Embroidered Butchart and Moyer Family Trees

As a child, I was fascinated by my Granny's trunk that was in the attic of our family home. I was too young to read the writing on the white piece of fabric but I did know it was a family tree. When I was old enough to read, the tree was gone.

My cousin, John Hopkins, has been researching the Butchart and Moyer families for years and when I visited him in 1998 he produced the family tree for my grandmother, Vinetta Tremaine Butchart.

I was amazed to see such detail in a hand-stitched item. I handwriting was perfect and the stitching immaculate. There were needle marks from a sewing maching around the edges, which could indicate it was a cover for a crib or cradle.

The family tree includes my grandmother's birth date and the details of the marriage of her parents, Edward N Butchart and Maria Moyer. Edward's parents and siblings are listed on the tree.

What a great source to get started on a Genealogical adventure!

Granny's tree was dated Xmas 1891. Imagine my surprise when John produced a similar piece of needlework dated New Years 1892.

This tree has the birth information for my grandmother's sister, Isabel Vivian Butchart. It contains the same marriage information of Edward Butchart and Maria Moyer, but this time Maria's parents and siblings are listed in detail.

I believe both trees were stitched by my great-grandmother, Maria Moyer while she was recovering from the birth of Isabell Vivian Butchart.

Maria Moyer Butchart went on to have five more children; I wonder if there are pieces of needlework to honour Clayton Goldwin Butchart, Leila Veronica Butchart, Elwood Alexander Butchart, Willis Bowman Butchart, or young Edward John Butchart who died before he was one year old.

Fearless Females: Recipes

March 7 — Share a favorite recipe from your mother or grandmother’s kitchen. Why is this dish your favorite? If you don’t have one that’s been passed down, describe a favorite holiday or other meal you shared with your family.

You can tell that this recipe has been pulled from my mother's recipe index many times. I remember asking Mom who Beth was and she thought it was some relative. I do not think she ever met her mother's cousin, Beth.

Elizabeth (Beth) Carr

I recently met Beth's daughter, Andrea, and her sister, Karen, over the internet and we got into a conversation about a bun recipe that has been passed around the family.  While going though the recipe file looking for Granny's bun recipe, I came across the card pictured above and the connection with the name Beth hit me.  Sure enough, Karen has the same recipe with the exception of the spices added at the bottom.


Beth's Ginger Snaps are my absolutely favourite cookies and my recipe is just as messy looking as Mom's.  Running a close second to Beth's Ginger Snaps is an oatmeal-coconut cookie called Mother's Cookies.  Who's mother?  My maternal grandmother was always referred to as Mother, not Mom, or Mum, perhaps that is where it started, or could it be Granny's mother, Maria Moyer Butchart?

Fearless Females: My first name

March 3 — Do you share a first name with one of your female ancestors? Perhaps you were named for your great-grandmother, or your name follows a particular naming pattern. If not, then list the most unique or unusual female first name you’ve come across in your family tree.


Although I go by Joan, my first name is Barbara.  The only ancestor with the name of Barbara in my tree so far is Barbara Shantz, born Waterloo County, Ontario, about 1812.  She and her husband, Abraham Moyer, were my third great-grandparents.  Barbara was also my second cousin five times removed on the Bechtel side because these families were all part of the Mennonite community who emigrated from Pennsylvania to Waterloo County in the early 1800s.  Being a small settlement of large families, most marriages were from a small gene pool.


The Shantz family were on my mother's side and Mom would have had no knowledge of her ancestry that far back when I was born.  I do not know why they named me Barbara or why I was always called Joan.  To my knowledge I have no ancestors named Joan.

Vinetta, my maternal grandmother, came from the Moyer line and I think it is a beautiful and unique name.  My grandmother is one of five women named Vinetta on my Mom's side of the family, three of them are from Mennonite families.


Granny's full name was Vinetta Tremaine Butchart and she hated the name so much that she named my mother just Ruth.

Aaron Moyer

Aaron Moyer, the fourth child of Abraham Moyer and Barbara Shantz, was born on May 8, 1837 on a farm near Berlin (now Kitchener), Ontario. At age seventeen, he left the farm and served two years an an apprentice in a store in Berlin.

