When I was a child, I remember visiting Ottawa, and Sparks Street was pointed out to me. “You know, we’re related to the Sparks of Sparks Street!” my mother told me. It was so neat to know that I was connected to this part of Ottawa’s history. Too bad it’s not true.
I now work in Ottawa and pass by Sparks Street every day. I smile and chuckle almost every time, thinking about how it is my street. Since I’ve been looking into my Sparks line lately, it’s taken on extra significance. It wasn’t an unreasonable family story; we do have Sparks ancestors, and they lived in Ottawa. Unfortunately, they weren’t those Sparks. Apparently Sparks Street was so named for Nicholas Sparks, who cut the road through his property. My ancestors were Alexander SPARKS and his wife Elizabeth GRAY. They were both from Scotland and eventually settled in the Ottawa area, stopping in the Island of Jersey and New Brunswick along the way. They had 10 children, and I am a descendant of their youngest child. I’ve seen several names reported for her, with Ellen and Helen being the most common, but a Barbara and Catherine thrown in for good measure too. I do both ancestry and descendant research, so I’ve been tracing through the lives of some of Ellen/Helen/Catherine/Barabara SPARKS’ siblings. Her sisters Margaret SPARKS and Elizabeth SPARKS (the second – their parents re-used the name when an older sister died) both seem to have married and died in Ottawa, but I can’t find them in the census records after their marriages. Margaret married a James SLACK and should be in the 1871 census, while Elizabeth married a Donald ROBERTSON and should be in both 1871 and 1881. Not having any luck searching various combinations of names, I’m currently reading through all the census records for the ward where their parents lived in the hopes that they stayed nearby. In doing so, I came across Nicholas Sparks and several other Sparks families. My ancestors really did live quite nearby!
But now I’m left wondering, how did all these Sparks families end up here together? Most seem to have come from Ireland, whereas mine were from Scotland. Was there a familial connection that led my ancestors to settling in Ottawa?
Maybe, just maybe, it will turn out that I’m related to the Sparks of Sparks Street after all….
Family Tree Nut 