George Kennedy was a Canadian

Canada

Canada is a North American country consisting of ten provinces and three territories. Located in the northern part of the continent, it extends from the Atlantic Ocean in the east to the Pacific Ocean in the west, and northward into the Arctic Ocean...

 businessman. Georgetown

Georgetown, Ontario

Georgetown is a community in the town of Halton Hills, Ontario, Canada and is part of the Regional Municipality of Halton. It is situated on the Credit River, located approximately 60 km west of Toronto making it part of the Greater Toronto Area...

, Ontario

Ontario

Ontario is a province of Canada, located in east-central Canada. It is Canada's most populous province and second largest in total area. It is home to the nation's most populous city, Toronto, and the nation's capital, Ottawa....

 is named in his honour.

Early life

Kennedy was born at Snyder's Mills (St. Ann). His father was John Kennedy (1761-1847) and his mother was Charity (née Wurtz) (1761-1800). John was a teacher, a job he had trained for years before in Sussex, New Jersey

Sussex, New Jersey

Sussex is a borough in Sussex County, New Jersey, United States. As of the 2010 census, the borough population was 2,130.Sussex was incorporated as a borough by an act of the New Jersey Legislature on October 14, 1891, as Deckertown, from portions of Wantage...

. Charity ran the household.

His siblings include: John (1787-1874), Elizabeth (1788-1842), Ann (1790-1797), Charles (1792-1854), and Morris (1794-1870).

After the death of his mother (Charity), his father remarried, this time to Barbara (née Slough) (1773-1849). Barbara and John had eight more children.

Marriage

George married Sarah Bedford (1798-1875) in 1821. They had nine children: Charity (c1822), Sarah (c1823), Harriet (1824) - the first child born in Georgetown, George Couse (1826), Emery (1827), Sarah Ann (c1828?), Louisa (1830), John Corban (1834), and Barbara Elizabeth (1836).

Family history -- arrival in Upper Canada

Kennedy's parents were supporters of the King during the American Revolutionary War

American Revolutionary War

The American Revolutionary War , the American War of Independence, or simply the Revolutionary War, began as a war between the Kingdom of Great Britain and thirteen British colonies in North America, and ended in a global war between several European great powers.The war was the result of the...

. After its conclusion in 1783, life became unbearable for the Loyalists

Loyalist (American Revolution)

Loyalists were American colonists who remained loyal to the Kingdom of Great Britain during the American Revolutionary War. At the time they were often called Tories, Royalists, or King's Men. They were opposed by the Patriots, those who supported the revolution...

 who settled in places like Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and Quebec. Niagara District, Upper Canada

Upper Canada

The Province of Upper Canada was a political division in British Canada established in 1791 by the British Empire to govern the central third of the lands in British North America and to accommodate Loyalist refugees from the United States of America after the American Revolution...

 was the place that John and Charity travelled to with their children. Land was granted to John in Gainsborough Township, Niagara District in 1795.