The Trott surname first appeared on the Sunnidale Township landscape when Robert Carter Trott arrived to run a sawmill at Brentwood in 1869.
When the nearby timber was exhausted, Trott relocated his machinery to Penetanguishene, where he took on the job of chief engineer at the Ontario Reformatory for Boys.
Robert Trott was born in Bristol, England, in 1838 to parents who had originated in the English county of Somerset.
Before arriving in Canada, he spent a short time in Ireland and it was there that his son, Francis ‘Frank’ Trott, was born in 1866. Frank married Mary Ann McGrady and they raised a family of three girls and two boys.
Sadly, both Trott sons died long before their time. Louis Trott was 38 years old when he developed a heart ailment, which disabled him and eventually ended his life, in March 1950.
Louis Trott was unmarried and had spent his entire life on the family homestead, which was located just east of Brentwood, on the west half of Lot 18 on the second concession of Sunnidale.
Louis Trott farmed the land until his illness overtook him. Most of the farm stock, equipment, grain, implements and household effects were sold at auction the month following his death.
Edward Trott, the elder son, lost his life eight years later in a tragic event that became front-page news in the days that followed.
On March 20, 1958, a sudden explosion destroyed a building at the RCAF 13X Depot near Angus. Since the Second World War, this depot had been used for the storage and supply of ammunition and explosives for military training purposes.
The fire and explosion caused the deaths of six civilian workers and one airman. Among the dead was Edward Trott, 54, and a married man with young children.
Today, the descendants of Robert Carter Trott are many. Few have strayed far from the place the family first settled more than a century-and-a-half ago. This makes the Trott name one that is well known in the Sunnidale Township locality.
Several years ago, a small house on Coulson Street in Angus came up for sale. The person who purchased it learned a collection of family mementos had been left behind when the previous owners moved.
On inspection, all the bits and pieces found within it were easily connected to the Trott name, and the homeowner soon passed it the on to the local Trotts.
My co-worker, Kym, is the granddaughter of Edward Trott, and it was to her family branch that a suitcase came. Momentary excitement turned to puzzlement as the family realized they had no idea who the people were who had once owned this item.
Fortunately, the suitcase was a veritable treasure trove of information about the original owners, a Trott family in Oshawa, as you may have read in Part 1 of the story.
The next step was to do a bit of genealogical research to learn all about a man named John Trott, whose life story was contained in this time capsule of sorts. After that, it was time to look for John’s living relatives.
As it turned out, John Trott came from a large family. There are many cousins living today, but what I was after was a particular family member, one who might be described as the family historian, and that is when I connected with James McIsaac.
Through James, I learned John Trott married and had only one child, a daughter named Beverly. When John died in 1993, it was Beverly who naturally took care of her father’s affairs and collected the family heirlooms.
Over a few days, a flurry of emails, phone calls and messages flew between Kym and myself and assorted Trott cousins of the Oshawa branch. Eventually, the missing link was found.
Are the two Trott families related through their shared ancestry in Somersetshire, England? Possibly, but as the surname first arose there centuries ago, any mutual connection could lie hundreds of years in the past.
It was learned Beverly Trott, who had married a Cliché, spent some time living on Coulson Street in Angus some 20 years ago. Somehow, the suitcase was left behind.
The good news is Beverly has been located. Meanwhile, James McIsaac and his wife, Donna, made the two-and-a-half-hour drive from their home in Lucknow and picked up the suitcase in Barrie. The plan now is to scan the contents and return the suitcase to Beverly and her own descendants.
Don’t you love a happy ending?
Each week, the Barrie Historical Archive provides BarrieToday readers with a glimpse of the city’s past. This unique column features photos and stories from years gone by and is sure to appeal to the historian in each of us.
