Ruth Short's ancestry: the archive, the Ancestry tree, WikiTree and FamilySearch compared

10 October 2026. The starting point for the research on the line behind Ruth Ethelwyn (Short) Ellingwood (1893-1974): what each tree has, where they agree, where they differ, and which records would carry each step from compiled to documented. The earlier findings are in Ellingwood_Wives_Families.md (section 1), which this note builds on and does not replace.

Sources compared:

• The archive: nine pages, from Ruth to Alexander Pattullo and Jean Watson.
• The Ancestry tree (GEDCOM of 4 Oct 2026): Ruth and her parents only. It stops at "John Gerald Short II" and Mary Pattullo, without sources for either.
• WikiTree: the profiles the archive was built from, read again through the API. Mary Jeffrey's parents, which the archive never brought in, and the sources behind the Pattullo profiles (WikiTree profiles for the Ellingwood line's ancestors (Woodbury, Cheever, Pattullo, Short, Jeffrey, Elliott, Adams, Deyoe, Rice, Warren, Holdershaw)).
• FamilySearch Family Tree: Jordan's screenshot of the landscape pedigree, thirty people from Ruth's grandparents up (FamilySearch Family Tree: the Short, Jeffrey, Lyall, Pattullo and Robson ancestry). Only the cards are seen, not the sources attached to them.

Evidence labels as elsewhere: [D] documented, [C] compiled, [I] inferred, [T] tradition.

READ THIS FIRST: the records of the afternoon of 10 October 2026. Jordan's FamilySearch downloads and Find a Grave finds were filed the same day, and the trail is in How far back can Ruth Short's Scottish and English ancestry be proven?. They change this note as follows.

• Seen now (section 4, items 1 and 5):

  • Ruth's birth registration (Ontario birth registration, Ruth Ethelwyn Short, Woodstock, 1893);
  • her parents' marriage registration (Ontario marriage registration, John G. Short and Mary Pattullo, Woodstock, 1879), which names both sets of parents and John G.'s birthplace, Newcastle, Ont.;
  • John G.'s death certificate (Washington certificate of death, John G. Short, Spokane, 1916), naming his parents;
  • the 1900 census in Chicago (1900 United States census, Chicago (Hyde Park Township, ward 34), Cook County, Illinois: John G. Short household).

  Ruth to her parents, John G. to John Short and Mary Jeffrey, and Mary Pattullo to both her parents are now proven.

• Section 2, item 2, Jean Watson's birth: corrected. Her gravestone has her 83 at her death in August 1852 (Gravestone of Alexander Pattullo, Jane Watson and Thomas Pattullo, Melville White Church Cemetery, Caledon), which supports FamilySearch's 1768. The 1771 baptism is hers only if the stone overstates her age. The archive now has "between 1768 and 1771."

• Item 3, John Short's marriage: Cobourg is favoured. Their daughter Jane was born at Cobourg in November 1836 (Gravestone of John Short (1808-1858), Mary (Jeffrey) Short and their daughter Jane).

• Item 4, John Short's birthplace: settled. "Rugley, Northumberland, England," on his gravestone. WikiTree's "Rufley" is a misreading of it, and the "Newcastle, England" of the family history a garbling.

• Item 5, Alexander Pattullo's birthplace: settled. "A native of Dundee," on his gravestone. He died aged 54, so he was born about 1774, and was killed by a falling tree. The stone was put up by Halkett in 1855, the year he died (see the next bullets on his death).

• Section 3, Mary Lyall: no "Edna." Her monument at Peterborough has "Mary Lyall wife of William Jeffrey aged 83" (Monument of Mary Lyall, wife of William Jeffrey, and Isabella Hall, Little Lake Cemetery, Peterborough, Ontario).

• Section 3, Jane Robson's parents: now probable, with pages. A Thomas Robson and Jean Clark, "natives of Roxburghshire," d. 1841 and 1844, are buried at Dixon's Union Cemetery, Caledon, her own township (Gravestone of Thomas Robson (d. 1841) and Jean Clark (d. 1844), natives of Roxburghshire, Find a Grave memorials of Thomas Robson (d. 1841), Dixon's Union Cemetery, Caledon, and of Jane Robson Pattullo, Woodstock).

