Canton Family History

PROJECT NEWS

Family Tree DNA Discounts

The period for taking up these generous discounts ends on 30 September. It takes a very few minutes to order online - and I will gladly advise about that. However, realistically, I feel I would have been contacted long before this if anyone were seriously interested. That’s disappointing, but there we are!

In view of that, I am withdrawing my published offer to buy two (the minimum order) or more kits to distribute in the months ahead. Really, I only needed one, to donate to someone in my own line, and anything extra was part of the practical goodwill I feel to this project, the only way we are going to break through the immense research difficulties caused by lost records.  In case anyone thinks that’s a matter of guesswork on my part, I should mention that my experience in academic and genealogical historical research over several decades affords me some credibility in this.

There is still a Free Offer posted up by me for any descendant of my great-great grandfather, James Canton - this will be financed when someone comes forward.

We have one test in the Y-DNA pipeline: that of a member of the large GL (Gloucestershire -> London) line, a descendant of the great John Canton FRS, the Enlightenment scientist. We look forward very much to seeing and sharing that result, perhaps in about six weeks’ time.

FTDNA and Hurricane Ike

I have today received a further bulletin about this. Basically, all is well and work is going to schedule. If anyone would like to see the letter, they should please just ask me.

PERSONAL NEWS

I have mentioned here in recent months that I am suffering from a painful condition, for which I am to start treatment in the coming week. As soon as I am over that, I am off to London for a few days, which will include a check-up with my St Thomas’s consultant. As a result, I don’t plan to write any more individual letters until all that is over. My doctor told me to cut back, so that I have only been replying to correspondents at weekends recently, but this will be a complete break for about three weeks.

My doctor was all for me doing ‘fun’ things like Facebook, which is relaxing and distracting in a good way. See me there if you want to - as far as I can tell, if you put ’Sheila Rowlands Wales’ into the search box, I am the only one to come up.

Here is some more about the colliery accidents referred to in my last posting. The numbering is mine, for clarity here only. These notes are not meant to be exhaustive and are based on my notes on parish registers, censuses and Picton Castle deeds as well as reference works in my own library.

1. 1878: John POWELL (15) collier, was killed by a roof fall in Southwood Colliery, owners Walters & Canton, Haverfordwest, Pembroke[shire]. Southwood is in Roch parish, Haverfordwest being the nearest town. The Canton owner is David Canton of Nolton Haven, Roch, descendant of the family of Cantons (line PF) who had earlier farmed and mined in the parish of Freystrop for several generations.

2. 1879: Thomas LALLIS (42) collier, was killed by a fall of stone in Southwood colliery, owners Walters & Canton, Haverfordwest, Glamorgan [sic]. This error re the county name suggests that occasional mistakes in recording or transcription could occur - on this point, see no.4, below. There is a map showing the location of Southwood in Fig. 10 in (c) below.

3. 1877: Henry WEBB (23) labourer, was killed by a blow at Woodland colliery, owner David Canton, Haverfordwest, Pembroke[shire] - the same DC as in nos 1 and 2. Woodland is in the parish of Walton West - there is a map of its location in Fig.12 in (c) below.

4. 1877 Nov: Henry ROBERTS (44), sinker, was killed by falling down sinking pit shaft … at Woodfield colliery, owner David Canton, Pontypridd, Glamorgan. This one presents a real difficulty. There is a Woodfield colliery in the Pontypridd, Glamorgan, area, but I rather doubt that David Canton was ever one of its owners, usually described as Bolckow, Vaughan & Co. Ltd.  (The forename David isn’t actually very numerous in Canton  families.)  I think that probably Woodland and Woodfield have become confused here, as Pembs and Glamorgan were in no.2, above. With the intention of unravelling this riddle, I searched for the death of Henry Roberts in the last quarter of 1877 (and later) but found no-one of that name and general age.

Some further reading:

(a) George Edwards, The Coal Industry in Pembrokeshire (Field Studies reprint, 1963).

(b) Dr Brian S. John, The Geology of Pembrokeshire (1979, reprinted 2003).

(c) M.R. Connop-Price, Pembrokeshire: The Forgotten Coalfield (Landmark, 2004).

Research matters have gone rather quiet recently, though we are expecting some Y-DNA results fairly soon. To keep in touch, here are some sites I have visited recently. 

CANTON etc IN FRANCE 

This is a lovely site, the link recently sent to the Guild mailing list by Debbie Kennett (researching CRUWYS):

http://www.geopatronyme.com/

It gives statistics and population maps for individual surnames and of course I looked for CANTON, CANTIN, etc. This, of course, is part of studying the surname and should not be interpreted as any sort of indication of French ancestry for most Cantons outside France.

You will need some very basic French to use the site for simple location searches - and it is free of charge at that level. But be warned that if you follow other internal links to books, histories, etc, such things come at a price.

