The Oldest Hendersons

As many of you know, Barry and I have been doing a lot of work on our mother's side of the genealogy lately. Our mom, Patricia Jane Henderson (aka Murial Patricia Hawe) was adopted by the Hawes and grew up in Edmonton. Turns out her blood family was the Hendersons who had a farm in Strathroy, Ontario. (they raised bees at one point). B and I are hooking up with various Henderson relatives AND with my mother's two living half-brothers. This is VERY exciting for us—two uncles we didn't know existed. I wanted to share with you a photo we got while doing research on the Henderson side of things.

Apparently, our mother's mother was Velma Bridgette Henderson. Velma's parents were Mayten Joe Henderson and Emma Harris Henderson (Barry's and my great grandparents; more on that later). Mayten's dad was James Michael Henderson (our great great grandpa). All these folks born and lived in Ontario. BUT James Michael's parents were originally born in Ireland and emigrated to Canada in the 1830s. Before that the family were originally from Scotland.

Not sure how many generations in Ireland before coming to Canada. Still researching that. James Henderson was born in 1781 in County Newry! His wife Dorothy was born later in County Down I think and it looks like James was 48 when they got married so I'm guessing she's a second wife. GOOD GENES alert—Ol' James lived to be pretty old (I think he died in the 1870s or early 80s...lived to 100 or so). He had 8 sons with Dorothy! We have spoken with John Henderson who lives in California and who is descended from another of James and Dorothy's sons.

So, here's the pic taken about 1865 of James, Dorothy and their 8 sons. Our ggrandfather, James Michael is the son on the far right first row, seated. Handsome devil, ain't he?

Weird thing is we (Barry and I) and our mom were raised Protestant and Henderson being a Scottish name I just presumed we were protestant Scots but we were actually Catholic Scots and likely we fled to Northern Ireland (Ulster) when the King of England opened it up to Scots. Apparently, he was hoping to bring in Protestants and dilute the Catholic population there to diffuse their quest for independence BUT it backfired and all the Catholic Scots went there instead wanting to be near other Catholics. Interesting....so if that is the case I bet there are a LOT of Hendersons running around. :)