• Section 2, item 1, Halkett's death: reversed (evening). FamilySearch's 1855 is supported by his widow's gravestone ("died in Blenheim, this county, June 7, 1855," Gravestone of Jane Robson, widow of Halket Pattullo, Woodstock Presbyterian Cemetery); Bourdon's 1865 stands against it. The page has 1855, the conflict open until the 1861 census.

• Isabella Hall on Mary Lyall's monument died in 1922, not 1872: very probably a granddaughter, through Catharine (Jeffrey) Hall (Find a Grave memorials of the Jeffrey family: William Jeffrey and Mary Lyall, their children, and Andrew Jeffrey of Chirnside).

• Section 5: applied. The changes listed there are made. William Jeffrey and Mary Lyall have pages under the 8 Oct ruling. Ruth's sisters and brothers have pages from their birth registrations.

• Later the same day: John Short's own grave at Orono (the Woodstock stone a cenotaph); Mary Lyall on the Hall family monument with her daughter Catharine Jeffrey; Lyall and Hall names among Mary (Jeffrey) Short's grandchildren; Jane Robson's sister Margaret "a native of Eckford," and the Clark and Robson names in her brother's and sisters' families. Both maternal links, Jeffrey and Robson, are better supported, though still compiled (the thread has the details).

• New questions:

  • John G. Short's birth year: 1845 on his death certificate; 1847 in the 1900 census and from his age at marriage.
  • The Pattullo-Halket couple at Carnbee, Fife (1788), and Janet Halket Patullo of Bo'ness (1755): where Halkett's name came from.
  • James Durie Pattullo (b. 1855), whom Find a Grave makes a son of Halkett.

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1. Where the trees agree

All four agree on the six people the archive has above Ruth's parents, and on their dates:

Archive page	FamilySearch	WikiTree	Archive's rating of the step down
John Short	John G Short, 1808-1858, MSK1-HD9	Short-3592	father of John Gerald: compiled, probable
Mary Jeffrey	Mary Jeffrey, 1809-1883, L5GF-FHM	Jeffrey-573	mother of John Gerald: compiled, probable
Halkett Pattullo	Halket Pattullo, 1809-1855, LWGR-1RY	Pattullo-42	father of Mary: documented, proven
Jane Robson	Jane Robson, 1809-1879, LHW8-SLH	Robson-1781	mother of Mary: compiled, probable
Alexander Pattullo	Alexander Pattullo, 1773-1828, LHW8-6P9	Pattullo-87	father of Halkett: compiled, probable
Jean Watson	Jean Watson, 1768-1852, LWGR-1PW	Watson-38186	mother of Halkett: compiled, probable

The marriages agree too where both have them: Halkett and Jane, 12 Dec 1833, "Upper Canada" (FamilySearch) or the Home District (WikiTree). FamilySearch's "John G Short" for the elder John matches the Ancestry tree's "John Gerald Short II" for the younger, but no record seen gives the elder a middle name: the 1851 directory has "Short, John, postmaster Newcastle."

WikiTree's Pattullo-42 links to Alexander's FamilySearch page (LHW8-6P9), and its Jeffrey ancestry is FamilySearch's name for name, down to the dates. The two are not independent witnesses: they are one compilation in two places.

