SO WHO BEGAT WHOM?

A STORY OF McGARVEYS AND GRAYS

Well,  the Bible states that Adam begat Seth,  who begat Enos, who begat Cainen.    It continues to say Cainen begat Mahaleel, who begat Jared,  who begat Enoch..............While the timing may be disputed,  there is no doubt that there has been a lot of begatting going on which links us all together one way or another.  You probably are linked  to Queen Elizabeth or George Washington if you search hard enough!

Somewhere along the line,  in 1838 someone begat Matthew McGarvey in Ireland,  while at a similar time,  another begat William Gray in Scotland,  Sarah Lovett was begotten in England and James Donnan and Mary McCulough were both begotten in Ireland.  

So what?  you might ask.

Well,  as fate would have it,  all these people ended up in Hastings County,  as pioneers of the Marmora area.

Matthew McGarvey's grandson , Matthew married Annie Bowen,  whose ancestors had moved up from Albany, New York and New Jersey to the County of Lennox and Addington and later populated the Marmora area.  And Matthew Jr.'s  sister, Cora married James Nobes, whose grandparents arrived from England,  and were the  ancestors  of  a widespread family of that name in this area.

Meanwhile,  William Gray and Sarah Lovett begat John Gray,  who married Martha Donnan,  the begotten child of James Donnan and Mary McCulough.

Are you still with us?

The original Matthew McGarvey had a daughter, Elizabeth McGarvey,  who married James Boyd Gray,   the son of John Gray and Martha Donnan.  AND THERE YOU HAVE IT.......the beginning of a long relationship between the McGarvey's and the Grays.   Other Grays of that generation went on to marry Revoy,  Young,  Cronkright , Wright, Cummings and McInroy,  all of which are well known names in the Marmora area.

And just to keep things interesting,  it turns out that three other children of Matthew McGarvey (Mary, Sarah and Edward) all married children (Adam,  Allan,  and Elizabeth Jane)  of a certain Robert McGarvey and Susannah McNally,  also immigrants from Ireland. 

 Our lumbering photo shows Matthew McGarvey Jr.  and lots of Grays assisting in the Pearce lumber camps.

But what is the connection between McGarvey and Pearce?  Well it turns out to be more than just an emplyee/employer relationship!

Cora McGarvey married James Nobes (1877-1945) and his  uncle,  John Nobes,  had a great-granddaughter  Charlotte Davern,  who married  Donald Marett,  the grandson of Josiah W.  Pearce,  the very pillar of Marmora society.

AND SO BE IT. 

THE McGARVEYS,  ALONG WITH BOWENS,  NOBES, DONNANS,  McCULOUGHS, REVOYS, YOUNGS, WRIGHTS,  CRONKWRIGHTS AND CUMMIINGS  (to name  only a few) ARE ALL CONNECTED TO  THE PEARCE FAMILY TREE .

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