Baker, Nicholson, Nugent
The family trees of my wife's paternal grandparents, Douglas Charles Baker and Elzora Rose Nicholson, present a captivating story of migration and new beginnings.
The Baker lineage in North America began with Johann Friederich Boecker, who left Strasbourg, Germany, to start a new life in Upper Canada in 1855. Embracing their new home, his son, Charles, adapted his surname to Baker, a more common name in their new English-speaking community. Charles' son, another Charles Baker, would later leave his own mark as one of the founding figures of Kindersley, Saskatchewan in 1910. The story of the Nicholson family is closely intertwined with that of the Fergusons. Both families have deep roots stretching back to colonial times in North Carolina, Georgia, and Kentucky. Leonard Nicholson and Myrtie Ferguson moved from Oklahoma, USA, to Canada. Their ancestors include Quakers from Nottinghamshire, England, who arrived in America as early as 1675, and Fergusons of Scottish origin who were involved in the Revolutionary War. On another branch of the family tree, we find Patrick Francis Nugent, my wife's biological paternal grandfather. His parents, Patrick Bernard Nugent (known as Bernard) and Bridget Duke (known as Bride), had strong ties to Newfoundland and Nova Scotia. Bernard hailed from Kelligrews, Newfoundland, while Bride came from Fox Harbour. Their paths crossed in New Aberdeen, Nova Scotia, where they married in 1907, and where Bernard worked as a miner. Seeking better prospects, they moved to Montana in 1910, then to Alberta in 1914, raising a large family of ten children along the way, composed of one girl and nine boys. |