They were married in Killybegs, County of Donegal, Ireland May 5, 1840 and had 6 boys and 3 girls. William, James, John Robert b. 5/28/1848 and Alexander were 4 of them.

Their son (my great grand father - our family's ancestor) - John Robert Hamilton married Elizabeth Kendrick
Both were born in Ireland and had migrated to Vasey, Ontario, Canada (near Victoria Harbor on Georgian Bay) as young children with their families.

Our Grandfather - William Thomas Hamilton (born 1870 in Oshawa, Canada) married Lillie Mae Freeman in Whitby, Ontario - 1890 (Lily was born 1867 on the Erie Canal in the USA.)

Their children were all born in the USA (Morris, IL & Buffalo, NY.)

William, Lillian, Lawrence, Irene, Charles,(my dad) Francis, Elizabeth, Robert, Mabel, Marcella, Albert

Great, Great Grandfather James Robert Hamilton sr. was born in Scotland and migrated to Ireland where he married Marianne Doherty, an Irish lass. (Around this time, in Scotland, the “noble” landowners were evicting their tenants off their lands so that they could raise sheep. Thousands of the displaced Scotsman were forced to migrate to Ireland, Canada, America and even to Australia - I don’t know if this was the reason why our family migrated however.).

They had 10 children (7 sons and 3 daughters) one of which was Great Grandfather John Robert. John Robert was born in Killybegs, County of Donegal, Ireland around 1848.

The family migrated to Vasey, Ontario when John Robert was a young boy and then to Victoria Harbor, Ontario. John Robert grew up, fell in love with and married Elizabeth Kendrick whose family had also moved from Ireland to Canada. John Robert ran a small farm and hauled gravel part time with his team of horses.

Grandpa William Thomas was their first of 10 children. After Elizabeth Kendrick died he married Elizabeth Beckett and had 5 more children, after she died he married again but they had no children. John Robert died in 1927 - age 79.

After Grandpa William T. grew up he met Lillie Mae Freeman, who was still living in Canada, (After her mother died she and her bother John moved to Coburg, Ont.). She was singing in a church choir. They fell in love and were married in Whitby, Ontario in 1890.

The young couple along with her brother John, migrated to Morris Illinois where Grandpa William worked as a tanner. They had six children there (one was stillborn). This was too much for Grandma Lillie who had a nervous breakdown in 1899, probably right after my Dad [Charles] was born.

Four of the children had to be placed in an orphanage so that they could be properly cared for. (These were really trying times for the family.) When her condition improved enough, they moved back to Oshawa, Ontario taking only the new baby Charles with them, leaving Lillian, William, Lawrence and Irene behind. As their finances permitted and Grandma Lillie Mae's health improved, they sent for their children. Grandpa Bill worked for many years at Worthington Pump.

Uncle Lawrence still remembers coming to Oshawa by train from the orphanage with his name tag pinned on him. Unfortunately, Aunt Irene who was the youngest child left behind, was adopted in the interim by a family named Olsen who refused to give her up and never was able to rejoin the family.

After living a short time in Oshawa, the family moved to Buffalo, NY ( Lillie Mae was born on the Erie Canal in 1867). Grandpa worked as a tanner for a time and then got a job at Worthington Pumps Works where he worked for many years. Six more children were born in Buffalo, three of whom died at a very early age. This is an indication of the harsh conditions our family lived with in those days.

Irene (the daughter who grew up out west) married Joseph Akre and together they had 10 children. After he died she married Gilbert Randell - they had no children. Happily, she finally did rejoin the family briefly in 1929 for a visit when she met her mother and father and again in 1959 when she attended the annual family reunion. We all had the pleasure of meeting her at that time.

Hamilton's living in South Buffalo in the '20s.

Hamilton/Trometer Story

Trometer Family Tree

Freeman Family

Hamiton/Freeman Story

Reg Hamilton, NHL hockey player

Great Web Links