Pam, I don't know if this could be the same Samuel James Best but there is an obit in The Toronto Star, August 1981 for a man by that name. His late wife's name is Maude who died in 1980 at the age of 86. I think her maiden name was Allen. Could it be the same Samuel but re-married? They are buried in Mt. Pleasant Cemetery, Toronto. Regards, Lynne. > Message: 1 > Date: Mon, 18 Oct 2010 07:44:06 -0400 > From: Pam Tessier <pamtessier@sympatico.ca> > Subject: [CAN-ONT-SIMCOE] A soldier and Home Child > To: Simcoe List <can-ont-simcoe@rootsweb.com> > Message-ID: <BLU0-SMTP84350D2124D35B479A3B45A25A0@phx.gbl> > Content-Type: text/plain; charset="ISO-8859-1"; format=flowed > > > Earlier this summer I mentioned to the list that we (Penetanguishene > Museum & Archives) had a visitor from Belfast, Ireland who was looking > for information about a great-uncle who had lived in Simcoe County. I am > pleased to say that we (some listers and I) were able to discover a fair > amount of information about his ancestor and it was mailed to our > visitor last week. > > Samuel James Best and his sister Margaret Olive May Best were both born > in County Down, Ireland. Samuel in 1897 and Margaret in 1900. They were > two of three children born to an unwed woman named Nellie Best. The > third child remained in Ireland and eventually became the grandmother of > our visitor. Early census returns and family lore indicate the family > had a difficult time of it, often living with relatives. Samuel and > Margaret were sent by the Barnardo Home to Canada in 1908 in a group of > 327 children under their care. An 8 year girl and an 11 year old boy > shipped from Ireland to Liverpool to Montreal to Toronto and then to a > farm in Tiny Township to live with complete strangers. Alone. > > Samuel lived with the Downer family on the 1th concession of Tiny and > Margaret, not too far away, on the 13th concession with the McConnell > family. Both were considered "adopted" but who knows what that meant. > > Samuel enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in 1915 and was > eventually sent overseas. He did not list the Downers as his > "next-of-kin" but rather the sister who had remained in Ireland. He gave > her married name and current address so presumably had contact with her. > We have obtained his service record (55 pages) and now know that he was > wounded, contracted the usual diseases of a young man in a foreign > country, was demobilized and returned to Canada in 1919. > Four years after returning, he met and married Mary Brownsward in > Guelph, Ontario. His residence was given as Toronto. What happened to > Samuel James Best after 1923? > > Margaret Olive May remained in Simcoe County and married Victor Dorman > Tomlinson in Midland in 1919. I hope she lived happily ever after but we > do not know her fate. > > If anyone can fill in the later years, I'd like to hear from you. > > Samuel's story will be part of the museum's display for Remembrance Day > this year - a Home Child and a soldier. This year we will be adding some > little known information about soldiers and life in Penetanguishene/ > Midland during World War 2. And, of course, we will have the service > records, photos and uniforms of soldiers of WW1 and WW2. > > Paul Robbins gave us a wonderful enlargement of a 1919 wedding > photograph that will be on display. It was a large wedding and all the > men are in uniform. As some are unidentified, it would be nice if a > visitor could give us names of these veterans. > > If you know something about these families, get back to me ASAP as > Samuel, hopefully, will be the subject of a newspaper article. > > Pam