John Thomas Love - When was he born?

John Thomas Love was my maternal grandfather. I wrote about him in the 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks Challenge last year. Recently, a third cousin contacted me to have me review the Love family outline to be displayed at the museum in Mindemoya, Manitoulin Island, Ontario.

Her information gave my grandfather's birthday as 25 August 1885. In my genealogical database, I had 25 August 1884. I had not been able to find his birth registration on previous searches. The 1901 census gives it as 25 August 1884. His tombstone gives his year of birth as 1884. The 1911 census gives his date of birth as August 1884. Unfortunately, the 1921 census does not list any date of birth as it was not requested information. My cousin's source was the profile of John on Manitoulin Roots showing.

Ontario Vital Records - Births #001 523 - 1885
LONE, John Thomas, male, 25 August 1885, Carnarvon. Parents: James Lone and Elizabeth Fields Robinson.

My information was secondary as the information was provided after the event. For both, we don't know who provided the information.

Well, it was important for me to see the actual registration. I searched again on Ancestry, trying both Love and Lone. Neither found. So my next try was to go to the Card Catalogue. I entered in the keywords Ontario births. I then chose to browse the catalogue. I chose 1885 Algoma. Page 1 showing was linked to 1895 entries.  

So, I headed to Grey Roots, the Grey County Archives, wondering if they might have the appropriate microfilm. They don't have it but Bruce County Archives does have it.  It is not too far to travel but I wouldn't be able to go for a few days. While at the Archives, I decided to look at the microfilm index of the 1884 and 1885 births. I didn't find him in 1884. The entry for 1885 had one for John Lone and it indicated 08 25 1885 but the location was given as Sault Ste Marie. This really puzzled me. 

I sent an email to Ancestry about the indexing problem. Several days later, I received a reply saying that 1885 started on the third page of Algoma births that showed 1895 on the first page. So I needed to go page by page. They said there must be an indexing problem with these records. 

On the sheet before the one his registration is located on, I found

It has registrations for the Municipality of Sault Ste. Marie. (Ontario).  Notice that it says Glued Page (s). 

So what is on the top of the page on which his birth shows?

So it shows that it is for Carnarvon, Manitoulin which is where I would expect to find my grandfather's birth to have occurred. On the page there are four registrations. You can tell this page was glued in as you can see the form and also the hand written labels as well. 

It is interesting to look at each of the four registrations on the same page. #1 It looks like birth May 16, 1884 registered May 27, 1885. The birth date might be 1885. #2 March 9, 1885 birth registered on Mar/May? 1885. #3 March 30, 1885 and registered April 3, 1885. Finally, John Thomas Love birth August 25th 1885 [The date is not clear - is it actually a 5] and registered January 2, 1885. Obviously the date of registration is wrong if the birth happened in 1885. 

Although this record has been indexed as Lone, it is John Thomas Love. His mother has the more distinctive name of Elizabeth Fields Robinson. W. [William] Vincer, the registrar, was the uncle of the newborn.

So what year was my grandfather, John Thomas Love, born?

 1901 Census of Canada, Ontario, Algoma (district 44), Carnarvon (sub-district H/3), division 2, p. 2, James Love household; digital image, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 6 January 2014), citing microfilm T-6458, Library & Archives Canada, Ottawa 
1911 Census of Canada, Ontario, Algoma East (district 54), Carnarvon (sub-district 14), p. 2 family 12, James Love household; digital image Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : re-accessed 17 July 2015), citing Library & Archives Canada, Ottawa.
John Thomas Love Ontario birth registration #01523 (2 January 1885?); digital image, Ancestry.ca (http://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 17 July 2015), citing MS 929 reel 69.

© 2015 Janet Iles