A source I hadn't thought of before

Jessie Mack's Wedding Guest Book

photo courtesy of Nancy L. Hall

Listed on the page above (the ones I know, and in relation to me) are: Harold Dean Mack (grandfather), Burton A. Mack (great-grandfather), Blanche E. Mack (grandmother), Ethel S. Mack (wife of Aubrey B. Mack, (grand uncle), Minnie D. Mack (great grand aunt), Ethel M. Sparks (grand aunt) Willard Sparks (husband of Ethel), Robert Sparks (1st cousin 1x removed). 

For reasons known only to my inner self, I grew up as a virtual hermit. I know I had a family, a mother and a father, an older brother and a younger sister. I grew up surrounded by my mother's family. I have a handful of memories - happy ones mostly - of all of them. That is what it feels like - I hopefully have a lot more locked up inside somewhere). If I wrote a book today about my life growing up it would indeed be a short one, composed mostly of vignettes.

(Skipping over a lot of stuff) 

I don't have memories of people I never met, but I do have knowledge of them. Take my father's family for instance. I "know" them by names and dates. I have met some of them, but I think I can count the times on just my hands, and most of them on one hand. Who knows why? Does it even matter now?

The important part of this is that I am so very grateful to the people who have entered my life at this stage, who know and share my greater family. Some very good and generous people. While some are pretty distantly related, others are pretty closely related. Others are not related at all, but whose family members knew my family members.

All it takes is a little thread that meets at a certain connecting point with another little thread. Whether by design, or by chance, we have connected.

One of my favorite connections is my grandfather's sister's grand-daughter. She is a veritable fountain of family information and I cannot wait to meet her in person! I got inspired one day to ask if she had any family photos. Did she ever! I now have photo's of my great-grandfather Burton Augustus Mack (wish I had known him!) and some of my grandfather's siblings and their families. (I don't know who has my father's family photos. Wish I did. Do you?) So, Nancy - hurry up and get on Skype!

The new source of family information: the Wedding Guest book. I am fortunate to have my mother's mother's Wedding book. Sadly, no pictures, but I do have a clipping or two, a piece of the veil, the names of the some of the attending guests. Last summer, while visiting my cousin in Connecticut, I found out she had the wedding dress! Why do I never think to ask these things???

Thank you Nancy! Thank you Susie!

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Success at NEHGS - the Mehlman Family at last

Mehlman, Johann Carl

Gale 1752, Farmer. Age 25, from Palatinate. 1.1.-.1. Indebted for 2 freights, [fl] 151,4.0.

Signed his name on Indebtedness List as "Meelman", but "Mehlman" (as in ship's list and

sometimes in lists in Nova Scotia) is much more likely to have been the proper German form.

Halifax – Vict. List. Sept. – Oct. 1752 (list N^o. 8) – John Carl & Dorothea Melman

                    "       "     Feb. – April 1753                           same two names

Lunenburg – Return of Arms, Dec.  1753 - Carl Meilman – Rudolf's Div.

 Return of Divisions, July 1754 – Carl Meelman – Rudolf's Div, G-3, with a "house"

30-Acre Farm Lots – 1753-4 Allotment List – John Carl Meilman – La Have, A-4

Live Stock Distribution, 1754 – {Carl Mehlman}  - Lot N^o. 129 – 6 sheep, 1 sow, 1 goat

                                                       {Nicolas Berghaus}             

Baptism, 17 July 1854 – Charles, of Charles & Dorothea Mealman                       (Roll II)

Vict. List June 1755 – John Carl, & Dorotha Melman (nos. 1072/73), Chalres Melman (no. 1377)

    "     "   Feb.- May 1756 – Chal. Doro^y, & Jn^o Mehlman (nos. 103/-4/-5)

Baptism, 1 Sept. 1756 – Caspar, of Carll & Dorothea Mielman                                (Roll II)

Vict. List. Jan. – May 1757 – Carl, Dorothea & John Mehlman & later, toward end of list,

                 Caspar Mehlman

Cattle Expedition, 1756 – Carl Melman (name horizontal)

Baptism, 23 April 1758 – {John Michael and Sybilla} twins, of Charles & Dorothea Muilman    (Roll II)

      "       , 4 May 1760 – Ann Catherine, of Jn^o Charles & Dorothea Mailman                 (    "    )  

Registry of Town Lots, 1760 – Jn^o. Carl Mehlman – Rudolf's Div., G-3

   "            30- Acre Lots, 1760 – Jn^o. Carl Mehlman – LaHave river, A-9; as "Carl Meelman"

Lutheran church – Johann Carl Mehlman, signed  Membership Roll of 1775 but does

   not seem to have paid his dues, as his name does not appear in church account book

Mr. Money's Burial Register, 26 June 1791, buried "Jas. Mailman" aged 79 [Source of a

  "James" Mailman, aged 79, is an enigma; & his being buried by Mr. Money, if the

 Mehlmans were Lutherans. To be sure, there was obviously a good deal of dissention 

 among the Lutherans, & some splitting, but so far as we have records of it, 

 almost all, I think, later than this].    

Source: The "Foreign Protestants" and the Settlement of Nova Scotia The History of a 

Piece of Arrested British Colonial Policy in the Eighteenth Century. Winthrop Pickard Bell. 

University of Toronto Press, 1961. Co-published by Centre for Canadian Studies, 

Mount Allison University 1990.

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Oh, my!

Yesterday I received an interesting email from a gentleman who is related to me via our 4x great-grandfather- in-common. We have been corresponding for a couple of years now, trading information back and forth: photos, stories, mysteries - but this is the most exciting bit of news to date!

The Samuel Mack & Desire Cohoon Mack Doran house in Mill Village is for sale. Of course I am dreaming of buying it! Imagine being able to live in your great-great-great-great grandparent's house! It would mean moving to NS, but I could live with that...

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