From 1856 to 1862 Aaron taught school, including a few months in 1857 in Ohio and Pennsylvania, and in 1859 to 1860 he taught school in Quakertown, PA.

In 1863 he started a general store in New Dundee, Waterloo County, Ontario where he married a Mennonite, Veronica Bowman, on January 31, 1865. In 1870 Aaron sold the store in New Dundee and bought a 236 acre farm in Carrick Township, Bruce County.

n 1878 Aaron sold the farm and started a business in Walkerton where he stayed until 1884 when he moved to Mildmay. In 1896 he returned to Walkerton for a time but was back in Mildmay at the time of the 1901 census. Both Walkerton and Mildmay are in Carrick Township, Bruce County.

Aaron served four years in the Carrick Township Council as Councilor, Deputy Reeve and he served as Reeve in 1893.

In 1901 the family lived at Con. C Lot 26 in Mildmay. The property consisted of three lots containing at total of 46 acres, an eight-room house, a store, and seven outbuildings.

In 1905, when Aaron was sixty-eight years old, he and Veronica left Ontario to homestead in Saskatchewan. There was a large contingent of Ontario Mennonites to settle near Cressman or Guernsey, Saskatchewan in 1905 and 1906. Although Veronica had been raised as a Mennonite, the Moyer family were Methodist. Aaron died in Saskatchewan on May 21, 1907 and the following obituary from The Gospel Witness, a Mennonite paper, June 19, 1907 reflects their opinion of other faiths:

MOYER.-Aaron Moyer of near Cressman, Sask., died on May 21, 1907; aged 70 y. 13 d. Two years ago he moved out west with the Waterloo colony, from Ontario. Most of his lifetime was spent as a general merchant in New Dundee and Mildmay.

Sad to say, his life was not spent in the service of the Lord. During his sickness he accepted the claims of Christ. Funeral services were held by Pre. Poole at the house and at the church by E. S. Hallman and Pre. Gehrbrandt. Texts, Psalm 39:4 and I Samuel 20:3.

The Carr Family

This is a picture of my grandmother, Vinetta Tremaine Butchart Bellamy (left) and her aunt, Laura Moyer Carr (right).

So often, I connect with family by finding an obituary or memoir when it is too late to know the person who has died. Such was the case yesterday when I found a wonderful website while searching for Mary V Carr of Medicine Hat, Alberta. Mary was 98 when she died in October 2006.

I have many letters written by Mary to my parents from 1982 until a Christmas letter in 1999 which ends with the following sentence: "I hope that the millennium will bring you joy and prosperity in the year 2000."

Mary and her brother, John, were my grandmother's cousins. Their mother and Granny's mother were both the daughters of Aaron Moyer and Veronica Bowman. My grandmother, Vinetta Tremaine Butchart, was the daughter of Maria Moyer and Edward Neil Butchart; Mary and John Carr were the children of Laura Moyer and Frederick Carr. Maria and Laura were part of a large family of twelve children.

Many thanks to the Carr family for creating a memorial website for Mary Veronica Carr and John Lawrence Carr, especially the webmaster, Doug Carr. I have spent hours reading the memoirs and tributes for these interesting people.

Abraham Moyer

Yesterday marked the 203rd birthday of my g.g.g.grandfather, Abraham Moyer who was born July 14, 1803 in Springfield Township, Bucks County, Pennsylvania. This branch of the family were all Mennonites who fled Europe to avoid religious persecution in the early 1700s and were allowed to settle in Pennsylvania. These German-speaking people were known as Pennsylvania Dutch. Waterloo County in Ontario lured many of the Mennonites in the early 1800s and on March 7, 1825 Abraham Moyer left Bucks County, on foot, for Canada. He and Samuel Fried arrived in Waterloo after walking for 18 days. When they arrived they only had twenty-five cents between them. Abraham settled near Berlin, now known as Kitchener, Ontario.

On November 28, 1830 Abraham Moyer married Barbara Shantz, another Mennonite. Barbara was born in Canada on May 6, 1912. Abraham and Barbara had thirteen children, the fourth child was my g.g.grandfather, Aaron Moyer.

Abraham died November 20, 1893 in Berlin at age 90.