Netherby, Ontario

When my great-grandfather Joseph Voisin (1858-1916) was 17 he wrote a whimsical poem in his journal. He signed his name and indicated he was at Netherby, Ontario on November 19, 1875. I’ve yet to discover who his parents were so here I explore the former village of Netherby for clues.

First I wanted to precisely locate Netherby in Humberstone Township, Welland County, Ontario. Its modern location doesn’t show the remnants of any buildings and period maps are approximate. A historical atlas published the year after Joseph was there does hint at its location. ¹

The following is a composite map showing four townships of interest in Welland County, Ontario published in 1876. Owing to the difference in scale and orientation of the individual maps, I placed them loosely in their relative positions. The inset, top right, shows the four corners where they meet in the center.

According to later maps that location was, and is today, known as Netherby, Ontario. In fact a Post Office (PO) and a hotel are shown on the edge of Crowland Township, just south of its border. Those same buildings are not shown on the Humberstone map, but the property lines are visible. Their absence on the Humberstone side was probably an oversight.

An 1874 gazetteer describes Netherby as a post village of 100 people, with a store and saw mill. ² With that many residents, a post office, hotel, store and saw mill, it must have been larger than indicated on this map. It also likely had some connection to the Canada Southern Railway track just a half mile to the south.

The maps show property owners at the time. Unfortunately there are no familiar names in the four townships surrounding Netherby that indicate Joseph’s family lived nearby. The atlas was based on an earlier work published in 1862, which also showed property owners. I found no familiar names on it either, and that was just four years after Joseph was born.

However Netherby was six miles from Henry Joseph Voisin’s farm, shown highlighted, in north central Willoughby Township. Through genetic DNA testing and traditional genealogical research, I know Joseph was related to Henry Joseph Voisin. In fact DNA results among several distant cousins currently suggests Henry Joseph Voisin was actually Joseph’s father.

At age 17, Joseph was old enough to have left home. He was probably working, either at Netherby, or for a nearby farmer. The same page in his journal lists eggs, perhaps 22 dozen eggs, which could mean he was involved in farming. However it’s unclear if he wrote that accounting when the poem was written.

The journal entry shows Joseph Voisin was at Netherby, and Netherby was near Henry Joseph Voisin, a known relative. Although it doesn’t prove they were father and son, the facts are nonetheless consistent. Joseph’s parents and where he lived in the area remain elusive.

1. Page, H. R., Illustrated Historical Atlas of the Counties of Lincoln and Welland, Ont., Toronto, 1876, FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/search/catalog/220385?availability=Family%20History%20Library : accessed December 9, 2022).
2. Crossby, P. A. (Peter Alfred), Lovell’s gazetteer of British North America: containing the latest and most authentic descriptions of over six thousand cities, towns and villages in the provinces of Ontario, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Prince Edward Island, Manitoba, British Columbia, and the North West Territories, Montreal: J. Lovell, 1874, Internet Archive (https://archive.org : accessed December 9, 2022), page 208.