Shipwrecked Off Quebec
Sometimes we find our ancestors in interesting ways. Samuel Reynolds of Rossville, Illinois, was my 2nd great-grandfather. From the census, I knew he was from England, that he had been married before he married my 2nd great-grandmother, and that he was a farmer. I’d discovered through deeds and with a little help from the Rossville Historical Society that his son “Dalton” on the census was really Samuel Dawson. But I hadn’t found where Samuel was from in England. There was another Reynolds on the census named Thomas, who was also from England, but was he related to Samuel?
A book about the history of Rossville is in the Family History Library in Salt Lake. I sent away for the index for all the Reynolds listed in the book. When the Reynolds part of the index came back, I sent for all the pages.
Wimbish
At first I was disappointed that none of the pages I received were about Samuel. In fact, the longest article, written by Jerry Jay Cornell, was about a man named James Cornell. Mr. Cornell came to Rossville from Wimbish, a little town in the County of Essex. He traveled to America in 1857 along with his best friend Thomas Reynolds, Thomas’s wife Ann, and their baby son Philip. Their ship, the “Canadia,” sank in waters off the coast of Canada. Fortunately, all passengers were rescued by another ship and taken ashore.
From there, the group set out by railroad for Illinois. They traveled as far as Loda, then proceeded on foot the last 30 miles to Rossville.
Thomas Reynolds and Family
When he got to Rossville, Cornell worked for the richest man in town, Abraham Mann. Mann donated part of his land and building materials for the church known as Mann’s Chapel. Thomas Reynolds arrived with only 2 cents in his pocket and $200 in debt to his two brothers. No mention of the brothers’ names. Darn.
But then I got to the part of the article that really got my attention: Cornell had married Mary Crone. That was it! There was my connection. You see, my Samuel was married to Rhoda Crone before marrying my 2nd great-grandmother Dorcas Seals. Mary must have been Rhoda’s sister!
What a terrific story! A shipwreck sounded exciting, but did it really happen?
I began looking through the IGI (International Genealogical Index) and found a Cornell/Reynolds marriage in Saffron Walden, a bigger town near Wimbish. In sending out queries on the Internet, I met the author of the article about James Cornell, Jerry Jay Cornell, one of his descendants. Jerry sent me an article about Thomas Reynolds. I finally learned that he was Samuel’s brother and they also had another brother named Philip. Their parents were William Reynolds and “Gemima” Mead. Sure enough, when the 1851 English census microfilm for Wimbish arrived at our local Family History Center, there were William, Jemima, and the three boys in Wimbish.
Determined to discover whether the three brothers came on the same ship and whether it really sank, I set out to find ship information on the Internet. There were several sites dealing with shipwrecks, but no mention of the “Canadia.” I found the site for the Cunard Line and sent an email to the archivist for the Cunard Project at the University of Liverpool. He told me that there was a ship on another line called the Canadian, which did indeed wreck off Quebec on June 1, 1857.
I wrote to the National Archives of Canada in hopes of finding a passenger list. My letter was referred to the National Library of Canada*, which sent me pages of newspaper accounts of the wreck of the Canadian and rescue of its passengers. Unfortunately, only those who traveled first class were mentioned by name. But the shipwreck really happened!
In all this searching, I learned some valuable lessons:
- Sometimes the evidence of your ancestors will come from researching people who traveled with them.
- You can find helpful people and resources on the Internet.
- Don’t be afraid to write to archives outside of the United States.
- You can make friends on the Internet. Jerry Cornell encouraged me to make a genealogy research trip to Rossville. In July of 1997, I flew to Indianapolis, and Jerry picked me up from the airport. I spent five days doing research, staying with Mary Rhae McBride of the Rossville Historical Society. Mary Rhae and Jerry drove me to cemeteries, museums, landmarks, family gatherings, and the monthly meeting of the Rossville Historical Society.
*The National Archives of Canada and the National Library of Canada are now combined as Library and Archives Canada.
