June 1, 1926 – Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan
While I was researching Wells Family history, I came across an oddity that, as yet, I have no definitive explanation for.
The June 1926 Canadian Census lists a “Catherine Wells”- age 1, living at the home of Robert and Eleanor Wells.
Censuses at the time listed the age of any child from newborn to 23 months as “1”.
No one in the family has ever heard of Catherine. Her presence in the 1926 census is a complete mystery.
There are three possible reasons Catherine appears on the document:
a) Catherine was a newborn who died in infancy and was never spoken of.
b) Catherine was a cuckoo’s egg (a bird that lays its eggs in the nest of another bird to hatch), or
c) The census contains mistakes.
The age math doesn’t work well in favour of Catherine being born to Eleanor. Alma, the next in line, was 11.5 months old at the time of the census. It is physically possible that Eleanor could have had two children less than a year apart, but highly unlikely.
Eva was 16 at the time of the census. It is possible that she could have born a child and subsequently gave it up for adoption, but not likely. The Wells family doesn’t keep secrets well, I doubt that a scandal of that magnitude could have been suppressed.
The third possibility, that the census data is inaccurate, seems most likely. Barry Watson pointed out that Alma’s age is stated incorrectly on the census document, she was 1 year old, not “4”. Robert’s age is also misstated as “41”, he was 39.
Hazel’s name is spelled “Esel” on the census.
The census taker was one, Joseph Lafreniére. It took me a while, but I heard enough Gravelbourg French while I was growing up to understand that “Hazel” could have been interpreted as “Esel”.
This grocery receipt confirms that my grandfather, Wm Paton Jr purchased oranges, grapefruit, Corn Flakes, lettuce, and hamburger from my Uncle Henri L’Heureux’s store on April 20, 1957.
French was Uncle Henri’s first language.
I contacted the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan to see if I could get a birth or death certificate for Catherine Wells. I was informed that the government cannot release confidential personal information to anyone other than an executor, until 100 years after the death of that person. (Raise your middle finger if you think Privacy Policy has gone too far). I will contact them again in 2027.
Catherine Wells remains a mystery. It seems unlikely that she was the child of either Eleanor or Eva. Based upon all of the evidence we have, I think the most likely scenario is that the 1926 census is …
… Flawed.
Leon Lafreniere
Get your story straight about my uncle joe
Russ Paton
Thank you for your feedback. I have never liked the ending or the original title of this story. The 1929 census contains errors, but I had no right to infer that M. Lafreniére was inebriated when he gathered the data. I have amended and reposted the article, excluding that erroneous detail. My apologies to you and your family.
Millie Watson
Interesting findings. My family history experience with a child on a census that we didn’t know of has been a child from mother that has passed and the child was housed either with a relative or sometimes a neighbour. And if that us the case the child was sometimes adopted by that neighbour and raised as their own, last name included. Just a thought.
Russ Paton
That is another plausible scenario. If Catherine was billeted with the Wells family, it must have been for a very short time. She doesn’t appear on any other record or in anyone’s memory. A mystery.