Edward married Anna Frances McCormick about 1905. Anna was born about 1883 in New York; died in 1950 in Miami FL. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

1. A.E.o.R. Aikenhead
2. Edna B Aikenhead was born on 21 Jun 1905 in New York; died in Nov 1981 in St. Petersburg FL.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Immigration: 1869
• Census: 19 Jun 1900, 416 Pacific, Borough of Brooklyn, NY

Notes:

According to his granddaughter, Edna Armstrong Bolten, Edward was on his way from Ireland to Toronto to work for his brother, James Aikenhead, in the hardware business. The ship was quarantined on an island in the St. Lawrence river due to an outbreak of typhoid fever. Edward helped care for the sick, as he did not contract the disease. Gentlemen he met persuaded him that better opportunities awaited him in New York than in Toronto. He went there and was hired as a clerk with R. G. Dun.

The sad tale of a Canadian island
By: John Fitzgerald

On May 17, 1847, the Medical staff on the island of Grosse Ile on the St Lawrence River at the Canadian entrance made a dreaded discovery. The first ship from Europe – the first of the season after the river had thawed following the cold winter – arrived at the port. Named ‘The Syria’, the ship was filled with Irish famine refugees, over half of them dead or dying from typhoid fever. In the following months, 36 more ships arrived bearing an additional 13,000 desperate immigrants, many of whom were dying from fever or starvation. It was the beginning of a long, sad history of the island and one of the grimmest chapters in Irish-Canadian history.
Grosse Ile, known as the Great Island, lies on the St Lawrence River, 30 miles east of Quebec City. Its role as an immigrant screening and quarantine station began in 1832 when the Canadian Government established a small facility there in response to a cholera outbreak in Europe. Hundreds of immigrants, mostly English and some Irish, died on the island while in quarantine. After two years the outbreak subsided and the island became a quiet place in admitting new arrivals to Canada. From 1835 to 1845, some 21,000 were processed through the center with only 23 deaths recorded. But all that changed with the arrival of the Irish Famine in 1845.
The worst year was undoubtedly 1847 when nobody has any idea of the numbers of people that died on Grosse Ile. It is generally accepted that the poorest of the Irish immigrants headed for Canada as the cost of the passage was considerably cheaper. In 1847, an estimated 100,000 immigrants arrived in Grosse Ile, ten times the normal average.
The arrivals were in a desperate state. Weakened by malnutrition – even before they boarded the ‘Coffin Ships’ – they spent between 35 and 90 days crossing the Atlantic in crowded, unsanitary conditions. In 1847, 200,000 died at seat, prompting people to describe the Irish-American route as the longest graveyard in the world. When these wretched people arrived at Grosse Ile it was ill-equipped to deal with such a humanitarian disaster.
There were only a handful of doctors and nurses on the island and less than 150 beds. The staff and volunteers worked tirelessly and erected tents and sheds to handle as best they could the rising numbers that were dying from typhoid.
They wrote several letters to the Canadian Government, begging for help, but were ignored. Likewise, the British Government washed their hands of the problem.
By the summer of 1847, 2,500 patients were housed on the island. The conditions were so bad one of the doctors contracted fever and was lucky to survive. While the conditions on the island were bad nothing compared to the conditions on the ships docked in the St Lawrence waterway, waiting to be unloaded. Unable to handle the volume arriving, the officials on the island ordered the ships to set anchor and wait until room became available on the island. It was heart-breaking for those on board as they had not a drop of water to drink or no medication.


The day of December 31 was taken from his wife, Alice Chambers Aikenhead's diary.
According to his granddaughter, Edna Armstrong Bolten, Edward Aikenhead was on his was to Canada to work for his older brother, James, in the hardware business when his ship was detained at an island because of typhoid. Edward was not stricken and helped care for those who were. He men business men who convinced him that better opportunities awaited him in New York.

