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Catherine (Bate) Henderson of Liverpool, England and Ontario, Canada

Catherine Bate was baptized on November 20, 1831 at the church of St. James in Liverpool, Lancashire, England. Her parents were William and Catherine (Cottier) Bate. Her younger sister, Rebecca (Bate) Buck, was my great-great-grandmother. Catherine appears with her family in the 1841 England census. She was listed as 8 years old. See William and Catherine (Cottier) Bate for more information.

William and Catherine and family had moved to what is now Ontario by the time the 1851 census was taken there. They were living in Ernestown Township, Addington County. The younger Catherine was still at home with her parents when that census was taken. She was listed as 18. I have not been able to find a marriage record for Catherine, but she likely married David Henderson by about 1854. I have not been able to find birth records for any of her children either. There is no sign of them in the 1861 Ontario census. At the time of the 1871 census, Catherine and family were living with her brother John Bate in Ernestown Township, Lennox & Addington County [Sub-district g, page 36]:

John was a farmer and David was a miller, according to this census. In the 1861 census record for Catherine's parents, William and Catherine (Cottier) Bate, there was a Mary Bate, age nine, living with them. It seems likely that this Mary Bate and the Mary Henderson who was age 19 in the 1871 census were one and the same. The 1871 census indicates that David Henderson was Scottish while Catherine was English. All of the children were listed as Scottish too, except for Mary who was listed as English. It appears that Mary was Catherine's child from an earlier relationship. I have not been able to find anything further on Mary or Henry.

In the Ontario death records (on the Ancestry.ca website as well as the LDS site, http://www.familysearch.org), there is a record for Catherine's death on November 12, 1875. Her age was given as 45. Cause of death was consumption.

By the time of the 1881 census the family was scattered. John Bate was living on his own, still in Ernestown Township. David Henderson does not appear with his family in 1881 or any of the later censuses. At the time of the 1881 census, David was living in Ernestown Township [Sub-district g, page 57] with two other Hendersons who might have been his siblings. He was working as a miller. In 1891 he was in the Township of North Fredericksburgh [Sub-district e, page 26], living with a family named Close who were apparently unrelated, and again working as a miller. In 1901 he was back in Ernestown Township [Sub-district d, page 1], living with a Milligan family, again apparently unrelated. He was working as a grist miller. There is a death record for David in the Ontario death records. He died at 21 Barrack St., Kingston, on Sept. 3, 1907. His occupation was miller, he was born in Canada, and he was widowed. Cause of death was paralysis, with duration of five months. I have not been able to find a cemetery record for David or Catherine.

David and Catherine's daughter "Anna" Henderson married William Bowman on October 1, 1879 in Odessa, Ernestown Township. Her parents were listed as David and Catherine Henderson. Her place of birth was Oswego, US. This was Oswego, New York, which was across the St. Lawrence River from the Ernestown area. Her age was 20 years. This likely explains why I have not been able to find the family in the 1861 Canadian census. I found them in the 1860 census for Volney, Oswego, New York [page 4]:

The surname was given as Hudson, so that made it difficult to find them, but there is no doubt that it is the Hendersons. David was working as a miller.

It appears that Anna/Annie brought up her younger siblings after their mother died. Here is Annie with her family in the 1881 census in Ernestown Township [page 48]. (This census was very difficult to read.)

Presumably Emma, age 17 in 1881, was the same person as Christina, age 7 in 1871. It appears that the Henderson family moved to the US by about 1859 and stayed there until at least 1864, based on birthplaces of their children. I have not been able to find anything further on Emma/Christina.

Here are the Bowmans in the 1891 census, again with some of Annie's siblings living in the same household. At this point they were living in East Deseronto, Hastings County East [page 3].

There is a marriage record for Elizabeth Bowman, 24, daughter of William and Annie (Henderson) Bowman, to William Frederick Earl in Kingston on Nov. 2, 1909. There is also a birth record for their first child, William Henry Earl, who was born in Kingston on July 30, 1910. My mother's cousin, John Buck, has been a great help in tracing our common ancestors, the Bates. In a letter from John, dated July 25, 1993, he told me, "It was funny that no one remembered or mentioned Rebecca's sister Catherine who married a Henderson and lived near the rest of the family in Ernestown. The first I heard tell of her family was through William Earl who was a great grandson of Catherine through a Bowman - Henderson wedding."

I have not been able to find a death record for Annie Bowman in Ontario.

Edward Henderson married Annie Elliott in Pittsburgh, Frontenac County, Ontario on Mar. 7, 1895. There are birth records for a number of their children in Ontario. Edward and family appear in the 1901 census for Kingston, but by the time of the 1910 US census the family had moved to Oswego, New York. Edward was still there for the 1930 census, but I don't see him there in the 1940 census, so he may have died by that time.

The youngest of David and Catherine Henderson's children, David, moved to Oswego, New York before the 1900 census was taken. He married and had a number of children. David was still in Oswego at the time of the 1940 census. Ancestry.com has a World War I draft registration record for him. He was listed as David Azel Henderson. He was living in Oswego, New York. Date of birth appears to be Jan. 1, 1873, but the record is hard to make out. David's mother's sister Rebecca was married to Azel Buck, so that is no doubt the source of David's middle name.