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Research in Other Countries => United States of America => Topic started by: Suzy W on Sunday 09 February 25 22:37 GMT (UK)
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Good Day
A little help please. I have a child born 1912 in Glasgow Scotland. His mother was only 16 at the time, she didn't list the fathers name only hers. She later married and moved to Canada under her married name with her sister...no son listed with her on her travels.
Seems as if her son was adopted out and his name changed. from John McCallum to Stewart Harris in Ohio. 1920 Census records are all a lie, "step grandson" and states he was born in Cedarville, Greene, Ohio, which he wasn't.
A DNA match has confirmed this is the man in question.
How does one go about looking for adoption records from 100 years ago? Will it list his mother's name, date etc when it happened?
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Sorry - wrong info
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Oh it looks like he was adopted in Canada. Then moved to the U.S.
Name Stewart Harris
Sex Male
Age 6
Birth Year (Estimated) 1912
Event Type Immigration
Event Date 24 May 1918
Event Place Niagara Falls, Niagara, New York, United States
Event Place (Original) Niagara Falls New York
Record Type Manifests
Line Number 1
Affiliate Film Number m1464_351
Affiliate Publication Number M1464
Affiliate Publication Title Manifests of Passengers Arriving in the St. Albans, VT, District through Canadian Pacific and Atlantic Ports, 1895-1954
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His mother was only 16 at the time, she didn't list the fathers name only hers. She later married and moved to Canada under her married name with her sister...no son listed with her on her travels.
What was the mother's name?
Who did she marry?
When did she move to Canada?
What was her sister's name?
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Oh it looks like he was adopted in Canada. Then moved to the U.S.
Name Stewart Harris
Sex Male
Age 6
Birth Year (Estimated) 1912
Event Type Immigration
Event Date 24 May 1918
Event Place Niagara Falls, Niagara, New York, United States
Event Place (Original) Niagara Falls New York
Record Type Manifests
Line Number 1
Affiliate Film Number m1464_351
Affiliate Publication Number M1464
Affiliate Publication Title Manifests of Passengers Arriving in the St. Albans, VT, District through Canadian Pacific and Atlantic Ports, 1895-1954
This child was born in Ontario and was travelling with his mother Mary.
There is a birth certificate for him in York Ontario. Father - Thomas Harris; mother Mary Stewart.
I don't believe he can be the one you are looking for.
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Janet McCallum is the mothers name, she married a Arthur Goodyear from Canada in 1917.
Name Janet Patterson Barbara Goodyear, and sister Jean Robertson Gulliver with her.
Sex Female
Age 23
Residence Place Ayr, Scotland
Marital Status Married
Nationality Great Britain, Scottish
Additional Person's Name Mrs M Mccallum
Event Type Immigration
Event Date 03 Aug 1918
Event Place Ellis Island, New York City, New York, United States
Page Number 267
Series Number T715
Affiliate Publication Title Passenger and Crew Lists of Vessels Arriving at New York , NY, 1897-1957
Departure Port Southampton
Ship Name Olympic
Scotlands people has Janet as the mother of John born 1912, she used two names instead of adding fathers name, she used Janet Patterson and Janet McCallum.
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I would think that if an adoption took place, it was in Scotland, before the mother Janet left for the USA; and probably before she married in 1917.
Adoption was not legally formalised in Scotland until the 1930 Adoption of Children Act. Before that it would have been an informal arrangement.
What was the exact date of birth for the child, as seen on the Scottish birth certificate?
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I wouldn't call the census records a lie, as the information could have come from someone outside the family or the person giving the information didn't know the right terminology for what he was to them.
I guess you would need to see if he traveled to Canada as Stuart or John and/or how the adoptive parent(s) came to Canada. If they had taken him from Scotland to the US, it might have been easier or cheaper to get to Ohio by way of Canada.
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Oh it looks like he was adopted in Canada. Then moved to the U.S.
Name Stewart Harris
Sex Male
Age 6
Birth Year (Estimated) 1912
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This child was born in Ontario and was travelling with his mother Mary.
There is a birth certificate for him in York Ontario.
And his mother is listed under "Non-manifest debarred." Which doesn't sound good if you are trying to get into a country. I'd have to look further to see exactly what it meant, but it's late here now.
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for reference
Stewart Harris in 1920
1920
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDYJ-P4M?lang=en
With grandparents named Spencer and parents named Harris. or maybe a brother and sister named Harris, unknown which one Stewart belongs to.
So another avenue of research wd be to learn more about them.
Weird that he was born in Scotland and ended up in the middle of Ohio.
And from briefly scanning the suggested documents at ancestry, it seems he never said otherwise than that he was born in Ohio. So he must not have known ??
