Find Ancestors

Hi Sandra, I've sent you a snipped image of the passenger list from Choccy's link, just in case you don't have access to Ancestry.

Thanks AustinQ.

As you know your father's birth name, his mother's name, and his DOB, and as you are NOK, you MIGHT be able to get a copy of his birth cert through this site (I'm assuming you have his death cert?):

https://www.ontario.ca/page/get-or-replace-ontario-birth-certificate

You're supposed to be able to state place of birth. As all the other rumoured info seems to have turned out to be correct, you could say he was born in Toronto, and see if that works!

Thank you so much AustinQ for the snippet!

ArglyllGran - Thank you for the link I will give it a try!

Thank you to everyone who has replied to my thread. We are absolutely delighted that this family mystery has been solved. You are all fantastic people :-D :-D

I won't ask how on earth I managed to miss those passenger records ... aieee.


As for the Ontario birth certificate, you will need a death certificate, remember.

*a deceased person; if you are the next of kin, executor or estate administrator. You will need to provide a death certificate or a funeral director’s statement of death, and any other documentation requested by ServiceOntario.*


I had asked a while back,
Can you tell us where and when your dad died?
but I don't think you answered.

Its so hard to get a birth certificate, you must have a guarantor, who is a Canadian person of professional standing!! I don't know any Canadian professionals. Therefore I have to write a letter to explain why I cannot provide a guarantor. :-( Has anyone else done this and were you successful in getting your certificate?

I don't want to put her on the spot but 'our Joonie' is a "Canadian person of professional standing" - perhaps she could help here - If not, perhaps she could advise you where to look ???

Dea x

Dont know if this has any connection to this search with such common names into the mix.

Death of an infant.


Attach to Family Tree
John Kerr
mentioned in the record of Kerr
Name John Kerr
Gender Male
Wife Margaret Mckee
**Son Kerr**
Other information in the record of Kerr
from Ontario Deaths and Overseas Deaths, 1939-1947
Name Kerr
Event Type Death
Event Date 27 Jul 1929
Event Place York, Ontario, Canada
Gender Male
Age 0
Birth Date 27 Jul 1929
Birthplace **Toronto**
Father's Name John Kerr
Mother's Name Margaret Mckee
CITING THIS RECORD

"Ontario Deaths, 1869-1937 and Overseas Deaths, 1939-1947," database with images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:JKHY-TZ6 : 3 January 2015), John Kerr in entry for Kerr, 27 Jul 1929; citing York, Ontario, Canada, 5945, Archives of Ontario, Toronto; FHL microfilm 2,210,916.

OMG this is nearly too much to take in!!!!!! There really was a John Kerr!! This states his wife was Margaret McKee but I have tried to find a marriage certificate but I can't. I wonder why she came back here with a young baby??

JoonieCloonie - my dad died on 29 June 1983 in Belfast

There are 8 of us children in the family. This is a bombshell (in a good way) to us all.

Do Canada have electoral roll's, as we do in N.Ireland?

I have seached on Familysearch website for his birth certificate. Would she have needed to have one to take him back to Ireland on the ship??

Birth records in Ontario are not publicly accessible until 100 years after the birth.

Death records are accessible earlier than that, which is why the 1929 death is on line. The lucky thing is that most records indexed on line show the deceased person's parents' name, as here.

It seems that John and Margaret had a child before your John, and that child died in infancy.

Remember that the info given in a death record is only as good as the information provided by the person who reported it.

Margaret would not have had to prove that she was married. Not even when the birth itself was registered. Anyway it doesn't say they were married, I think. It just says the parents' names.

I've lost the thread a little bit here, but Margaret travelled back to the UK as McKee not Kerr, so it seems they were not married.

Ontario marriages 1928-1929 are accessible on line. No marriage is showing. There are scads of marriages for the name John Kerr 1920-1929.

People did not generally need documentation for travelling the way we do today.


Sandra, the business about a professional guarantor is only if you are applying for your own birth certificate.

I copied the info about applying for a deceased person's birth certificate, above.

Your father's death certificate + your birth certificate showing he was your father should be adequate. They will tell you anything else, it seems. I have never done this, I'm just reading the instructions. :-)

Ancestry has Canadian electoral rolls but only 1935 to 1975. There are so many John Kerrs there, just like everywhere else, that it would be impossible to identify him, even if you found one with a wife Margaret. And in my experience searching those lists, women in the early days were called "Mrs John Kerr" on the lists anyway.

