The Family of John Maltman: Further Information, page 2

Nothing about this family has been straightforward. In addition to the questions surrounding their life in London and Yorkshire, I have a big question about the death of Mary Ann (Edwards) Maltman - when did she die?

Mary Ann emigrated to Canada with her husband sometime after the birth of their youngest child in March 1839 and the date of the 1842 Canada census. Unfortunately the 1842 census was not designed to assist genealogists 171 years later and gives very little useful information. Therefore, I cannot be sure if Mary Ann was alive at the time of that census.

Civil registration of births, marriages and deaths did not begin in Canada until 1 July 1869, therefore no death certificate exists for Mary Ann. The only evidence I have of her death is the entry in the burial register for the York General Burying Ground, better known as "Potter's Field", which records that Mary Maltman, age 40, wife of John Maltman, was buried on 3 August 1845.

Okay, that seems fairly straightforward...uh no. Her husband John married his second wife in November 1842.

Divorce would have almost certainly been out of the question in 1840s Toronto and I very much doubt that my great-great grandfather was a bigamist. So why the discrepancy?

I suspect - but have found no records to prove - that the burial in 1845 was a re-burial. It was not uncommon for bodies to be removed from one cemetery - perhaps a churchyard - and reburied in another cemetery. In fact, most of the bodies in Potter's Field were later removed and reburied in two other Toronto Cemeteries: the Toronto Necropolis, and Mount Pleasant Cemeteries. The site was built over and, apparently, construction crews still occasionally accidentally unearth human remains.

NOTES:
1:	The Potter's Field burial register does not record the date or place of death - only the burial date.
2:	The above information is based on the original burial records held by Toronto Trust Cemeteries.

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