Margaret Priscilla Ritchie (1890-1893)

Margaret Ritchie's Gravestone

While photographing McKee Pioneer Cemetery for the CanadaGenWeb Cemetery Project last summer, I came across this difficult to read gravestone. According to the OGS Wellington Branch transcription, this was the gravestone of Elizabeth E. Ritchie, the daughter of George and Fanny A. Ritchie who had died at three years of age.

A few months later on a return visit to the cemetery, the sun's position was such that most of the inscription could be read. The inscription, however, read Margaret P. Ritchie. Curious I did some online research using FamilySearch, Ancestry, and Findagrave and discovered the following:

Margaret Priscilla Ritchie was born on 22 Jan 1890 in East Garafraxa Township west of Orangeville, Ontario. Her parents were George Ritchie and Fanny Ann Cope. Margaret was the third child of George and Fanny. According to her death registration, Margaret died of "inflammatory croup" on 15 May 1893.

George and Fanny had eight more children after Margaret, all of whom survived until adulthood. At some point prior to the 1901 Census, George purchased a farm in West Luther Township northeast of Arthur, Ontario. According to his death registration, George was a leap year baby, having been born on 29 Feb 1864. George died in 1933 of "myocardial failure" and is buried at Greenfield Cemetery in Arthur. Fanny died in 1947 and is buried with her husband.

Elizabeth Ritchie's Gravestone

George's father David Ritchie and his mother Elizabeth Stewart are both buried at McKee Cemetery. David was born in County Armagh, Ireland about 1820 and came to Canada in 1850. David purchased a farm in West Garafraxa Township. Sometime between 1850 and the birth of his first child in 1855, he married Elizabeth Stewart who had also been born in Ireland. David and Elizabeth had six children, three of whom died within one week in the winter of 1862. Elizabeth died in 1868 when George was four years old. David remarried in 1870 and again in 1874. David died in 1905.