Missing Link and The Fly

The Missing Link

The baptism of our ancestor Francis Clarke took place in St. James' Church, Hudson. His father, John Edmund's baptism is probably recorded in the registry of the mission at Coteau du Lac. The baptism of John Edmund's father, John William is recorded in the registry of the Protestant Episcopal Congregation of Chatham.

The link to John William's father, Charles, is also easy to establish. The record of John William's baptism says that he is the son of Charles. So documentary evidence exists of our relation to these ancestors.

But documenting our relation to William is the missing link. Certainly the relation between Charles and his father William can be inferred from what we do know. Yet, it would be nice to have documentary proof that Charles is the son of William.

In the 1852 Census, Charles said that he was born in Montreal. However, his baptism  is not in the records of Christ Church Montreal. It does not seem likely, but the baptism may turn up in the registers of a Catholic church. As the baptism records show, Charles did baptise at least two of his children in a Catholic church. It is also possible that the the baptism of Charles was never recorded, or that the records were lost.

The registration of the marriage Charles and Mary Kingsbury may establish the link between Charles and William. Yet, in one posting [RQH 2005-03/1111770200] John Mertz says that Charles is the probable son of Wilhelm Schneider. In another posting [RQH 2000-03/0952394900] referring to the same marriage, John Mertz calls Charles a farmer and says that he can not make a connection to his Hessians. So until we get the documents ourselves, we can not make a definitive link between Charles and William.

Another possibility exists to establish the link between William and Charles. William made a will. If he named Charles as his son in the will, the documentary evidence of our link to all our ancestors would be complete.

The Fly in the Ointment

There exists a reference to Charles that throws into doubt what we think we know about Charles, William and his brother. Here it is:

Other Brunswickers contributed to the growth of our country, each in his own way. Albert Cleing/Kleing, Christian Cretschmann, Christophe Hartmann, Adam Hofmann, John Iffland, Henry Riemenschneider and Conrad Weyand became tavern keepers, while comrade-at-arms, Charles Schneider, an inn keeper from Lachine, moved to Upper Vaudreuil and turned his large stone house into a hotel.

The quote above was on a web page called the Sorel Project. The page is no longer available, but can be retrieved from the Internet Archive's Way Back Machine. [WBM - Sorel Project]

A Google search shows that both Christian Cretschmann [RQH 2003-01/1043197516]and John Iffland [RQH 2003-03/1048089117] were in fact Hessians. The parish of Notre-Dame census [PND - census] for 1792, 1795, and 1798 confirm that Henry Riemenschneider was an innkeeper in Montreal. More research may prove the others to have been Hessians also.

If the quote is correct, then Charles was also a Hessian. He could not have been the son of William who was born in 1784.

So who was Charles? Was he the son of Charles, or a fellow soldier? Were there two Charles, one the son of William, and the other the brother of William? Who was it who moved to Vaudreuil? What happened to the Charles in the quote? And what of the Jean Schneider, who we have identified as the probable brother of William (see William's Bibliography)?

Obviously more documentary evidence is needed.

Help

So if anyone has any documents which can clear up the confusion, please let me know.

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