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The Thumb's Christmas

  Our daughter, Anne, was a prolific artist when she was young. Our refrigerator door was full of her drawings, paintings, and school artwork. She liked to create little books, too, as she was also a natural storyteller. One Christmas when she was about eight years old, Anne wrote and illustrated a Christmas story for her little brother, James. If memory serves, she drew her inspiration from a book she had recently gotten from the library by illustrator Ed Emberley. He wrote and illustrated The Great Thumbprint Drawing Book . In it, Emberley showed how to make a variety of animals and people using a thumbprint as a starting point. The creations are simple and charming. It's amazing what you can do with a blog of ink and a few black lines. It's art that's accessible to anyone. Anne's story is called "The Thumb's Christmas," and is based on our family. There is a thumb with glasses (Anne), a thumb with little hair (toddler James), a thumb with a mustache (Ji...
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An Intriguing Immigration Theory for Joseph Becker


I've been asking the question, "What could have drawn my great-great-great-grandfather Joseph Becker and his family to Port Dalhousie from Sheldon, New York?" I heard back from one Ontario repository that I had inquired with regarding my question. 

The Mayholme Foundation staff answered me this week with a simple answer and an interesting theory. The short answer was "employment opportunities." The theory involved a man named Owen McMahon. 

Mayholme staff noticed that McMahon lived two doors down from my Joseph Becker in the first Canadian census in which he appears in 1871 in Port Dalhousie. The staff reported that this was significant as apparently Owen McMahon was known to have advertised to bring workers to Port Dalhousie to work in the various businesses in this growing port city. I found that McMahon was named one of the first city councillors in Port Dalhousie when it was incorporated in 1862. Perhaps McMahon was facilitating immigration to the area in his role as a city official.1


Joseph "Beckey" lived two doors down from Owen McMahon in 1871.


Port Dalhousie was a bustling port by the time the Beckers arrived in the late 1860s. The second Welland Canal was operating and the enlarged third canal was being built by 1875 to meet the demand for larger shipping lanes. Commerce, industry, and shipping were ongoing, and there was always a need for lodging, dining, and other facilities for the new canal builders and the current laborers. In addition, ship chandleries, suppliers, grocers, taverns, saloons, and hotels were needed to accommodate the travelers, farmers, and seamen who passed through Port Dalhousie.2

The staff further theorized that because both McMahon and my Joseph Becker were Roman Catholic, it could be that news of the employment opportunities in Port Dalhousie could have spread by word of mouth through the region's Catholic churches. Port Dalhousie is about 60 miles from Sheldon, where Joseph used to live.

This could perhaps explain why the Becker family moved with no apparent support system already in Port Dalhousie. I didn't find evidence that any family member went ahead of the Beckers to begin a chain migration to the town. However, if they were joining fellow Catholics in Port Dalhousie, they may have felt a bit more comfortable making that move. Perhaps fellow church members from St. Cecilia Catholic Church in Sheldon also moved.

This word-of-mouth theory makes the most sense to me, and adds a new twist to the hypothesis that employment opportunities were the main reason why the Beckers immigrated.

I am seeking more information on Owen McMahon. I would love to see if there were formal advertisements or notices that he made to draw workers to Port Dalhousie. If I find it, readers, you'll be the first to know.

Until next time... 

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© Nancy Gilbride Casey, 2024. All rights reserved.


IMAGE: The American Household and Commercial Atlas of the World. Carefully Prepared and Drawn from the Coastal Survey Reports, and other Official Surveys and Authorities of the United States and other Governments (New York: Taintor Brothers & Merrill, 1874), "Map of the Provide of Ontario, Dominion of Canada"; image, David Rumsey Map Collection (https://www.davidrumsey.com/luna/servlet/detail/RUMSEY~8~1~288366~90059935:Ontario,-Canada- : accessed 23 April 2024).

NOTES

1 B. Young, The Mayholme Foundation, Genealogical and Historical Research Center, conversation with N. Casey, 16 April 2024, notes taken by author regarding Joseph Becker and Owen McMahon. Also: 1871 Census of Canada, Province of Ontario, District 21 Lincoln, Nominal return of the living, Sub-District: Village of Port Dalhousie, p. 52, line 20, dwelling 193, family 200, Joseph Beckey household; database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com/imageviewer/collections/1578/images/4396294_00479 : 17 November 2023); citing Library and Archives Canada, RG31-C-1, Ottawa, Ontario. Also: Archaeological Services Inc., Wendy Shearer Landscape Architect Limited, and Unterman McPhail Associates, The Port Dalhousie Heritage Conservation District Study, August 2000, p. 2-6; copy supplied by Niagara Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society, 19 April 2024.

2 Archaeological Services Inc., Wendy Shearer Landscape Architect Limited, and Unterman McPhail Associates, The Port Dalhousie Heritage Conservation District Study, August 2000, p. 2-3; copy supplied by Niagara Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society, 19 April 2024. Also: Wikipedia, "Ship Chandler," (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ship_chandler : accessed 20 April 2024), last updated 14 April 2024, at 08:56 (UTC).  A ship chandler is a retail dealer who specializes in providing supplies or equipment for ships.


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  1. Karen Packard RhodesApril 28, 2024 at 12:27 AM

    That is an interesting and thoroughly plausible theory. A goodly number of my father's line ended up in Bloomington, Illinois in the middle of the 19th century, coming from Canada, New York, and Massachusetts to gather there. The attraction seems to have been occupational opportunities. These were all siblings, and their occupations ranged from carpenter to lawyer to merchant to physician. Many of these ancestors, direct and collateral, became prominent citizens of Bloomington.

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  2. Nancy Gilbride CaseyApril 28, 2024 at 3:07 PM

    The Catholic "grapevine" factor really put a different spin on the "move for work" reason. I love to look at migrations, and yes, usually it has been for work. I figured as much here too, but why Port Dalhousie was the thing that I couldn't grasp.

    Thanks for reading!

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  3. Jenny April 29, 2024 at 6:26 AM

    My Irish ancestors were motivated to move after they saw an ad in their local paper that there were jobs in Connecticut. Of course there were many other reasons to leave Ireland at that time, but ads in the paper were a strong migration tool for sure.

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    1. Nancy Gilbride CaseyApril 29, 2024 at 2:03 PM

      Hi Jenny, I was really hoping to find some sort of advertisement, but no luck so far. I'm going to keep looking. I have Irish ancestors as well who went to work in the coal mines in Scranton, Pennsylvania. I wonder if they saw ads. So fascinating!

      Thanks for reading!

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  4. Molly's CanopyApril 30, 2024 at 5:14 PM

    Great post! My Italian ancestors were drawn to the U.S. by promises of work in the leather/glove industry in upstate New York (Gloversville). Enough of them came from the same area of Italy that they started an Italian fraternal society to stay connected.

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    1. Nancy Gilbride CaseyApril 30, 2024 at 5:37 PM

      Oh, I love that. My Croatian great-grandparents joined the Croatian Fraternal Union in Uniontown, Penn. when they came over. My GGM was a member for 60 years - I have a news clipping that states that. She lived to be 94! The fraternal unions seemed to be pretty prevalent and a great way to keep connected, that's true.

      Thanks for reading!

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