Jen's Genealogy Pages

This is a bit of an update and extension to my previous brief post on Thomas Fee. He was my great-great-great-grandfather. Family lore says that around age 20 he emigrated to Canada about 1837 from Northern Ireland. He settled in Quebec.

He married Charlotte Williams in 1844 in Ormstown, QC. In papers left by my grandmother, I have a transcription of what appears to be the record of their marriage. I have not yet been able to locate the actual record, though I have found it listed in an index. It seems extremely probable that the transcription is correct, however.

Diocese of Montreal, the Protestant Episcopal Church, Ormstown, County of Beauharnois, Dist. of Montreal. Thomas Fee, bachelor, of the Seigneury, and co. of Beauharnois and Dist. of Montreal, and Charlotte Williams spinster in the Seignniory & Co. of Beauharnois & Dist of Montreal having procured a provincial license were married in Ormstown on the fifth day of Dec. in the Year of Our Lord, 1844, by me, W. Brettour, witnesses: Thomas Williams, Geo. H. Philips, Henry Felsimonds,”
These are in the records of St. James Church, Ormstown, Que. R. Chris Fee.

By the 1851 census, Thomas (35) and Charlotte (32) are living in St. Malachie, QC. Thomas is listed as an Inn-keeper of Irish descent. Their children are John (7), Robert (5), Thomas (3), and William Reid (1). He is also listed in the Agricultural Census for that year. He had 100 acres and grew wheat, barley, oats and potatoes. They also kept cows, horses, pigs and sheep.

The 1861 census finds the family still in St. Malachie but Thomas (40) now appears to be listed as a Trader. Also living with Thomas are Charlotte (40) and their children John (16), Robert (14), William (10), Sarah (8), Charlotte (5) and Maria (1). They live in a frame house.

I have yet to find the family in the 1871 census, but by the 1881 census they are living in St. Antoine’s Ward in Montreal. Charlotte Fee died in 1876 and in 1881 a widowed Thomas (62) is living with Charlotte (21), William (27), Sarah (25) and Maria (19).

According to family records he died in Dewittville, QC on January 18, 1897. I have not yet located his death record. The information I have from my grandmother says that “he was the only member of his family to cross the Atlantic. It was a family tradition that Thomas ran away from home. His daughter Charlotte corresponded with either a sister or a niece of Thomas, then living in Ireland, from whom much of Thomas’ history was secured.”