Alexander Henry, the Elder	Julia Calcutt Kittson Henry

Grateful acknowledgement to the Minnesota Historical Society for providing me with permission to use the copies of the above pictures. They have black & white slides of these pictures which you can purchase through them. They also carry a copy of James Gordan Kittson's papers on the "Kittson's of Canada" The link should bring you to a list of business people of Minnesota throughout it's history which will include Norman Kittson. After clicking on his name it should bring you to a list of papers on his history. Choose Kittson Family. This will bring you to James Gordon Kittson's papers which can be ordered from their site. I know too that there are links to the pictures and other info within this same site, so those of you interested in ordering some of this information you have come to the right place. There is much to learn of the Kittson family.

From Canada To The Oregon Territory

John Kittson was the first known member of the family who came to Canada in 1759 from Halifax, Yorkshire, England according to some records. The old parish registers of the ancient church of Brington, near the city of Northhampton shows some records of the Kittson family and relationship to ancestors of George Washington. We show a name of Alice St. John as his first wife, who was probably in Ireland. My mother also indicated that John had a brother with him and that they both fought with Wolfe at Quebec. We have some papers that say John died at that time, but others show maybe fifteen years later. A new record has just been found that if it turns out to be correct could clear up a lot of old family stories. In Ancestry.Com for the Irish Records Index, 1500-1920, there is an entry of a John Kittson who died in Islandanoon. It does not say specifically where that is, but the resistry of his death is in a small booklet for the Diocese of Ardfert & Aghador in County Cork's South West corner. It says his death was on July 1st 1779. We need to find more information on this. I saw nothing more in the book mentioning Julia or other family members. The time is right according to some records and would be about the time of his son's (George's)birth which is also a match with some records and the place of his birth being in County Cork. John's wife that we know of is his second wife, Julia Calcutt. Julia (1756-April 24, 1834) was from Newton-Limavady, Ireland and by John she had:

1. a daughter Mary. Mary is shown to have been married to John Cates. We would love to hear from those descended from her branch of the family. A Lt.Samuel Cates in the 2nd Bat. of the 60th Regiment married a Mary Tucker on 8th of January 1794 in Christ Church at William Henry as Sorel was known at that time. New information shows that Julia made several trips back and forth across the Atlantic trying to catch up with her husband's troops. On her last trip she had
2. a son, George Kittson, who in some records show he was born at sea, but the new records say he was born in Cork while she was enroute back to Canada.

1. Julia Henry (b.10/22/1780 bap. 10/28/1780 Montreal,Que)Never married.
2. William Henry (b.3/4/1784 bap. 3/17/1784-Montreal,Que, d.1864 Newmarket, Ont)This William was a fur trader, clerk with the North West Company in Red River Dist., and later at a post on the Willamette near Champoeg. Still later he was at Fort Henry in MidWest part of Canada. He became a surveyor and a Civil Engineer as time past. It has just recently come to our attention that William Henry had a wife before Charlotte who was Agathe Letendre. They had a son, Alexis Henry who married Marie Lyonnais dit Dunais. Alexis & Marie had a son, Jerome Henry who married Marie Rose Vermette. Jerome & Marie Rose had a daughter, Catherine Henry who married William Grant. They had many children, one, a daughter, married into the Welbourn family line. Their history is in the Ancestry World Tree Viewer and so exciting to learn about. Going back to William Henry, he was later married to a sister of John Felton a signal midshipman on the Flagship, Victory, at the battle of Trafalgar. We have learned that William's wife's name was Charlotte Felton. They had several children. A son, Charles, died in Barrie, Ont. We have heard from descendants in both Australia and in Las Vegas. One family descended from William and Charlotte's daughter, Julia. We hope some day to add a picture of the home where William & Charlotte lived. Their daughter, Julia, no doubt named for her grandmother, passed on some of her treasured momentos. The other couple descended from Charlotte's brother, Charles Bowman Felton. Charlotte was born before 17th Nov. 1791 in Hackney, England to John & Elizabeth Butt Felton. William & Charlotte married on July 31, 1826 in Belvidere at Ascot, near Sherbrooke, Quebec. Charlotte's father, Sir John Felton who was a Governor of the Balearic Islands near Spain, was a descendant of "...John Felton circa 1620, who assasinated the Duke of Buckingham because of religious differences. Dumas wrote about this in The Three Musketeers but attributed the reason to the wiles of Lady de Winter, who led poor John astray!!" Canadiana.org is a site filled with many historic books of old Canada. If you enter Henry or Kittson in the search you will find a ton of history.
3. Alexander Henry (b. after 1785-Montreal, Que, d. 1812-Fort Nelson, B.C.)This Alexander should not be confused with Alexander The Younger who would have been his cousin. He was a clerk in the North West co. & was murdered by the Indians at Fort Nelson.
4. Robert Henry (b. 4/20/1785 bap. 6/6/1785)is a 4th child that Michel Robert has discovered in his research.Marilyn's research shows a Robert Henry living near Cobourg in 1835 who may have been married to Christy Bethune, a daughter of Rev. John & Veronique Waddin (Nadeau)Bethune. They were divorced, but it is not known if there were children or if Robert remarried.
5. John Henry (b. 9/11/1786 bap. 9/17/1786) is the 5th child. Sponsors were Mrs. Isaac Todd and Mrs. Gregery. John Henry died the 25th of February and was buried the 26th in 1787.

