Page 56 - English Wightman Family

The Canadian Wightmans had emigrated from Suffolk County in England to Canada, first Walter emigrated to Canada in 1907 and then Florrie with their three sons emigrated in 1910.

The English Wightman family have been quite easy to trace, once we had traced the initial few generations of the family, I found that they are well documented on Ancestry.com. They were based in the Saxtead area of Suffolk this is just north of Ipswich and we have found many photographs, grave sites and found a lot of information about them. A first cousin of Walter(Frederick) Wightman was Jesse Eugene (known as Jesse) Wightman and he was quite famous in the Suffolk area as one of the last working Millwrights.

Jesse rebuilt the Saxtead Post Mill, this is an old Post Windmill that was used for grinding wheat and other grains to make bread. I have visited this windmill and taken photographs, there are also some photographs of Jesse. His second wife still lives in their house in Chelmsford not far away and we have spoken to her. Jesse unfortunately passed away in 1994 but the Post Mill lives on in his memory.

Jesse’s father was David Harsum Wightman and David’s brother Eugene Wightman was Walter’s father. It is unusual that David Harsum Wightman had married his third cousin Sarah Jessie Wightman and their wedding certificate is signed by her sisters Leah Wightman and Martha M Wightman, also by his brother Jesse M Wightman. There are 5 Wightman signatures on their Wedding Certificate, I would have thought that was unusual?