My Rant for now

Well here I go with a rant on several topics. Being a Canadian usually I have little to say and stew inside instead.
The first is a mistake made by Ancestry.ca in an advertisement for Remembrance Day. They mistakenly put a German soldier rather than a Canadian one in the ad. They apologized for the mistake and mistakes can happen.
While organizing my father’s service medals I found that he was (I thought) missing one. Apparently not. It appears that the European campaign medal is only issued for six months active service. A year and four months spent on your butt in a POW camp does not count. Apparently in the British and American cases it does. It would appear that Veteran Affairs has a double standard. One on hand there is a considerable effort in remembering the sacrifices of the veterans, and on the other Veteran Affairs nit picks over the issue of medals that these vets deserve.
Lastly, Library and Archives Canada entered into an agreement with Ancestry.ca to digitalize the Quebec City immigration records, Canadian immigration lists from 1865 to 1935, and other records held by Archives Canada. All of these records were to appear on the free LAC website. Where are they?
I understand that it is a non cash agreement; however, there should be more clarification as to what the agreement involves.

Reuban Hillman

Reuban Hillman was born to George Hillman and Susannah Browne in Westbury,Wiltshire,England on October 20, 1828 and died August 1899 in Lambton County, Ontario. He married Flora McLeish who was born in Scotland in 1838 and died May 13, 1876 in Middlesex County, Ontario.I do not have the date of their marriage. Their children were Neil Hillman(1856-1946), George Hillman(1859-1912), Daniel Hillman(1863-?), Nathaniel Hillman(1867-?), Alexander Hillman(1873-?).
Neil Hillman married Elizabeth Chisholm on 22 Feb., 1881. George Hillman married Catherine(Kate)Macdonald on 15 June, 1899. Nathaniel Hillman married Martha Johnston on 28 Nov., 1888.

Veterans of World War 1

I have found records for two Hillmans who served in the First World War. Their attestation papers can be found at http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca
The first is Daniel Hillman(Nov.6, 1877-1975). He was the son of William James Hillman and Margaret(Patterson) Hillman. He joined the Canadian Corps March 1915 in Montreal with the rank of Lieutenant. He was a civil engineer who specialized in railroad construction. On the Western Front he worked with the railroad engineers constructing narrow gauge track to the front lines. He came out of the war with the rank of Lt. Colonel.
The second is John Alexander William Hillman(21 Nov.1893-?). He was the son of Neil Hillman and Elizabeth(Chisholm) Hillman. He joined the Canadian Corps Jan. 5, 1918 in Brantford, Ontario. He joined with the rank of Corporal. I am still researching to find his unit and thus where he served in the last year of the war.
One thing that strikes home as you read their attestation papers is the size of both men. They are both 5’4” tall. Interesting as most of the male Hillmans I know now are 6 footers.

The McKay-Shoemaker Connection

When you look at your family tree the first thing that you notice is that there are a lot more names in the tree than your own. Sometimes these families are very interesting. Such is the case with the McKay/Shoemaker connection in the Hillman tree.
John David Hillman(1850-1936) married Hannah McKay(1860-1947) 2 Sept. 1879(her picture is in a previous blog post). Her father was Henry McKay(1833-1908), and Martha Shoemaker(1831-1914). According to the Latter Day Saints data base Henry McKay was born near Berlin(today Kitchener): however, in the 1901 Canada Census he says that he was born in Scotland. Something I need to work out.
The Shoemakers; however:, are a very interesting family for me. They are a German Mennonite family who immigrated from Pennsylvania sometime between 1834 and 1836(one child was born in Pennsylvania in 1834 and the next in Berlin in 1836).
Martha's father was Jacob D. Shoemaker(1799-1902), and her mother Jane Dunbar(1798?-1880). Jacob was one of those in the family tree that made it past 100. Jacob’s father was George Tyson Shoemaker(1778-1864), and Jacob’s grandfather was Jacob Shoemaker(1708-?). Jacob senior was born in Pennsylvania and in all probability his father was the one who immigrated to the U.S. before 1708.
The Shoemaker’s are interesting for me for several reasons. It’s a break from the English/Scottish Baptists. Secondly, it puts one branch of the Hillman family tree in North America over 300 years. It also highlights an immigration phenomena in particularly the Kitchener/Waterloo area of a large Mennonite movement from the U.S. to Ontario. In the Shoemaker’s case it looks as if most of the clan came to Waterloo County. In all the visits I have made to Kitchener/Waterloo in the past I never realized that I probably have distant kin in the area. What a small world.

John(Jack) Hillman

John(Jack) Arnold Hillman was born January 10, 1920 to William Wallace Hillman and Corlena Peckham. He joined the R.C.A.F. on the 5th December, 1941. He trained as a wireless air gunner with bomber command. He arrived in England towards the end of 1943 and joined the 426th (Thunderbird) Squadron based in Linton-on-Ouse, Yorkshire.
On the night of 15/16th March, 1914, Lancaster DS829/OW”U” developed engine trouble and went down on a raid over Stuttgart. John Hillman found himself a prisoner of war at Stalag Luft 6 after his second mission over Europe.
The interesting part of the war started for John Hillman after his was a prisoner as he remembered for the “London Free Press, June 4, 1984”. As the Russians advanced the Germans moved the prisoners west towards the Ally lines. For a man who says that he joined the air force so that he would not have to walk so much he must have logged more miles on foot than any army veteran. He was liberated at the British lines 0n the Rhine on 3 May, 1945.
John Hillman, needless to say is my father, and still hale and hearty at 88.

Photos are from my personal collection. Photo one was taken in 1943 before Jack went overseas. The second is of his Lancaster crew. Jack Hillman is third from the left.

Canadian Passenger Lists: 1865-1935

Ancestry.ca has now launched online the indexed official collection of Canadian ship records - the Canadian Passenger Lists: 1865-1935. There is a launch event in Toronto on Tuesday Sept.16. It has been a long time coming. You will need to be careful with the lists. They were taken from microfilm that was done in the 1950’s. The lists can be difficult to read and there are a number of transcription errors caused probably because of the difficulty of making out some of the names. Nevertheless this is welcome news for genealogists and historians.

Hillmans of the World

While surfing the net I found Public Profiler/World Names. This web page claims to have 8 million unique surnames from 26 counties of the world in its data base. The names were taken from telephone directories and national electoral registers from 2000-2005. They are trying to map the modern distribution world-wide of common surnames.
I found playing with the search a lot of fun. The surname Hillman is described as European_Other Western. No surprise there. The most popular countries where the surname is found are United Kingdom, Australia, United States, Canada, and Sweden. Again no big surprise except perhaps for Sweden as I thought the surname was a common one in Germany. The most popular regions where the surname is found are Vermont , Idaho , Mississippi, Maine , and Alberta , Canada.
The most popular surnames they found were Herbert, Carl, Chris, Matthew, and Louise. Now there is good news, finally getting away from the Johns and Georges.
Public Profiler can be found at http://www.publicprofiler.org/worldnames/Main.aspx