As we pause to remember the 1917 on Remembrance Day 2017, this blog posting recognizes seven men in the Fleming Family Tree who were soldiers in the Canadian Expeditionary Force during World War 1. The digitization by Library and Archives Canada (LAC) of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) personnel service files and the War Diaries in which are recorded the daily events of the battalions give us access to a great deal of information. Four Fleming members fought in France and survived; three were very lucky and never saw action. No lives were lost. Continue reading
Resources
Rural Diaries
Good news: The Rural Diary Archive, a project at the University of Guelph to showcase rural life in Ontario 1850 to 1900 through diaries, has added two Fleming diaries to its online collection. Many thanks to the Library and Department of History at the University of Guelph.
Jennie Fleming kept a diary of her trip by train to Toronto and Bowmanville in June 1869, and jotted some notes about her return voyage from Marquette, Michigan in 1871. Her profile page is at https://ruraldiaries.lib.uoguelph.ca/jean-jennie-fleming
Roy Fleming, her nephew, when only 12 years of age, kept a short entry diary throughout 1891, the year his mother died. It’s poignant and informative about rural living from a young person’s view. https://ruraldiaries.lib.uoguelph.ca/roy-franklin-fleming
Scans of both diaries are available, as well as transcriptions of the content accompanied by explanatory notes. Click on the Browse tab to locate the images and transcriptions.
More diaries can be easily discovered by reviewing the list of diarists. Filter by county, ethnicity, religion or occupation.
For Meaford in Grey County, Mary (Williams) Trout appears. Married to James Trout, a land agent in Trout and Jay and a prominent member of the Church of Disciples of Christ, she also figures into Fleming Family history because her sister, Elizabeth, married William Fleming. Mary kept a diary from 1867 to 1920 about her family, the church, and activities. Occasionally Mary mentions her sister “Lib”, children Lincoln and Ottie, and trips to Owen Sound. The Rural Diary Archive has posted the 1867 diary. The complete set of scans and transcriptions is online at the Grey Roots Museum and Archives site: Mary Williams Trout: Diaries of a small town lady.
Birth, Marriages, and Deaths
Much can be learned from the announcements in newspapers for births, marriages, and deaths. For marriages, in addition to the names of married couple, the location, and name of the presiding minister, the notice might mention the number of guests and names of attendants. Birth notices were much less informative – limited in most cases to the father’s name, the date, and the gender. Obituaries vary widely, from a sparse statement of name, date, place, to more effusive ones with a brief biography and names of immediate family.
For the Fleming families of Derby Township and Owen Sound we turn to the papers published in Owen Sound from 1850 onward. Thankfully, the Bruce and Grey Branch Ontario Genealogy Society has transcribed these announcements to CD ROMs that may be purchased from the branch or may be viewed at the Toronto Public Library, the Owen Sound Public Library, and perhaps others. [Price list: https://brucegrey.ogs.on.ca/?page_id=62 ] Continue reading
A History of Scotland
If you are interested in the history of Scotland, especially as background for the Fleming heritage, check out TV Ontario programming. TVO is rerunning the TV series produced by BBC in 2008 and 2009. The story begins with the Picts, and passes through several bloody centuries of conflict and turmoil to the Stuarts and further trials to the present. Videos to date on this run may be seen at http://www.tvo.org/programs/a-history-of-scotland
The Flemings of Derby Township 