2. Where they differ

1. Halkett Pattullo's death: 1855 on FamilySearch, 1865 everywhere else. His gravestone at Princeton (7 Jun 1865, Find a Grave 195354125), Bourdon and WikiTree have 1865. FamilySearch has copied Wikipedia's "c. 1855," which is the year the family moved to Blenheim Township. An error there; the archive is right.
2. Jean Watson's birth: 1768 on FamilySearch, 1771 on WikiTree and in the archive. WikiTree cites her indexed baptism at Prestonpans, 5 May 1771, daughter of James Watson and Jean Dickson (FamilySearch XY2G-V2K) [D index]. 1771 also fits better with a son baptised in 1817, when she would have been 46 (49 by FamilySearch's year) [I]. The archive's "3 May 1771" is WikiTree's birth date; only the baptism (5 May) is indexed.
3. John Short and Mary Jeffrey's marriage, 7 Jan 1836: Cobourg or "Clarington." The date is new to the archive. WikiTree (from Skinner) has Cobourg, at St Andrew's Presbyterian Church with her brother Andrew as witness. FamilySearch has "Clarington, Durham, Ontario", the modern municipality that takes in Newcastle, where John was postmaster from 1845. A district marriage register or the St Andrew's register would decide it. Their eldest child, Jane, was born in 1836.
4. John Short's birthplace. The archive has none. WikiTree's field has "Rufley, Northumberland Co., Ontario," but its biography quotes the Short family history: "John was born in Newcastle, England" [T, from a compiled family history]. "Northumberland" in the field may be the English county rather than the Ontario one. The 1851 census of Canada West (Clarke Township) would give his birthplace.
5. Alexander Pattullo's birthplace. The archive has Dundee (WikiTree's field). The local history WikiTree quotes (Trimble, Belfountain) calls him "a native of Prestonpans, near Edinborough, ... and later a resident of Glasgow." WikiTree's own research note offers a baptism at Bellie, Moray, 29 Nov 1772, to James Pitilloe and Jean Gordon, as "possible": the one record of the right age it found, chosen because his first son was James. Three places, no proof. Pattullo is a Fife and Angus name, which leans to Dundee [I], but Prestonpans is where his wife was baptised.
6. When the Pattullos crossed. Bourdon: "Halkett's parents emigrated from Scotland in 1820." Trimble: Alexander came in the autumn of 1820 and settled Lot 2, Con. 6 of Caledon; "in 1823 his wife and family, James, Thomas, Halkett, Margaret and Jane, joined him." Trimble's is the more particular account.
7. How many children Halkett and Jane had: nine (Bourdon) or "five daughters and five sons" (Trimble). The archive lists ten names. Trimble also calls George Robson Pattullo "Good Roads Pattullo," which fits his brother Andrew better, the first president of the Ontario Good Roads Association; Trimble's family detail is second-hand.

3. What FamilySearch adds, family by family

Twenty-four people the archive does not have. None can be taken in on the tree's word: the cards show no sources, and for the Jeffreys the family's own compiler says the first step up has no record.

Short: one generation, unsupported

• John Short, 1785-Deceased (GYWT-69S), as father of John Short (1808). No wife, no place. WikiTree has no parents for John. If the family history is right that John was born at Newcastle, England, his father would be found in English records, not Canadian [I]. Nothing in hand supports or contradicts the link. Ask: the sources tab of GYWT-69S.
• A naming lead, for what it is worth [I]: John and Mary's sons were Richard (1840), Joseph William (1842) and John Gerald (1845). A Scottish family would name the first son for the father's father; John was probably English, so the pattern may not hold, but a Richard Short as John's father is as likely a lead as FamilySearch's John.

