I would like to take this opportunity to recognize Magdalena Voisin. She helped me find Joseph and Anne Voisin, who were my ancestors, and quite possibly my great great-grandparents. She provided such a big clue for a little girl only eleven years old. You see, she was born about 1841.
The Buffalo Connection
Magdalena was listed in the 1851 Canadian census1 for Waterloo County in the household of Peter Joseph Voisin (1807-1892), the patriarch of all the Voisin families near Kitchener, Ontario. (The family is listed as “Wisong” in that census.) She was probably not his daughter however. Instead her usual residence was “Buffalo.” She was probably visiting the family and was from Buffalo, New York. This fits with another clue from the obituary of one of Peter Joseph’s sons, Anthony. It indicates his parents walked to Buffalo annually to visit relatives.2
Footnotes- 1851 Census, Canada West, Wellesley Township, Waterloo County, Ontario, Canada, district 1 Wellesley, Waterloo County, Page 33 or 17, lines 38 – 46, Joseph Wisong ; digital images, Library and Archives Canada, Censuses (http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/Pages/census.aspx : downloaded 24 November 2017).
- “Descendants of Pierre (Peter) Joseph Voisin,” Obituary of Anthony Voisin, E-Mail 9-28-2017, Harvey Kuntz, Wingham, Ontario, Canada.