The Orrs of Canada

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Here are 2 Irish Family Properties as yet unidentified. Can you name them?

Tombstone erected by James Orr in memory of his wife Nancy in Co Tyrone

Kindly provided by Ron Chambers, r-pchambers@shaw.ca   their great grandson in Alberta Canada

Nancy and James had 6 children:  William,   John James,   Robert,   Joseph,    Caldwell,  &   Margaret
- born between 1863 and 1876 Ulster Covenant Signatures 1912

Robert Orr was born in 1871 in Priestsessagh. Family lore says that he was a twin but there is no proof.

Elizabeth McFarland was born circa 1874. Her mother's maiden name was McKay or McCay and she had a  brother Rev McKay(McCay) a Presbyterian Minister.

Robert & Elizabeth were living in 1903 at Stanningley Farm, Mixenden, Halifax, Yorkshire, England when their first child, James was born

The family moved back to Ireland where Elsie & then George were born near Omagh. It is likely that it was in Calkill, Cappagh parish. The family then returned to England where Nancy Isabel Orr was born near Bradford in1909.

Based on the promise of employment for Robert, Robert & Elizabeth emigrated to Canada in 1914.

The family first settled in Mallorytown in Eastern Ontario then moved down the road a short distance to Escott, slightly east of Gananoque, Ontario in the Thousand Islands area where Lake Ontario empties into the St. Lawrence river. 

Then tragedy visited the family. Elizabeth, the mother died in 1916  as a result of an accident when cleaning windows. she was 42.

This left Robert with four motherless children.

In early 1918 Robert and his four children pulled up stakes and moved west (over 2,000 miles) where Charlotte McCombe, his cousin would end up serving as surrogate mother to Robert Orr's children for three critical years. Robert homesteaded near Travers, Alberta (the Hamlet no longer exists); the family then moved to Edmonton, Alberta in 1921 where Robert took employment at a dairy farm.

 In Edmonton Robert remarried to a widow, one Mrs. Clark. Robert died in 1950 in Vancouver, British Columbia while visiting his daughter Elsie He was buried in Edmonton, Alberta

Son James 1903-1980, married Mary McCombe,daughter of Alexander and Charlotte and they had seven children. He became a Baptist Missionary, spending most of his adult life working in South America, primarily Brazil


James & Mary Orr

Elsie married Stanley Hoggard and they had five children. The Hoggard family moved to Vancouver.

George married Doreen Murphy and they lived in Edmonton. They had three children.

George Orr

George Orr

Nancy Isabel Orr married Gordon Roy Chambers in 1934. He was born 1906 in Vernon British Columbia, died 1986 in Edmonton Alberta.She died in 1983 in Vancouver.British Columbia. I am in touch with her family.

Nancy 1909-83

Nancy in 1945

Robert Orr with his 4 children circa 1939

The Orrs in 1927

 I have contact with Robert's descendants in Alberta Canada 

Other descendants live in British Columbia