	To the left is a copy of a picture taken of a painting of of George Kittson. One might want to compare this to a picture of Sir Thomas Kytson son of Kytson of Hengrave Hall. This picture of Sir Thomas is from CGFA which is a virtual Art Museum filled with wonderful historic artworks. There is about 150 yrs between the death of Sir Thomas and the birth of George's father, John, and many questions inbetween. There is no established link between these two Kittson/Kytson's, but this is the fun in researching.
Kittson Crest - 2nd from the left	The crests to the left and below are from Hengrave Hall and were given to me by the Potts family who have visited there with an art group. There are other pictures at the Potts family web site I am very grateful for their contribution

Thomas Kittson's sister, Margaret, married a Washington ancestor of George Washington and there is a great site for Sulgrave Manor where they lived. A crest which had been on their door combined both the Washington and Kittson Crests and can be found at the Corning Museum. It is not shown on their site, but a copy of a picture can be requested.

George Kittson, who lived between 1759 (1780 by other records) and died July 26, 1832, according to new information, was with another woman who bore him a sonWilliam Kittson. In the Ft. Nisqually Journal of Occurrences William states his birth date as October 25th (1794?).After her death(?) George married Anne Tucker on 2/23/1801 and it is said that she is the one who adopted our William Kittson as her own, thus the many stories of him being an adopted son. A new theory as to the origins of our William Kittson comes from copies of old records in microfische showing a son "Alexander" born to (?) and baptised 19th September, 1794. Sponsors are listed as madame Desautell & James Caldwell. "illeg" is listed in margin. With Anne Tucker, George had many more children whose stories are coming to us one at a time along with their descendants. Their children were:

