Doherty and Dougherty: Electricity pioneers in Montreal

The interesting things that you find while randomly researching often become a-ha moments.

Lovell's Montreal City Directory 1908-1909

I knew from earlier research that in the first few years after he left McGill University, my grandfather established his professional career working as a manager at Hill Electric. He had studied electrical engineering, and a family tale had it that he--single-handedly seemingly--brought electricity to Montreal. But I digress.

The Gazette, 7 Jul 1907

I've now found a 1907 death notice for Michael Joseph Doherty (1867-1907), youngest child of Judge Marcus Doherty, and he too, was a manager at Hill Electric. A-ha! What a coincidence of a find.


My grandfather and Michael were second cousins, as seen here:

Electricity pioneers ran in my family in the early 20th century, it seems.

It's also clear that they knew each other, for my grandfather was listed among the mourners at Michael's funeral. Yes, his last name wasn't spelled the Dougherty way, but there were no other Doherty family members whose given name started with a J.

I'm always struck by the absence of any names of women in notices about who attended funerals back then.

The Gazette, 9 Jul 1907

The never ending story continues....






© Margaret Dougherty 2016-2018 All rights reserved

Rt Hon. Charles J. Doherty, MP PC KC -- 1

There is so much to tell about my 2nd cousin twice removed, that his story will cover a couple of posts. First, the personal and family details.

2nd Lt C J Doherty 1885

As a young lawyer, Judge Marcus' son Charles Joseph Doherty (1855-1931) served as a second Lieutenant in the 65th Regiment of the Mount Royal Rifles when it was mobilized between April and July 1885 for the North West Rebellion.

Three years later, Charles married Catherine Lucy Barnard (1865-1945) on 6 Jun 1888 at St Patrick's Basilica in Montreal. Catherine, or Kate, was the daughter of Montreal lawyer Edmund Barnard KC (1831-1902) and his wife, Ellen King Austin (1839-1905), originally from Albany, New York. As can be seen in the basilica's register, the wedding was officiated by Charles' cousin Rev James Dougherty of Kingston, New York.

Charles and Kate had five children:

6 Jun 1888 Record of Marriage

• Kathleen Mary Elizabeth (1889-1979) m Georges Gonthier (1869-1943), Canada's fifth Auditor General (1924-1939), in 1927 in Montreal. They had one son, about whom I'll be writing at some point.
• Eileen Mary (1890-1961) m Reginald Cecil Wingate (1885-1965) in 1918 at Ste-Agathe-des-Monts, near the family's country home, Inishowen (yes, that was a huge clue for me in my research.) They had two children.
• Margaret Agnes Mary Edith (1897-?) took vows with the order of the Sacred Heart of Jesus.
• Marcus Cahir (1898-1970) became a Jesuit priest.
• Mary Elizabeth Ann (1909-2002) m a Canadian diplomat, Jean Joseph Hubert Morin in Montreal in 1931 and had four children. 

According to city directories and census records, from at least 1889 until 1911, Charles, Kate and their family lived at what was then 282 Stanley Street in Montreal's Golden Square Mile. The address was renumbered and is now 3422 Stanley, and houses a 22-room hotel. 

I found the 1891 photo below of Kate with her two oldest daughters on the McCord Museum's website.



In 1896, Charles and Kate acquired a country home in Ste-Agathe-des-Monts in the Laurentians, north of Montreal. They named their retreat Inishowen, after the peninsula in Donegal, Ireland that is the origin of our Doughertys/Dohertys. The information at the link came to me from the Ste-Agathe historical society a few years ago.

The never ending story continues...

Judge Marcus Doherty and his family 2

Judge Marcus and Elizabeth O'Halloran had a large family of 12 children, and of these, ten survived childhood, only three of whom married and had children. One became a nun, one became an accountant and three became lawyers. Clearly, Judge Marcus' children were well educated. I write generally of his family here. Now, I want to give what information I've found about his children who survived to adulthood.

The eldest child of Judge Marcus and Elizabeth O'Halloran was Ellen Elizabeth (1844-1919). My great-great aunt Catharine Dougherty was Ellen's godmother, according to her baptismal record. Ellen appeared in censuses with her family until 1891, when she appears in that census as a lodger in a Church-run facility, together with other women and men, in Beloiel, Quebec, (about 35 minutes drive from Montreal today).

