About 1917–?

Third generation: John Price < Earl Stanley Price < Joseph Price

John Price (also known as “Jack”) was the adopted son of Earl Stanley Price and Hazel Ailean MacFadyen. He was born about 1917.

He became estranged from the family as a teenager. The circumstances are unclear.

According to one version of the story, John became angry when he learned that he was adopted.

Earl and Hazel had been childless together for two years when they adopted him, apparently in the belief that they weren’t able to have children (a belief later proven wrong by four pregnancies, including one that yielded twins).

The story goes that Earl and Hazel didn’t tell John he was adopted until he was in his late teens, and that when he found out, he cut all ties and was not heard from for years. After he married, his wife persuaded him to renew contact. He did but the reconciliation didn’t last.

A quite different version of the story says that John was cast out of the family because of some unforgivably bad behaviour. It was told by a slightly more distant relative, and may be purely speculative.

It isn’t known which is true or if either is true. Nor is it known what became of John.

Notes

No mention is made of John in the entry for Leslie and Hazel’s family in Margaret Leslie Lindner’s 1983 genealogy (pages 131-132).

The only document I have found that links John to Earl and Hazel is the family’s entry in the 1921 census. On lines 34 through 38, it lists Earl and Hazel with their son John and daughter June. John was four and June was a year old when the census was taken in June of that year.

Canada Census 1921 (John is on line 36 – click to enlarge)

Sources

Recollections of niece, MAD (living), 2021.

Recollections of first cousin, Harley Cecil Warner.

Reference Number: RG 31; Folder Number: 99; Census Place: 99, York East, Ontario; Page Number: 1. Ancestry.com. 1921 Census of Canada [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations Inc, 2013. Original data: Library and Archives Canada. Sixth Census of Canada, 1921. Ottawa, Ontario, Canada: Library and Archives Canada, 2013. Series RG31. Statistics Canada Fonds.