Remembering Our Ancestors at Christmas and the New Year

Latta Ancestry – Emigration from the United States to Canada

John Latta (1782-1846) and Susannah Pitman (1783-1854)

John William Latta (1782-1846)

When John William Latta was born on August 11, 1782, in Manhattan, New York, United States, his father, William John Latta (1761-1796) and his mother, Anne Jackson (1761-1847), were both 21 years old. It is noteworthy that William John Latta was born in Ireland and emigrated to the United States with his parents about 1768 at the age of 7 years.

John William Latta married Susannah Pitman on November 17, 1800, when he was 18 years old at Adulphustown, Lennox Addington Prince Edward, Ontario (known as Upper Canada at the time). The family tree of John William Latta and Susannah Pitman shows that they had 13 children (6 boys and 7 girls) over a 30-year period. Our direct Latta lineage is with Gilbert James Latta (1822-1906), who was their youngest son.

Family of John William Latta and Susannah Pitman
(click to enlarge)

According to family records, John William Latta was a Quaker. He moved to Canada where he acquired and developed the Latta Mills property in 1833. He put up a flour mill, saw mills and a factory about 11 miles north of Belleville, Ontario. There, he followed the trade of his ancestors in manufacturing flour.

Latta Mills Painting

Latta Mills Ruins (click to enlarge)

John William Latta died of dropsy on December 5, 1846, in Latta Mills (pictured above), Thurlow, Hastings County, Ontario, Canada, at the age of 64. He is buried at Denyes Cemetery. In his will, dated April 5, 1847, he leaves all his property to his sons Archibald and Gilbert Latta.

Susannah Pitman (1783-1854)

When Susannah Pitman was born about 1783 in North Hero, Vermont, United States, her father, Russell Pitman (1750-1815), was 33, and her mother, Diannah Fraser (1760-1837), was 23. Susannah was the oldest of 5 children in their family (3 girls and 2 boys).

Family of  Russell Pitman and  Diannah Fraser

According to the 1851 Canada Census, Susannah Pitman (age 68) was living with her son Archibald Latta. She died about 1854 in Thurlow, Ontario, at the age of 71, and was buried there.

Latta Ancestry – Four Generations in Canada (Part 4)

Gilbert James Latta (1822-1906) and Margaret Ann O’Donnell (1820-1912)

Gilbert James Latta (1822-1906)

Gilbert James Latta was born on December 15, 1822 in Hastings, Ontario. He was the first in the Latta ancestry to be born in Canada. At that time, his father, John William Latta (1782-1846), and his mother, Susannah Pitman (1782-1846), were both 40 years of age. The family tree shows that Gilbert was their youngest son and one of 13 children (6 boys and 7 girls). According to family records, John William Latta originally moved from the United States to Canada where he acquired and developed the Latta Mills property in 1833. He willed the property to his two youngest sons, Archibald and Gilbert upon his death in 1846.

Family of John William Latta and Susannah Pitman
(click to enlarge)

The Ontario marriage registration records indicate that, when he was 20 years old, Gilbert Latta married Margaret O'Donnell on June 13, 1843 in Victoria, Talbot, Ontario. The marriage was performed by Rev. John Douse and the witnesses were Charles and Elisabeth Harper.

Gilbert Latta and Margaret O'Donnell - Marriage Record 1843

Margaret Ann O'Donnell and Gilbert James Latta

The 1851 Canada Census (Canada West, Hastings County, Thurlow Township) records that Gilbert was a farmer. It notes that he was born in Canada and his wife, Margaret, was born in Ireland. The 1861 Canada Census states that Gilbert was 40 years old, a lumberman by trade and a Bible Christian by religion. It also states that Gilbert’s wife, Margaret, was born in Ireland. The 1871 Canada Census records that Gilbert was a miller and by the 1891 Canada Census, Gilbert was a teamster.

According to the 1910 US Census, Gilbert and Margaret had moved to North Dakota, USA in 1905. That Census confirms that Margaret (age 90, therefore born in 1820) was living with the family of her youngest daughter, Margaret Jane Latta (1863-1952) who had married Robert Mitchell (1860-1941), a harness maker who owned his own shop.

Gilbert James Latta died on October 28, 1906, in Hunter, Cass County, North Dakota, USA, having lived a long life of 83 years, and was buried there at Hunter Cemetery.

Margaret Ann O’Donnell (1820-1912)

Margaret Ann O'Donnell was born on April 15, 1820, in Cork, Ireland. Little is known about her parents or family history but she came to Canada in 1838. She married Gilbert James Latta on June 13, 1843, when she was 23 years old. Between 1843 and 1863, they had seven children. Their family comprised 4 boys and 3 girls. The first-born son, John, died as an infant. The direct Latta lineage continues with the youngest son, James Gilbert Latta (1852-1938).

Family of Gilbert Latta and Margaret O'Donnell

As previously mentioned, Gilbert and Margaret had moved to North Dakota, USA in 1905. The 1910 US Census records that Margaret lived in Hunter, North Dakota, USA, that she was widowed at that time and that her relation to Head of House was mother-in-law.

