Mary Latimer (nee Beattie)

It must be something in the air other than snow, sleet or rain that has brought photos of great great grandmothers to me! First, there was the discovery of a photo of Helen Gammie (nee Shand), my great great grandmother who had immigrated from Scotland to Saskatchewan, Canada in 1907. Later, Helen had successfully urged my great grandfather Alexander Shand Hadden to bring his family to Saskatchewan to help her manage the homesteads she possessed.

Now, I have been presented thanks to Latimer cousin and co-researcher Robin of British Columbia with a photo of Mary Latimer (nee Beattie)(see photo to the right), Ellen's great great grandmother. Just as was the case for me with Helen Gammie's photo, Ellen had never seen a photo of her great great grandmother.

Mary Beattie was born in Ireland around 1813 and she married Daniel Latimer when, I suspect, she was in her early 20's, probably around 1835. Between 1839 and 1853, Daniel and Mary had six children - 3 boys and 3 girls. Thomas the oldest was born in 1839, May was born about 1846, Annie Jane born in 1847, John born in 1849, Edward born in 1851, and finally, Sarah born about 1853.

Some records suggest, though perhaps not conclusively, that Mary, as a widow, and four of her children immigrated from Ireland to then Canada West around 1864. May and Annie remained in Ireland and did not make the journey with the rest of their family. It might have been that they were already or were about to be married. The preponderance of evidence indicates that the family resided in County Fermanagh although there is less uniform support for the parish of residence. It appears it was either Enniskillen or Derryvullan.

In Canada, Mary and her children settled in Seaforth, Huron County, Ontario. Oldest son Thomas was a carpenter by trade, married Charlotte Marriot in Seaforth in 1872, and then later moved his family west to Manitoba. John, the second oldest son, was a tailor by trade married Margaret Eliza Sills in Seaforth in 1871. John died at the tragically young age of 35 in 1884 in the nearby town of Wingham, Ontario. Edward 'Ned' Latimer, the youngest son (and Ellen's great grandfather) was a shoemaker by trade who married widow Theresa Delmage Sparling in 1872 in Seaforth.

Mary appears to have stayed with son John based on the location of her death in March 1884 in Wingham, Ontario. When her son John joined her in death just a few months later and he was buried in the same plot in the Maitlandbank Cemetery in Seaforth, Ontario.