A biography of Dr. William F. Babb, of Fullarton & Mitchell, Ontario, Canada, written in 1927 has uncovered a very different ancestry for him than we had previously understood. In turn it has revealed potential incorrect associations in the Big Tree of Babb. Let’s fix this “mistake of history” (pun intended).
Cover Image: Courtesy of the “Art of Ideas Gallery & Museum” in Fullarton.
Note: this Dr. William Francis Babb should not be confused with the Dr. William Francis Babb (1902-1979) of Clarksburg & Utica, OH. Nor with William Francis Babb (1857-aft. 1920) of OK & OH.
First, let’s cover what we previously understood to be his pedigree. We had believed him to be the great-grandson of Thomas Babb & Margery Wadge from the Celt’s of Cornwall Lineage. However, the details provided in the biography differ greatly with our established paper trail. This type of Genealogy has long been prone to grandstanding as they were paid for by the person being featured. They paint rosy pictures of the people they focus on.
Right off, I can see enough similarities to know that the main people in the article are without a doubt the same family as the one in the Big Tree. However, as they story moves back in time it gets sketchier on the details. There is lots to unpack in this article, but it starts to differ at William Francis Babb’s grandfather, who is named William in the article. Additionally, it says he died when William (1842-1927) was about 12 years old. However, we have him living to 1878.
Given what I’ve seen, I believe the article is simply wrong in certain places. But before I tear my tree apart for hearsay, I need to be very certain.
One thing that I’ve already had to clean up is the English penchant for naming places after places that already exist. The London, they mention is the one in Ontario. Perth isn’t the small town on the far side of Ontario. Instead, it is a county that Fullarton (not Fullerton as the article states) and Mitchell both reside in. Perth, the county, is located in West Perth, the municipality <sigh>. All of this threw me as I started looking through this record and it has taken me days to just get this meager starting point to some manageable state that I could describe it at all.
This is a colorful family, and we will discover it together. Are you ready for an adventure?!
Let’s go!
We start by examining the Biography on Dr. William Francis Babb, M.D., which was published in 1927’s “The Province of Ontario – A History, 1615-1927 on pages 195 & 196:
Next Steps
Before I go any further, with inputting the data from this biography, I’m going to go on a search of documentary evidence from the area that will help me to separate the fact from the fiction.
Next stop the 1851 Census of Canada West. There are 14 Babbs listed in Fullarton and 3 in York. That’s not New York, or Old York. It’s just York, or at least it was. Now it has been incorporated into the Toronto Metropolitan Area. Yes, that Toronto!