I made a visit to Angus Archives last November. It is situated outside Forfar in the grounds of Restenneth Priory. I wanted to have a look at the Speid of Ardovie papers.
I knew that there were various papers and artefacts pertaining to my Sievwrights although I didn't at first know the connection between the Speids and the Sievwrights.
Helen Catherine Sievwright (1842-1917) was the main beneficiary of the Sievwrights after the death of Marjory in 1874. She married Henry Speid (1821-1904) of Ardovie, who was 22 years older than her, some time before 1882 (birth of their only son Arthur.) I haven't found a marriage for them in this country so assume they got married in Canada. * They lived in Montreal and moved to Lennoxville, Quebec about 1893. The families must have known each other for some time as in amongst the papers in the Archives were photographs and some drawings Helen Catherine made of Henry and his sister Margaret at Ardovie in 1862 and 1863. I wasn't allowed to photograph anything unfortunately.
Helen Catherine was born in Canada the eldest of three daughters of Joseph Alexander Sievwright. He was in the Island of Demeraray according to his mother's will dated 1825. There is no such island at the present but I think it refers to Guyana. Joseph Alexander turns up in Halifax Nova Scotia in 1842 when Helen is born. I have no idea what he did for a living. **
Helen and Henry Speid had the one child Arthur Theodore Speid (1882-1974). He was well educated, a teacher and twice mayor of Lennoxville. He married the girl along the road Mary White in 1912 and they had 3 daughters. In 1919 he bought a house called Uplands (above) and set about remodelling it. He certainly made a lovely home. It is now a museum and is situated in Speid Street, named after him in 1929.
My tree
with thanks to fifth cousin Doris in Star, Idaho for info!
* married in St John New Brunswick 4 February 1880 - record found in Daniel F Johnson's New Brunswick Vital Statistics - taken from local newspaper reports
** more on Joseph in this post
No comments:
Post a Comment