Obit Information
Old fashioned obituaries can be rich sources of information, not only about the deceased,
but about a variety of associated circumstances.
A recent visitor to the archives of St. Mark’s brought a long and interesting obituary. In
doing her family history research, she had come across the record of her great
grandmother’s first cousin and thought it would be of interest to us because of its local
and historical connection.
When Mrs. Mary Magdalene Dunn died in St. Catharines in 1936, her obituary reported
not only that her late husband, Orlando Dunn, had been the “Commanding Officer of the
Governor General’s Body Guard in Toronto,” but provided a lengthy commentary on the
deceased herself.
Born in 1844, Mrs. Dunn was reported to be a grand niece of Laura Ingersol Secord and
“the last surviving member of her immediate family.”
With mention of that august relationship, we are then provided with a dose of history.
“Of Protestant faith she was the scion of an old French Hugenot family, Secord
(originally De Sicard) of La Rochelle in France. After the great persecution in 1572, the
family retired to England, but in the following century emigrated to New Jersey where
the Hugenots founded New Rochelle in 1689. During the Revolutionary War in
America, they journeyed to Canada with other Loyalists and settled on the Niagara
Frontier.”
She was noted as being “one of the first members of the Daughters of the Empire and one
of the oldest members of the United Empire Loyalist Society and the Niagara Historical
Society.”
While some of the facts as stated may be questionable, and require further validation, the
account provides a great point for further research. Obituaries such as this give the
family researcher numerous points of reference for further inquiry.