Who is Bear Kinsey?

In the 1891 British Columbia census, there is a particularly difficult entry to make out. Many have looked at it and it appears to read "Bear" Kinsey.


The entry appears for a rooming house in New Westminster, B.C.

However, with the Vancouver Public Library having recently published online a number city directories, it seems most likely that "Bear" Kinsey is John Henry Wilson Kinsey.

There were a number of John Kinsey's extended family members living in the area at the time and so it is little surprise that he is the one in the census.

The census entry says that he was living at 99 Eighth Street and working as a tinsmith at 29 Sixth Street in New Westminster.

After his time in B.C., John went east to Manitoba and settled in the town of Boissevain.

Here is a photo of John Henry Wilson Kinsey and his wife Alice Jacobs.


John died in 1948 in Boissevain, and Alice passed away in Penticton, B.C. in 1966.