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Note: A SUMMARY OF MY RESEARCH ON THE REVEREND JAMES M. WELLWOOD AND HIS EXTENDED FAMILY:
On June 30th, 2009, I was finally able to confirm that the Reverend James M. WELLWOOD is a brother of my great-grandmother, Sarah Ann (WELLWOOD) LLOYD. On this same day I also obtained new information about the parents and extended family of James and Sarah Ann.
Following is a summary of the research that led to these findings.
1) In 2003 I determined that Sarah Ann (WELLWOOD) and Simon Ferguson LLOYD were the parents of my paternal grandmother Sarah Charlotte LLOYD. Further, I knew that the parents of Sarah Ann were William James WELLWOOD and Mary DRENNAN. In the years that followed, I located extensive information on the LLOYD family, but I was not able to locate any additional information on the WELLWOOD family or the DRENNAN family.
2) Throughout the years, while searching for information on 'my' WELLWOOD family, I found references to the Reverend James M. WELLWOOD, but I was not certain that he was related to 'my' WELLWOOD family. Finally, in 2007, I began to speculate that the Reverend James M. WELLWOOD was indeed a son of William James WELLWOOD, and the brother of both Sarah Ann WELLWOOD and William WELLWOOD. However, at that time I had no proof of this. To assist with my research, I tentatively added the Reverend James WELLWOOD to my family tree, and continued with my search. I noted that at some time he had lived in Minnedosa, Manitoba.
3) In 2007, my wife and I visited in Brandon Manitoba, where Simon LLOYD and Sarah Ann (WELLLWOOD) had lived. We discovered that Minnedosa was close by, and decided to visit the town of and the Cemetery in Minnedosa, Manitoba. There we saw headstones with the following inscripitons. I added this information to this family tree, but knew that I might be in error when I listed these individuals as relatives of mine:
a) Headstone: "Rev. J. M. Wellwood, born Nov 12, 1846, died Los Angeles California October 17th, 1893." A Masonic Symbol and the letters MLMD or MAMD are engraved at the top of the headstone. Also, there is a covering stone which read "J.M.W." at the head and reads "Rev. J.M. W." at the foot.
b) Headstone: "Sarah Jane Mitchell, wife of Rev. J. M. Wellwood, born Dec 17, 1847, died April 2, 1932." Also, there is a covering stone which reads "Mother" at the head and reads "S.J.W." at the foot.
c) There is also a cover stone postioned near to (1) and (2) which reads "Jean" at the head and "Jean" at the foot. I assumed this was daughter of this couple.
d) In the same cemetery in Minnedosa, I saw a headstone for "William Myers Hilliard, 1824 - 1915; His wife Almeda Aylsworth Hilliard, 1838 - 1890." I know for certain that this Almeda Aylsworth and her husband William Myers Hilliard are relatives of mine. Almeda was a sister to my great-grandfather Ebenezer Aylsworth and a daughter of my great-great-grandfather Daniel Perry Aylsworth. Further, Almeda had been a witness to the marriage of her brother (my great-grandfather) Ebenezer Aylsworth and Rosanna Wilson, in 1870, in Ontario. See the detailed NOTES on each of these individuals in this family tree database.
THESE FINDINGS, led to an even stronger hunch that the Reverend James M. WELLWOOD was indeed a brother to my Sarah Ann (WELLWOOD) LLOYD, based on the following rationale:
i) Almeda (AYLSWORTH) HILLIARD and the Reverend James WELLWOOD lived around the same time in Minnedosa, Manitoba.
ii) I assumed that Almeda (Aylsworth) Hilliard knew the Reverend James M. Wellwood, given that they both lived in Minnedosa, Manitoba.
iii) Almeda's brother Ebenezer AYLSWORTH lived approximately fifty kilometers distant from Minnedosa, in Brandon, Kemnay and Alexander, Manitoba. Also, Sarah Ann (WELLWOOD) LLOYD and her husband Simon Ferguson LLOYD lived near to Ebenezer AYLSWORTH, in the small town called Beresford, Manitoba. One of the sons of Ebenezer (namely William Perry AYLESWORTH) married one of the daughters of Sarah Ann (WELLWOOD) LLOYD ... namely Sarah Charlotte LLOYD. They are my paternal grandparents.
iv) Based on these reflections, I speculated that the Aylsworth family, the Wellwood family and the Lloyd family may have moved from Ontario to Manitoba at about the same time, and that these families all knew one another in Ontario prior to moving to Manitoba. Further, I speculated that IF the Reverend James M. WELLWOOD and my Sarah Ann (WELLWOOD) LLOYD were siblings, THEN perhaps conversations between Ebenezer and his sister Almeda led to introductions between William Perry AYLESWORTH and Sarah Charlotte LLOYD, whose mother's maiden name was Sarah Ann WELLWOOD. Regardless, it seemed likely that these four families did know one another in Ontario and, perhaps, in Manitoba (i.e. the families of Ebenezer Aylsworth, Simon and Sarah Ann (Wellwood) Lloyd, Rev James M. Wellwood, and Almeda (Aylsworth) Hilliard).
