“It’s now this whole new world we have a personal connection to.”
—Rachel McAdams
Actress Rachel McAdams and her sister Kayleen grew up knowing their father’s large family, but their mother, Sandra Gale’s, side is more of a mystery. They start their journey with Mom’s help and a hand-drawn family tree that goes back to their great-grandparents William Gale and Beatrice Maude Sedgemoor—both from Plymouth, England.
Trip to England
A trip to England quickly takes them back to William’s father, William Henry Creber Gale, an engineer/captain in the Royal Navy. And his 1850 birth certificate shows his parents as Elizabeth Creber and a third William, occupation “servant.”
William appears as a footman at Bovysand House in the 1851 census. (“Very Downton Abbey,” Rachel notes.) The house is still standing, so they’re off for a visit.
As a footman, William had a high station among the servants but the sisters discover the heartbreaking sacrifice he makes for his work: his wife and young son can’t live with him, but instead reside a great distance away. Deeper research into the 1841 census uncovers a romantic twist of fate—the job that forced William and Elizabeth apart likely brought them together when they were both servants in the household.
But the story has an unsettling ending: a death certificate proves William dies in 1860 at 40 of delirium tremens, an occupational hazard of the time.
Meanwhile, researchers have been tracing Sandra Gale’s maternal line. And one of the sisters’ biggest questions about their history—how their family got to Canada—is about to be revealed.
Ancestry line in Canada
They discover an 1824 land grant application filed by 4x great-grandmother Charlotte Gray McDonald that lists her as the daughter of James Gray, a UE Loyalist during the American Revolution.
After the British defeat at Saratoga the Grays, like many Loyalist families, fled to Canada. But safety came with a price—a record from 1779 shows Mrs. Gray and two sons living in a refugee camp near St. John.
Kayleen and Rachel visit the area where one of the camps stood and learn about the devastating conditions. And a March 1783 Loyalist record underscores the point. It lists Mrs. Gray, one boy, and one girl, making it likely that one of the two boys listed in the earlier record died in the camp.
With the war over, there is no home to go to for Loyalists like James—at least not in the new United States. But the sisters finally find the missing piece to their Canadian story: James appears on a survey map where he’s claimed two 200-acre plots on the Canadian side of the St. Lawrence River. The Crown has not left James empty handed for his service.
The McAdams sisters are moved by the sacrifices William and James endured. Loyalty—to family and country—runs deep in their family’s roots, no matter what the cost.
As Rachel says about their journey, “it’s reinforced how important it is to remember people and the sacrifices they made and what they did to directly or indirectly make life better for the people who are coming after them.”
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