Martha LOUGH was born around 17881 in Carncastle, Larne, Antrim in what is now Northern Ireland. We also see “Matey” listed as her nickname for Martha in other family trees. Her parents were Samuel LOUGH and Esther HOOD. Samuel was a farmer in Ireland.
The place where she was born is listed as Milton Head on her gravestone. There does not appear to be a Milton Head in the area of Ireland where Martha was born. The gravestone also indicates that her husband Daniel was also from Milton Head. We know is incorrect as his family was a Ballyruther.2 Milton Head is more likely to be Mill Quarter, the area that is right next door to Ballyruther where Daniel DALE lived. She and Daniel would have been close neighbours and she would have met him on many occasions. They married in about 1810.3 Martha would have been around 22 at the time of their marriage.
Daniel and Martha had three children in Carncastle before immigrating to Canada in 1818. The two oldest daughters Martha (1811)4 and Esther (1812)5 as well as the only son Samuel (1815)6. After arriving in Canada, they added five more daughters to their family: Margaret (1821),7 Ellen (1822),8 Mary Jean (1824),9 Rose Mary (1827)10 and Elizabeth (1830).11 By time the last child was born, Martha was 42. That is a spread of 19 years between the youngest and the oldest. They also had a grandchild (Elizabeth Ann SMITH, 1831)12 13 before her youngest child. She must have felt her life was very much about children.
Along with raising her children she would have been helping her husband on his various properties and setting up his mill at Dalesville.14 15 16 Dalesville was a hamlet of Chatham, now part of the city of Brownsburg-Chatham, which is part of the Argenteuil regional country municipality in Quebec.
Martha and Daniel lived at Dalesville until his death in 1865. Martha continued to live at the mill site with her son Samuel and his family17 until her death 05 September 1871.18
Martha is buried in the Dalesville Cemetery next to her husband.
The emigration to Canada provides us with possible siblings for Martha. A Samuel Lough, of the right age to be a brother was living next door to Daniel and Martha when in Buckingham.
In addition, an Ellen Lough is quite possibly a sister as she lived in the same area that Daniel’s siblings lived in Cumberland, Ontario and is buried in the Dales Cemetery there. The man who donated the land for Dales Cemetery in Cumberland was named William DALE and he married a Mary LOUGH. That Mary’s parents were William LOUGH and Mary Dale (who is a sister of Daniel). That William LOUGH is only two years old than Martha, and is again a possible sibling.
Certainly, in our family, and many from small areas, siblings marrying siblings is very common. However, all of these connections are speculative at this point. Someday, I will have to do a project on the Dales Cemetery in Ontario and the Dalesville Cemetery in Quebec to see if I can sort out the relationships among the permanent residents in those two places.
- Monumental Inscriptions. Monumental Inscriptions, Canada. Dalesville Public Cemetery, Dalesville, Laurentides Region, Quebec. DALE. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/65329974 : accessed 18 January 2019 ↩︎
- Agnew, James. Estate Records. Rentals. DALE, William. 1788. ↩︎
- Brennan, Christopher Earls. (n.d.) Earls Family Chronicles (2nd Edition) IS BN 0-9667409-3-0. Dankat Publishing. https://www.familysearch.org/library/books/viewer/532424/download?file=FL4567146_2390167.pdf&type=pdf : accessed 23 November 2023. ↩︎
- Census Records. Canada. Buckingham, Ottawa, Canada East. 14 January 1861. MCFAUL, Patrick [head]. ED 2 p 110. https://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 17 November 2025. ↩︎
- Earls Family Chronicles. Appendix 7A. Dale Families. http://brennen.caltech.edu/earls/apdx7a.htm : accessed 13 January 2019. ↩︎
- Ibid. ↩︎
- Marriages. Canada. Grenville, Quebec. 29 September 1840. SMITH, John and DALE, Margaret. https://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 16 November 2023. ↩︎
- Baptisms. Canada. St Andrews Christ Church Cathedral. Chatham, Argenteuil, Quebec. 13 July 1823. DALE, Ellen. ↩︎
- Earls Family Chronicles. Appendix 7A. Dale Families. http://brennen.caltech.edu/earls/apdx7a.htm : accessed 13 January 2019. ↩︎
- Census Records. 1842. Canada. Chatham, Deux-Montagnes, Lower Canada. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939D-VD4G-Y?cc=1834340 : accessed 28 March 2019. ↩︎
- Earls Family Chronicles. Appendix 7A. Dale Families. http://brennen.caltech.edu/earls/apdx7a.htm : accessed 13 January 2019. ↩︎
- Marriages. Canada. Grenville, Quebec. 18 December 1850. Scotch Presbyterian Church. BRADFORD, John Earl and SMITH, Elizabeth. Collection: Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968. https://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 24 November 2025. ↩︎
- Census records. Canada. Chatham, Argenteuil, Quebec. 02 April 1871. BRADFOR, John (head). ED 96 SD c DIV 1. https://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 24 November 2025. ↩︎
- Census Records. 1831. Canada, Chatham, Deux Montagnes, Lower Canada. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939D-VDZ4-N?i=14&cc=1834329 : accessed 12 February 2019. ↩︎
- Census Records. 1842. Canada. Chatham, Deux-Montagnes, Lower Canada. https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:939D-VD4G-Y?cc=1834340 : accessed 28 March 2019. ↩︎
- Census Records. Canada. Chatham, Argenteuil, Quebec. 14 January 1861. DALE, Daniel [head]. ED 3. Film C-1260-1261. p 28. https://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 13 July 2023. ↩︎
- Census Records. 02 April1871. Canada. St. Andrews, Argenteuil, Quebec. ED 96, SD e. DALE, Samuel (head). https://www.ancestry.ca : accessed 2 February 2019. ↩︎
- Monumental Inscriptions, Canada. Dalesville Public Cemetery, Dalesville, Laurentides Region, Quebec. DALE. https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/65329974 : accessed 18 January 2019. ↩︎
