Shavers of Ancaster

Guest post by Fred Blair

Private John Shaver (1769-1852)

John Shaver served in the 2nd York Militia which also recruited from Ancaster Township. John’s name appeared in a Return (muster roll) of Captain William Applegarth’s Flank Company from June to December, 1812 (2Y270). His name was omitted from a second, possibly earlier, copy (2Y95).

Guest post by Fred Blair

Sgt. Henry Shaver (1789-1860)

Some of the documents that I use in my research are online on the Library and Collections Canada (LAC) page at LAC - Microform Digitization. In later Blogs, I will write about other document sources. This Blog is an introduction to the Militia documents in Collection 27: War of 1812: Upper Canada Returns, Nominal Rolls, and Paylists, RG 9 1B7. I will come back to Collections 21 and 25 later.

Guest post by Fred Blair

According to Guinness World Records, the largest family reunion was held in Saint-Paul-Mont-Pénit, Vendée, France on August 12, 2012. There were 4,514 in attendance. I suspect the Shaver Reunion of 1937 is one of our largest gatherings. The photograph of the event, taken June 19, 1937 has 211 faces. Our newsletter called it a "monster" reunion.

The reunion is June 9, 2013 (1-4:30 pm) at Bowman United Church, Ancaster.

Registration at 1 pm
Lunch 1:30
Speaker 2:30
History displays
Cemetery tour at 3 pm

Visit our Upcoming page

The Executive Committee met earlier this month and at that time decided to not hold a reunion this June. We had a couple of resignations earlier this year including our newsletter editor, and some other members of the committee are currently sidelined with personal distractions. Given that we realized that the effort required in getting the newsletter out on time and organizing and holding the reunion this spring was beyond the capabilities of the remaining volunteers.

Over the past little bit there have been numerous resources on the topic of the War of 1812 and as we approach the bicentennial there will be more.

Here is a great taste of resources worth checking out...

War of 1812 PBS Documentary downloadable pdf file
War of 1812 “lesson plans” complete, binational free downloadable pdf file.

We received correspondence (see below) from Eleanor Burke of Collingwood, ON in November of 2010. Eleanor tells us of a fascinating trip she took with the National Geographic in February 2010 to the Antarctic. Eleanor descends from William’s Margaret. Her grandmother Louise Bedell, and great aunt and uncle, Edward and Daisey Lyons attended the first reunion in 1937.