Jeffrey and Lyall: two generations probable, the rest weak

• William Jeffrey (1772-1852, L58R-KM1) and Mary Lyall (1774-1857, L58R-813) as Mary Jeffrey's parents. WikiTree has them too (Jeffrey-569, Lyall-333), from Ward Skinner's Descendants of William Jeffrey. What supports them:
  • Skinner's compilation is built around William's descendants and puts Mary in it. Her brother Andrew (b. 1800, Foulden; mayor of Cobourg) witnessed her marriage [C].
  • The family accounts agree on Foulden, Berwickshire, about four miles from Berwick-upon-Tweed, where WikiTree has Mary born in 1809 [C/T].
  • A gravestone at Little Lake Cemetery, Peterborough, transcribed by a family researcher: "Sacred to the memory of Mary Lyall wife of William Jeffrey aged 83." That gives about 1774 [C, quoting a stone].
  • The emigration in 1820, to Cobourg and then Keene, fits Mary Jeffrey's marriage at Cobourg in 1836 [C].
  • Rating if brought in: compiled, probable, the same as the John Short and Mary Jeffrey step below it. Mary's baptism (Foulden, in the Scottish registers; or Berwick-upon-Tweed, in the English ones) would prove it.
  • "Edna" is doubtful. The stone, as quoted, says "Mary Lyall." A middle name, and that one, would be unusual for a Berwickshire girl of 1773 [I]. Leave it out unless a record has it.
• William's parents, Andrew Jeffrey (1734-1810) and Katherine Steele (1735-1776), married at Fogo in 1760. Weak. John Graham, quoted in Skinner: "No record has been found of his birth, baptism or marriage." The parents were attached later. William's birth date (10 Jan 1772) suggests a baptism was found, but a William Jeffrey baptised in Berwickshire in 1772 is a match on name and age, which is not an identification (the warning in research/paulson/). In their favour [I]: William's only son was Andrew, which fits naming the first son for the father's father; Andrew died at Chirnside in 1810, five miles from Foulden; Mary Lyall was born at Chirnside. Rating: possible.
• Mary Lyall's parents, Joseph Lyal (1730-1799) and Jean Simpson (1741-1802), married at Bunkle and Preston in 1763. No source shown. Chirnside is right for her birthplace. WikiTree gives Jean Simpson a different death year (1810). Rating: possible. A naming echo [I]: Mary Jeffrey's son Joseph William Short (1842) joins the names of her father (William) and, if FamilySearch is right, her mother's father (Joseph).
• The generations above (Patrick Jeffrey and Jean Lion, Alexander Jaffray and Janet Inglis, John Jeffray and Alison Swanstoun; Steele and Allen; Lyall and Craig; Simpson and Pringle). Not usable as they stand:
  • Patrick Jeffrey, born 1703, dies at Prenderguest in 1803 on WikiTree, aged a hundred.
  • John Jeffray, married at Polwarth in 1656, is born in Aberdeenshire on WikiTree. "Jaffray" is the Aberdeen family's spelling, a sign of two families run together.
  • "Agnes George Allen" carries her husband's given name.
  • Several 17th- and 18th-century Berwickshire people die in "Somme, Picardie, France" on WikiTree.
  • The marriages in Fogo, Polwarth and Bunkle may well be real index entries; whether they belong to this family is the open question.

Pattullo: the indexes are better than the tree

• Alexander Pattullo and Jean Watson are already in the archive. Three things new to the archive:
  • Their marriage, 9 Oct 1806, Inveresk with Musselburgh, Midlothian (FamilySearch index XY9W-DYN, as WikiTree cites it) [D index]. FamilySearch's tree agrees.
  • Halkett's baptism names both parents. "Alexander Patullo in entry for Hacket Patullo, 1809" (FQMQ-1H4) and "Jean Watson in entry for Hacket Patullo, 1809" (FQMQ-1HH) [D index]. That makes the archive's Halkett-to-Alexander-and-Jean step documented, not just compiled. It is still probable, not proven, until something carries the Scottish Hacket to the Caledon Halkett. Trimble's list of the family that came in 1823 (James, Thomas, Halkett, Margaret, Jane), with James and Thomas also baptised to Alexander and Jean (1807, 1817), comes close [C].
  • Halkett's brothers and sisters: James (bp. 1807; of "Bonnie Braes," Caledon; married Polly Campbell), Thomas (bp. 1817; killed by a falling tree), Margaret (Mrs. John Kirkwood) and Jane (Mrs. Joseph Mountain) (Trimble) [C].
  • Alexander's parents: not on FamilySearch's screen; WikiTree's "possible" James Pitilloe and Jean Gordon of Bellie, Moray, rests on the age and the name of his first son. Leave as a question.
  • Jean Watson's parents, James Watson and Jean Dickson, are named in her indexed baptism (above) [D index], but nothing yet ties that baptism to the Jean who married Alexander in 1806 apart from the name, the age and the place. Possible to probable.
• Jane Robson's parents: Thomas Robson (1765-1841, GLPN-J9V) and Jane Clark, married at Eckford, 3 Aug 1793. New: WikiTree has no parents for her. The place fits her birth at Eckford [C]. So does the naming [I]: Halkett and Jane's first son was Alexander (for Halkett's father), their second Thomas Robson (for her father, as FamilySearch has him), and their first daughter Jane (for her mother, Jane Clark). Rating: possible, pending her baptism at Eckford (c. 1809) and something that brings a Robson of Eckford to Upper Canada by 1833. Did Thomas emigrate? His death year, 1841, is on the card but not the place. Ask: GLPN-J9V's page.

