The majority of people in my Family Tree lived in Ontario Canada, although ancestors were from England or the United States (having come from Europe in the 1600 or 1700's). Some branches did move from Ontario to the Canadian western provinces as well as into the United States (Michigan or Ohio for the most part).
While researching individuals, I therefore concentrate on the Ontario birth, marriage and death records. When an individual seems to 'disappear'from those records, it can be difficult to determine just where they may have gone: early death or moved to another jurisdication?
It can be difficult to do further research as some Ontario documents, or ledger pages, have not been digitized by Ancestry or FamilySearch. And common British names of the individuals make it difficult to verify a record is indeed the person in my tree.
I was recently researching Charlotte M. Ross, daughter of Joseph Wesley Ross & Hannah Maria Dales who married Arthur Joseph Alexander Cooper, son of James George Cooper and Mary Crombie.
I was about to give up researching the individuals as I wasn't finding any information for the couple beyond their 1906 marriage in Toronto. Arthur's name appeared with various versions in the documents I had found. Ancestry's Suggested Records will usually lead to other relevant records, but in Arthur's case there hasn't been the connections made between the various BMD records - probably because of the variations of the given names. However, one of the entries did provide a link to the Attestation Paper for World War I for an Arthur Joseph Alexander Cooper!
In checking that document, I saw that he had filed in Vancouver British Columbia in October 1915. The entry of next of kin was his wife, Mrs. Lottie Cooper and a street address was crossed out and 'Cookstown Ont' entered. The couple had moved to British Columbia!
But why was Lottie's residence listed as Cookstown (her birthplace)? If the couple had separated, why was she listed as next of kin? Furthur research found the 1911 and 1921 census records for the couple in Vancouver British Columbia. The couple were together in Vancouver before and after World War I, so I have to assume that her return to her birthplace in 1915 was to leave with family while her husband was overseas.
Once I knew they lived in British Columbia, I changed my focus of research from Ontario records to those of British Columbia. I found British Columbia Death record for an Arthur Joseph A Cooper, but the entry on both Ancestry as well as the British Columbia Archives did not provide an image, only a transcription with minimal information. In searching for his death certificate, I found records that matched up to his parents, so they must have migrated to British Columbia as well. I probably will never be able to determine whether the two couples migrated together or one couple joined the other.
When I located the Find a Grave entry, many questions were answered, but raised other questions. Not only had a photograph of the headstone been included, but an image of the death certificate as well! So I was able to complete my entry for Arthur Joseph Alexander Cooper to my satisifacation (although I still need to search Vancouver Sun newspaper for an obituary now that I have a death date).
The photo of the headstone lead to much more research needing to be done as Charlotte's name was listed as 'Charlotte Gauthier'. The Find a Grave entry for her also included an image of her death certificate, listing her husband as Arthur Gauthier.
Further research found a British Columbia marriage record for bachelor Arthur Gauthier to widow Charlotte Melinda Cooper. Not only did I verify a second marriage for Charlotte, I finally found the name for the middle initial 'M'.
As far as I can determine, Charlotte never had any children.
Feel much better now as I close off my research of this couple. Instead of having to leave off their record with a death date of 'after 27 June 1906', I now have not only an exact death date for both, but images of their death certificates and headstone photo as well as information on Charlotte's second husband whom I hadn't know existed before the discovery of the British Columbia records.
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