Hugh's origins

My dad always told me that my grandfather, George always said that Hugh was supposedly from a french speaking providence in Canada. Whenever Hugh would start talking about his family or previous life in Canada he would get angry and stop talking about it altogether.

After getting the death certificate, it told us that his father was Robert McIntosh born in Scotland and his mother was Margaret Barkley, birthplace unknown. It also said that Hugh was born in Bathrush, Canada. My wife and I searched and searched. There were to many Roberts born in Scotland and we couldn't even find Bathrush in Canada. It simply didn't exist.

I naturally started looking at eastern Canada, like Quebec, Nova Scotia, and New Brunswick. All I could find that was close to Bathrush was Bath and Bathurst. Then The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints put the 1881 Canadian census online. I put Hugh's name in and it came back with a Hugh James McIntosh living in Durham, Restigouche, New Brunswick. It had to be him, it was his full name and right age, except I didn't recognize the people living with him. On the census with Hugh was Joseph, William, Mary, Catherine Euphemia McIntosh, and Mary McIntosh, widowed age 64. Who where these people, I just didn't know.

I figured that Bathrush was really Bathurst, New Brunswick. I left a posting on Ancestry's message board for Restigouche. All my success started after we moved to Oregon. I received a reply to my message from Darlene Campbell, who told me to look at Ira M. Beattie's website, where she said I would find Hugh's family. I looked it up, and I was so excited. I found Hugh listed with his parents, Robert McIntosh and Margaret Barclay (which I thought might have been the right spelling). Ira had done quite a lot of research, sadly though, he had passed away about a month before I found his website and research.

Since then I have learned a lot about Hugh's family. His grandparents were David McIntosh and Mary Freer. On the 1881 census, Hugh was living with his Grandmother Mary and her children. So the people listed were his Aunts and Uncles, and Grandmother.