Emerald Isle Ancestors

(https://upload.wikimedia.org/wikipedia/commons/8/82/Kilbennan_St._Benin%27s_Church_Window_St._Patrick_Detail_2010_09_16.jpg)

This is a day of long tradition, Irish tradition;  a day that that people enjoy celebrating whether they have Irish roots or not. 'Lá Fhéile Pádraig' is held on March 17th which is the traditional date of the death of St.Patrick, a patron saint of Ireland who apparently was taken to Ireland as a slave, escaped back to his family, but later returned as a missionary to convert the Irish to Christianity and free the country of snakes. It is an unusual story and it is not known whether the snakes were actual, or perhaps a religious metaphor for 'pagans'. St. Patrick is one of the three patron saints of Ireland and is buried in Down Cathedral in Downpatrick. 

(https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Saint_Patrick%27s_grave_Downpatrick.jpg)

This celebration was documented to have been observed in New France by Irish soldiers serving in the British army in 1759. Montreal has had a St. Patrick's day parade since 1824, and Newfoundland will celebrate the occasion today, Sunday, and have a local holiday tomorrow. I am not sure whether there is the same component of religious remembrance now or if it is simply a celebration of all things green.

My sweetie Lynn O'Beaudoin 

For me, it is a reminder of an immigrant past. I have spent many hours climbing the branches of my family tree. My father's direct blood line leads back to my 3 times great grandfather who was born in Yorkshire, England, while my mother's maternal line draws from a Huguenot past. Dad always thought that there were Irish roots and that they came from his grandfather Thornton (my maiden name). I discovered that that said grandfather, Francis Leonard Thornton, had married Margaret Nixon, and her father, Hugh, was born in Ireland. So there is my Irish immigrant ancestor. 

 (Great grandfather Francis is on the right hand side behind his wife Maggie Nixon in this scan of a tiny tintype photograph found in the Nixon Bible)

In the tiny graveyard where Hugh and much of his family are buried, there are  stones for James and Ann Nixon, who, given the dates on the stones, the style of the stones and the proximity of the all these stones, leads me to believe that James and Ann would be my 3 times great grandparents. I have not seen any documents at this time to confirm this but I think that it is a safe assumption. 

(It can be noted that Ann was made of stern stuff because according to this gravestone inscription,she lived to the venerable age of 104 years!)

The only link to a place in Ireland that I have seen, is the gravestone of Hugh's older brother, George, which refers to him as a 'Native of Tyrone Co. Ireland'. This is only specific enough to place my roots in one of the six counties of Northern Ireland. 

The next thing that I know for sure, is that Hugh Nixon married Matilda King in 1830. This particular document was not especially helpful for a granddaughter looking for information almost 200 years later, and does not give parents names or places of birth like most later documents of this sort would provide. So while  it confirms a marriage and a date, it only tells me that sometime between when Hugh was born in 1802ish, and 1830, he arrived in Canada. 

(May 5th 1830   'Celebrated marriage by license, between High Nixonof the Township of Esquesing in the Gore District, Upper Canada, bachelor and Matilda King of Etobicoke, Home District, spinster.')

Most overseas travelers arrived in Quebec City and the transcripts of ship's lists this early mostly note a number of passengers and a point of origin. The St. Lawrence Seaway was many years in the future so coming up the river with its many rapids would have been as perilous as crossing the ocean. They did however end up safely in Halton County, Ontario, and established families and homes. This was prior to the potato famine and the later religious troubles, so it is unknown what prompted a journey that left everyone and everything that was loved and familiar, to come to an unknown place and future. Remarkable really, the courage it took to make a journey of this magnitude.

Hugh and Matilda's family deaths as recorded in the Nixon Bible. 

My great grandparents Francis Leonard Thornton and Maggie Nixon Thornton later in life at their home in Toronto.

So on this unique day, I remember Hugh Nixon, about whom I know so little but who is my genetic and ancestral connection to a land across the ocean. It is important to remember that most people who live on this continent do so because of immigrant ancestors, and that they brought with them beliefs and traditions which we now celebrate. Happy St. Patrick's Day!