​Proudly remembering our namesakes

In telling family stories, I can find a great number of names repeated through the generations. There are nine Williams in the Pollock tree, several Catherines in the Farrells, many Mathews in the Davis clan and half a dozen Daniels among the Edges.

Today, I would like to comment on the reason for Daddy’s name – Cecil Arthur or Arthur Cecil as some documents state. The Arthur seems obvious. Grandpa Hollands’ youngest brother, the one born soon after James and Hannah, Harry, Grandpa and Walter arrived in Bruce County, was called Arthur.

That name is found several times in preceding generations. Although Grandpa did not likely have a close relationship with Arthur, for they did not live together at any time, still Arthur is a family name.

Now, for the Cecil: Daddy was happy to tell us that he was named after Cecil Ferguson Patterson, third son of Alex and Minnie Patterson, and a descendant of Mary Hunter and Alexander Ferguson.

Unfortunately, Cecil died while still a young man (age 33). Cecil’s sister, Edith, was a good friend of Aunt Sylvia; so, it is not hard to believe that this Patterson family and the Alfred Hollands family had a friendly relationship, considering themselves cousins.



The difficulty is proving that they were both branches of the same Hunter Family Tree. I am convinced, but mostly through circumstantial evidence, that Mary Hunter was the sister of three brothers, John, Edward and James, who arrived with their offspring in the 1840s in Brant County.

By the year 1852, when the 1851 census was actually completed, John’s family (our ancestors) was settled in Huron Township, Bruce County. Thomas and James were both established near Brantford. Not long after, James and family moved to Kincardine Township. Mary and Alexander do appear later, not too far away but where did they come from? Not much connection is evident.

This obituary (right) paints a fascinating picture of its subject. Don’t you wish you could have known Cecil Patterson? It is not surprising that Daddy was proud to share his name.

At this point, I am still searching for proof of a family relationship.

-- Ruth Anne Hollands Robinson
May, 2020; edited April, 2021, and March, 2025

*Cecil Patterson’s photo found in “Families and Farms of Huron”