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Surnames: Cairns, Watson, Hales
Classification: Query
Message Board URL:
http://boards.ancestry.com/mbexec/msg/rw/CMH.2ACEB/286.1
Message Board Post:
Hello:
My husband's ancestor, (there is a discrepancy whether it was William or John, but
according to the LDS records, a William Cairns was born in the area of Edinburgh/Kinghorn
in 1796, which would correspond to the man we are searching for), William or John Cairns
may have lived in Quebec (sw area) in the early 1800's. He was married to Hannah
Watson a U.E. from Boston, and they had at least three children so far documented: Mary
Ann, born 1820 in Fredericton, N.B., John, Born 1821, and Elizabeth Agnes, born 1831 in
Prince Edward County, Ontario. William/John had been pressed into the King's navy to
fight Napoleon from the area of Kinghorn/Edinburgh Scotland in 1812 at just age 16, then
was forced to come to Canada with Sir James Yeo to fight the Americans on Lake Ontario.
He had the image of his ship tattooed on his forearm, and after he jumped ship for a
second time and escaped at "Prince Edward Peninsula" a man taught him the
cooper's trade. It is said he was a big, fri!
endly man, and loved to sing with a good voice.. He was a student at the time of his
original capture, and his parents owned woollen mills. His brother came to Canada to
search for him, but reportedly could not find him, although it was later learned he was
within a few miles of his brother at one point.
Elizabeth Agnes Cairns, his daughter, married William Hales at Cobourg, Ontario in 1855,
and thus became my husband's gr. gr. gr. grandmother.
If you have any of these stories in your family's verbal or written history, please
contact so that we can compare and perhaps learn a little more.