William Cassidy (1821-1900) shown in 1890  from Killybegs, Donegal, Ireland about 1850

There are three ethnic groups in our family tree on the Hutton-Hawke's side; Irish, Scottish and English with the dominating ethnic group being Irish.

On your Grandmother's side, her mother's parents (Samuel Laird and Nellie May Greaney) were both from England. Her father's mother (Georgina Simpson) was from Scotland and her father's father (Harry Hawkes) was from England. So one limb of the family-tree on the Hawkes-Laird branch originated in England while the other originated in Scotland. However Nellie May Greaney's grandparents were both from Ireland.

On my side, my father's mother was Annie Margaret Cassidy. Her family  emigrated to Canada from Ireland in 1850. My father's father was James Harland Hutton. His family emigrated to Canada from Ireland around the same time 1850. So both limbs of the family-tree on the Hutton-Cassidy branch originated in Ireland.

An interesting fact about William Cassidy’s family is that they owned a shipping business in Killybegs, Ireland. Their ships transported arms to Napoleon’s army and continued South to Africa where they supported the slave trade. The shipping business began to decline in 1815 when Napoleon’s empire collapsed and new British law banned companies from participating in the slave trade. The company did continue to do business for a few years on a smaller scale. A few years after their father’s death in 1840 William and brother James sold the business. James emigrated to Australia and William emigrated to Canada.

Stanley George Hawkes (1923-2014)

On your grandmother’s side her father’s parents emigrated from Scotland.  His father, your great-great-grandfather, served in the first world war where he was wounded.  He suffered from shrapnel that couldn’t be removed for the rest of his life.  His son, Stanley, your great-grandfather served in the second world war in the navy.  He was a naval signalman and was responsible for sending messages to other ships during the war. He was on one of the first ships, HMCS Prince Robert, to go into Hong Kong.  He is seen sitting in the photo at the right with his metals from the war. If you want to see these metals up close ask your uncle or father (Brian) who has them in a case that he brings out every Remembrance Day. You have inherited great longevity genes from this branch of the family tree.  His mother lived until 96 and he lived until 91. :)

 There are three family tree graphics in the links below. First the Hutton-Hawkes Tree shows your grandparents, their children (Robyn and Brian) and their families.

The Hawkes-Laird Tree shows your grandmother's parent's tree and the Hutton-Cassidy Tree shows your my parent's tree.

I’ve spent some time researching our family trees and have traced both the Hawkes and Hutton ancestors back to the 1600s.  If your interested the complete family tree is available on www.Ancestry.ca username jim_hutton87. It's also available for download on this site as a generic family tree file or, if your running this from a Flash Drive, it's available as a Family Tree Maker 2017 file.

Download Ancestry Generic File

Page 7