1. Margaret who married Norman Bethune. Margaret's mother-in-law was Veronique Waddin Bethune a sister of Marguerite Waddin McKay McLoughlin. Julia Calcutt Kittson Henry lived the last 10 yrs of her life with Margaret (her eldest daughter) Norman Bethune's father was Rev. John Bethune. His history shown on the pages done by Sue & Brian Myers were really good, but I have not been able to reach them to thank them for their work. The Bethune's trace their history to Robert Bethune Ist Lord of Bethune in 9th century France. There is a Canadian site that has the story of one of their famous grand nephews. Norman's eldest brother, Angus, also a fur trader (1783-1858), was the great grandfather of Henry Norman Bethune (1890-1939), Canadian physician and surgeon of China fame. Norman's other brothers & sisters include John, the Dean of Montreal and first principal of McGill University; Alexander Neil, the second Bishop of Toronto; James, another fur trader; Donald, a steam boat owner and several wives of furtraders. Norman William Bethune married George Kittson's eldest daughter, Margaret, 25th August 1822. They had six children John George, Norman William, Alexander Henry, Julia Anne Veronica, Angus Robert, and Margaret Cecelia Victoria. One of Margaret Ceclia Victoria's great granddaughters, Ena Franklin Simpson,adopted a wonderful woman, Lynn, who did this page on her natural family and included Ena's picture and sent me many more of her family line. Margaret & Norman's son, Norman had a son, Kenneth Bethune who married Robert Kittson's granddaughter Ethelinde Kittson. Norman, Margaret's husband, died in Montreal July 27th, 1848 and Margaret who was born in 1801, died in 1872. Much of this has come from information James Gordon Kittson book, "The Kittson's of Canada" and letters he and mom shared over many years in the 60's. Newer information came from descendants writing to me here at this site. So much info keeps coming I am trying to put together a book on each family. In James G. Kittson's book he shows that one of their daughters, Julia, was married to Rev. Walter Stennet of Cobourg, Ontario. If I am reading the web pages on the Chidlow family right they show I think Norman's niece, Frances Bethune (see #1223), as being married to Rev. Stennet. A new mystery to figure out.
2. Alexander married Sophia Desautels and one of their daughters wasSophia Zoe Kittson Alexander and Sophia would be proud of at least one of their Great-great-grandson's, Michel Robert, for the work he did on his early family history Michel and I lost contact for a while and his updated pages that were connected here for a while were lost to cyberspace, so he is reworking what was there into his new pages on our early families adding more of his wonderful work. When you open his new pages, go to the bottom of the links where he has Kittson. The link there did not work when I last went into it, but believe he will be able to update this soon. He had corrected much of my early history errors above on "John" Kittson whom tradition only seems to have given his name. Alexander is said to have been the one to keep the family records. I have lost contact with Michel after all these years and no longer have access to his later pages that had the wonderful Kittson history, so clearly recorded. There is a page that does tell of his family line that is quite good. It tells of the marriage of Octave & Sophie Kittson LaVallee. We have met our cousins from B.C. and will always be greatful for all the history and family time together. Worldconnect has the Kittson history thanks to another shirttail relative and Zoe Kittson's history is there as well as William's. Once you enter worldconnect you need to enter the name of Zoe Kittson or the other Kittson you are seeking. Another distant related cousin entered most of all our data from my pages here, so if you do not see it there it may be my fault for not having it here. There is another page on Alexander's family that will require a little of that French language to read telling about Joseph-Norbert-Alfred McConville. If you can not read this, you can not blame grandma & grandpa Nazaire Kittson for not trying to make sure our parents knew and remembered the French language. In July 2003 Sandra & I had the privilege of visiting Michel & Liliana and met his wonderful mother who knew many of the family members spoken of in these pages. We received not only the gift of such a truely wonderful vacation full of family education, but he provided us with a CD and other articles with pictures and stories on the family. I am slow to entering things here, but hope to add more of this history and the pictures as well.
3. James who died young
4. Julia who married Simon Paul Hus-Cournoyer. One of Julia's daughters married a Gagnon and there are Gagnon's from our current Parish that I believe also came from the same Gagnon family in some direction on the family tree. Familysearch provided their children's names. Leonard Hus Paul is an ancestor of Simon Paul Hus-Cournoyer. His pages were written by Lloyd Paul whom I hope to reach as this makes for another new cousin. The information like all pages are a conglomeration of many heads working together. Simon and Julia's names were not in the pages as they may have been unknown to him. I would like to correct that. He had help in his pages from many very talented people, who in turn with these pages linked have helped me.
5. John who married Nancy Boisvert. A website now that carries the history of the upper peninsula of Michigan has his story which like the rest of the family is very interesting. John George was probably named for his grandfather. I have found a collection of sites in Rootsweb in Wisconsin that carry more information on John and his descendants (?). The Oconto County Reporter for October 1st, 1881 tells a very interesting story about a Norman & William Kittson fighting with some of the McDonald's. These men I think were maybe sons or grandsons of our John Kittson. No doubt they could have been named for their uncles or great-uncles (depending on their relation) Another page leads you to a list of names including John G. Kittson and John G. Kittson, Jr. I have written to the sites and am now corresponding with descendants of John Kittson. Before I loose their history in my stacks I will quote what they have given me. "John and Norman are brothers (see Wisconsin Creoles, p. 280 by Rentmeester) working out of Canada during the U.S. control of the Fur Trade from 1815-1834. Source for Kittson information: Wisconsin Fur-Trade People, by Jeanne & Lester Rentmeester, p. 243. Source for lineage: Wisconsin Creoles, p. 280-281. Wisconsin Creoles book, p. 280: "John G. Kittson...and his younger brother, Norman, moved to Wisconsin in 1830." "Bruce K. Paulson of Suring, Wisconsin has more information on this family." p. 281, Wisconsin Creoles." John G. Kittson married Margaret (Hau-ka-wau-bie) Robinson, daughter of So Shot Carron. More information is provided, but as this page has grown in leaps in bounds since contacting so many of you descendants I want to start a new page with just George and Nancy's line only with a straight lineage.