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I would guess that Stewart Harris of Cedarville, Ohio, in 1920, received that name in Ohio. This is his census information from 1920:
1920 Cedarville, Greene County, Ohio
Elmer Spencer, 46, married, born in Ohio, parents also, farmer, general farm
Mary F Spencer, 69?, married, born in Kentucky, parents also
Charles M Harris, 46, stepson, married, born in Ohio, father in Ohio, mother in Kentucky, farm laborer
Myrtle S Harris, 42, stepdaughter, married, born in Ohio, parents also
Stewart Harris, 7, stepgrandson, single, born in Ohio, parents also
Myrtle [something], 2y or 2m, lodger, born in Ohio, parents also
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MDYJ-P4M?lang=en
Charles and Myrtle were brother and sister, not husband and wife. Their mother Mary was previously married to John S Harris, a marshall in Cedarville who died in the line of duty. John S Harris' grandfather was named Stewart Harris. [Was John's middle name Stewart?] There is a Stewart Cemetery in the area. Here is a brief tree, based on the tree at familysearch, and a few findagrave sites. I didn't verify the information but it seems to hang together pretty well.
Evan Harris (1755 - 1836)
+ Rachel Stewart (1757 - 1838)
- Stewart Harris (1785 - 9 Jan 1869)
buried Stewart Cemetery, Bowersville, Greene County, OH
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/38574186/stewart_harris
+ Mary (1784 - 1852)
- Evan Harris (1805 - 1867)
+ Phoebe Smith
- William Harris
buried Stewart Cemetery, Bowersville, Greene County, OH
+ Elizabeth
- John S Harris, marshall (1849 - 1883)
+ Mary F Albright (c 1849 - )
her second: Elmer Spencer
- Charles M Harris (c 1874 - )
+ Belle Emma Cline
- Maude M Harris (1895 )
- Ilo B Harris (1897? )
- Stewart Harris (1912 - )
- Myrtle S Harris (c 1878 - )
Charles M Harris in familysearch tree
https://www.familysearch.org/en/tree/person/details/L4B3-RXQ
his wife, Belle Emma Cline, remarried in 1914. Daughter Maude is with Belle in 1920. Daughter Ilo is married by 1920, leaving Stewart with his father and grandmother.
Charles, Belle and daughters in Cedarville in 1910
Charles Harris, 37, - owner and manager of a restaurant
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:MLX3-MMR?lang=en
John S Harris at findagrave, but without his second wife, Mary F Albright
https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/21547143/john_s_harris
comment on greene county site discussing grandparents and brother of John S Harris:
"Within the family the last known residence of William and Elizabeth was on Dayton Hill in Xenia. William was the son of Evan Harris, who was first school teacher in Caesarcreek Twp. Evan was the son of Stuart Harris an early settler. Williams brother Marshall John S. Harris was the first lawman killed in Greene County (Cedarville). Both William and Elizabeth are buried in Stewart Cemetery, Bowersville. My grandmother Edythe Harris Davis was raised by William and Elizabeth at the residence listed in the dispute."
https://www.greenecountyohio.gov/Blog.aspx?IID=277
Which all means that the child born to Janet McCallum in Glasgow in 1912 most likely did not leave Scotland with the name Stewart Harris. Or Canada for that matter, if he was ever in Canada.
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Edited to add: this family has no apparent connection to Scotland for generations as far as I can see, so I don't think they received Stewart directly from there. I might be wrong though. My guess is they were looking for a farmhand and got Stewart somehow, legally or otherwise.
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Some questions you should ask yourself and try to answer:
Could Janet have given up the child soon after his birth?
Were there charitable organizations in Glasgow that would take him in?
Did he end up in a workhouse and then fostered out? Are there workhouse records?
Was there anything like the Home Children system that sent children from England to Canada, if I have the name of the system correct? Or did the Home Children include Scottish and Welsh children as well?
Was there some informal or illegal pipeline of children out of Scotland into Canada or the U.S.?
edited to add: On second thought, I think those are the questions you are asking us. :) I don't know enough about the British Isles to answer.
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And a question: You said Janet "used two names instead of adding fathers name, she used Janet Patterson and Janet McCallum." Do you mean on the birth certificate? So could the father of the child be a Mr. Patterson?
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I would think that if an adoption took place, it was in Scotland, before the mother Janet left for the USA; and probably before she married in 1917.
Adoption was not legally formalised in Scotland until the 1930 Adoption of Children Act. Before that it would have been an informal arrangement.
What was the exact date of birth for the child, as seen on the Scottish birth certificate?
The only John McCallum born in Glasgow from 1911 to 1913 with a mother's maiden name of McCallum that I found was
John Laird, born 14 September 1912, parents Charles Laird, farmer, and Mary McCallum, domestic servant.
In 1966 the surname of the child was changed to Fleming per a declaration of J. Fleming on 7 July 1966.
I tried phonetic and fuzzy matching also.
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Thank you all for your wonderful efforts.
I will sign off on this one as unknown.