She appears there also in the 1901 census. That census form includes a column to identify those with what we today call challenges or disabilities. In that column, Ellen is identified as "mental". How sad.

Ellen next appears in the 1911 census as a lodger in a similar facility in Montreal, not far from where family members lived at the time. But in this case, the entire last column has been ripped away from the rest of the page. Ellen died in Beloeil in 1919, and is buried there in the cemetery of Eglise St-Mathieu.

Thomas James Doherty
c 1867

Next was Thomas James (1845-1894), who bore the names of his paternal grandfather and great grandfather. My 2nd great grandfather Marcus Dougherty and his daughter (my great great aunt)Isabella Dougherty McHugh, were his godparents. Thomas followed his father's footsteps and became a lawyer. He died unmarried in his 49th year, as reported in the 7 Feb 1894 edition of The Gazette in Montreal:

DOHERTY - At Colorado Springs Col. (USA) on the 5th inst. Thomas James Doherty Q.C. justice, Superior court, and brother of Hon. Mr. Justice C.J. Doherty. Funeral from his brother's residence 282 Stanley, St. on Saturday, 20th of February, at quarter to nine a.m. to St. Patrick's Church.

14 Feb 1894 True Witness & Catholic Chronicle

A much more detailed story about his life and death, written in the florid 19th century style, was published in the 21 Feb 1894 edition of The True Witness and Catholic Chronicle (col 3, pg 2). The story notes that he died in Colorado Springs "where he had gone to recuperate if possible, from the shocks that his system received from the disease which unfortunately proved fatal".

Thomas' sister Mary Louisa Cecilia (1851-1919) was known as Louisa. She married a Montreal insurance executive. P. Walter Kavanagh (1853-1905) on 10 Jul 1879 in Sherbrooke, while her father was stationed there as a judge. Louisa and Walter had three children:

• Mary Elizabeth (1884-1973) 
• Mary Louisa Eleanor (Ellen) Margarita (1886-1890)
• Walter Patrick Henry Joseph (1891-1916)

Mary Elizabeth Kavanagh
obit, Montreal Gazette, Apr 1973

Louisa's daughter Mary Elizabeth lived in New York for the rest of her life after her marriage (she had two children), but upon her death in 1973, her funeral and burial were in the city of her birth, Montreal. I haven't been able to trace her descendants. Yet. 

Next was Daniel O'Connell (1853-1878), about whom I've learned little. Did he suffer from issues similar to those of his older sister Ellen? I'm just speculating. The death notice below is interesting in that the funeral procession went from the hospital to the church, rather than from the family home, as was the custom of the time, meaning there was no wake at the family home. He was only 24. 

Daniel O'Connell Doherty obit 1878

Daniel was named after Daniel O'Connell (1775-1847), called the Emancipator or the Liberator, for his ongoing efforts seeking rights for the Irish people. 

Judge Marcus' third born son, Charles Joseph had a very illustrious career as a lawyer, judge and politician. Separate blog posts will address his life. 

Anna Maria (1857-1944), known as Annie, never married. Her sister Margaret Agnes Mary (1859-1894) took vows with the Order of Jesus and Mary in Fall River, Massachusetts, and became known as Rev Madam Mary of the Annunciation. When she died at the age of 35, her passing was also recorded in an obituary in The True Witness and Catholic Chronicle in its 31 Oct 1894 issue (col 2, pg 9, middle). Her death came six months after her brother Thomas' death, a fact the obituary notes in 19th century extreme. 

Their sister Elizabeth Mary (1861-1926) married a Henry Walter Mulvena (1855-1926), a lawyer who was later appointed to the bench in Montreal, in 1895. They lived in Sherbrooke, where Judge Mulvena was based, and had three sons, 

My great great aunt, Isabella Doherty McHugh was also godmother to Marcus Emanuel (1866-aft 1931) at his baptism. Marcus E. became a lawyer, and for a few years practised law with his brothers Thomas and Charles, and after he stepped down from the bench in 1891, his father Judge Marcus. The firm was called Doherty & Doherty. Marcus E appears in Canadian censuses through to 1891. The following year, according to the 1900 U.S. census, he moved to San Francisco, California. He worked as a stenographer, as reported in the 1897 city directory, perhaps going through a period of study to get his California Bar licence. In 1898, he enlisted in the U.S. Army -- but was dishonourably discharged six months later. What happened? The 1901 census records his occupation as attorney. He is living in a San Francisco hotel. After that, he disappears. 

