Christopher Joseph Burgess
1884 -

Christopher Joseph (CJ) Burgess was born in 1884 to Sarah Rankin and Christopher Burgess, my great-grandparents. He was likely the last of the children to be born in 122 James's St. before Christopher Snr moved the family home to Irwin St. at Bow Bridge. He is listed in the 1901 census at age 17 as a timekeeper. I don't know if this involved clocking employees in and out or whether it might even have involved timing employees visits to the toilet and making sure they were provided with the requisite two sheets of toilet paper. [see Corcoran's book]

Marriage

On 20 Apil 1904 at the age of 20 he married Mary Kate O'Brien (22) in what may have been a shotgun wedding. She was the daughter of a (retired) RIC man, Thomas O'Brien. She was born in Ballyfarnon in Co. Roscommon where her father was stationed. They moved to St. John's Terrace in Mountbrown in 1904, after the father's retirement in 1900. From the records it appears she was 5 months pregnant when she got married. The wedding was in James's St. Church and the witnesses were Joseph Molloy and [ ] Dunne (neither were relatives as far as I know). Christopher Joseph moved in with Mary Kate and her father after the wedding.

A son Leo was born in the Coombe hospital on 6 August 1904. Leo is a strange choice of name. It is not the name of Christopher Joseph's father, Christopher, or grandfather, John, or Mary Kate's father, Thomas, or grandfather, Martin.

Emigration

Some 9 months later, in May 1905, Christopher Joseph arrived on his own in Canada (Montreal) on the Allan Line ship Bavarian.

Mary Kate stayed behind. I don't know whether this was to look after a possibly sickly child who might not have been able to travel or her father who may not have been in the best of health. In any event it was another five years before she and Leo arrived in Canada. By then Christopher Joseph was living in Toronto, in XX, and it was not long before another babby arrived, Murry, born on 4 or 5 June 1911. That would put Mary Kate's arrival in early September 1910 at the latest. [Canadian Census 1911] I don't pick them up again until 18 February 1924 at Buffalo [NY?] where Christopher Joseph was crossing into the USA to visit his [sister in law Cathleen O'Brien] in New York.



Visuals

This is the original piece of gold dust. CJ is crossing from Canada to the USA at Buffalo in 1924. The card records his date of arrival in Canada (1905) the place (Montreal) and the name of the ship (Bavarian). It gives his current address (185 Kenelworth, Toronto), his next of kin (Mary K), where he is going (sis Cathleen O'Brien, NY), how long he intends to stay (1 month), and his occupation (Steam fitter). Incidentally he is described as a steam fitter in the 1911 Canadian census.

This is the ship which brought CJ to Canada. It was built in 1899 in Dumbarton, Scotland, and was used as a troop ship in the Boer (1899-1902). It then returned to the Liverpool-Quebec route and was wrecked on Wye Rock off Montreal in November 1905. There were no casualties. The ship, which had broken in two, was subsequently raised to the surface through the inventiveness of two young engineers.

This is where CJ was living in June 1911, as it is today.

This is where CJ was living in February 1924, as it is today. Looks a little upmarket from his previous residence.

I'll chase him further when I get a chance. The above information is useful. Uncle Joe could not trace him in the 1960s when wills were being sorted out. I think a daughter (Josephine?) visited Ireland (1940/50s?) and had contact with some of the relations. Nobody, however, seemed to have any contact details for her.