6. Norman who married 1.Adele Marion, 2.Elsie Marion, 3.Mary Clarke. As you can see from the information under John, we have found another wife of Norman Kittson who is listed as Agnes La Tender, daughter of Pa-Si-Mon and Ma-Che-Quo-Nok. Only one child is listed who is Therese Kittson, who married Joseph Beaupre'. Therese wa born in 1856. If others know of this or John's history pleas contact me at my e-mail below. Norman helped to finance the Great Northern Railway with James J. Hill. Besides the NWRDC site which has his picture there are numerous other sites that tell his story of being quite the entrepreneur. His story on this and his picture are in the book "James J. Hill", but I found a site that gives a brief history of the Great Northern Railway. The site that has more of the book and picture information is up and working and I lost contact with the other page so will leave the link just in case it can reconnect. One of Norman's sons was a Dr John Kittson. There are sketches of him on Bruce Haig's site in the Julien pageswhich will lead you to the pictures not only of Dr John Kittson, but of Red River carts used by his father, Norman. Mr. Haig has quite a collection of pages that I am sure many of you will enjoy searching through. Following Historic Trails is the route to reach the Julien and other diaries. A similar site on Dr. John G. Kittson I am reluctant to hand out here without the warning "Do not try the home page" as it did a number on my computer. I think only an error in there, but puts a bad spin on the computer. All the other pages in there were fine. If you just want to read John's story it is safe in the link on his name. The Metis web pages are also very colorful of the area in which Norman Kittson was active with his businesses.I found an interesting page telling a story about the Harvest Inn Bed and Breakfast and the origins of it's site related to Norman. If any of you get a chance to go there, let them know you saw them in my pages and tell them of your connections to Norman's family. They will love to here and and pass the word back to me. Two more sites of interest have been found related to Norman. One has a picture and information on one of his oldest sons, Rev. Henry Kittson and the other has a picture of Norman's Trading Post and how it looks today. You will find it near the bottom of the page. I found another site with many pictures of Norman Kittson's family and homes in the Minnisota Historical Society. When you reach the page enter Kittson on the search line and follow their instructions. This will bring up all of the Kittson pictures there. At long last I am remembering to write this in here, thank you Lyn. Now I have found the Ivory Street Builders in Minnesota who have named one of their housing designs none other than Kittson! I did let them know that the 2 bedroom design would not have been able to hold his large family though. Ha! After some time now I am adding a new piece of information and some history on one of Norman's youngest sons, Louis Kittson (The younger Louis Kittson for those of you who know of them both). I will have to come back in and write their descendancy another time, but for now I can give you a link that will show you some of the families who descended Louis. Be ready for "cute" as there are many wonderful pictures at the Miller's web site. Another family I found around the same time were the Letkeman family who descended from Norman's son Alexander Kittson. I am so glad he wrote tonight as it reminded me that I had not yet added his pages.
7. William who married Harriet Meredith. Anne may have named him after our William, but most likely for his uncle William Henry. I should have written more on his line some time ago as also with Robert Kittson as both William & Robert are great grandfathers to James Gordon Kittson from whose work I derived a lot of information. Currently I am hearing from someone who has given me some really good leads on the Kittson-Meredith family line. I am still working with some of what he sent, but want to add this web page for the Ontario Cemetery Finding Aid as I can see it is going to be a fantastic way of finding the burial sites for the many Kittson's and others who married into to their families. Many are buried in the Hamilton Cemetery, but if you choose the surnames only and all cemeteries you will find a great abundance of others. Another link Daniel Parkinson provided for me was for the Canadian archives which is already linked, but will add it here as well as very useful. Thanks Dan!
8. (Elizabeth) Anne who married William Morrison who's life story is also at the rootsweb site. There is a lot of very good history within this site and I would advise you to navigate through it. Click here for the Table of contents for the book. Anne's mother-in-law was Josephine Waddin Morrison (Microfische info tells searchers that the real name is not "Waddin", but "Nadeau". "Mr. Allen Morrison & Miss Josette Nadeau were married by licence April 8th year 1780")who was another sister of Marguerite Waddin McKay McLoughlin. For those of you who do not know Marguerite she was the wife first of Alexander McKay and later the wife of Dr John McLoughlin (the father of Oregon). Marguerite cared for many of the metis children of her day. I have found another webpage, Trade Goods, with some of William Morrison's history. It mentions his children, but is not totally correct. They mention Georgiana who is one of Anne & William's 4 daughters, but the other children mentioned I believe are from his first wife, an Ojibwe woman, which is great as I did not have their names before. He had 7 children by his 2nd wife Julia Roussain who are named in Arthur Kittson's book about Berthier. I do not know who entered the data for that page. It would be interesting to be in contact with them. I keep finding more stories on William Morrison and see he too has a growing number of wives. These pages tell of maybe four women, including our Elizabeth Anne Kittson. This was provided by Bruce Mellor who I am also trying to reach. His pages are with The Morrison County Historical Society.
9. Robert who married Margaret Clarke nee Sawtelle. (Another shows her as M. Ethelinde Sawtell nee Clarke) This is the other Robert who I mentioned is a great grandfather to James Gordon Kittson who wrote The Kittsons of Canada. Right now I am comparing his work with some more info that Dan sent, so papers are scattered. Robert & Margaret had many children. One of their sons, Henry Norman Kittson married Sadie or Lilly Wright and they had 3 known children. One of those was a girl Ethelinde Kittson who married her cousin Kenneth Bethune a grandson of Norman & Margaret Kittson Bethune. I correspond with one of their descendants now. It took me a while to unravel that story.

