This interesting advertisement in the sent me on a wild goose chase as I flailed trying to figure out exactly who this John A. Babb was. The Census wasn’t giving up any secrets, nor was Ancestry or Family Search. I’ve picked it up and put it down a half dozen times as I wasn’t able to get anywhere.

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I went down a rabbit hole with the family of John Babb who came from Ireland and settled on the other end of Ontario in Mitchell from where the town of Hamilton is located. It all sounded good until it didn’t, and I realized that I was on the wrong track. That is where I ended last night. Files have stacked up on my hard drive that I don’t yet know what to do with.

So, today I turned to Archive.org and I’m starting to find Babb records in this town. First, there is a series of City Directories that place a James Babb in the town as a “Laborer” and then later an “Iron Melter”. He moved frequently which is likely a sign of financial struggles, but it could also be that he was moving on up!

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Then I located a Provincial Genealogy that includes details about a William Francis Babb, M.D. who it claims, “The Babb family was established in the Province by William Babb, who came from Manchester, England, and settled near the village of Fullerton and engaged in farming. He died there in 1853.” However, the children it lays out as part of the article published in 1927 don’t at all mirror those, we see mention of in the Newpaper or City Directories. For the record I don’t show any Babbs in Manchester before 1904. 🤬

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Then there is a rabble rouser John Babb who is a contemporary of our John A. Babb above that is regularly in trouble with the law.

I don’t know yet what to make of it all, but once I crack it, I’ll have lots of good stories to tell. I’m still collecting records and while I haven’t cracked the code, in the words of Peter O’Toole as he played Henry II “The Great” Plantagenet, “I know I’m winning, and I know I’ll win.”

Stay Tuned!