Family Whereabouts between Arrival and Permanent Settlement

1836 to ca. 1844

The arrival of the Mahony siblings in Canada is thought to be 1836 or 1837. The earlier
year was entered in the 1900 census for Daniel Mahony in the space for “Year of immigration to
the United States.” Daniel’s brother, JJ, entered 1884, the year he migrated to Michigan from
Ontario. Daniel’s entry, which represented a misunderstanding of the question, is written
evidence of the immigration date to Canada, not the US. The following excerpt from Aunt
Ellen's family history gives Daniel’s date of arrival as 1837.

Aunt Ellen’s arrival date for Catherine Crafton (Crawford), 1842, matches the date of arrival of
the Britannia, departing from Westport, Ireland 21 May 1842 and arriving in Quebec 6 July
1842. One of its passengers was Anne Craford, age 23, plus a family of her Loftus relatives.
The first appearance of any of the three siblings in available Canadian records is in 1842
when Sarah and John Buckley were married at St. Paul’s Church in Toronto.

The second is the christening of their first child, Mary, also at St. Paul’s Church, Toronto.
The record indicate her baptism on 15 October 1843 and birth on 13 October 1843 to John
Buckley and Sarah Mahony with William Gant and Mary Mahony as sponsors. This entry
suggests that Sarah and Michael were living in the Toronto area for a few years after their
marriage, prior to moving to Perth Co. Mary Mahony may be a relative.

The next recorded event is in 1844 when Daniel Mahony and John Buckley leased land
from the Canada Company in the Huron tract. The reference can be found in Echoes of Ellice,
Ellice Township, 1827-1997, by Dean Robinson, published January 1999 by the Ellice Township
History Book Committee. This date would represent the start of permanent residence.
Catherine Crawford appears twice in the Wildfield (Toronto Gore Twp., Peel Co.,
Ontario) St. Patrick's Church records as a baptismal sponsor, on 1 September 1844, for Maurice,
son of Michael Scholard and Johanna Mahony, and on 9 February 1845 for William, son of John
Loftus and Bridget Logan. Both Michael Scholard and John Loftus are listed from Etobicoke, a
township in the adjoining county of York.
 Michael and Johanna Scollard appear as parents of several children baptized at St.
Patrick’s in Wildfield. They remove to Dubuque, Iowa in the mid-1850s. It is possible that
Johanna Mahony, wife of Michael Schollard (usually Scollard) is a sibling or at least a relative of
Daniel, Sarah, and JJ.
John and Bridget Loftus are found in the Ontario records into the 1900s. John was born in
Ireland in about 1808. He is more of the generation of Catherine's mother and Patrick Loftus than
Patrick's children. He is the likely witness at Catherine and Daniel Mahoney’s wedding at St.
Paul’s, Toronto, in 1847.
Another piece of evidence suggesting Etobicoke as temporary home: On 24 August 1845,
at St. Paul's Church in Toronto, Sarah Mahoney and Daniel Mahony were sponsors, respectively,
of Peter and Alexander Tisdale, sons of Alexander Tisdale and Rose Ann Jacob. The partner
sponsors, respectively, were William Shannighan and Jane Glissen. A third son, James, also
baptized then, was sponsored by James Burke and Helen Coane. Fr. JJ Hay officiated. It is not
evident why Daniel and Sarah were selected as baptismal sponsors other than that they might
have been neighbors attending the same church.

These two record excerpts are from the Mormon site (FamilySearch.org). The original
cursive record can be found online but cannot be downloaded. (I printed and scanned it to get
this copy.) The print version was downloaded in the past; it is not available now at the Mormon
site. The full copy of the print version is included with this note.
Brown's Toronto City and Home District Directory for 1846 lists Alexander Tisdale in
1846 in Etobicoke Twp., York Co. In 1851, Alex and his family are in Pittsburg Twp., Frontenac
Co., about 160 miles east of Toronto. The family remained in that locale for several decades. The
following two citations are from Ancestry.com:
Canadian Genealogy Index, 1600s-1900s
Name: Alexander Tisdale
Event: Living
Year: 1846
Place: Etobicoke Township
County: York
Province:Ontario
Source: Brown's Toronto City and Home District Directory 1846-7, George Brown, Toronto, 1846.
Page: 28

1851 Census of Canada East, Canada West, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia

Name: Alexr Tisdale

Gender: Male
Age: 46
Estimated Birth Year:abt 1806
Birthplace: Canada East
Province: Canada West (Ontario)
District: Frontenac County
District Number: 9
Sub-District: Pittsburg
Sub-District Number: 73

Etobicoke (ɛˈtoʊbɨkoʊ) was a community on Lake Ontario; it is now part of the Toronto
megapolis. The area was occupied by Mississauga Indians until 1792 when it was purchased by
Lieutenant-Governor Francis Gore for £1,700. It became Etobicoke Township (area: 27,976
acres) in York County. The name Etobicoke is thought to be a corruption of the Indian Wah-do-
be-kaung, "the place where alder grow." Etobicoke left York County in 1953 to join the newly
formed urban region of Metropolitan Toronto. It is a low population area because of the
prominence of industrial operations.
Wildfield St. Patrick’s Church, mentioned above, also known as the Gore Mission, was
the likely church of choice for our ancestors during their hiatus in Etobicoke. Wildfield was
chosen as the site for a Catholic church because it was deemed to be a central geographic point
between the surrounding townships. The local clergy acquired a 200-acre land grant (a perk for
religions from the Canadian government) in 1834 and a frame structure was constructed. The
present St. Patrick's church was built on the site of this original frame structure. The priests of St.
Patrick's served mission churches over a large area for several decades and today St. Patrick's is
still known as the "Mother Church" for all Catholic parishes in Peel Region. During the period
our ancestors were in the region, the parish priest was Fr. Eugene O'Reilly. He was born in 1796,
in the diocese of Ardagh in County Cavan in north central Ireland. Originally, Eugene O’Reilly
was a farmer whose life was changed forever when his young wife died. With little prospects in
Ireland, he immigrated to Canada in 1832 with his young daughter Margaret. After arriving in
Canada he decided to become a priest and entered the Classical College of Chambly near
Montreal. It is not known why he made that decision, how he would have paid for his education
and where Margaret lived while he was at the seminary. At any rate, he seems never to be absent
from St. Patrick’s, officiating at essentially all baptisms, marriages, and funerals in the 1840s and
1850s. It is not known if he was related to John Mahoney’s wife’s family.

Etobicoke Township was at the southwest corner of York County, separated from the rest of the townships by
the Humber River. To the west is Peel County: Toronto Gore Township can be seen on the map.
A typed copy of the baptismal record from St. Paul’s Church, Toronto which includes the Tisdale children.