4) On June 30th, 2009, I located the record for the marriage of James M WELLWOOD to Sarah Jane MITCHELL in 1874. The marriage took place in Gananoque, where my Sarah Ann (WELLWOOD) LLOYD also lived at the time, with her husband Simon Ferguson LLOYD. Further, I knew from census records that William Wellwood Jr, a brother of Sarah Ann, was living with Simon and Sarah Ann in Gananoque at the time. In the marriage certificate, the father of James M. WELLWOOD is listed as William WELLWOOD, and the mother is listed as Mary Millwood (s/b WELLWOOD). Given that the parents of my Sarah Ann (WELLWOOD) LLOYD were also named William and Mary, and given that my Sarah and many members of the LLOYD family also lived in Gananoque at this time, this record was a further indication that I may be correct in assume that the Reverend James M. WELLWOOD was known to and perhaps a sibling of my Sarah Ann (WELLWOOD) LLOYD.
5) Later the same day, on June 30th, 2009, I located the following article about the Reverend James M. WELLWOOD and his family, as published in the Brandon Sun on August 25, 1972 (page 9). This article CONFIRMNS that James was indeed a brother to 'my' Sarah Ann WELLWOOD, and it provides additional information about her family. I have added this information into this family tree. The article reads:
"Valley Vistas, by Peter Neufeld of Minnedosa
MINNEDOSA -- "On Dec 15, 1880," says Minnedosa Memories, "a dominion meteorological site was established here. Rev. J. M. Wellwood had come to the district in June of that year and homesteaded two miles easy and south of town. He set up the instruments on the farm and a line ran from the United States to his house before the first telegraph was installed at the M. and NW (Manitoba and North West Railway) station. Later in 1884 he moved to town and the meteorological station was placed on the hill southwest of town."
Next week the federal government will present a plaque to Minnedosa Museum commemorating this meteorological station and the Wellwood family which supplied weather data vital to West-Man for 70 years. Accepting the plaque on behalf of the Wellwood will be granddaughter, Winnifred A. (Yuill) Whitley of Meilita.
I have recently been in correspondence with Mrs. Whitley and received a fascinating letter about the Wellwood family and weather station. The following are excerpts:
"My grandfather, James Moncrieff Wellwood, was born in Hamilton in 1847 and my grandmother, Sarah Jane Mitchell, was born in Gananoque in the same year. They were married June 2 1874. At that time Grandpa was minister of Cote Des Neiges Presbyterian church, and at the same time was taking his BA from McGill. The strain was a bit too much and the doctor advised a complete break for a while, and his congregation gave him leave of absence and he and Grandma were married and took a trip to Scotland and Europe for a honeymoon, returned to Cote des Neiges and were there until Grandpa was persuaded to come west as a missionary in the spring of 1880. Grandma and the three girls, Jean, Narcissa and Winnifred (my mother) came out later that year. Jessie and Helen were born at Minnedosa.
"Grandpa's throat played out and he had to stop preaching, but inspected schools spring and fall, went south in the winter and made a study of educational methods down there, and also studied medicine and was just preparing to set up a practice in California when he died in 1892, at the age of 45. He was apparently like "the elephant's child' possessed of an insatiable curiosity and simply drove himself to death. Grandma was a comparatively calm person, and both had a very strong faith which carried them through many difficult times.
"Before he came west Grandpa had become very much interested in meteorological observation and was asked to make reports. The station was carried on by the family until my aunt died in December 1949. She wanted to retire, but the department wanted her to carry on just a little longer. Practically the last thing she did was sit up in bed and write the week's report.
"The 'observations' were all important. The thermometers were in a shed at the top of the hill where the Senior Citizens Lodge (Kinsmen Court) is now, and they had to be read at 6 o'clock morning and evening, and for some years at 12 o'clock noon. There were wet bulb, dry bulb, maximum, minimum and present temperature, and it was not easy to climb the hill, unlock the shed and read the thermometers by flashlight and mark down the figures when the termperature was well below zero. Part of the time, at least, there was another thermometer shed in the yard and those too had to be read. The rain gauge had to be emptied and measured if it had rained. If it stormed day or night they were supposed to keep track of the time, they had to measure the wind and the visibility, read the barometer, reduce the reading to sea-level, and then do some figuring and reduce the facts to a code which was telegraphed to Winnipeg. There was a line run from the station to the house, and if the report did not go in fairly quickly the call letters would be coming over the wire. Occasionally the wire would go dead, and then they had to telephone the station and have them sent from there, and sometimes the telephone was also out and then there was nothing for it but to go to the station -- usually when that happened it was storming or bitterly cold. It was a very trying job.
