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Ontario
Vital Statistics include two, conflicting marriage registrations for
William J. Carleton and Isabella Tibbetts. See our
transcription of those registrations.
On 17 Jul 2009 their great-granddaughter, Susan
Rossberg De Simone of Greenwich, Connecticut,
emailed us the following explanation.
I can clear up the puzzle about the
Wellington Jeffers Carleton
and Isabella Murray wedding in Port
Dover.
I am the great-granddaughter of
William Jeffers Carleton and Isabella Murray Tibbetts. I have
their family Bible in my possession. It was given to Isabella on
her wedding day by her father and mother.
According to the inscription in
this Bible's Family Record section, Isabella and Wellington
were wed on 12 Oct 1869, so neither date in [the Ontario Vital
Statistics] records is correct. I visited Port Dover once, and if
memory is correct, the church where they were married had had a
fire years before that destroyed its records. This may account for
the marriage date problem.
Isabella's parents were Rev.
William Tibbetts, M.D., and Laura Matilda Richardson Tibbetts.
According to the Family Register, Wellington Jeffers Carleton was
born 18 Feb 1846 in Belleville, Canada, and Isabella was born 25
Nov 1846 in Funchal, Madeira. (William Tibbetts and Laura Matilda
were Scots.) According to family tradition, Wellington was a
teacher.
Wellington and Isabella had four
children:
Arthur, born 3 Aug 1870 in Port Dover;
Clarence Hugh, born 24 Nov 1872 in Sault Ste.Marie, Canada;
Mary Ann born 16 Oct 1875; and
Matilda Isabella, born 9 Dec 1878 in Indianapolis, Indiana; died
age 2, on 16 May 1881 in Indianapolis.
Mary Ann married John Petterson in 1901 in Princeton, Minnesota.
Clarence was my grandfather. Neither Arthur nor Mary had children,
though both married.
Isabella and Wellington were
divorced, at her instigation, 11 Feb 1889, in Hennepin County,
Minnesota. (I have the District Court Document.) According to
extant letters from Isabella at the time, the cause was his
alcoholism which sometimes made him violent. She was awarded
custody of the children, although her sons were already
18 and 16 at the time.
-- Susan
Rossberg De Simone of Greenwich, CT
[Compiler's
Comments: Port Dover and Sault Ste. Marie are communities in the
Canadian province of Ontario.]
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