Sunday, September 26, 2010

The Journey of John Albert Berryman Wills, Part the Third: from Copper Mine to Coal Mine

Sometime in 1869, John Albert Berryman Wills, his young wife, Anne Reed, and their first child, Elestra Emma Wills left Bolton, Québec for greener pastures - but they didn't find them.  I suspect instead of a better life, it was probably worse because we find them in coal country Pennsylvania! They did not remain there very long. How do we know this? Because in four US censuses, the 1880, 1900, 1910 and 1920, Pennsylvania is listed as the birthplace of their second child, William Henry Wills.
Ten years after the move, the 1880 census captured the family recording William's birthplace as "Penn".
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They didn't stay there long - by 1871, a  third child, another daughter was born in upstate New York - in the Adirondack iron mining town of Moriah.
William Henry Wills, by the way was named after his father's father, William Wills who died in 1860 back in St Uny Lelant, Cornwall.



Here's the complete sequence of stories about John Albert Berryman Wills and Anne Reed:







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