Edward married Alice Julia Chambers on 11 Sep 1877 in Church of the Redeemer, Brooklyn, NY. Alice (daughter of Rev. Richard Chambers and Charlotte Bootle) was born in Dec 1851 in West Indes; died in 1945 in Toronto, Ontario, Canada; was buried in 1945 in Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Aikenhead plot, Toronto, Canada. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Emigration: 6 Jul 1867, Sailed from Nassau to New York on the Corsica with mother intended to become inhabitants of England.

Other Events and Attributes:

• Occupation: Thomas was a bookseller and stationer.

Thomas married Eliza Beale or Beal in UNKNOWN in Kilkenny, Ireland. Eliza was born in Thomastown, Kilkenny. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Rev. married Charlotte Bootle about 1847. Charlotte (daughter of George Bootle and Sarah Dosset) was born in Jun 1823 in West Indes; died on 9 Sep 1900 in Brooklyn, Kings, NY; was buried on 11 Sep 1900 in Greenwood Cemetery Brooklyn, NY lot 28307 section 135. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Other Events and Attributes:

• Emigration: 6 Jul 1867, Sailed from Nassau to New York on the Corsica with Alice, intended to become inhabitants of England.

Notes:

1900 Brooklyn, NY address 383 Pacific (lodger) census she gave her date of birth as June, 1823, West Indies. Her parents were also born in the West Indies, according to the information she gave the census taker.

Richard married Alice unknown about 1820. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

There is a "Bootle Bay" on Grand Bahama Island

The approximately 200 plus acres in question are reportedly a portion of the land granted by the Crown to John Bootle in the 1800s, and form a part of Bootle Bay. Several of his descendants had been fighting for the land in court, but in the end, it was Wilbert Bootle whose claim to the land was rejected by Justice Thompson. (The other relatives withdrew their claims.)

It should be noted that the 2,000 acres (8.1 km²) of land purportedly bought by the Sammons Organization (Jack Tar Resorts-USA) in the 1960's was fraudulently acquired. There are records of families living on the land long before the arrival of the British who colonized the islands. The era of the UBP - United Bahamian Party or the Bay Street Boys (1940-1968) created mass wealth among elite business men who ran the government and created the laws to protect their interest in land acquired fraudently. The John Bootle (Crown Land) was granted in 1820 to John Bootle. Legend has it that he died under mysterious causes. The local government overseer at the time of Bootle's death is rumoured to have wanted to acquire Bootle's land. Bootle's body was never found. Bootle had two sons, one of whom stayed on the land and the other who fled to Abaco with the crown grant land documents where they live today. The surviving family heirs to John Bootle include the following surnames - Roberts, Nesbit, Smith, Ferguson, Williams and Ashe. Other families living in the settlement today would no doubt dispute who the original land owners are. The largest land owners prior to the arrival of the Bay Street Boys were the Williams clan who possessed 960 acres of the land once belonging to John Bootle. Proper research on the verification of this information can be found on microfiche in the National Archives in Nassau, the capital of the Bahamas.

George married Sarah Dosset about 1820. Sarah was born in UNKNOWN. [Group Sheet] [Family Chart]

Notes:

Now operating as a 14 gun slave ship in the , the Concorde was under Captain Pierre Dosset and lieutenant Francois Ernaut in 1717 when it encountered two sloops of 20 cannon and 150 men, collectively. Leader of the pack was Ben Hornigold , piratical captain who had among his crew one Edward Teach. The ship was escorted to the island of Bequia South of St. Vincent where the pirates did to it what pirates do.
Relieved of their gold and jewelry, the Frenchmen were transferred to a small sloop and sent (with their slaves) on their merry way to Martinique Blackbeard transferred his flag to the Concorde , added twenty cannon, and now had himself one of the most heavily armed pirate ships afloat. The ship was rechristened Queen Anne's Revenge ).


The name "Sarah Dosset" was on a Family Tree prepared by Edna Armstrong Bolten.