This is the headstone of Thomas William Horton Packer and his wives Mary Garbutt and Isobel Black. Thomas was the brother of my 2nd Great Grandfather, Cornelius and the 2nd son of Joseph of and Harriett (Vaughan) Packer. He was born in Gillingham, Kent, England in 1851 and named for one of Joseph’s older brothers. The family then moved 8 miles east to Sittingbourne.
When the family immigrated to Canada around 1870 he was already almost 20 and was only listed on the 1871 Census in Canada with his family in Hamilton, Ontario. Not too long after that the family moved to Woodstock, Ontario where on 01 December 1875 Thomas married Mary Garbutt, the 4th daughter of William and Martha (Ward) Garbutt.
On the 1881 Census Thomas reported working as a Sawyer and 1891 he was a Glass fitter and Mary’s nephew, William Rennick, was living with the couple and working as a photographer. In 1914 Mary died of Bright Disease.
In the summer of 1916 Thomas married Isobel Black, the daughter of John and Charlotte (Roberts) Black. Thomas died right around the new year of 1835-1836—a newspaper dated 31 Dec 1935 noted his death but the headstone reads 1936.
All three are buried at Hillview Cemetery on 5th Street, on the southeast side of Woodstock, Ontario.
Happy hunting,
Jess
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