My Family Tree

No birth/baptism records, later census records, burial record or gravestone could be found for Charles, and most of what we know about him is indirect. According to most Dyment family trees, Charles was born around 1825 in Devon England, the son of Humphrey Dyment and Mary Ashton, but no citation accompanies this fact. The Dyment book said he was Humphrey and Mary's youngest son, and indeed, it was often the youngest who would stay at home with his parents after the older children had left. Jean Meggison did not give Charles any dates in her short unpublished history of the PEI Dyments.

If Charles was born in England, and was the youngest son, then his date of birth would be between 1830-1832, after Moses but before the family's arrival on the island. However, one of the few records we have for Charles is the 1861 census, where he indicated that all 6 members of his household were born on the Island. If this is correct, then Charles could have been born as late as 1834, perhaps in the gap between Sarah and Mary Ann. Certainly his children believed that he was an Islander. His sons Levi and Charles indicated on the 1891 census that both parents were born on the Island; daughter Mary's death certificate says her father was born in Tyne Valley; and Eleanor's that her father was born in Port Hill.

Several sources also give him a middle name - Charles James Dyment - but I have found only one record, a possible (and somewhat doubtful) marriage record for a Susan Ann Dyment from PEI who said her father was "Charles J. Dyment". If Susan was a member of this family, then she gave her mother's first name and her grandmother's maiden name on this record, and changed her age.

There was a marriage bond for Charles Dymant, a farmer in Lot 13 and Elizabeth McDougald, a spinster from Lot 12, dated June 22 1854. Charles signed his name, and his co-signer, James McDugald, a farmer from Lot 12, made his mark on the document. Elizabeth McDougald was born in 1828, the daughter of Alex MacDougald and Nancy Ann McLean.

Before their marriage, Elizabeth McDougall had an illegitimate son, Alexander McDougall, in 1846, when she was 18. On the baptismal record in Port Hill Anglican church, Elizabeth said her child's father was James Ellis. Alexander was raised by her parents as Alexander Jr.

In the 1861 census, Charles was farming 50 acres in Lot 13. His entry was beside that of his father, and maps from 1862, 1878, and 1880 show the original Humphrey Dyment Sr. farm on the Trout River divided in two. Charles was between 21-45 years of age, or born between 1816-1840. There were four children in that census, three boys and a girl, who would be Levi, Eleanor, and John, but possibly not Charles James, as there is no indication of a child born that year. The fourth child could be Elizabeth's son, Alexander MacDougall. All were Bible Christians.

Five of Charles and Elizabeth's children were in the PEI Baptismal database: Charles James, John Butcher, Eleanor Penrose, Levi and Susan Ann. None of these records give Elizabeth's maiden name. They were baptized by the Revs. John Watson Butcher and Jacob Gale, two Bible Christian ministers, in O'Leary. This could be the town of O'Leary, or the Bible Christian Church in Lot 7 that was also called O'Leary. Most genealogies of the Dyment family include a Penrose, but other than Eleanor Penrose, no other child of this name has been confirmed. Eleanor Penrose used Penrose as her name on later census records, and on her marriage record it looked like the name Eleanor had been written in later, after Penrose Dyment, which makes it look like this was the name she used. In my father's copy of the 2nd edition of The Dyments, the name Penrose as an additional child has been crossed out, most likely at the suggestion of the family historian, Annie Dyment Crozier.

Charles Sr. died sometime between 1872-1878, and even though his name was on maps dated 1878 and 1880, it was his son Levi's name on a 1878 land transaction. There was an entry in John Yeo's ledger for 1872/1873 that refered to him as the "late" Charles Dyment. Certainly, his father's will indicated that Charles was dead by 1878. Charles was not included in the list of Humphrey's surviving children. As well, Humphrey left a small farm to Levi Dyment, described as "the son of his daughter-in-law Elizabeth", and asked Levi to take care of his mother. Family trees that have Charles dying in Ontario in 1901 are citing the death record of another Charles Dyment, who had different parents.

Levi was the head of household in the 1881 census, and Elizabeth was a widow. Living at home in 1881 were Levi (25) , John (John Butcher, 21), Eleanor P (Eleanor Penrose, 23), Mary Ash (Mary Ashton, 18), Susan (Susan Ann, 16), Sarah Laura/Louise (13), and Jane (Elizabeth Jane, 12) along with their mother Elizabeth, but no son Charles James. There was also a girl aged 8, Laura McDougal, who is a good fit for the daughter of Elizabeth's son Alex. It is likely that the Charles Dyment at the end of the listing for William Dyment's household in the 1881 census was Charles' son, Charles James.

John Butcher died in 1885. Elizabeth, widow of Charles Dyment, died in 1890. The death notice said that she was survived by two sons (Levi and Charles James) and four daughters.

Three of the daughters, Eleanor Penrose, Sarah Louisa, and Mary Ashton, were married and living on the Island, as were Levi and Charles James. Elizabeth Jane (Jennie) and Susan Ann (Annie) went to the United States and married, with Jennie returning to PEI for a few years when her children were young. Jennie was living on the Island in 1901.

Elizabeth was buried in the Bideford Methodist cemetery, and with the large space between the graves of Sarah, Moses and Humphrey Dyment there is the possibility that Elizabeth and Charles were both buried there, near the rest of the family. There is no gravestone for either.

It was a surprise to find an obituary on PEI Ancestry for Alex McDougall, half-brother of Levi, Mrs. Albert Phillips and Mrs. Jos Reeves, who died in 1924 not long after going to Maine to find work. Other family obituaries confirm that Charles James Dyment from Lot 7 was the brother of Levi, and that Levi was the brother of Eleanor Penrose Reeves, Elizabeth Jane, Mary Ashton Phillips and Sarah Louisa Cudmore. Elizabeth Jane Farwell's death record said her father was Charles. It is not clear if the Mrs. George Rodman mentioned in one obituary was Susan Ann, or if there was another daughter not yet identified.