In the past year I have learned that quite a few of my ancestors came from an area of Lunenburg, Nova Scotia called Petite Riviere. That would be the infamous Drew family (only because they are causing me all kinds of grief sorting them out) and the Sponagle family. And countless others.
Countless others - really?
Well, every time I add a wife or husband to the family, yes, I add -sometimes only mentally - their families. (I don't want things to get out of hand, you know). I wonder how many people each of us is truly related to. Maybe I don't want to really know - my head might explode. So, yes - countless others.
I made a wonderful discovery a few weeks ago about Petite Riviere - it has a Facebook page! I cannot express exactly how I feel looking at all the photos posted there, and the comments from some of the 1822 friends of the Facebook page. Wonder, gratitude, connection, completeness, universality, family... the list is long, and grows with time.
Paul Harmon started the page in order to share his extensive collection of photographs of Petite Riviere and neighboring towns. I wonder if he realizes just how incredibly important this page is to me? While I haven't seen old pictures of my family members (that I am aware of) the possibility remains. It is fun to read the comments and see the surnames that I recognize from pages of early Nova Scotia census reports.
A trip to Petite Riviere has made it's way to the top of vacation destinations for next year!
Showing posts with label Nova Scotia. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Nova Scotia. Show all posts
04 October 2011
11 March 2011
Mary D. Mack, 1868 - 1921
Right under our very noses.
Mary D. Mack has been bugging me since I first discovered her listed on the gravestone for Burton Augustus and Minnie Mack. Located initially by a search in Findagrave.com, and by the grace of someone who recorded it and posted it on that website, I got a picture of the gravestone. [Yes, Jane and I did get to the graveyard last year but that's another story]
It turns out they aren't the only Burton and Minnie out there in the greater world, but they are the only Burton and Minnie Mack buried in Plymouth, MA. Which isn't Sandwich, MA - where Pop said his grandfather was buried, but close enough - within 6 miles. I hadn't been able to find Burton in Sandwich, despite the efforts of the good people at the Sandwich Historical Society.
So who is Mary D. Mack?
Burton and Minnie's children were living in Everett, MA. Their grandchildren did not include a Mary D. Mack. Burton had two sisters, Mary "Minnie" and Etta Ellen Mack and a half-sister Martha Desire Mack that lived with his family back in 1871 in Nova Scotia. Maybe one of them?
Or maybe a second wife after Minnie died? An adopted child late in life? A relative from the "old country"?
Lying in bed the other morning trying to sort out the Drews, I was thinking that maybe it was time to go back and take a good look at the copies of the pages from John Dean Mack's family bible that Jane got from Aunt Marnie. Hah! Now I know it wasn't Martha Desire Mack - she died in 1874 and Etta Ellen died in 1908.
The last entry looks like _any Drew Mack, died 13 February 1921. Mary Drew Mack died in 1921. My best guess is that they are the same person. So, who wrote the entry in the family bible? That is another good question. Since the page are pretty worn, the color of the ink is consistent with the other entries, and the hand writing is pretty darn close, it may be Burton's. I do have samples of his handwriting - he was the enumerator for the 1891 census for Mill Village, Nova Scotia.
I'm not sure. On closer examination, I can't tell if Burton ever wrote in the bible. So much for that course I took in graphology! My instinct tells me it was probably the women who wrote family information in the bibles. That leaves Drucilla, Minnie, Blanche (Nana/GiGi) and Marnie, but I don't have samples of any of their handwriting to inspect.
There seems to be a family resemblance in the handwriting. Have you noticed the same with your handwriting compared to your parents' handwriting?
When I was younger, my handwriting was very like Mom's... straight up and down, smallish, legible. Now my handwriting is more like Pop's - slanted to the right and a bit more flamboyant and at times erratic. Really hard to read sometimes, even for me. Dick's handwriting is like Pop's, distinctive and legible. Jane's is in between. Sometimes I can't tell whether I wrote note or she did. Funny. I don't think I consciously changed my handwriting; maybe some latent genes kicked in and made my handwriting change.
Looking back at the bible page, it looks like there were at least three, maybe four or more different writers.
The last one might be Marnie's handwriting. I wonder when she got the bible - and who had it before her.
I really would love to know who has it now.
Mary D. Mack has been bugging me since I first discovered her listed on the gravestone for Burton Augustus and Minnie Mack. Located initially by a search in Findagrave.com, and by the grace of someone who recorded it and posted it on that website, I got a picture of the gravestone. [Yes, Jane and I did get to the graveyard last year but that's another story]
It turns out they aren't the only Burton and Minnie out there in the greater world, but they are the only Burton and Minnie Mack buried in Plymouth, MA. Which isn't Sandwich, MA - where Pop said his grandfather was buried, but close enough - within 6 miles. I hadn't been able to find Burton in Sandwich, despite the efforts of the good people at the Sandwich Historical Society.
So who is Mary D. Mack?
Burton and Minnie's children were living in Everett, MA. Their grandchildren did not include a Mary D. Mack. Burton had two sisters, Mary "Minnie" and Etta Ellen Mack and a half-sister Martha Desire Mack that lived with his family back in 1871 in Nova Scotia. Maybe one of them?