Newspaper accounts of his brother Charles' 1931 funeral report that at that time, Marcus was living in the Philippines. What brought him there? Did he return to Montreal for any of his siblings' funerals? What kind of life did he live? Did he disappear from his family for his own reasons? 

Judge Marcus and Elizabeth's final child was Michael Joseph (1867-1907), who died at 40 in Montreal. He was an accountant. 

Elizabeth O'Halloran funeral mass 1884

Elizabeth O'Halloran Doherty died in November 1884 aged about 58. Among the clergy concelebrating her funeral mass at Notre Dame Basilica in Montreal were Judge Marcus' first cousin, Rev James Dougherty (1843-1906) who was born in Kingston, New York, son of his older brother Michael (abt 1810-1953).

Judge Marcus Doherty funeral mass 1903

Judge Marcus died on 4 Jul 1903, surviving Elizabeth by 19 years and aged as much as 87. Rev James Dougherty also concelebrated at his funeral mass. I write more about his remarkable life here.

Some of these Quebec church records don't survive as well as other records do. But in both these records, the signature of Rev James Dougherty can be seen.

What is clear to me is that the ties between the branches of the Dougherty/Doherty families were strong in the 19th century, despite the lack of modern technology to help stay in touch. In the 20th century, those ties became lost in the mists of time. I'm loving finding them anew in the 21st century.

The never ending story continues....

St Michael the Archangel Parish, serving Montreal's Mile End Irish community

As I've noted here and here, my paternal grandparents were married in St Michael the Archangel Church in Montreal in September 1909. It turns out that the building that stands today at St-Urbain and St-Viateur isn't the building where they were married, or where my father and three of his brothers were baptized.

The original St. Michael the Archangel Parish was in a hall above a fire station at St-Denis and Laurier streets in 1902. The parish community quickly outgrew that space, and a small church was built and Boucher and Drolet streets, where a cornerstone was laid on 29 May 1904. It was here in this building that my grandparents were married, and where my father, Butler and his brothers Marc, Luke and Paul were baptized. Yes, three of my uncles were named after the apostles. My grandfather said the rosary daily. What can I say? Many years ago, I met the father of a friend who had dated my aunt. He remembered her because "her brothers were named after the apostles".

I've been unable to locate any photos of the church at Boucher and Drolet that served my family from 1909 to 1915, but I did find a nice early history here.

St Michael the Archangel Parish c 2016

Work on the very Byzantine structure that became the third home of the church of St Michael that still stands today began in July 1914. The first mass was celebrated in it in December 1915. My youngest uncle was the first and last of our family baptized in this beautiful setting in March 1919, probably not long before the family moved to their new home on West Hill Avenue in NDG.

Since 1964, the church has served Montreal's Polish Catholic community, with masses offered in English and Polish. It is now known as the Church of St Michael and St Anthony.

The never ending story continues....

Judge Marcus Doherty and his family 1

As I've written here, Judge Marcus Doherty was a lawyer and distinguished jurist who served as a judge in the Quebec Superior Court from 1873 to 1891. He was appointed to the bench by the government of Canada's first prime minister, Sir John A. MacDonald.