Our family has been in touch with some of George and Anne's great-great and great-great-great grandchildren which has really been interesting. During the 1960's my mother corresponded with Fred Kittson of Pennsylvania who was a descendant of Norman Kittson. He sent us a picture of a colored glass coat of arms which is in the Corning Museum. It was a combination of the Washington family and Kittson family coat of arms which was originally from a door in England. If I can get it copied I will display it in here. It is not certain if these are really of our family line, but it is of George Washington's ancestry. We are fairly certain it has to be ours as we have a letter written by Norman Kittson in the 1800's which displays the same Kittson crest.

My mother also corresponded with James Gordon Kittson who is a descendant of both the second William and Robert Kittson. His grandparents were first cousins. He wrote the History of the Kittson's of Canada which can be located in the National Archives of Canada in Ottawa. Between James Gordon, Fred, and my mother they have sorted out most of the interesting lives and lines of the Kittson family, but it wasn't until recently that we knew or understood more of the adoption of William as so many records show he was the adopted son of George. In comparing the pictures of William's son, Peter with his Uncle Norman we knew our William had to have been of the family for such a strong resemblence to carry on. Now we are satisfied with the explaination that it was George's wife who adopted him and that George is his natural father as we suspected all along. This latest information came from a descendant of Alexander Kittson through a distant cousin of Helene McDonald (daughter of Finan McDonald and second wife of our William Kittson)

I had lost a good page telling some of the stories of Finan McDonald so in my search for a new link I found one that covers a lot of basis. It has a tid bit on Finan, but tells about all the places where William Kittson had been while in the Hudson Bay. Don't look for stories on him. It is also a site for those who love camping, hiking, fishing, etc... or those who want to find some of our earliest sites in Northwestern History such as Spokane House which was built in part by Finan McDonald. There is so much to see at this site that I have chosen the Map as the opening page so everyone could descide for themselves where they want to begin their journey. I had hours of fun last night exploring this site so know you will all enjoy it too. Just glide your curser over the white dots and they will tell you which pages they will go to. There are pictures, history, and much, much, more. In October 02 I found a couple more pages on Finan. The one in the link above attached to his name and the one here on Spokane House . I also found some exciting David Thompson pages which I will add on the following pages, so please read on.

Click to learn more about William page 2 and his descendants or my other pages on the family try William's Descendants page 3, Pierre Charles Kittson Descendants page 4 and NEW PAGES 5 regarding Fort Nisqually Descendants and 6 chart continued

To contact me just click Rox61@hotmail.com

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