This page concerns the genealogy of a family of French-Canadian Smiths.

By the time of living memory in my family, this Smith family was thoroughly French-Canadian, without a hint of English heritage, except for the last name, "Smith." However, it does not take long, in ascending the family tree, to find a suspicion of English connection. One family note says that the family came from Plymouth, England.

Theories

  • This Smith family, and the line of Daniel Smiths, in particular, were fishermen, sailors or seamen who travelled back and forth between Canada and England.

    Originally, we had no "real" evidence to support this theory. This theory was originally proposed after the initial discovery of Daniel Smith in the 1900 U.S. Census, in which he gave his nationality or birthplace as England, his mother's as Canada-French, and his father's as England. Later research into the U.S. Census reveals that the significance of this data can be quite variable and subjective. Other relatives of mine born in Transylvavnia, then part of Imperial Hungary, now in Romania, of a Slovak father and Hungarian mother, are variously listed as Slovak-Wendish and Hungarian, according to the known family tradition about their ethnicity or nationality, and does not appear to attempt to indicate actual birthplace. While the inscription of "England" is not insignificant, in light of the fact that the wife and some children are born in French Canada and thus listed, its significance could mean anything from what the family considered themselves (ethnicity) to national heritage to actual birthplace. Later censuses show all Smiths considering themselves to be French Canadian, except for one case, where a son of Daniel notes his father as English.

  • This Smith family settled in Canada soon after the English conquest. They were Protestant and only slowly did they become Catholic
  • This Smith family is descended from a German soldier named "Schmidt"
  • This Smith family

    Daniel Smith {III}

    In the 1881 Canadian Census (taken around March?), Daniel Smith's age is given as 33, giving a birth date of circa 1848. His wife Marguerite's age is given as 31, giving her a birth date of circa 1850. Most unusually, her birthplace is given as Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island. Daniel Smith's profession is given as a «pecheur», in English, fisherman.
    In the 1900 U.S. Census (taken as of June 1), Daniel Smith's birth month is given as Sept 1840, and his age is given as 59. His wife "Maggie" is born in Dec 1852, and her age is given as 47. The number of years married is 25. Daniel Smith's birthplace is given as England; his father, England as well; his mother, Canada-French. Maggie and her parent's birthplace are all Canada-French. See this note about the signifance of this information
    In the 1910 U.S. Census (taken as of April 15), Daniel gives his age as 69. his wife Margaret is 59. The number of years married is 34, and the census taker specified that this was the first marriage.
    Daniel Smith died in the latter part of 1910, after the census, but before the following year's city directory, probably while the family was living at 412 County Street.
    In the 1920 U.S. Census, Margaret is recorded as age 68 and widowed.
    Interestingly, throughout the census, the Smiths are fairly consistently recorded as having immigrated to the United States in 1890. Daniel Smith is listed as an alien in the 1900 Census, and as a naturalized citizen in the 1910 Census.