Genealogy of Gribbins in Canada
Having looked at the Gribbins of the US last time, I thought I’d have a go at summarising what we know about the Gribbins of Canada. There is nothing in my book, Gribbin: A Family History of Ulster, about this, so this is all new research. Having said that, I have not been able to go into a lot of detail and have mainly trawled through the census and election records on Ancestry.
CANADA & ME
I have a particular fondness for Canada, since I spent a school year there back in the mid-1970s. I was a seminarian with the White Fathers (Missionaries of Africa) and I did my “Spiritual Year” in Ottawa. I have happy memories of the snow, the colours of Autumn and Spring, the music of Gilles Vigneault, journeys to Lac Vert, Montreal, Quebec … Ah! Halcyon days! Below is a photo of me and Jim Whooley, another Irishman abroad, on an Autumn country outing.
GRIBBIN DATA FOR CANADA
What comes out of the Canada Gribbin data confirms much of what my book reveals. The Gribbins seem to have come from Ireland and were mostly small Catholic farmers. There are links to Scotland and also, very probably, Ulster.
1823 TO 1851 CENSUSES
The first Gribbin we find in Canadian records is Mary “Gribben”, living in “Lower Québec” with, presumably, two children and she turns up in the 1823 census. In 1831, there are five Gribbins recorded and they are living in Québec also. They are a family and are resident in the township of Chatham (today known as Brownsburg-Chatham), about sixty miles west of Montreal. The 1842 census turns up two Gribbin entries and, again, these are in Québec. In 1851, there are five, but all in Ontario. This data, however, needs to be read warily. For a start, each census probably doesn’t cover the whole of Canada, but only East Canada, and indeed it’s likely that the 1851 census only covers Ontario. So, there may well have been other Gribbins in Canada at the time who slipped through the net, either because they were outside the registration zone, or they simply weren’t, or didn’t wish to be, registered. The 1851 census is specially interesting, because it is the first to give place of birth and, where this is given, the answer is usually Ireland.
NB – When I use the name “Gribbin” in a general sense, it includes all spellings – Gribbin, Gribben, Gribbon, Gribbins etc. For individuals, I always use the given spelling.
1861
With the 1861 census we’re evidently entering an era when data compilation was more systematic, for we find a greater number of Gribbins, now thirty in all, and they are all still to be found in Québec or Ontario. Once again, these all seem to be born in Ireland, or of Irish parents. In Ontario there are twenty individuals; in Québec, ten. Those in Ontario were resident in Waterloo, Wellington, Perth, Simcoe, Toronto and Brant. In Québec, they were divided between the Ile aux Alumettes and Montreal. Also interesting is the fact that one of the Gribbins of Ontario was a John Gribbin who may well have been training for the priesthood; his residence was given as St. Michael’s College, Toronto.
TO CANADA VIA SCOTLAND
In 1871, John Gribbin appears again, this time in Toronto Gore, a suburb of Toronto City. Now a “clergyman”, he is thirty-nine years of age and seems to have two servants in the house with him. In all, there are seventy Gribbin entries in this census; fifty-seven in Ontario and twelve in Québec. Interestingly, the census asks for racial background and several Gribbins state that although they were born in Scotland they identify as Irish. My long research into the Gribbin family shows that many, many Gribbins emigrated from Ireland to Scotland (including my own great-grandfather) and indeed, many of them went back and forth across the Irish Sea and sustained family links over decades. The Scottish link to Ulster is very strong and it’s even possible that the first people to call themselves Gribbin (or the Gaelic Ó Gribín) came to Ireland from Scotland.
THE TWENTIETH CENTURY
The 1881 census gives only thirty-seven entries and these are all in Ontario, so this is very likely a census which restricted itself to individuals from that province. The 1891 census gives fifty-three; forty in Ontario and thirteen in Québec. Then we come to the 1901 census and, as in Ireland, this is the first census which attempts seriously to give a comprehensive picture of the Canadian demographic. For the first time we get individuals from outside Ontario and Québec. There are seventy-three Gribbin entries in all; thirty-six in Ontario, thirty-four in Québec and three in British Columbia. By the time of the 1921 census, the Gribbins have spread further afield, with fifty-two in Ontario, thirty-two in Québec, six in Manitoba, seven in British Columbia, and four in New Brunswick.