I just wanted to confirm that the 1926 passenger list that Jonnie posted for Margaret going to Canada is correct:

Name: Margaret McKee
Gender: Female
Age: 19
Birth Date: abt 1907
Occ: Housekeeper
Last UK Address: Crosshill Co. Antrim
Intended permanent residence: Canda
Departure Date: 8 May 1926
Port of Departure: Belfast, Northern Ireland
Destination Port: Quebec, Canada
Ship Name: Metagama
Shipping line: Canadian Pacific Railway
Official Number: 136791
Master: A Freer

AustinQ

I am guessing that this is Margaret , it really has to be her. I have found the baby's death certificate and the father's address is noted as

580 Ontario Street. The baby was born in St.Marys Hospital and died at less than 1 day old of acute dilatation of the heart. It was buried in Mt.Hope, undertaker J.A.Connors

Quite a lot of info there.
Is there any way I can find out information on John kerr with having his address?

Just out of interest, these are 576, 578, 580 etc Ontario Street today:


http://www.rootschat.com/links/01ihl/

1921 census did not show anyone related at that address ..........

Dea Xxx

Patchem = I saw that, it was nice to see where he was born.

Dea - Maragaret didn't immigrate until 1926. Would she have had to put an actual address that she was going too at that time?

Sandra...Just a thought....If Margaret required a passport to go to Canada she would have had it in the name McKee..absolutely nothing to stop her using the same passport to travel back to Ireland even if she was married.

Of course, you are right. She would have had a passport.

Well my husband has had a brainwave! My Dad used to say that his mum & dad eloped to Canada to get married, as they were not permitted to wed at home. He said one was wealthy and one was poor.

Now my theory is - Margaret McKee came from a family of staunch Presbyterians. The infant who died was buried in Hope St. Catholic Cemetery, so presumably John Kerr was Catholic!
There are several families of Kerr's living in Co.Antrim, who care Catholic. I totally discounted them as possibilities and was looking for Presbyterians!! These Kerr's were farmers, who might have had money.

I think John went on ahead, as he was not on the ship with Margaret. He might have got somewhere to live and employment before sending her the money to come over.

Can someone with access to the passenger records look for a John McKee going to Canada, before Margaret did in 1926 please? :-D :-D

Some passenger lists do give information about the person a passenger is going to, and the address. All the 1926 list says for Margaret is that she is 19, a housekeeper, and intending to reside permanently in Canada.


There are a couple of possibles for John 1922-1926 if he sailed from Belfast - others if he sailed from elsewhere.
this looks the most likely

Name: John E Kerr
Gender: Male
Age: 23
Birth Date: abt 1903
Departure Date: 24 Apr 1926
Port of Departure: Belfast, Northern Ireland
Destination Port: Quebec, Canada
Ship Name: Montcalm

(although it would not have left time to land and get a message back to Margaret or anything like that before she sailed on 8 May)

age 23
last address Linghill Roses Lane Ends, Co. Antrim
occupation farming
country of last permanent residence N Ireland
intended country of residence Canada

(we can get you these images once things are sorted out)


there is a photo of Roses Lane Ends here (it is in Glenavy, it says ... I don't know the geography):

https://familysearch.org/photos/artifacts/6512743

edit - aha, google maps says:

Glenavy
Crumlin
UK

it is about a mile south of Crumlin and the Crumlin Rd runs through it.


There is a John Edward Kerr in this household in 1911:

http://www.census.nationalarchives.ie/pages/1911/Antrim/Legatirriff/Lurgill/198996/

Residents of a house 27 in Lurgill (Legatirriff, Antrim)

Kerr Jane Anna 45 Female Head of Family Presbyterian Belfast - Married
Kerr Elizabeth 18 Female Daughter Presbyterian Belfast
Kerr Thomas S 17 Male Son Presbyterian Belfast Grocer
Kerr Samuel S 16 Male Son Presbyterian Belfast Grocer
Kerr Mary 12 Female Daughter Presbyterian Belfast Scholar
Kerr Herbert 11 Male Son Presbyterian Belfast Scholars
Kerr John Edward 8 Male Son Presbyterian Belfast Scholar
Kerr Henry Desmond 2 Male Son Presbyterian Co Antrim -

google finds me that Legatirriff is in Ballinderry civil parish - and Ballinderry is about 3 miles farther south from Glenavy

https://www.townlands.ie/antrim/legatirriff/


https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FBKV-83J

Name John Edward Kerr ?
Event Type Birth
Event Date Jul - Sep 1902
Event Place Belfast, Ireland
Registration Quarter and Year Jul - Sep 1902
Registration District Belfast
Volume Number 1
Page Number 371