As an example of what the site has to offer: when I put CANTON in the search box (’votre nom’, then press ‘valider’), a list of birth statistics came up, one for each of four 25-year periods:

1891-1915 — 289 births  /  1916-1940 – 405  /  1941-1965  — 575  /  1966-1990 – 586

A click on each period brings up a map, showing the distribution of the name by département. Cantonis found in small numbers in many areas, but the largest clusters are, in the earliest maps, in Pyrénées Atlantiques, Hautes Pyrénées and Bouches de Rhône. I imagine that these are the result of Spanish and Italian influence. Cantin has larger numbers - it is a typically French spelling (often a rationalisation of the personal name Quentin). Cantain has only 10 in 100 years (all in the north).

In a newsletter some years ago I mentioned, at least half-joking, that it would be good to count the footballer Eric Cantona among our greater ‘family’. His surname has just 11 entries in 100 years, all in Bouches de Rhône. As two of these are accounted for by Eric and his brother Joël, I imagine the other nine also belong to his family and may (probably someone reading this can say for sure) represent a single immigration, perhaps from Italy.

I will try to find time to write more about continental  names-like-Canton in my One-Name Studies web page - I did this on my old personal website but newer contacts may like it afresh.

CANTON IN MINING ACCIDENTS

There’s a very interesting list of Mining Accidents published by the Coalmining History Resource Centre at 

http://www.cmhrc.co.uk/site/disasters/

Six Cantons are listed, including two injured men (luckily no fatalities) and some colliery owners.

Of the former, one is Sidney Canton aged 56 in 1928 - he is more usually Sydney in documents and is a member of line PM/P. He was a mason and, though I had several details of where he worked, I had no idea that he had worked down a coal mine.  

Also injured, in Merthyr Vale Colliery, was Albert Canton, aged 20 in 1933. As I write, I cannot place this young man, so if anyone can help out I’d appreciate it. An Albert was born in 1912, but died age 2. All others are too old to pass for 20. Line PL was living in Merthyr Tydful but, again, there’s no Albert born about 1913. I hope someone will soon claim him!

The ‘colliery owners’ relate to the Pembrokeshire coalfield - more about them another time.

DECEASED ONLINE

This website was launched recently:
www.deceasedonline.com/servlet/GSDOSearch

Details are being collected from municipal cemeteries and crematoria, so expanding on the more usual data from church and chapel graveyards. At the moment there are only 140,000 records from Kent & Sussex, but it plans much more. I know that a number of people reading this have non-Canton interests in that area. At present, while the site is being tested, it’s free to search.

The two Canton entries found are a couple from line GL/A3, Hubert Edgar and his wife Katherine Mildred.

Finally, I shall write again when the next DNA results come through. Do check the website at

http://www.familytreedna.com/public/CantonSurnameProject/

Revised 27.07.08 - thanks to Michael C. for pointing out a typo.

‘No news to report yet’, I wrote yesterday, and overnight there was some!

The first two tests sent off have been tested for 12 markers - a week or two later will come their results at 25 markers, then 37 markers.

The tests are by PM/S01 and PR01, and the results at 12 markers are identical. Because the testers share a surname, it is considered that this indicates a 99% likelihood that they have common ancestor in the period when surnames have been used. Further markers should narrow this time-scale down.

It’s early days but an exciting start, as my hypothesis has always been that the constant appearance of the surname in Pembrokeshire documents from the middle ages reflected a single family. These results keep this possibility open. 

To keep up to date with all Canton results go to http://www.familytreedna.com/public/CantonSurnameProject/

This is an informal summary: Line PM/S goes back into early 18th century  Martletwy (where a Canton family had lived since at least the mid-17th century). Line PR descends from an illegitimate birth in Rhoscrowther PEM in 1832 where, fortunately, the Canton father was named, though we really had no idea which line he came from.  

To narrow down the possible candidates, but also to expand our knowledge of  all the various Canton lines throughout the centuries and to solve similar genealogical mysteries, we really do need more people to test. Please remember that there are further discounts available to group members  - please apply to me direct. It is very important we keep up the present rate of progress.

I have mentioned the very kind offers sent at Christmas - though they have not yet been followed up we hope very much that they will be soon.

Once again, grateful thanks to the pioneers who took tests to start this exciting project off.

Variant Surnames In the Canton Surname Project

In the Guild of One-Name Studies website, you will see that Canton, Cantan, Canten, Cantin and Cantons appear as registered variants. Members are restricted to five variants, so I chose real, not theoretical, variant spellings found in 19-20th century records, for which I could compile at least a small pedigree chart.