When we were out in the afternoon, Grandma always had to be home before six to take the observations. After she came to live with us, about 1926, I think, my aunt, Mrs. Workman officially took it over. Mary and Effie Macdonald used to help when Aunt Nomie (Helen) was away or ill. One of my vivid recollections is the winter when I was four and my sister a year and a half old. Grandma went down to visit her daughters in the States and Mother took the two of us and went over there and took the observations. I remember her bundling us up and putting us on the toboggan, pulling us up the hill and then getting down and sliding down with us. One of the winter jobs was to measure the snow drifts, take measurements in a number of places and then average them. She went around on snowshoes, pulling us and carrying a long stick -- about six feet I think -- and pushing it through the drifts at various points. We thought it was fun but I doubt if Mother did. Of course when we visited over there every summer it was fun going "up the hill" with Grandma or whoever was going. Wrens used to build nests in the thermometer shed (the ventilation holes were just the right size for the wren house), wild flowers were thick on the hill and birds in the bushes. If we were very quiet we could sit in the den and watch Grandma send off the reports.
Grandpa's father [WILLIAM JAMES WELLWOOD swa] was killed when a sleigh tipped over with a load of wood on Hamilton mountain, when Grandpa was a small boy. There were three children, James, Sarah and William. William went to the States, Sarah lived in Brandon for many years -- Mrs. Simon Lloyd. [THIS IS MY GREAT-GRANDMOTHER! swa]. Their mother [MARY (DRENNAN) WELLWOOD swa] remarried a Mr. Birmingham, and had three more children, Robert, Lizzie and Jane. Jane died when she was fairly young and Robert homesteaded near Brandon; the family still lives there.
"Aunt Jean died at the age of 26, Aunt Jessie married Frank Myers, a lawyer in Denver, and died quite a long time ago, Aunt Helen died in 1949. Aunt Narcissa was married to Robrt Beall, died a few years ago. Her three sons are all living in California. My parents died in 1970. My sister, Wilhelmine Kilgour, is living in Ireland, where her husband is managing the Avoca copper mine. Her elder daughter (Jocelynne) is married to J. R. Weston, an assistant professor at Carlton University in Ottawa, and they have two children, Mark, aged and six, and Amy, three. Allison, the younger daughter, is in the library at Hay River, N.W.T.
One of Grandma's brothers was Colonel J. B. Mitchell of Winnipeg, for whom the James B. Mitchell school is named. He was a prominent citizen there for many years. His son, Ross Mitchell, now retired, was a doctor and still lives there, and his two daughters, both now dead, were married to doctors, Ralston Davidon and Digby Wheeler.
Grandma [i.e. Sarah Jane (nee MITCHELL) WELLWOOD swa] died in the spring of 1932 aged 84. the only thing which worried her when she went to the hospital was that she had started to crochet a fillet doily for me with No. 100 crochet cotton and had it just half done."
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(These NOTES and the transcription of the article from the Brandon Sun were written by Sam Aylesworth on July 1, 2009. Calgary, Alberta, Canada. Of course I am delighted to find this information, all of which is new to me. It also suggests some new approaches to and avenues for tracking down further information on the ancestry of William James WELLWOOD and his wife Mary DRENNAN.)
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On November 9,2009, I came across reference to a Robert WELLWOOD, whose parents were James Wellwood and Mary Ann (Doran) Wellwood. I did wonder if this was a fourth child of 'my' William James WELLWOOD and Mary DRENNAN, However, I decided not to add Robert to this tree, as father of Robert was married three or more times. [SWA]
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On November 10, 2009, I, Samuel William Aylesworth, sent the following email to the Minnedosa Tribune, attention Mr. Darryl Holyk, Editor:
"Dear Darryl:
In response to an email I had sent, you wrote to me on July 27th, inviting me to write a letter to the Minnedosa Tribune regarding my search for descendants of James Moncrief WELLWOOD who lived in Minnedosa. I thank you very much for your invitation. Sadly, my oldest brother died at the time you wrote to me. My wife and I were in the midst of a move at the time, and so after the services for my brother, helping his widow to settle various matters, and completing our move, I did not respond at that time. I apologize for failing to contact you again more quickly.
My I now ask that you print the following letter in the next edition of The Minnedosa Tribune. Please feel free to edit this letter if the my approach is different from what you would prefer.
"To the Editor and Readers of the Minnedosa Tribune:
I am searching for descendants of the Reverend James Moncrief WELLWOOD, who lived in Minnedosa after 1880, and was married to Sarah Jane MITCHELL. An article written in the Brandon Sun on August 25th, 1972 (page 9) refers to the earlier history of this couple, and also refers to a sister of James, namely Sarah Ann WELLWOOD, who lived in Alexander in the 1880s. I descend from that Sarah Ann WELLWOOD, who married Simon Ferguson LLOYD, and I would greatly welcome learning more about the ancestry, history, and later descendants of the WELLWOOD family. May I invite any who have detail about these matters to contact me by email at saylesworth@shaw.ca <javascript:main.compose('new','t=saylesworth@shaw.ca')> Detail that I have located on the Reverend James and his sister Sarah Ann WELLWOOD is summarized in my family tree which is posted on RootsWeb.com
Thank you for your assistance and interest in this family.
Sam Aylesworth
Calgary, Alberta, Canada"
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