Tweedy
There are multiple connections between the families in this first group and the Wood family. The close relationship no doubt comes from the fact that they all owned property in the Leeds County over a long period. These connections also appear in more recent generations but the main period of interest shown in the charts below is about 1870. In the first two charts, we see three of the children of James and Sarah Ann Wood marry three of the children of Patrick and Margaret Wills. In addition there was a Wood-Covell marriage and in the Wills family there was a Wills-Looby marriage. Both of these charts also include Loobys.
Patrick and Margaret (Orme) Wills came to Canada about 1844 with two young children and settled in Leeds County, between Portland and Otter Lake. Their oldest son Patrick married Mary Ann Wood and they bought property at Oliver's Landing on the south shore of the Big Rideau Lake. Their large home can still be seen close to the Rideau Ferry bridge (see the image page).
The Tweedys emigrated from Perthshire, Scotland but are believed to have been originally from Stenhouse in Lanarkshire. These two shires border each other. The origins of the family may be from Finlay de Twedyn del Comte de Lanark who in the year 1296 swore fealty to Edward the First of England. His son Rodger settled in Drumelzur on the Tweed near the town of Peebles. Hence the name. The reports below are a bit sketchy as I have not tried to capture all of the detailed branches of this family that have been well researched and documented by others.
There are three Looby families shown in the 1852 census of Leeds County. The heads of these families, John (34), Edward (33) and William (31) are believed to be brothers from Fermanaugh, Ireland. Another researcher has suggested that they had a sister, Mary, who emigrated some time later with her husband James Elliott. The Elliotts settled in Huron County. The genealogy reports below are only for William as further research is required.
The Coutts and Joynts have Irish origins. They both arrived Canada in the early 1800's and spread through Leeds and Lanark Counties. Early on, the Joynts were concentrated around Newboyne while the Coutts first settled in North Elmsly Township, Lanark County. The Coutts are connected more with the Wills family while there are two Joynt-Wood marriages in the trees. The King family also provides a linkage between all of these families that I haven't broken out yet in a separate report. The Coutts were located on the North shore of Big Rideau Lake while the rest of these families were primarily on the South shore.
I recently located a group picture on a Lanark county website of young adults from Rideau Ferry. The picture was originally posted on the site in an attempt to identify the people in it. Most have been identified as members of many of the families on this page. More work is required because there is still some doubt about the identity of a few of the people.