Occupations

Seamstress Ancestors

Bridget Loreto Killeen

Bridget Loreto Killeen was born at March township, Carleton Co., Ontario on 9 June 1861, the daughter of Patrick Killeen (1820-1890; also born at March) and Bridget Galligan (1835-1861; originally from the townland of Loughaconnick, parish of Kilmore, Co. Cavan, Ireland).

Her mother died in childbirth at the age of 26; and Bridget Loreto Killeen was raised by her paternal aunt Margaret Jane Killeen, wife of John Lahey. By the late 1880s, Bridget Killeen had moved to Ottawa, where she worked as a dressmaker.

The Ottawa City Directory, 1893-94 (Ottawa: Might Directory Co., 1894)

When Bridget married John James Lahey on 12 July 1893, their marriage required a papal dispensation from the impediment of secundi gradus consanguinitatus collateralis (second-degree relationship, or first cousins). The couple raised a family of five daughters, three of whom emigrated to Detroit, Michigan.

Bridget died at Ottawa on 8 November 1932; her husband John James died a month later, on 11 December 1932.


Annie Benton

Anna Maria Benton was born in Arnprior, Renfrew Co., Ontario on 28 August 1871, the daughter of Thomas Benton (originally from Cappawhite, Co. Tipperary) and Honora Ryan (originally from Curraghafoil, Doon, Co. Limerick).

After the death of her father in 1890 (her mother had died in 1879), Annie Benton supported herself as a dressmaker, first in Arnprior, and then in Ottawa. In the 1891 census (Arnprior), she can be found as a lodger in the household of George Barclay, where her occupation is listed as ‘Tailoress.’ By 1894, she had moved to Ottawa: an 1893-94 Ottawa city directory lists her as ‘Miss Annie Benton, dressmaker.’

In Ottawa, she boarded at the home of Michael Fagan and his wife Mary Eugenie Gertrude Moran; and, in 1897, she married her landlady’s youngest brother, Alexander Michael Moran.

Her sisters Bridget and Margaret also worked as dressmakers.


Angélique Ménard

Angélique Ménard was the second wife of John McGlade, and the stepmother of Arthur Joseph McGlade.

She was born about 1834, probably at Lachine, Québec, the daughter of François Xavier Ménard and Angélique St. Ongé. In 1855, at Lachine, Angélique Ménard married Félix Henrichon, a blacksmith by trade.

By 1861, the couple had moved to Perth, Lanark Co., Ontario, where they adopted William Joseph Madden (born 1859), also known as William Henrichon. Félix Henrichon died in 1879; and, in the 1881 census, Angélique was enumerated as Angeline Herishau, Seamstress, the widowed head of a household that included her sister-in-law Marie Léocadie Henrichon and her adopted son William.

Angélique married John McGlade on 31 January 1882. When John McGlade died in 1891, he left a will in which he granted his second wife, whom he called Angelina, an annuity of $100 per year, to be paid by his son Arthur. When Angélique died in 1894, her stepson Arthur Joseph McGlade was in arrears of payment. In her last will and testament, Angélique forgave her stepson his debt, on condition that he pay her funeral expenses.


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