Jane Hill are buried within arms reach of Roxy Ann, in Section F Block 152 Grave 13 & 14 (on the same headstone). Sarah Jane Hill is the daughter of Silas Hill Jr. and Sarah Barker mentioned at the beginning of the article. We’ve come full circle and driven around Prince Edward County by now.
Sarah Jane Hill’s sister Phebe Elizabeth Hill Norman was supposed to be right next to them, but we did not see a headstone for her.
Roxy Ann and David Wright Gallagher’s son, David Wilbert Gallagher, is buried nearby with a clear headstone. He is buried in Glenwood Cemetery in Section F Block 151 Grave 5.
Searching in cemeteries for ancestors should not be difficult, but sometimes, after enough time, weather degradation and overgrown grass recede the stone back into the earth with our loved ones. Regardless of where they lay to rest, their blood courses through your veins. Everything you do is a testament to their lives. The stones that mark their final resting place can be an adventure to find, but remember, whether your family has a fancy mausoleum, a wooden casket, a linen burial, or had their ashes spread, the journey to find your ancestors should be an adventure.
Do you have ancestors in Prince Edward County cemeteries? What United Empire Loyalist history do you have in your family tree? Comment below, or email me if you need help with any research at alicia@ancestrybyalicia.ca.
If you have ancestors in Prince Edward County
The head office in charge of all active cemeteries in Prince Edward County is Glenwood Cemetery. You can reach the office by telephone at 613.476.3511 or by email at info@glenwoodcemetery.ca.
If you are researching information about burials and locations, please contact Prince Edward County Archives, which is located at 261 Wellington Main Street, Wellington. You may also wish to visit the website of the Marilyn Adams Genealogical Research Centre.
[1] https://www.loyalistparkway.org/locations/hicksite-friends-cemetery
[2] Nick and Helma Mika, The Settlement of Prince Edward County, (Belleville: Mika Publishing Company, 1982).
[3] Hamilton Spectator, Deaths 1847, February 17, 1847, http://www.glanbrookheritage.ca/deaths1847.htm
[4] Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Collection: MS 935; Series: M047454; Reel: 630, pg. 154.
[5] Archives of Ontario; Toronto, Ontario, Canada; Collection: MS935; Reel: 38, pg. 236.
[6] Unknown author, Pioneer life on the Bay of Quinte, including genealogies of old families and biographical sketches of representative citizens (Toronto: Ralph and Clark, 1900), pg. 934-936.
Ancestry by Alicia 