Bathurst Courier, Feb. 9, 1847
Information Wanted:
Mary Abercrombie, who left her father’s residence in Burgess about 16 months ago and has no since been heard of. Any information about her will be gratefully received. James Abercrombie
I wondered what had happened to Mary Abercrombie after I read it in the newspaper archives and went on a search. I knew that in the 1800s women were seen, by the middle classes at least, as belonging to the domestic sphere, and this stereotype required them to provide their husbands, or even fathers with a clean home, and food on the table.
Women’s rights were extremely limited in this era, losing ownership of all of their physical property, and enduring their husband’s and father’s control, with economic deprivation. Sometimes, especially when their mothers had died were, these young girls were solely responsible for the family home and sisters and brothers and were given no way out.
So I found Mary Abercrombie and she was barely 19 when her father placed the personal ad in the Bathurst Courier. Initially I thought there were small brothers and sisters she was responsible for so she ran away. Mary had her first child James out of wedlock on the 17th of February 1855. She later married her husband James Drysdale Condie on the 2nd of April 1855. Looking at James’s former residence which was Burgess Township where Mary’s Dad lived– one has to now ask themselves if they ran away together. Was that why an ad was placed for her whereabouts?
In 1860 Mary had another son Alex, and then William in 1862 who became a farmer and married Hattie MacIntosh of Renfrew in 1862. Mary Abercrombie Condie died in 1868 at the age of 40, and I wondered if she too suffered the probable fate of her mother, dying after giving birth to her daughter Isabella. Her daughter Isabella later married a widower Frances Little who was 37 from the same area-she was 26.
Now we know most of the story or do we?
Not really– I later found out that Mary had another child Jessie Condie who died at birth (1859-1859) and after Mary Abercrombie died in 1868 James Condie remarried in 1869 to Janet Johnson and they had another seven children.
It never stops does it.:)
From the Weedmark Family Tree
Mary Abercrombie, b. 1828, Upper Canada  , d. 22 Dec 1868, Beachburg, Westmeath Township, Renfrew County, Ontario, Canada (40 years) |
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| Married | 2 Apr 1855
James Drysdale Condie, (b. 25 May 1825, Burgess Township, Lanark County, Ontario, Canada |
Perth, Lanark County, Ontario, Canada |
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| Children |
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Come and visit the Lanark County Genealogical Society Facebook page– what’s there? Cool old photos–and lots of things interesting to read.
Information where you can buy all Linda Seccaspina’s books-You can also read Linda in Hometown News
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