March 20, 2011:

In response to your website on the Ottawa Valley area: 
 
James  Lee ( 1810-1879) was one of my great great grandfathers.  According to family history his family was English but  
he came to Canada from Balleymoney, Ireland with his wife Margaret  Byrnes or  Burns ( 1809- 1883)  who came from a 
Scottish heritage.  They left Ireland  after a “ scuffle”  there involving family being killed by the Irish.  His son 
George Lee  b 1831 survived the trip but the daughter Mary died.  They emigrated about 1834 and settled near ( south west) 
Montreal – he was given land by  King William  IV – 100 acres  and was one of the first settlers in  Hinchinbrook PQ in 1835.
 
- He fought  on the side of the government in the Rebellion  of 1837-38 and thus acquired more land. A son  James Lee 
  was  born there in Hinchinbrook.
 
- They had moved to Huntington PQ  by 1839.  William Lee was born there in 1839.
 
- By 1841 they moved to Argenteuil County PQ near Lachute PQ.    6 more children were born there - 
  Richard, Thomas, Mary Ann, Margaret, Robert, David
 
- By 1852- 1860  they  were living  near North Gower
 
- 1860 they moved to near Oxford Mills ---Henry and Sydney were born there
 
- 1876 they bought a farm near Kemptville- Hillview farm - which remained in the family until 1937. 
 
Several of the boys( George, Thomas and  and James)  went off to fight in the Civil War in the USA.  
Richard went to Nebraska, Henry, Margaret and Sydney went West to Manitoba.  I am descended from 
Sydney and his wife Caroline Eastman the daughter of William Eastman another Ottawa Valley resident 
and a descendant of UEL Benjamin Eastman .  

They had a large family and we really have only located descendants of their sons Sydney, David, John 
and a bit about Henry, and bits about Mary Ann and  Margaret.  We suspect that George, William and John 
never moved to Ontario with the rest of the family.  James and Thomas went off to the Civil War from Kemptville, 
Thomas was killed .  George joined from Quebec and later went to Illinois, Richard moved to Nebraska, and
James was said to have gone  to South America.   


... Sharen