Marcus met his wife, Elizabeth O'Halloran, the youngest daughter of immigrants from County Cork, when he was studying law at the University of Vermont in Burlington. Marcus was a classmate of one of Elizabeth's brothers. She was only 17, but Marcus was smitten and so they married in November 1843 and settled first in Granby, where they began their family, which grew to 12 children born between 1844 and 1867:

• Ellen Elizabeth (1844-1919) never married
• Thomas James (1845-1894) Q.C., never married
• Marcus (1847-1856)
• Mary Louisa Cecilia (1851-1919) m Patrick Walter Kavanagh, three children
• Daniel O'Connell (1853-1878) never married
• Charles Joseph (1855-1931), K.C., MP, married Catharine Lucy Barnard, five children
• Anna Maria (1857-1944) never married
• Margaret Agnes Mary (1859-1894) took religious vows, known as Rev. Madam Mary of the Annunciation
• Elizabeth Mary (1861-1926) m Judge Henry W. Mulvena, three children
• Sarah Curran (1863-1863)
• Marcus Emanuel (1866-aft 1931), lawyer, never married
• Michael Joseph (1867-1907) accountant, never married

3462 (formerly 38) rue Ste-Famille, 2016

By 1851, Judge Marcus and his growing family had relocated from Granby to Montreal. He was an active member of Montreal's St. Patrick's Society, serving as its president in 1858 and 1861, and earning a good reputation. By the 1861 census, they were living at 38 Ste-Famille, a house that still stands today, but re-numbered 3462.

During those years, Marcus had offices in what today we know as Old Montreal, in a building that till standing today, mentioned here. In the 19th century, the building's address was 59 Little St. James Street. Today the street is known as rue St-Jacques.

59 Little St James Street

Following his 1873 appointment, Judge Marcus was assigned to the St. Francis District, in which the city of Sherbrooke is located. While in Sherbrooke, Judge Marcus was regarded as a leading citizen, serving as a member of the Sherbrooke chapter of the St. Patrick's Society and giving the English language welcome when St Patrick's parish was dedicated at its first mass in 1873. Judge Marcus is mentioned in Pioneer English Catholic of the Eastern Townships, published in the 1930s by Rev T. J. Walsh, SJ.

The family lived in Sherbrooke, Quebec, from 1873 until 1882, when Judge Marcus was re-assigned back to Montreal.

Judge Marcus must have liked Ste-Famille a lot, because he moved the family into number 24 Ste-Famille in 1882, when they returned from Sherbrooke. That house also still stands today, as number 3442 Ste-Famille.

3442 (formerly 24) rue Ste-Famille, 2016 

With such a large family, the censuses of 1871, 1881, 1891 and 1901 all included servants to help Elizabeth Doherty in running her household.

Three of Judge Marcus' sons also became lawyers: Thomas, Charles and Marcus E. They shared offices at 590 Sherbrooke St W, for many years, joined by their father after he stepped down from the bench in 1891. That building no longer exists. The space today is occupied by a large Universite de Québec à Montréal student residence at the corner of Sherbrooke and St-Urbain Streets, the always helpful staff at the Bibliotheque et Archives Nationale du Quebec (BAnQ) tell me. I walked this block during a recent visit to Montreal.

When he died in July 1903, Judge Marcus was memorialized in several newspapers, including this item in the July 6, 1903 edition of The Gazette.

Judge Marcus and several family members are buried in Notre Dame des Neiges Cemetery on Mount Royal in Montreal.

The never ending story continues....

A visit to Montreal

I've been visiting Montreal and was busy there for the past week, but am now back to blog about my never ending family stories. In Montreal, I spent a great half-day doing genealogy research at the magnificently modern Grande Bibliotheque, a downtown building that opened to the public in 2005, and which houses Quebec's national archives and library.

For family historians and genealogists, this facility is a mecca.


I could spend weeks in their Collection Nationale room, where they have new, modern, microfiche machines on which to read a collection of Quebec newspapers in both English and French. This is the only place to find these newspapers. For the first time ever, I didn't have to wrestle with a microfiche machine, earlier versions of which presented nothing but frustrating problems to me as a student long ago. I barely scraped the surface of all that I had wanted to research--I came prepared with a list. A return trip is a definite plan.

I did drive to my ancestral (!) neighbourhood of Notre Dame de Grace, and to the streets where both sets of my grandparents and my parents lived. These homes still stand today.

4186 West Hill Ave, Montreal

My Dougherty grandparents lived in a house on West Hill Avenue, that they purchased new in 1919, when their family of six children was complete, until their 1953 deaths. The house remained in the family until the mid 1970s.

The exterior has changed of course, from when it was first built, probably a few times, and the windows have been replaced too. Here is a photo of the front entrance in the mid 1940s with a couple of my then very young cousins and an aunt.

