Biography of Fortune Traveller (1809-1894)
Fortune Traveller was the first child of Reuben Traveller and Sarah Veal, born 21 February 1809 in London and baptized in the Parish Church of St. Marylebone on 24 March 1809.[1]
From The Perth Courier, 3 Aug. 1894, p. 4.
She presumably moved with her family first to Philadelphia and later to Bytown (Ottawa), Canada. In 1829 she married John Grant of Bytown at Innisville[2]; the marriage bond was dated 9 December 1829 and signed by her father and Alexander James Christie as bondsmen.[3] She had at least two children by this marriage: according to her obituary, Mrs. John McLean and John Grant; according to an account by a descendant, two daughters named Margery and Sarah.[4]
She subsequently married, around 1848, Squire Peter McGregor, the father of her sister Ruth's second husband. She had one child, Janet, by him. Peter McGregor had several children by his first wife.[5] After Peter's death, according to her obituary, Fortune moved to Winnipeg later in life with her step-son, Archibald, and eventually to Victoria, British Columbia, where she died on 15 July 1894 and is buried.[6]
Children of Fortune Traveller and John Grant
- Margery, born between 1830 and 1848.
- Sarah, born between 1830 and 1848.
Possibly married John McLean.
Children of Fortune Traveller and Peter McGregor
- Janet, born 25 February 1849, Beckwith, Ontario, Canada.
Married Peter McEwen about 1857.
[1]Fortune Traveller entry, Church of England. Parish Church of St. Marylebone (Middlesex, England), Day Book of Baptisms (1803-1809), unpaginated. Originals held at London Metropolitan Archives, Clerkenwell, London, England (P89 MRY1 84). Image viewed on microfilm FHL 580920 (Family History Library, Salt Lake City, Utah).
[2]Obituary, Fortune McGregor, Perth Courier, 3 Aug. 1894, p. 5. Digitized image retrieved 23 April 2008 from Paper of Record database.
[3]Upper Canada Marriage Bonds, Vols. 17-18 (1826-1829), 1826-RG5, B9, Vol. 18, Library and Archives Canada.
[4] "Mrs. Peter McEwen--Janet McGregor" (1956), biographical sketch, in North Dakota Federation of Women's Clubs, Pioneer Mother Project Records, Indexes and Biographies [microfilm]: Complete Biographies Series, ca. 1938-1953. Microfilm CT3260.N56 1989 Reels 3-5. See entry in the North Dakota Biography Index.
[5]See Our Immigrant Ancestor Peter McGregor, by James McGregor, for further information on this family.
[6]Obituary, Fortune McGregor; date given by notice in Perth Courier, 3 Aug. 1894, p. 4.
