The Janet Calder Mystery

The posts that I have been writing in this Calder Family Research Blog have basically revolved around the story that Robert L. Lake told just prior to his death in 1982. He was very clear in his recollections about the Calder family descendants, his grandmothers family, for example he was able to name all of Elizabeth Calder Smith’s children; he knew that Nina Calder had married twice and had children of both marriages and their names etc. Robert new there was a sister Charlotte who is even a bigger mystery than Janet is but we have to start some place.

Robert Lake believed, Janet Calder was born in the United States subsequent research places her birth about 1843, but no record has ever been found to-date that would tend to confirm this. Robert said the only information he had ever known was that she married a MORGAN, no evidence that this was a first name or for that matter whether Morgan was his first or last name.

It wasn’t until relatively recently when a lead was developed through the Smith Family line that opened the possibility that Janet or Jennett Calder may not have come to the United States at all. Documents that have been located indicate that a family of 4 Calder’s migrated from Scotland they were, John, Elizabeth, Elizabeth and Christianna, to Lancaster, Glengarry Co., Ontario Canada.

The Canadian Census of 1851 of Lancaster identifies John the towns Blacksmith and his family along with all of the individuals important to our Calder story; however that is getting ahead of the overall picture at this point we will get back to this.

The potential is that Janet stayed in Canada and did not migrate to the US as her sister's did or may have in a different area; information has not been developed at this point to support either theory.

Calder Sisters in the 1870 Census

When we left off, I said that there were three important notations for the Calder family which had been made in the 1870 census. Two of these notations were obvious, and required very little interpretation, the other require much more investigation.

The first involve two sister Charlotte and Nina (pronounced Ni’nah) Robert Lake had said that two of his aunts had been domestics in households in Gouverneur NY, at one point in time. The census of 1870 identifies both Charlotte and Nina fulfilling that role in different residents, during this time period.

The oldest sister Elizabeth is the third sister found in the census she was identified by Robert Lake as having married James J. Smith also of Gouverneur, NY and beginning her family. Now you are probably thinking, wait just a minute didn’t I read earlier in this blog that Christie Calder Lake was living in a Smith residence 10 years before this? You would be right! You did, however until just recently I was unable to make any connection between the Smith Family that Joseph Lake’s sister married into and Christie Calder was living with and the Smith Family that Elizabeth Calder married into. I will demonstrate that connection later in the blog when we get to that area of the story.

Nina Calder entered service in the home of William and Polly Walling and was living in the home during the 1870 census as a domestic, between this point in time and the census of 1880 Nina married Charles Fry, had a Child Ella Mae, was divorces and married Henry Quackenbush. That marriage ended in 1883 upon the untimely death of Henry; there were two children that resulting of their brief marriage. Nina left New York State after Henry’s death and went to Grand Rapids, Michigan where she died in 1896 of a Kidney Infection following surgery.

Charlotte Calder entered service in the home of John and Elizabeth Pooler and was living in the home during the 1870 census and a domestic. Not much is known about Charlotte the next time she is scene is in the 1880 census in Antwerp, Jefferson Co., and New York she is identified as Lottie Calder, parents born in Scotland, she being born in Ontario Canada. She is working as a domestic in the home of George Dains, and his wife who is the principal of a school in Antwerp. Charlotte is not found in any research after that point; I am still attempting to track down what happened to her but nothing has come of it to date.

We will continue with the 1880 census and the introduction of other researchers working on the same problems next time.

Researching Christie Calder and Joseph Lake

The most practical place to start the research story from my perspective is kind of in the middle and work out from there, the work on the Calder Family Group has been some of the most challenging that I have seen. The abundant name changes (see link entitled “Name Scrabble” at the bottom of the page.) and the lack of records has made this work very slow going indeed. In recent years material has been more available on line, networking resources such as email and message boards, and now social networks are providing information at an ever faster rate. Some days it isn’t fast enough and anyone how has pounded their head against the "brick walls" of genealogical research know exactly what I mean.

So let us begin Christie Calder came from Scotland at the age of about 3 she lived the majority of her life in Jefferson County New York married Joseph J. Lake.