4186 West Hill, mid 1940s

A few of the neighbouring houses are having their exteriors re-done right now. But none of those homes has been knocked down to be replaced by any monster home. Which I suppose says a lot about the neighbourhood and the solidity of the original builds.

4206 Hampton Ave, Montreal

My paternal grandfather, John Matheson, bought a solid home six blocks away from West Hill, on Hampton Avenue in the late 1920s for his family. This is where my mother lived most of her life until she married. I remember when I was a teenager that there was a real estate open house for my mother's home. Off we went. The house was empty of all furnishings. She told many stories about growing up there as we walked through the rooms.

Because my grandfather was a locomotive engineer, he was often away from home for days at a time. During the Great Depression, my grandmother would often have out of work, homeless men knock at the kitchen door looking for something to eat. She never turned them away, always inviting them in to sit at the kitchen table and have a sandwich and a cup of tea. She must have felt very safe to do that. It was a very different era.

I was also going to post a photograph here of St Michael's the Archangel Parish, where my grandparents John James Dougherty and Alice Nelson were married in 1909, but realized while reading its history that the structure that still stands today was only completed in 1915. My grandparents were married in an earlier building, which the community had outgrown. So far, I haven't been able to find a photograph of the original structure, which stood at Drolet and Boucher streets, and where its cornerstone was laid on May 29, 1904. But I'm waiting to hear back from a potential lead.

The parish celebrated its centenary in 2002. A brochure prepared for that event notes that St Michael's became the largest English language parish in the province of Quebec. When my grandparents attended mass there with their growing family from 1909 to 1919, it was a predominantly Irish community of worship.

The never ending story continues...

Our immigrant ancestors -- Judge Marcus Doherty QC

Judge Marcus Doherty

My 1st cousin 3x removed, Marcus Doherty (1815-1903) emigrated from Camnish, Dunvigen in what is now County Derry at the age of 18, arriving in Quebec City in 1833, and then travelling down to South Hero, Vermont, to join his uncles (my 2nd great grandfather) Marcus and (my 2nd great great uncle) James Dougherty.

Marcus was born in a house in Camnish, Dungiven, that was later occupied by the family of Irish nationalist John Mitchel.

The story is that Marcus was sent to Vermont by his mother after his father Thomas Dougherty died in Dungiven. He wasn't their eldest, but I think he was the brightest, and had attended grammar school in Dungiven, something one of my internet cousins tells me was quite rare for an Irish person to do in the early 19th century. One story has it that he was destined for the priesthood. Marcus attended college and also  taught at the Shefford Academy, where his uncle James was the principal. In 1838, he enrolled at  the University of Vermont where he received his BA and MA, and in 1848 was called to the Bar of Lower Canada in Montreal. He was appointed to the Quebec Superior Court in 1873. I've found many references in which Judge Marcus is mentioned. He first practised law as a newly minted lawyer in Granby, then moved on to Montreal. He was then posted in Sherbrooke for several years, before returning to Montreal.

Judge Marcus' eldest children were born and baptized in Granby. In my very early web research days, and before the Drouin Collection had indexed the Notre Dame de Granby parish records, another researcher, in an act of random genealogical kindness, pointed out to me that having a Marcus Dougherty and Marcus Doherty in the same small community at the same time was, well, no coincidence. My great grandfather John James and Judge Marcus were cousins.

In my family papers, we have for reasons still unknown to me, a copy the certificate attesting Judge Marcus' entry into the Bar of Lower Canada. The seal has been cut out. How did this come to be in my grandfather's possession?

Marcus was the first of six siblings to leave their Camnish, Dungiven home for America. Those siblings who came all used the Dougherty spelling. More about those siblings and their families will come. No, I don't know why Judge Marcus used the Doherty spelling. His siblings who remained in Ireland used both Dougherty and Doherty. Yes, all these same names do get confusing in the telling of stories.

Full disclosure: In 1998 and 1999, a woman posted on several genealogy message boards seeking relatives of Judge Marcus, and saying he was the brother of her late husband's great great grandfather. She even contacted me, saying we were related. But this was in my dark age of the genealogy research, and I brushed her off. Of course, it turned out she was absolutely right, but by then several years had passed, and I was unable to locate her. It was an early lesson to never make assumptions.