Or maybe a second wife after Minnie died? An adopted child late in life? A relative from the "old country"?
Lying in bed the other morning trying to sort out the Drews, I was thinking that maybe it was time to go back and take a good look at the copies of the pages from John Dean Mack's family bible that Jane got from Aunt Marnie. Hah! Now I know it wasn't Martha Desire Mack - she died in 1874 and Etta Ellen died in 1908.
The last entry looks like _any Drew Mack, died 13 February 1921. Mary Drew Mack died in 1921. My best guess is that they are the same person. So, who wrote the entry in the family bible? That is another good question. Since the page are pretty worn, the color of the ink is consistent with the other entries, and the hand writing is pretty darn close, it may be Burton's. I do have samples of his handwriting - he was the enumerator for the 1891 census for Mill Village, Nova Scotia.
second page of Mack Family Bible
excerpt from 1891 Mill Village, NS census
I'm not sure. On closer examination, I can't tell if Burton ever wrote in the bible. So much for that course I took in graphology! My instinct tells me it was probably the women who wrote family information in the bibles. That leaves Drucilla, Minnie, Blanche (Nana/GiGi) and Marnie, but I don't have samples of any of their handwriting to inspect.
There seems to be a family resemblance in the handwriting. Have you noticed the same with your handwriting compared to your parents' handwriting?
When I was younger, my handwriting was very like Mom's... straight up and down, smallish, legible. Now my handwriting is more like Pop's - slanted to the right and a bit more flamboyant and at times erratic. Really hard to read sometimes, even for me. Dick's handwriting is like Pop's, distinctive and legible. Jane's is in between. Sometimes I can't tell whether I wrote note or she did. Funny. I don't think I consciously changed my handwriting; maybe some latent genes kicked in and made my handwriting change.
Looking back at the bible page, it looks like there were at least three, maybe four or more different writers.
The last one might be Marnie's handwriting. I wonder when she got the bible - and who had it before her.
I really would love to know who has it now.
05 March 2011
Aaaaarrrrrrrrgh!
Too many Lemuel Drews!
In January I finally found the vital records for "our" Lemuel Drew family at the New England Historic Genealogical Society library in Boston. The Lemuel Drew family that our great-great grandmother Drucilla Drew Mack came from. The helpful folks at the library pointed me in the right direction and helped me find the correct roll of microfilm (and taught me how to use the microfilm reader too) from the Nova Scotia collection that would provide me with a copy of the listing for the Lemuel Drew family. And it did. Here they are:
Only I'm not sure now that this is the right Lemuel Drew family. It seems that these Lemuel Drew fellas like to marry women named Mary. And they also like to name their sons Lemuel and their daughters Mary. Fiends!
So I started a spreadsheet of Drews, and collected as many as I could find in the Lunenburg area of Nova Scotia.
Actually, not so many... you see, the family that I am looking for was around in the 1700's and, on the census forms in that time period, only the head of household was named. The rest of the members of the family were indicated by number; as in 5 males and 3 females. Darn it!
In frustration, I retreated to the online databases that I normally use - Ancestry.com, Familysearch.org, and Americanancestors.org. Let's just say there was a lot of mumbling under my breath during many sessions at the computer. And no additions to the spreadsheet either.
So, I started trolling through the message boards on Ancestry.com. Ding ding ding - we have a winner! I found a website by following a message thread that happen to mention South Shore Association (from the Lunenburg area of NS). Not much new there until I clicked on a website owned by one of the members. He had a listing of a zillion surnames. YAY! I now have lots of new information on some Drews, and some Cohoons. The spreadsheet grew a little...
Back to the census records in Lunenburg with new names to look up. Nope. Still too early. Now what? I went to the Nova Scotia GenWeb Project site (just Google it). What a wonderful resource that is! I visited there last year when I was looking for Mill Village and Liverpool Macks. I was able to download cemetery records for Queens County, as well as Vital Records for Liverpool. Not the actual documents, but a listing of names and dates. Certainly enough to get started.
Well, they have a huge listing for Lunenburg County as well, and I now have a nice collection of Drews for the spreadsheet, including a couple of will extracts. So this, combined with information gleaned from Simeon Perkins diary volumes one through five, I should be able to put the proper Drew puzzle together. I hope.
This is what prompted the whole search...
Drucilla Drew Mack's death certificate. It wasn't easy to find and it offers some disturbing information. Not that she died of old age - good for her! But who the heck are William J. Drew and Mary Manning?????
Burton was the informant for all the relative data... could he have been mistaken? It seems like he should know who his grandparents are though. But who am I to talk? I didn't know any of my grandparents except for Nana Mack (aka GiGi), and I only remember her as a kid, when she taught me how to knit and bake apple pies. She was 95 the last time I saw her. She passed away at 106. Good genes, huh?
So there you go. Even if you don't know your ancestors, you can get to know them. It just takes some work.