Margaret Ann O'Donnell died on April 6, 1912, in North Dakota, USA at the impressive age of 91 years (a few days before her 92^nd birthday). She was buried in Hunter Cemetery in Hunter, Cass County, North Dakota, along with her husband.

Latta Ancestry – Four Generations in Canada (Part 3)

James Gilbert Latta (1852-1938) and Julia Ann Latta (1856-1946)

James Gilbert Latta was born in Latta, Hastings County, Ontario on March 12, 1852. His mother, Margaret Ann O'Donnell (1820-1912) who was born in Ireland, was 31 years of age. His father, Gilbert James Latta (1822-1906) who was born in Canada, was 29 years old. The following chart shows that he was the sixth of seven children (4 boys and 3 girls) and the youngest son. According to the 1901 Canada Census, James Gilbert was a sawyer in the lumber industry.

Family of Gilbert James Latta and Margaret Ann O'Donnell 

The Ontario Marriage Record (#003433) indicates that James G. Latta married his cousin Julia A. Latta on November 26, 1874 in Plainsfield, Hastings County, Ontario.

James G. Latta and Julia A. Latta - Marriage Record, 1874

James Gilbert and Julia Ann Latta

Their family chart shows that James Gilbert and Julia Ann had nine children in 16 years. In combination, the 1891 and 1901 Canada Census data states that James Gilbert and Julia Ann had the following children: Walter James (1873), Robert (1878), Bertie (1880), Maggie (1882), Millie (1884), and Norman (1889). In 1891, three more people were living in that household: their son Hulen (August 12, 1875), Sarah (Hulen’s wife born on June 30, 1881), and their son James G. (March 18, 1901).

Family of James Gilbert and Julia Ann Latta

When Julia Ann Latta was born in Latta Mills, Hastings County, Ontario on February 20, 1856, her father, Samuel Latta (1809-1885), was 47 and her mother, Caroline Stapley (1815-1890), was 40. The following chart shows that Julia Ann was the youngest of nine children in the family (5 girls and 4 boys). She died on March 28, 1946, in Thurlow Township, Hastings County, Ontario, at the age of 90.

Family of Samuel Latta and Caroline Stapley

Family Memoirs

According to the family memoirs written by their grandson, James Cyril Latta, “James Gilbert Latta and his wife Julia Ann were popular and well-loved members of the village community. They were members of the United Church and Gibby, as he was known, was a member of the Orange Lodge (for over sixty -five years). She was called Julie. They were first cousins. She was the daughter of Samuel Latta, the brother of Gibby’s father, Gilbert James Latta. They lived in the village of Latta, just across the road from the old gristmill. When Gibby retired, they packed up and moved to Plainsfield (two miles down the road).”

“Gibby worked all of his life in the lumber industry, both in the field and at his father’s lumber mill in Latta. The Latta’s owned timber rights north of Tweed as did E.B. Eddy and the Rathburns of Desoronto. Every fall and winter many men were employed in the lumber camps to send logs down the river in the Spring to various mills, even as far south as Belleville. By the late 1880’s local timber stocks were growing thin and the lumber industry moved further and further north. Gibby, an experienced sawyer and mill operator, always found work.” On February 8, 1893, the Belleville Intelligencer reported in “PLAINSFIELD NEWS:  J.G. Latta and his son (Walter) who have been employed by the Georgian Bay Lumber Company at Walmapactic, have arrived home.”

According to the Ontario Death Certificate (018537) shown below, James Gilbert Latta died of liver cancer on November 25, 1938 at 86 years old. He was buried in Plainsfield, Thurlow Township, Hastings County, Ontario.

James Gilbert Latta - Death Certificate 1938

Latta Ancestry – Four Generations in Canada (Part 2)

Walter James Latta (1873-1932) and Sadie Elizabeth Coulson (1881-1941)

Walter James Latta was born on August 12, 1873 in Hungerford, Hastings East, Ontario, Canada. His father, James Gilbert Latta (1852-1938), was 21 and his mother, Julia Ann Latta (1856-1946) was 17. Walter was the first-born son and first of nine children. He became a cheesemaker (chaumber) by trade.

Walter James Latta - Family Tree

Walter James Latta and Sadie Elizabeth Coulson

On October 19, 1898, Walter James Latta married Sadie Elizabeth Coulson in his hometown (a copy of the Ontario Marriage Registration is provided below) . They had two children. The Ontario Birth Records indicate that James Cyril Latta was born on March 18, 1901 in Thurlow, Northumberland, Ontario. Marjorie Uldean Latta was born in Toronto, Ontario on April 28, 1905.

Sadie Elizabeth Coulson, c.1898

Sadie Elizabeth Coulson was born on June 30, 1881, in Hungerford, Hastings East, Ontario, Canada. Her mother Harriet Ann Sexsmith (1853-1923) was 28, and her father Richard Coulson (1847-1928), who came from Ireland as a baby in 1847, was 33 years old. 

The family photograph taken about 1891 shows they had 9 children at that time. The photograph was taken at Thomasburg, Tweed, Ontario Canada (Back Row: Sadie (Sarah), Mary Mabel, Ellen, Jennie (Jane), Annie May. Middle row: Richard, Thomas and Harriet Front row: Hattie Gertrude, Alice, John Earl).

