George Kilts

John was on his was to an auction and stopped to take a pic for me at one of the cemeteries along the way.  He picked George Kilts who died August 27th, 1868, at the ripe old age of  100.  

  I quickly came across some information about George on the Geni website.  According to the Geni website (1), George was born on March 7, 1778 in Stone Arabia, T-Palatine, Montgomery Co., NY and was baptized on the 15th.  His parents were Johan Nickolaus and Maria Catharina Hilts.  He married Mary Catherine Garter. This nice thing about this website is that the person who wrote the info quoted the sources of the information!  Yay!
There were a couple of inconsistencies in the information on this website, one being his birth year (10 years later than reported on the stone) and the other was that George served as a UEL in the American Revolution, which given his supposed age is impossible.  
  Luckily Ancestry has digitized the baptism records and I was able to see the transcription of George's baptism.  It does in fact state the year as 1788.  At the time of his birth, the spelling of his last name is Kiltz.
Next I started to research his dad to see if he was a UEL.    
  His dad, Johann Nickel Kilts was born 30 May 1732 in Henau, Hunsruck, Germany, and was christened 3 Jun 1732 in Kellenbach, Germany. He was the son of Johann Conrad Kilts and Susanna Margaretha Moor. Johann died 15 Dec 1808 in Manheim, Herkimer Co., New York.  He served in the militia in the French Indian wars (1763) and during the American Revolution: 

Nicholas Kell (Kills) was listed as an enlisted man in Col. Frederick Fisher's Third Regiment ofTryon County Militia (Roberts) 
Nich's Kilts is mentioned as a private in the company of Capt. Suts under Col. Klock.  
Finally there a Nicholas Kiltz was a private under Capt. Miller, also under Col. Klock.(2)  

So, definitely no UEL connection there! I decided to return to George and see if he had some sort of War of 1812 connection. Back on his Geni page (3) the author mentions that George submitted a land petition in 1802 while he was living in Humberstone (near present day Port Colborne). I decided to see if I could look up the land petition myself. Archives Canada has done a great job of digitizing the records. My first search of George Kilts, resulted in a hit!

I browsed through C-2117(4), as it is not indexed and I was able to find the record in a few minutes. It was created and signed by him on Sept 24 in York and read by the Eastern Council on Dec 30.  The petition for 200 acres in the neighbourhood of Wainfleet (although it looks like Yonge Street), where some his friends reside. was made to Peter Hunter Esq, the lieutenant governor of  Upper Canada. It states that George came to the province of Upper Canada about 3 years earlier from Mohawk River, has a wife and child with living with him in Humberstone, and a number of cows (52?). No mention of UEL in the petition and I don't see another petition for a land grant that might have come from service in the War of 1812. Seems George was not a UEL, quite the opposite.
I did one last search for George and found him in the 1861 census(5), 84 year old George is a widow living with his son George, grandchildren Mary, Adam, and George, as well as two tenants from Scotland.


(1) (3) https://www.geni.com/people/George-Kilts/5599105463260058381
(2) https://www.geni.com/people/Johan-Nicholas-Kilts/6000000016611236328
(4) http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/microform-digitization/006003-119.01-e.php?PHPSESSID=npfo6qij0n1rpue06msk2mqnj1&sqn=340&q2=29&q3=2497&tt=1033
(5) https://www.ancestry.ca/sharing/15250779?h=6a325c&utm_campaign=bandido-webparts&utm_source=post-share-modal&utm_medium=copy-url