In the Canton Surname Project I have now added some other names, which may or may not turn out to be connected. I’m mentioning this here as it may be confusing to suddenly see them appear. Briefly, they are surnames from place-names with a resemblance to the very early forms of Canton (in records as Canteton, Cantington, Caunton). It is now thought by many authorities that surnames from place-names, where they can be traced back, frequently have a single source. DNA testing has reinforced this belief in many cases. I have no documentary evidence to suggest that the extra names I have listed (see below) have a common origin but, as none of them are already taken as projects, it seemed wise to take them under our wing. I shall not go looking for them at this stage - I want to pursue the basic surname more thoroughly first - but hope that some will come across our project as time goes on.

The names are: Cannington, Caunton, Kenton - others may yet be added.

We have had various distractions recently so this blog has been quiet, besides which there is no news to report on the DNA Project just now. I said I would write about Canton surname-variants but am in the middle of a particular line of research and want to finish that first.

We are soon to spend a few days at the National Library of Wales, chiefly for John’s research, so that my own programme is quite flexible. If anyone has some fairly specific wants in parish registers, wills, deeds, etc - in other words, anything which cannot be seen online - please let me know by Saturday, when I have a day to myself to plan my research (visitors after that, so this is a strict deadline). Cantons have priority, but I am happy to look for associated families.

Please write to me at the one-name.org address (at the Guild of One-Name Studies site).

British History Online has an excellent section about Spital Square in London, where John Canton ran his school. From this I have learned that he lived at No. 3 Spital Square - sadly, the house is long demolished but, by visiting this site, it is possible to reconstruct what life there was like.
http://www.british-history.acuk/report.aspx?compid=50153

Also worth reading is the (earlier) section on Norton Folgate, the extra-parochial area where members of the Canton family lived - for example, John Canton’s grandson, Nathaniel John Canton, also a schoolmaster.

http://www.british-history.ac.uk/report.aspx?compid=50148

The Royal Society, of which John Canton was a Fellow, has a good outline of his life and scientific work at

http://www.aim25.ac.uk/cgi-bin/search2?coll_id=5994&inst_id=18

You may like to know that the National Burial Index (published by the Federation of Family History Societies) can now be seen at www.findmypast.com (used to be 1837online.com). This is a fee-paying site, but units can be purchased quite reasonably - I always seem to have plenty in reserve, by the way, for anyone wanting a quick search. It has been rather overshadowed by www.ancestry.co.uk but has excellent BMD index search and certificate-ordering facilities and is steadily adding many unusual sources.  

I have the NBI in its beautifully produced CD format and it is a basic working tool for genealogy - 13 million names in the second edition. What, I wondered, could the online version add, especially as, intriguingly, it contains (only!) 10 million names.

When I compared the two versions for Canton (and variants) I found that several counties are not represented in the online version. A major omission is that London burials are missing, but these are available elsewhere, on a diferent fee-paying site. For a useful summary see

http://homepages.gold.ac.uk/genuki/MDX/ChurchRecords.html#Burials

I did, however, find about fifteen ‘new’ Cantons, added more recently to NBI. Some of these are early (17th century) and in unexpected places - they may represent lines which have died out, possibly with different origins from those which have survived. It’s impossible to pass judgement without seeing the original parish registers and I would observe that ‘Canton’ is very often misread in documents - perhaps a topic for another blog.

Among other new Canton entries are two offspring of Edwin James Canton (Line PM/P). Their deaths are registered as Pontardawe Registration District, a large area to search, but the burials took place at St John, Clydach, Glamorgan, which narrows the search and provides a new churchyard to explore!

These last are from Glamorgan FHS project work, which has covered a huge amount of ground and is shared generously. Key Canton areas such as Pembrokeshire are not covered at all in the published NBI. On the other hand, when I thought about it, I have many Canton burials for that county - fewer for other non-NBI areas - in my own records. I will look into publishing my list online.

A happy New Year to all readers!

My Christmas post included two further offers to take DNA tests, both from different and well-separated branches of the very large PM line (first certain ancestor in Pembrokeshire, Martletwy). This was marvellous news as these tests will provide most useful base information. Moreover, a female member of another key line, GL (descendants of John Canton FRS, born Gloucestershire), is going to approach close male relatives about taking a test.

Altogether, these were great Christmas presents!  Thanks to all who wrote to me about this.

News also came from Family Tree DNA that the first two test kits had been received at the laboratory. The predicted date for results is mid-February, though I imagine this is so as to be covered for unforeseen delays and that, in fact, we can hope for them rather earlier. It looks as if 2008 will hold a lot of new Canton information.

Just before Christmas I was in London at a family event and spent a few hours at TNA (the National Archives), this time looking at some Canton Divorce Petitions of the 1920s and 30s - just three in total. The TNA references are: J77/2665/2758,  J77/2293/1825 and J77/3322/1489. The online catalogue gives brief details of the parties involved.

http://www.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

You can order copies of the papers online, or I am able to pass on details to anyone researching these lines (PL, GL/A3 and GL/A4). Bear in mind that divorce then, and indeed not so long ago, involved ‘guilty’ parties and a certain amount of dirty family linen. In terms of family history this is, of course, very interesting!

