My Family Tree

Born in Margate, Prince, Prince Edward Island, Canada on 1 Jan 1831 to John Smith and Sarah Vincent, and baptized in the Church of England. Maria Smith married Thomas Simmons on 31 August 1857. He was a bachelor and she was a spinster. It looks like they were married by Thomas Hunt, JP; witnesses were Janet Hunt, Francis Barry, and Ellen McCarthy. Thomas Hunt was a Justice of the Peace for St. Eleanor's PEI.

1861 census: Thomas Simmonds, his wife and two children under 5, a boy and a girl, were living next to John Smith in Lot 2. They were Church of England. According to this census, they were all born on the Island, although Thomas later said he was from the West Indies, or England. Since this is a head-of-household only census, we don't know which boy, James Edward (age 6) or John Archibald, was with Thomas and Sarah Maria.

There were 8 children in the PEI Baptismal Index born to Thomas and Maria or Mary. All were baptized in the Church of England in Alberton. The eldest son, James Edward was also known as Smith - born in 1855, he might have been Sarah Maria's son from before her marriage and raised by her parents.

Sarah Maria died in 1879 and Thomas remarried later that year, on 23 Jun 1879. Thomas and Isabella Murphy were married by Robert Laird, and witnesses were Robert Laird Colson and Martha Emily Adams.

After Maria's death her children were scattered. In 1881, Thomas and his second wife Isabella were living in Lot 20 with Maggie (15), Emily (13), Josephine (9 - possible this is the daughter baptized Louisa Edith?) and Rosie (5). On this census Thomas said he was born in the West Indies, but on later census records he said born in England. James Edward SMITH and Sarah Elizabeth SIMMONDS were living with their Smith grandparents, but in spite of the different last names I am convinced they were siblings. Parmines was living with another family working as a servant.

In 1891 Thomas and his family were still in Lot 20, and in the census record for that year, only "Paulinus" and Margaret were at home.

Name Sarah Maria Simmonds
Date of Burial 1879
Source pre-1906 Death Index. St. Peter's Anglican Church, Alberton
Notes Graveyard Kildare Capes. Wife of Thomas Simmonds of the Western Road