The Doak family of Doaktown, New Brunswick, Canada

 By Elaine Corbett

The Doaktown museum of the Doak family

Doaktown Heritage site with photographs

Marion Wallace Cumnock Connections family tree link.

My 4 times great grandmother Marion Wallace was married twice.

Her first husband was Thomas Symington, and together they had nine children before his untimely death in 1802. They farmed at Whitehill, Ochiltree, and when Thomas Symington died, Marion carried on the farm alone until she remarried.

Her second husband, who is my 4 times great grandfather was James Smith, from Clowhernon (I think), with whom, fortunately for me, she had two more children.

The story of her daughter Mary Symington is one of travel, adventure, and some sadness with the family of her husband James Doak out in Canada.

James Doak and Mary were married at Stair in 1809. At this time Mary could have been living at Whitehill farm, and James at Roadinghead farm in Ochiltree. This clip from the OS maps shows the locations, later split by the construction of the railway line

James Doak, Mary, and three of their children embarked on the crossing to New Brunswick in 1820. Their youngest daughter Miriam (could that have been Marion after Mary’s mother?) was five years old and tragically, she died on the ship and was buried at sea. What a distressing beginning to their new life in Canada. Mary may well have been pregnant at the time with her third son, who was born in August of that year in Doaktown.

James, Mary and their family settled in Blissfield, a neighbouring parish to Doaktown where the rest of the family, who had travelled a couple of years earlier, had begun to establish their businesses.