Father: Thomas Shiels Siblings: Thomas 1819 Jean 1821 John 1826 George 1828 Anne 1831 William 1833
Thomas Shiels was born Jul 12, 1819 near Biggar, Lanarkshire, Scotland. He was the 2nd child of Thomas Shiels & Barbara Jean Cranston.
Thomas worked for the Prentice family as a coachman and groom. He worked on a farm called Muirlea Farm owned by John Prentice of Libberton. He fell in love with one of the bosses’ daughters, Elizabeth.
Thomas & Elizabeth were married on Apr 30, 1840 in Liberton, Scotland. Elizabeth was well educated as she was from a good family. They had 4 children in Scotland, Robert Hunter (1839), Jane (1841), Thomas Prentice (1845) and John (1851).
They left Scotland in 1852 and emigrated to the United States, settling in Greenup, Illinois. While on route, the youngest child, John died and was buried at sea. Thomas was quite sick with Malaria when they were in Illinois and Elizabeth taught school and took in sewing to support the family. Elizabeth is noted as having a very strong character and being very religious. No one was allowed to do anything, not even cook a meal, on Sunday. While living there, they lost another son in infancy. William was born in 1854 and lived only four months. He was buried in the Prentice family cemetery and there is a marker there for John also, who was buried at sea. This is a private cemetery on the farm of James Prentice (Elizabeth’s brother) at Greenup, Illinois. Thomas and Elizabeth’s son Robert worked for Uncle James and later married his daughter Elizabeth.
In 1860, Thomas, Elizabeth and their son, Thomas Prentice, moved to Canada. They lived within one mile of Thomas’s brothers, John and George. Thomas bought lot 16 in the 15th Concession of Grey Township in Ontario from his brother John. The two oldest children, Robert and Jane, remained in Illinois and both married there.
This land turned out to be rather poor, so Thomas resorted to some of his groom experience from Scotland and became the local Vet. He was very good with animals and had a reputation as a well driller and “witcher” for locating underground water.
Thomas and Elizabeth had two more children born while they live in Ontario, Elizabeth (Feb 3, 1860) and John (1862). In 1881, Thomas and Elizabeth adopted another son, James Grant (1876) James Grant’s mother had died when he was very young. When his oldest sister left home, the father could no longer look after the children so he peddled them off around the area to neighbors who could take them. James was the only one to be officially adopted. The family spread out across Canada and the USA.
The following pdf file tells their story and the stories of their descendants.