WITH KARLEE TWINER
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Each month, we choose a member’s request for research help, and our genealogy expert Karlee Twiner offers insight that might help dismantle their brick wall.
This month’s request come from member ROB YOUNG, who is seeking a way to confirm that the godparents and witnesses to his great-grandparents’ wedding are who he thinks they are.
QUESTION:
Karlee,
My third great grandfather John J. Canton was born about 1815 in Ireland. He married Mary Burke on 16 February 1843 in Cloonduane, Balla Parish, County Mayo. John and Mary had three children in Cloonduane, Michael born 1844, Elizabeth born 1846 and Martin born 1848.
When Elizabeth was baptized on 19 February, 1846, the godparents are Martin Canton and Bridget Swannick.
The family leaves Ireland and settles in Baltimore, Maryland.
When Elizabeth married Michael Dorsey on 30 August, 1865 at St. Peter The Apostle Church in Baltimore, the witnesses were Oliver P. Canton and Mary Thomas.
When Elizabeth died, on 17 June, 1917, her obituary included East Liverpool (Ohio) papers.
In researching Oliver P. Canton in Ohio, I find him in the 1900 census. I find that he was born June 1843 in Castlebar, Co. Mayo, Ireland. I find his father was Martin Canton. Martin was born about 1798 in Ireland and died 3 April in Lewis County, West Virginia. On Martin’s death certificate, his parents are listed as J and M Canton.
I think John Canton asked his older brother Martin to be Elizabeth’s godfather and Elizabeth asked her first cousin Oliver to stand as a witness to her wedding.
Is there anything you can find to support this idea?
Thank you for considering this request.
Rob Young
Tampa, Florida, USA
ANSWER:
Hello Rob,
You are correct that those relationships are very possible to be witnesses/godparents.
Generally, people would have siblings or first cousins be witnesses to a wedding or godparents to their children. Nowadays, we might think more of our parents to fill these roles, but it was very possible that parents weren’t around at the time. Godparents were also meant to help in the event the parents weren’t able to raise the child anymore, due to death or illness, etc. You would want someone who is closer to your age to have that responsibility, as they would be more likely to live for the duration of a child’s development.
Being able to draw correlation between the names on the witness lines and the people within the tree is an important skill. This helps you to solidify your idea that the record is indeed the people you’re looking for. This is particularly important if you are working with people with common names.
In regards to finding information in records to support your theory, there may not be anything that will be able to explicitly tell you that you are correct. However, if you can put these people in the same place (or a general area) at the time each of these events occurred, you can use this to argue your theory.
Unfortunately, in genealogy, the best evidence you have for certain things is a good argument with supporting evidence. Not everything was written down, but using things that were written down, you can extrapolate information.
Hope this helps!
Karlee
Do you have a tough genealogy question you want addressed? Karlee will be on hiatus for her upcoming nuptials, but you can still submit your request! Send it along with any relevant documents and/or photos, with the subject line ASK THE HERITAGE HELP DESK to stories@byancestry.com and your submission could be chosen for next month’s column.
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