In January I finally found the vital records for "our" Lemuel Drew family at the New England Historic Genealogical Society library in Boston. The Lemuel Drew family that our great-great grandmother Drucilla Drew Mack came from. The helpful folks at the library pointed me in the right direction and helped me find the correct roll of microfilm (and taught me how to use the microfilm reader too) from the Nova Scotia collection that would provide me with a copy of the listing for the Lemuel Drew family. And it did. Here they are:
(Click on photo to enlarge)
Only I'm not sure now that this is the right Lemuel Drew family. It seems that these Lemuel Drew fellas like to marry women named Mary. And they also like to name their sons Lemuel and their daughters Mary. Fiends!
So I started a spreadsheet of Drews, and collected as many as I could find in the Lunenburg area of Nova Scotia.
Actually, not so many... you see, the family that I am looking for was around in the 1700's and, on the census forms in that time period, only the head of household was named. The rest of the members of the family were indicated by number; as in 5 males and 3 females. Darn it!
In frustration, I retreated to the online databases that I normally use - Ancestry.com, Familysearch.org, and Americanancestors.org. Let's just say there was a lot of mumbling under my breath during many sessions at the computer. And no additions to the spreadsheet either.
So, I started trolling through the message boards on Ancestry.com. Ding ding ding - we have a winner! I found a website by following a message thread that happen to mention South Shore Association (from the Lunenburg area of NS). Not much new there until I clicked on a website owned by one of the members. He had a listing of a zillion surnames. YAY! I now have lots of new information on some Drews, and some Cohoons. The spreadsheet grew a little...
Back to the census records in Lunenburg with new names to look up. Nope. Still too early. Now what? I went to the Nova Scotia GenWeb Project site (just Google it). What a wonderful resource that is! I visited there last year when I was looking for Mill Village and Liverpool Macks. I was able to download cemetery records for Queens County, as well as Vital Records for Liverpool. Not the actual documents, but a listing of names and dates. Certainly enough to get started.
Well, they have a huge listing for Lunenburg County as well, and I now have a nice collection of Drews for the spreadsheet, including a couple of will extracts. So this, combined with information gleaned from Simeon Perkins diary volumes one through five, I should be able to put the proper Drew puzzle together. I hope.
This is what prompted the whole search...
Drucilla Drew Mack's death certificate. It wasn't easy to find and it offers some disturbing information. Not that she died of old age - good for her! But who the heck are William J. Drew and Mary Manning?????
Burton was the informant for all the relative data... could he have been mistaken? It seems like he should know who his grandparents are though. But who am I to talk? I didn't know any of my grandparents except for Nana Mack (aka GiGi), and I only remember her as a kid, when she taught me how to knit and bake apple pies. She was 95 the last time I saw her. She passed away at 106. Good genes, huh?
So there you go. Even if you don't know your ancestors, you can get to know them. It just takes some work.
17 February 2011
Remarks on a passing
This is the passage in it's entirety:
Monday, Oct. 13th - I hear that Mr. Samuel Mack of Portmedway Dyed last Saturday. He has been a long time Sick. The water is raised So that Some of the Sawmills are like to go this day.
That's it. Samuel Mack is my 4th great grandfather Pop > Harold > Burton > John > Solomon > Samuel > Ebenezer > John).
The passage is from Simeon Perkins Diary 1780-1789, specifially 1783, page 202.
Simeon Perkins immigrated to Liverpool, Nova Scotia about 1760 from Norwich, CT. He became a magistrate for the local court; the head of the local militia during the American Revolution until age got the better of him; a keeper of accounts for all the trading that went on in Liverpool, NS and beyond; and a keeper of the comings and goings of the ships, cargo and people in the area.
His voluminous output is priceless in terms of interesting reading material, but is also genealogically important - particularly for our family, as there are so few records back then beyond births, marriages, deaths and land records.
Except for our friend Mr. Perkins, who did fortunately have business dealings with Mr. Samuel Mack, Mr. William Cahoon, Captain Ephraim Dean and many more prominent men of Liverpool, NS.
Thank you Mr. Perkins!
Monday, Oct. 13th - I hear that Mr. Samuel Mack of Portmedway Dyed last Saturday. He has been a long time Sick. The water is raised So that Some of the Sawmills are like to go this day.
That's it. Samuel Mack is my 4th great grandfather Pop > Harold > Burton > John > Solomon > Samuel > Ebenezer > John).
The passage is from Simeon Perkins Diary 1780-1789, specifially 1783, page 202.
Simeon Perkins immigrated to Liverpool, Nova Scotia about 1760 from Norwich, CT. He became a magistrate for the local court; the head of the local militia during the American Revolution until age got the better of him; a keeper of accounts for all the trading that went on in Liverpool, NS and beyond; and a keeper of the comings and goings of the ships, cargo and people in the area.
His voluminous output is priceless in terms of interesting reading material, but is also genealogically important - particularly for our family, as there are so few records back then beyond births, marriages, deaths and land records.
Except for our friend Mr. Perkins, who did fortunately have business dealings with Mr. Samuel Mack, Mr. William Cahoon, Captain Ephraim Dean and many more prominent men of Liverpool, NS.
Thank you Mr. Perkins!
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