Montreal - Biographical Sketches

An early biography of Judge Marcus appeared during his lifetime in something called Montreal - Biographical Sketches. Note the inconsistencies about his year of birth and John Mitchel.

Here's another profile (in two images), from the Canadian Biographical Dictionary:

Note the inconsistencies in both with respect to Judge Marcus' year of birth and John Mitchel. It wasn't always easy in the mid 19th century to fact check, I guess. No Google, for one thing.

Judge Marcus died in Montreal on 4 Jul 1903. The Montreal Gazette carried a lengthy obituary about him and his remarkable career, which offers yet more conflicting information on his year of birth and other facts.

I will be writing more about Judge Marcus, his marriage and family. Note: For identification purposes in this blog, this Marcus will be called Judge Marcus, while my 2nd great grandfather will be referred to as Farmer Marcus. My small contribution to ending the confusion over the use of the same names even within the same generations.

The never ending story continues...

Census Sunday: early 20th century Montreal roots

As I've written here, my grandparents, John James Dougherty and (Elizabeth) Alice Nelson married in Montreal in 1909. Following their marriage, they first lived at 69 o. av Laurier, which would have been just west of boul St-Laurent, that street being the east/west dividing line in Montreal. This is in what is now called the Mile End area of Montreal. Back at the turn of the century and beyond, the area was quite Irish.

By 1911, when the regular Canada census was taken, my grandparents were

1911 Canada Census, Montreal

living at 2127 Esplanade (or more properly ave de l'Esplanade), still in Mile End. This is my grandfather's first appearance on the census in Montreal. In 1901, he was still living in Sherbrooke, I believe, before attending McGill University. Living with them, as seen in the snip above, were my great grandmother Rose, my uncle John Marcus who was just a baby.

Oh, and someone named William Dougherty, 26 years old, born 26 Jun 1884 in Quebec, who is listed as my grandfather's unemployed brother. Now, this relationship is an error, as William never appeared before or afterwards in any family records, but I'm very sure that he is nonetheless a relation of some kind. A cousin perhaps. I'm still researching for how he's related to my line and what happened to him. Call it a work in progress, as so much of genealogy becomes, or, yes, another puzzle.

But my grandfather really was an only child, unlike his father, who we were told was an only child, but was actually one of at least seven siblings.

Many of the Mile End residences recorded in the 1911 census are still there today. Most are triplex semis, many converted to condos, but with flats on the second and top floors accessed by exterior circular metal stairs (and in the case of the top floor, another set of interior stairs. Those exterior circular metal stairs are notorious in Montreal. Charmingly romantically pretty they may be, but imagine if you will how very treacherous they are in the winter. No charm there.

5317 av de l'Esplanade, Montreal

While visiting family in Montreal in January, we drove down Esplanade, but didn't find number 2127. I contacted the City of Montreal, where very helpful staff researched the property and ascertained that it is still there today, but re-numbered 5317 Esplanade. I sent a brother off to take a photo -- see left. here is my grandparents' 1911 home as it looks today. It's been updated.

Here is where 5317 Esplanade is located in Montreal.

According to Montreal city directories of the time, my grandparents lived here until at least 1916, by which point they had four sons under five years of age (!) as well as my great grandmother Rose, until she passed away in March 1915.

People, myself included, speak with great admiration of the spaciousness of these triplex semis today. But let's stop and consider this: my grandmother had to corral four babies and toddlers up and down those stairs and my great grandmother had to hike up and down those stairs. Did I mention they lived on the top floor?

By the time the 1921 census was held, my grandparents' family was complete. They were living in what would be their lifelong home on West Hill Avenue in the Notre Dame de Grace (NDG) area of Montreal. Their address at that time was 386 West Hill Avenue. The addresses on the street were subsequently renumbered, and 386 became 4186 West Hill Avenue. My father was the second eldest of six siblings -- five sons and one daughter.

1921 census West Hill Ave, Montreal

The never ending story continues...