[Added later] For a detailed account of the problems attached to divorce in the not-so-distant past, read

http://www.worldwidewords.org/nl/wpbz.htm

I hope to be at TNA for a few days in late February/March (subject to it being open at the specific time) and would be very glad to meet London-based readers over coffee - do get in touch.

A very happy Christmas to everyone and I hope you enjoy this item:

You probably know that the Christmas card was a Victorian invention - here you can see an early one, published by Robert Canton, Lithographer, as well as his trade mark: http://www.scrapalbum.com/xmasp3.htm

Christmas Cards in Shire Publications <www.shirebooks.co.uk >  has three of Robert Canton’s cards as illustrations.

Robert William Canton was born about 1821, but not baptised until 1825 at St Leonard’s, Shoreditch, the son of William Lawrence Canton and Mary Brown. His father was the eldest grandson of John Canton, FRS, the 18th century scientist. Robert was his parents’ third son and the third child out of 11. In 1844 he married Anne Hurst Wright - they had only daughters so there are no Canton descendants of this line.

Robert Canton died 5 June 1893 in Wandsworth, aged 72 according to the GRO Deaths Index. His will, dated 20 Oct 1876, names him as Robert William Canton of Nos 22 & 23 Aldersgate St, City of London, Printer and Publisher (trading as and sometimes known as Robert Canton only)  and was proved to his ‘beloved wife Anne Hurst Canton’ on 4 Jul 1893.

MAIN BRANCHES OF THE CANTON TREE

In Canton Connections No. 2, I published an outline of the main known Canton lines, to help with indexing, and this list was then published in each subsequent issue. At present, it refers only to Canton lines of which the earliest known origin is in Britain and Ireland. I concocted a simple system, using letters based chiefly on the county/country and parish of origin attached to each earliest known ancestor in a particular line.

The system worked well during the life of the magazine and I haven’t found it necessary to change it. I wrote optimistically, ‘if/when we are able to attach one branch to another, it will not be too complicated to modify their “labels” further’. This has happened once, as far as I can tell, in that the then X-labelled Cantans of Kent became firmly PM/K. (Really, this should be just part of PM/J but it has been useful to distinguish them still.) 

More amalgamations may come about in the future – who knows what DNA testing may bring! 

The following are the chief lines identified so far:·     

• GL Gloucestershire (Stroud)/London. These are the descendants of John Canton, FRS, to a great degree London-based for two centuries. They form a very numerous branch, needing subdivision which it is easier to define by letters and numbers related to people, not places, in view of mobility within London. (London-based Cantons not yet connected to this line appear as XL).·First come the sons of John, FRS:
• GL/A descendants of William. This is a particularly prolific line, William having four sons with many descendants. Therefore this line is further sub-divided as:
  • GL/A1 descendants of William Lawrence
  • GL/A2 descendants of Nathaniel John
  • GL/A3 descendants of Charles James
  • GL/A4 descendants of George Augustus.
• GL/B descendants of Thomas
• GL/C descendants of John (if any)     
• GO Gloucestershire/Others. These include Cantons in several parishes, including Stroud, which have not been connected to the family of John Canton, FRS.·     
• I Ireland (sub-divisions unclear as yet).·     
• PA Pembrokeshire, Amroth.·     
• PB Pembrokeshire, Begelly.·     
• PC Pembrokeshire, Cosheston.·     
• PF Pembrokeshire, Freystrop; later Nolton Haven.·     
• PJ Pembrokeshire, Jeffreston (early residents, quite separate from PM/J).·     
• PL Pembrokeshire, Lampeter Velfrey.·     
• PM Pembrokeshire, Martletwy (including Coedcanlas). A very large branch, needing subdivision on occasion for extra clarity:
  • PM/J Jeffreston
    • PM/K Kent (19C) - often as CANTAN - is a sub-division of PM/J
  • PM/P Pembroke;
  • PM/R Reynalton, with further subdivision PM/NZ New Zealand
  • PM/S Stackpole.·     
• PMn Pembrokeshire, Manorbier.·     
• PR Pembrokeshire, Rhoscrowther.·     
• PS Pembrokeshire, Slebech.·     
• SE Sussex, Eastbourne.·     
• X Miscellaneous unidentified lines other than in London.·    
• XL Unidentified lines based in London. 

For new readers: Canton occurs as a surname in several countries of the world other than Britain and Ireland, with a variety of ‘meanings’ and I have not attempted to deal with them here, but this may change.

Postscript: Our first three tests, in date order, are from lines PM/S, PR, PL.