4. What would prove each step

In order of what each would settle. The first five are the links nearest Ruth.

1. Ruth's birth registration, Woodstock, 13 Jan 1893 (Ontario Births): Ruth to John Gerald Short and Mary Pattullo. Her 1921 marriage certificate already names them, so this would confirm them.
2. The 1851 census of Canada West, Clarke Township (Newcastle): John Short, postmaster, with Mary and the children. It gives John's birthplace (Newcastle, England?) and religion, and John Gerald (5) in the household with his birthplace.
3. The 1861 census, Cobourg: Mary Short, widow, and children. John Gerald's birthplace again, and perhaps a Jeffrey relative in the house.
4. John Short and Mary Jeffrey's marriage, 7 Jan 1836 (St Andrew's Presbyterian, Cobourg; or the Newcastle District marriage register, Archives of Ontario): the place, and perhaps their parents or residences.
5. John Gerald Short and Mary Pattullo's marriage, Woodstock, 5 Nov 1879 (FMN5-RMJ): the image names both sets of parents, which would carry John Gerald to John Short and Mary Jeffrey as well.
6. Halkett's baptism, 1809 (Scottish Old Parish Registers; ScotlandsPeople, or FamilySearch FQMQ-1H4 / XTRL-49B): the parish, the date and the parents as written.
7. Alexander Patullo and Jean Watson's marriage, Inveresk, 9 Oct 1806 (XY9W-DYN): his parish and occupation, which may settle Dundee, Prestonpans or Moray.
8. Jane Robson's baptism, Eckford, c. 1809, and Thomas Robson and Jane Clark's marriage there, 3 Aug 1793.
9. Mary Jeffrey's baptism, Jan 1809: Foulden (Scottish registers) or Berwick-upon-Tweed (English registers). Her parents' names.
10. Halkett and Jane's marriage, 12 Dec 1833, Home District (Upper Canada district marriage registers, Archives of Ontario).
11. The gravestones: Mary Lyall's at Little Lake Cemetery, Peterborough; William Jeffrey's at Keene, if he has one; Alexander and Jean Pattullo's at Melville White Church, Caledon (Find a Grave 35766529), for their ages.
12. On FamilySearch: the sources tab for John Short (GYWT-69S), William Jeffrey (L58R-KM1), Mary Lyall (L58R-813), Thomas Robson (GLPN-J9V) and Andrew Jeffrey (M6MV-BVC). What the tree's makers rested each link on.

5. Not changed yet (applied 10 Oct 2026, afternoon; see the block at the top)

No person page was changed for this note; the primary records to come will be the evidence. Ready to apply when they arrive, or on a ruling:

• Halkett Pattullo: father and mother to documented (the 1809 baptism index names both); born 31 Jul 1809 (his gravestone, as Find a Grave has it).
• Alexander Pattullo: the 1806 marriage at Inveresk; residence Lot 2, Con. 6, Caledon, from 1820 (Trimble); his birthplace an open question (Dundee, Prestonpans or Bellie).
• Jean Watson: baptised 5 May 1771 at Prestonpans, daughter of James Watson and Jean Dickson.
• John Short: married 7 Jan 1836 (place to decide); born perhaps at Newcastle, England (open).
• Mary Jeffrey: parents William Jeffrey and Mary Lyall, compiled, probable (pages for them under the 8 Oct 2026 ruling, or names until a record is seen).
• Jane Robson: parents Thomas Robson and Jane Clark, as a possible link, named only.