Tall Tale Tuesday: Bringing Electricity to Montreal

Welcome to Tall Tale Tuesdays. Not every Tuesday, but when I have a tall tale to tell, I'll write about it on a Tuesday.

My father was one of six siblings, who between them, produced 29 children. Only two siblings remained in Montreal. The rest put down roots in Ontario and New Jersey, So we cousins didn't all know each other, let alone know of each other, and collectively, we never met growing up. Geography, expensive long distance charges and not a lot of extra cash for visiting all factored into why this didn't happen. That has changed in the last 20 years when most of us became connected, thanks to the internet making research easier.

One of the stories my siblings and I heard growing up was that our grandfather, John James Dougherty, was responsible for introducing electricity in Montreal. My father made it sound like Grandpa single-handedly was responsible for this herculean feat. Or maybe that's how my younger self imagined it.

A few years ago, two cousins and I went to a gathering of most of the children and some grandchildren of my father's older brother a couple of hours outside Toronto. We met first and second cousins we'd never met before. It was great. Over the afternoon, many stories were told and notes were compared. Good times. Then, one of my cousins said that our grandfather was responsible for the introduction of electricity in Montreal. I burst out laughing. It's incredible that although we were completely disconnected, we heard the same stories growing up.

So, about that. Let's do some fact checking. My grandfather attended McGill University from 1905 to 1908, studying electrical engineering in the Faculty of Science. But for whatever reason, did not graduate. Maybe it was that appendicitis that sent him up the street to the Royal Victoria Hospital, where he met my grandmother.

My grandfather in 1906 at McGill University

City directories tell us that he did work as a manager at Hill Electric the first few years out of McGill. In fact for many years, he worked in the electrical field in Montreal. But surely electricity had already arrived in a major city like Montreal earlier than the 1910s.

In a history of electricity in Canada, I found this. Check the third bullet from the bottom. Montreal received electricity in 1903. Aha!

So, what is far more likely is that he worked--with many others--to make electricity more widely available across Montreal. But what a great story for easily impressed children.

The never ending story continues ....

Unwrapping a Puzzle 3: Why Cincinnati?

Getting places in the mid 19th century was not an easy or straightforward task. Horse and buggy or coach, steamboat, or maybe--if you were lucky--trains were how people got from point A to point B.

What took so many of my great grandfather's siblings from Granby in Quebec's Eastern Townships to Cincinnati? How long would such a journey had lasted? If work was the reason, there were places much closer to Granby for them, aside from Montreal, which today is about an hour's drive from Granby. After years of research, I now know that my great grandfather and his large family had many close relatives: in Granby, nearby in Sherbrooke, in Vermont (less than an hour away from Granby today), and in Ulster (!) County about an hour north of New York City. They also likely had other Dougherty cousins in Quebec, but that's a mystery I'm still nowhere near to unravelling.

My great aunt Isabella Dougherty married James H. McHugh in Cincinnati on November 17, 1853. But what family was there with her? She may then have been as young as 18. It's hard to imagine a young woman being allowed to make her way alone on a journey that was then such a great distance. Her father Marcus remained in Granby and so too at that point, Isabella's siblings. As far as I know. But, here again is where those lovely city directories may shed some light. The 1853 Cincinnati city directory lists the following:

"Dougherty & Brother (Thomas and James)

Wines, liquors & c 7 Water

residence: 67 Richmond"

Were these my great uncles Thomas and James? I think so. My cousins will be bemused or possibly amused to see that the Dougherty entrepreneurial spirit may go way back. Did Isabella travel with them to Cincinnati? Their other siblings followed permanently after 1861, based on census and city directory records. But James did return to Granby by 1859, and died there in 1860 from consumption. How do I know this? This fact is recorded in the 1861 census. 

And check out that 1861 census for the Township of Granby. Amazing. It shows that Isabella and her husband James McHugh went to Granby from Cincinnati. I've found the baptismal records for two of their children, who were born there and not in Ireland. And they lived right next to her father and siblings. More to come about the McHugh family, who did return to Cincinnati by the late 1860s. Also, note the several spellings of Dougherty in one nuclear family. Census takers in the 19th century weren't hired based on their spelling ability or their attention to detail. I think they surmised. Lots. Just saying.

And the never ending story continues ....