McCabes of Ontario, Canada - The Curious Case of Emma McCabe

I am doing a little case study of a friend's family tonight. His 2nd Great Grandmother Emma McCabe is going to be our subject.

Emma McCabe, unfortunately, has no confirmed surname at the moment, and it's a shame. We only have her married name of "McCabe," however, with persistence, we could eventually nail her surname down. Let's try doing that tonight!

For some time, I was convinced her surname was Morley, but after some research, I have found that I was on the wrong trail. 

The Emma McCabe I am looking for is the mother of Mary Josephine McCabe, who eventually married Henry Marris, and gave birth to my friend's grandfather, Morley Marris, in Hamilton, Ontario.

According to Canadian Census records, over the course of 30 years, Emma McCabe lived in an area in London, Ontario called Strathroy-Caradoc, which is fairly close to Detroit, Michigan. Please see the map below:

Looking over several Canadian Census' over thirty years, you see some slight changes - Let's compare these and see if we can catch anything that can give us some more clues!

1861 Canadian Census - James McCabe is shown as being born in Upper Canada (U C) and his age is 34 years old and he's an Inn Keeper. Emma is 29 years old and at this time, they have only two young daughters.

1871 Canadian Census - There have been a few changes. Emma has had two more children. She is now 40 and James is 42. Their ages don't seem to quite match what the 1861 Census shows. James line of work is now showing as a Laborer. 

1881 Canadian Census - James is now showing as 60 and Emma as 50. There is an obvious discrepancy with their birth years, unless they were providing inaccurate information when they reported to the record keeper. This record is barely legible, so it's hard to say that whoever transcribed it got it right or wrong. Hopefully a better copy will show up soon. James' job has changed once more - he is now showing as an engineer. His children are showing as factory hands. It's hard to say just exactly what kind of work they were doing.

So, remember when I was giving up on the Emma Morley McCabe whom I was speaking of earlier in my post due to her maiden name being McCabe, when I was hoping it was actually Morley? Well, I have not lost total hope on this lead. Let's look at things from a different direction this time -

One of Emma's and James daughters, Laura, married a Charles Hand, who was from Sarnia, Ontario, Canada and according to the 1891 Canadian Census, his occupation was stated as Hotel Keeper [at St. Clair House]. There just happens to be a hotel in Sarnia named Vendome Hotel - see below - with further research, I found that Charles Hand died just three years after the Vendome Hotel was built and his wife actually owned it afterwards, having her son, Charles Hand Jr, take over as Inn Keeper when he came of age. The hotel was in the family until as late as the 1930s. Unfortunately, the hotel was razed in the 1970's for a parking lot:

Remember when James McCabe was an Inn Keeper in his younger years? So, this is starting to all to come together. Remember later on James McCabe became an engineer. He may have been an Engineer at this particular hotel, and his daughters could have been workers ("factory hands") here, too.

What ties this all together? Look at my lead for the Emma Morley McCabe Death Certificate below: 

  

Notice anything of interest? Yes, Emma McCabe happened to die at the Hotel Vendome in 1909. This may very well be our very same Emma McCabe. The only really confusing part of this Death Certificate is that it's naming James McCabe as her father. Was this just a typo? Addendum: After sharing this post with a family member of my friend's, they suggested that whoever told the person the family info may have confused their own father (James McCabe) with Emma McCabe's own father, and therefore the reason why James McCabe is named as her father, when in reality he was her husband and her children's father. 

Nevertheless, all the evidence points to this being the actual Emma McCabe that we were hoping for , but weren't sure until now!

So, below is what we can now say about Emma McCabe and her life -

- She was from Norwich, England, born July 26th 1830.
- She lived in Strathroy-Caradoc, a suburb of London, Ontario, Canada and married James McCabe of Ireland there, starting their family of 4 children.
- She died on August 9th, 1909, at the age of 79, at the Vendome Hotel, the hotel her daughter Laura [McCabe] Hand owned at the time, from septicemia.

Sources:

Billy Ryder and the Vendome Hotel

Motivation Monday - Epcot "World Showcase" - National Pride Abounds

(Germany pavilion of Epcot - picture taken 5/12/15 by myself)

I was trying to think how I could infuse my recent vacation in relation to this blog and the world of genealogy, and as I was editing photos from our first day at Epcot in Disney World, I found the perfect inspiration!

Firstly, a little background. I had never been to Disney World or Florida, for that matter, up until a few weeks ago, so it was going to be a very new experience for me. However, since I live only within hours of Disneyland, Disney World felt very different yet other parts felt very much as they do here at home. Epcot and Animal Kingdom felt the most unique, where as Magic Kingdom felt similar to Disneyland Park and Hollywood Studios felt similar to Disney's California Adventure (DCA, as it's known).

Epcot was our first stop at Disney World. I am glad we chose it as our first stop. It seemed to fit our mood for the day. Being that we took a red eye flight out of San Francisco and had basically just gotten from the Orlando airport, gotten our room at Port Orleans - Riverside and hopped onto a bus to Epcot, we were really running on fumes, but I think the excitement of being there is what kept us going. We didn't return to our hotel until nearly midnight. You can imagine how tired we were! But, we were glad we didn't use up a whole day to get rest. It really never got to us (until now - I have literally spent half of my Memorial day weekend hibernating and recovering from all we did!)

So, what is the connection here? Well, Epcot, as some of you may be familiar with, has the beautiful "World Showcase" portion of their park - which is devoted to 11 different countries and showcases the highlights of what each country offers - surrounded by a lagoon - there is food, shopping, historical and scenic films in Circle-Vision (basically, a room with a 360 degree projected movie - pretty awesome!), and some live entertainment to add to the authenticity of each country. Also, almost all cast members are of that country or speak the language. It's a very immersive experience. Some may not appreciate Disney for all they do to make this feel like a unique experience, but I surely did!

There were several pavilions I felt the strongest connections to - I guess it is no surprise that France, Germany, Norway, United Kingdom, Canada and even the American Adventure portion - all made me feel quite at home. Italy and Morocco were both very beautiful and loved the theming of these two areas, too.

I think for those of us who are looking for some motivation and inspiration for our work, can come out of the World Showcase feeling a strong connection to some of our home countries. Being that I've never been to any of the countries that my ancestors are from, getting a sneak peek in this format was a great little teaser and left me wanting more. However, I know the "Disney" version is generally a little more people friendly, but it definitely sparks some interest for those who may have a heritage in some or many of the countries represented.

I hope in coming years they can squeeze in a few more countries that were missed. I'd like to see what they can come up with. It would be really nice if they could honor Native Americans more.

So, with this said - if you've been to World Showcase at Epcot - did you also have a bit of sense of pride for the countries that you toured that are in your heritage? Did anything turn you away or not feel authentic enough? Did any country that was not within your heritage also spark interest? Did visiting these pavilions motivate you more to want to research certain lineages of your family?