Ancestor lore, June 1st, 2026. 558 words

My grandfather, Clifford Turnbull, was the historian of the Turnbulls. He researched and had several stories of the origin of the name Turnbull. My ancestor, William, saved Robert Bruce, the heir to the throne, from a charging bull. As a reward, he was given lands and the name and crest of Turning the Bull. The next significant event for the Turnbulls was Robert and Jane Turnbull, with seven children and one on the way, emigrating to Canada. The lore indicated that Robert went to the St. Lawrence Seaway to bathe and drowned, leaving his wife and children to make their way from Montreal to Fort Dover, Ontario, 672 kilometers away. The family received wagon rides when offered by strangers, but they walked much of the distance. Walter, my great-great-grandfather, was the eldest child, becoming the head of the family. He and his brother, Robert, would hire their work to local farmers in exchange for food and lodging in barns and sheds along the route. Jane started each day with readings from the Bible to encourage each child to help the family travel to where relatives were in Fort Dover. Family lore had the journey taking two to three months. Jane probably had her eighth child soon after the family’s arrival in Fort Dover.
Walter was my great-great-grandfather. He lived on a farm in Delhi. His youngest son, William Henry, was my great-grandfather, married to Eliza Havelin. I remembered great-grandma; she was still alive in the 1960s. She was a feisty teetotaler.
My grandfather Clifford Turnbull worked the harvests, moving from farm to farm . As an older youth, he learned to work on ships on the St. Lawrence Seaway as an electrician, a new occupation. He later wired most of the homes, churches, and farms in the Northville area. A story ran in the Northville Record in 1920 from WWJ that August, the Presbyterian church heard the first broadcast on the radio from Detroit.
Both grandfather Clifford and Jenny, his wife, were Canadian citizens. This relationship would allow myself and my brothers to have dual citizenship.
We have always had ties to Canada and the States. My grandfather and his brothers would argue with good humor about the merits and downfalls of being Canadian versus being from the States.
The history of the Heatleys starts about the same time as the Turnbulls with James Heatley ( 1768 to 1824) living in North Cumberland in western England. There is a family lore that one of King Henry the 8th’s six wives was related to the Heatleys. With that many wives and a limited number of nobles, it is not surprising. The Heatleys lived in this part of England for many generations. It is interesting to note that this area is less than 50 miles from the River Tweed in the area of origins of the Turnbull clan. Henry Heatley immigrated to Ohio in the late 1800s, where Grandfather Al was born. The family moved to Northville in the early 1900s.
Both grandfathers were businessmen and friends.
poem. *
Interconnections
Two countries, a border apart.
Distance of 50 miles apart.
One came through Canada,
The other , Ellis Island.
Making their way to Michigan.
A Catholic and a Baptist.
Traveled to the new world.
To become the best of friends.
carolaspot@aol.com
copyrighted 6/1/26