Richard Coulson, Harriet Ann Sexsmith and Family

According to the Ontario Death Certificate (see below), Walter James Latta died on April 3, 1932 at the age of 58 in Healy Falls, Northumberland, Ontario. He was suffering from acute myocarditis (inflammation of the heart muscle). His son, James Cyril Latta signed as the informant.

Walter James Latta - Ontario Death Certificate 1932 

According to the Florida Death Index, Sadie Elizabeth Coulson died in 1941 at the age of 59, in Osceola, Florida, United States.

Latta Ancestry – Four Generations in Canada (Part 1)

Four Generations of Latta Men in Canada, c.1906

The Latta family emigrated from Ireland to the United States in 1768 and then came to Canada in 1833 (refer to the previous post about the Latta Ancestry – Ireland to Canada). In the above photograph, four generations of our direct Latta lineage in Canada are gathered together:

1.          Gilbert James Latta (1822-1906),seated
2.          James Gilbert Latta (1852-1938), left rear
3.          Walter James Latta (1873-1932),right rear
4.          James Cyril Latta (1901–1986) at 5 years of age. 

The stories of these four generations of Latta men are based on family history and Ontario vital records (birth, marriage and death).

James Cyril Latta (1901–1986) and Jane Evelyn Sexsmith (1902-1996)

The Ontario Birth Records indicate that James Cyril Latta was born on March 18, 1901 in Thurlow, Ontario. He was the first-born and only son of Walter James Latta (1873-1932) and Sadie Elizabeth Coulson (1881-1941). Cyril had only one sister, Marjorie Uldean Latta, who was born in Toronto, Ontario on April 28, 1905.

James Cyril Latta Family Tree

On September 7, 1931, James Cyril Latta (1901–1986) married Jane Evelyn Sexsmith (1902-1996), who was known as Jennie. The Ontario Birth Records also show that Jennie Sexsmith was born on September 26, 1902, the daughter of Henry Sexsmith (1866-1940) and Minnie Brown. Cyril and Jennie had one son, Wayne, in 1935.

As the following ancestry chart shows, Jennie and Cyril were both related to Jane Rath (1823-1917) who was born in Enniscorthy, Ireland. Jennie was the great-granddaughter and Cyril was the great-grandson. For more information on the Rath family history, refer to the Genealogy Report – Descendants of Henry Rath prepared by Dave and Lucille Wright, November 2004.

James Cyril Latta - Ancestry

Cyril and Jennie were both graduates of the Ontario Business College in Belleville, Ontario. Jennie worked at the Tweed Theatre and the Tweed News Office. Cyril was a salesman for WearEver Aluminum cookware throughout Ontario. He would put on a home demonstration-cooking the whole meal-on top of the stove using WearEver pots. Included in the meal was roast beef, vegetables, and a wonderful chocolate cake “baked” in a frying pan on top of the stove. The cookware was “waterless cooking.”

During the second World War, Cyril and Jennie worked at the Battawa factory making war materials. He returned to aluminum sales after the war. In his later years, he worked at the “new” liquor store in Tweed and was the Bailiff for Central Hastings. Cyril loved to hunt, fish and sell!

Cyril Latta died on June 19, 1986 at the age of 85. Jennie Sexsmith died on December 9, 1996 in Picton, Ontario at the age of 94.

Cyril Latta and Jennie Sexsmith Headstone

McConnell Ancestry – The Story of the Quinn and Saunders Ancestral Farms: Crew Townlands, Glenavy, County Antrim, c1840

The Crew Townlands are located a few miles southwest of Glenavy, County Antrim, Northern Ireland, via the Crewe Rd. It was here that William Harold Quinn (1789-1850) and his wife Elizabeth (Betsy) Saunders (1798-1863) owned a modest flax farm, where their 10 children were born (view details of the family tree online).

The Quinn farm was an average size, 17 Irish acres, 1 rood, 12 perches which is about 28 of our acres. Our acre is 4840, while an Irish acre is 7840 sq. yards, (1.62 times larger.)

The old Quinn home (Lot #12) is the barn on the right and it still stands at 53 Crewe Rd, Glenavy, Crumlin BT29 4NG, UK. It’s well worth a look on Google/streetview.

William and Elizabeth, along with their entire family, emigrated to Percy Township, Northumberland County, Canada West (Ontario) in the early 1840s. Their daughter, Mary Quinn, married James Allen McConnell in Dummer Township, Peterborough County, in August 1844. The Saunders brothers, John and William, left neighbouring farms and emigrated at about the same time. New owners were recorded in the Crew allotment records. Little trace of either the Quinn or Saunders families remained and the past was murky.

To learn more about the Irish ancestry of the Quinn and Saunders Ancestral Farms in Crew Townlands, Glenavy, County Antrim, download the article by Dan L. Reid, 2017 and visit the following online sites:

• Glenavy History

• Crew Townlands

• Crew Townland Map

• “Glenavy: Past and Present” compiled by Charles Watson, 1892

• “Glenavy: Church of the Dwarf 1868-1968” by Rev. Patrick J. McKavanagh.