The issue, in this line of research was the only information to follow up on was an interview conducted with Christie's grandson Robert L. Lake b. 1902. During that interview he identified his grandmother as Christie Ann Calder, that she was born in Scotland about 1840; and arrived in “this country” when she was of about 3. The problem became that no one had any records of her, she wasn’t listed in the Natural Bridge records, there had been fires that destroyed allot of information in the surrounding area. The genealogical library in Watertown, NY had no record of that were helpful in any of their rather large holdings. It wasn’t until we were able to access the LDS 1880 census records and found that Christie had changed her name to Ann, then the information started to flow like water.

With the ability, provided by Ancestry.com to search census records and other vital record I was able to locate Ann Calder age 19 in the 1860 census, in the home of Morris G. and Orrissa Jane Smith of Gouverneur, St. Lawrence Co., New York. In and of itself finding a 19 year old Calder female in Gouverneur NY is not that exciting, but when you combine that with the fact that Orrissa Jane Smith’s maiden name was LAKE and her brother was Joseph J. Lake then things get a bit more interesting. Between 1860 and 1863 Christie and Joseph are married their first child Harvey Jesse is born, before the census of 1870 two more child Lavinia and Lottie are born.
The census of 1870 and 1880 the information is somewhat mundane nothing more than what would be expect, Christie remains identified by her middle name. There were three important things about the 1870 census as they apply to the Calder family; three of Christie’s sisters make their first appearance in the census documents.

We will continue on next time …………………

http://sdlgenresearch.blogspot.com/2008/07/name-scrabble.html (Name Scabble)

Posts at Lake Family Research Project

These posts have information relavant to the Calder Family research.

http://sdlgenresearch.blogspot.com/2008/07/3-generations-chart-of-harvey-jesse.html

http://sdlgenresearch.blogspot.com/2008/07/name-scrabble.html

Christie Ann Calder and Joseph J. Lake the research beginning

Calder Family research began for my father and I when we visited his Great Uncle Robert Lake in an assisted living facility in Upstate New York. Uncle Bob was well into his 80’s at the time but very sharp; he was able to relate details of the past very clearly. He was born in 1902 and never met his grandmother as she had passed two years after his birth and his grandfather Joseph died the year after he was born. So much of the information that he was able to relate was from other sources, his parents, and relatives of the day.

Bob had said that Christie Ann Calder came to this country from Scotland when she was about 3 years old with her mother and father. He was unsure how many siblings were also with them at the time, but he said ultimately there were 4 other sisters. Elizabeth Calder, who married James Smith, from Gouverneur, NY had several children and lived out life in that town. Great Uncle Robert said that there was a Janet Calder, who married a Morgan, but he didn’t have any other information on what happened to them. Charlotte Calder was another mystery: she was in Gouverneur, NY and that area, but he did not know what had happened to her. The last sister that he knew about was Nina Calder and she first married Charles Fry and had one daughter, Ella Mae, before they were divorced. She then married Henry Quackenbush, and they had two children, Emmit and Clara. After Henry passed away Nina moved away, and Uncle Bob wasn’t sure what had happened to her after that .

This is basically how the story of the Calder research began for me and that interview took place in the late 1970’s. Bob died in 1982. Subsequent research has proven that the vast majority of Bob’s statements were indeed fact; there were some things that he may have not known or had forgotten over time that I will document in further posts.

Welcome to the Calder Genealogy Blog!!

Welcome to the Calder Genealogy blog. I have created this place to open a discussion with other researchers working on Calder Family Genealogy who may have similar issues to mine or are part of the John Calder and Elizabeth Forbes Calder family. At the present time the following family lines directly descend from these two individuals:

Lake, Fry, Smith, Morgan, Quackenbush.

However, since there is very little information about several of John and Elizabeth’s children at this point, there may come a time when research advances us to increase the initial direct lines list. As we progress through this research project and history of our family the subgroups and hopefully more primary groups will be discovered and discussed.

My hope is that this will turn into a useful research tool.