From notes made by Ann Belanger: JOHN VANEXAN was JEAN VANEXHEIM from Ypres Flanders Belgium. A butcher by trade, he enlisted in the de Meuron Regiment to fight against Napoleon on June 6 1809. He was 5 ft 7" tall. On May 5 1813, he made his way to Canada with the Regiment along with 1000 other rank and file soldiers and their officers. He fought in the Battle of Plattsburgh in the War of 1812 where the Regiment was cited for its conduct (the only Regiment to be so praised). He was discharged and the Regiment was disbanded September 24 1816. On the last pay list of June 24, 1816, John was paid until August 4 1816. He received 3 pounds, 6 sols, 6 deniers and there is the note:"Discharged the 4 June as a settler with 2 months full pay" This may explain the reference to "twice bought off" in some of the family records. Jean then moved to the Perth area where he was granted 100 acres for service as a soldier in the War of 1812. The standard allottment for soldiers at the time was 100 acres. Jean's land was under the name JOHN VANIXEN which was a name still in use in the 1920's in some official records. The land (allotted to him on June 11 1823) is located on the East Half of Lot 26, Concession 7, Bathurst Township. I have a copy of the land grant. He was given legal possession of the land in February 1824 but had already sold it in January 1824 to J McNaughton. The original spelling of the Vanexheim name is likely VAN UXEM which I am still trying to research in the Netherlands - Belgium to be precise. The 1842 census shows John Vinaxin. He was born in "Holland" and settled in Perth in 1814. One interpretation of the census says he had 3 children born in Holland and 1 in Canada and was Anglican. I think given his age that this interpretation is likely wrong and that John only had the one surviving child - John Jr. To agree with the other interpretation would mean (since we know that John came to Canada in 1813 with the de Meurons and that he was born about 1788) that probably by the time he joined the Regiment at the age of 21, he already had 3 children! It seems unlikely. To date, there is no reference to him after the 1842 census. Could he have returned to Europe? His grandson John Eagleton VanExan left notes saying that he died in 1865. VanExans were involved in the Fenian raids which took place at various times around 1865, perhaps he was involved and was killed.

Adapted from notes made by Ann Belanger: When Anne and her siblings arrived in Perth, the Mississauga Indians still roamed the land. They are part of the Ojibways and made beautiful grass baskets. There are records of the baptism of all the other children but there does not appear to be one for Anne. It appears that there was a change of status for the family between 1797 when Lucinda was christened and 1802 when William was christened. Maybe this was the result of the rebellions of 1798 and that is why no record of her baptism survives. Or she could have been baptized in a different place to her siblings. Anne Glascott married John Vanexan about 1824 and had John Jr about the same time. She appears on the Perth census of 1861 age 61 as a housekeeper in a household separate from her son John and family. If Anne married John after 1820, which seems to be likely, then she may have been married by Rev Michael Harris who arrived there from Dublin in Oct 1819. Family history says that John Jr died in 1865 in Perth and Ann and John's family went to Merrickville where Ann died in 1867. She is buried in Merrickville Protestant Union Burying Ground. Some references seem to have Anne as born 1790 and others 1800. The 1790 date is calculated from the burial records which show her as 77 in 1867. This is unlikely to be correct given the dates of births of the other children in her family and the order in which they are given in historical documents. It is further complicated by the fact that there was a sister Anne who died in infancy in 1795. It seems unlikely that if our Anne were alive in 1790 that they would call a second child Anne in 1795. Also 1800 fits with the age she gave in the 1861 census.