Joseph was the son of Henry Butson and Mary Ann Wilson, Henry's second wife. I am descended from Emma Butson, daughter of Henry and his first wife Sarah. So we are cousins.

Henry was born at St. Blazey, Cornwall, married twice in Ontario, and died in Detroit. His parents Solomon and Jane (nee Keam) Butson were married at St. Blazey and all their children were baptized there and some buried there. They brought all their surviving children to Canada about 1839.

The earliest records that I know of the family in Canada are the 19 Jul 1841 marriage of their daughter Mary Keam Butson to Joseph Hambly at St. James Cathedral in Toronto and the 11 Dec 1846 death of their son Thomas, who is buried in the Pioneer Memorial Garden on Bond Street in Oshawa, Ontario.

Solomon and Jane are buried in St. Paul's Anglican Cemetery, just west of Columbus, Ontario.