I've got a hunch...

Do you trust your intuition when it comes to genealogy? I always act on it. Oh, indeed, there are times when I get unexpected results... lots of times actually. But often enough, the result is a happy one. Like this morning.

I spend the first hour of my day reading through the multitude of blogs that I follow. After I read through the bevy of blogs delivered to my iPad (and laughed, empathized, wondered and sometimes drooled), I sat for a moment and asked myself - what now? I don't know - maybe it was the quiet of the moment, or possibly just the lack of momentum, that made me pause over the google books app icon... and finally decide to tap it to see what I am currently reading. [Sadly, yes, it has been that long].

The History of Queens County, NS.

Oh, yes, I remember now... another tick in the PRO column for Google (who has been rapidly getting more ticks in the other column lately). I don't know if I am just fortunate that there is a lot of reading material available for the particular spot my family lived in for five generations, or what; however, there is an abundance of really good reading material! Obscure stuff  too! Belcher's Almanac? Can you believe that?

Back to Queens County, Nova Scotia.  It had been a while since I was last reading said book, so I went back to the preface and started again. Basically, how the New Englanders came to NS to fill in the void left by the Acadians, who were tossed out by the British.  [I know, but let's just leave politics out of this particular discussion].

In 1760, roughly 60 men and women from New England petitioned the government to set up a township on the southern shore of Nova Scotia that would eventually come to be called Liverpool. In 1764 there were 150 persons listed who were allotted land plots, and who became proprietors of the township. Was I surprised to find two direct relatives? You bet I was! William K. Cahoone and Lemuel Drew. The rest of the list was comprised of familiar names related to the Mayflower and early settlements in New England. And relatives of relatives!

When I started out looking into my family's past, I was a collector more than a researcher. These days I am more of a researcher than a collector.  I am working now on when a certain Samuel Mack (4x great grandfather) bought a certain sawmill in Port Metway, Queens County. I am collaborating with two fellows from Canada, that I met through my research project a couple of years ago. We each have our own perspective, but in working together we gain in knowledge of the times and events in our ancestors lives. I happen to enjoy spending hours in the NEHGS library in Boston looking for deeds (and finding them) and subsequently transcribing them. When I forwarded the documents to my collaborators, we were able to develop a clearer idea of how the mill passed from hand to hand, often back and forth, over the years. This is the depth and breadth of research that really makes me happy, and I really enjoy working with my distant relatives!

Of course, there is so much more to be discovered, or not be discovered. For instance, we may never really know for sure that Dr. Thomas Moseley -one of eight men who sold the mill to Samuel - actually knew Samuel back in East Haddam, CT before the mill transaction in Nova Scotia came about. But it is surely likely  that they did. I'm currently working on the deeds that I collected on a trip this past summer in East Haddam. I sure could use some old maps though! Maybe they were connected through Samuel's wife, Lydia Brainerd Mack who died around the time Samuel picked up and moved to NS, leaving his young daughters to be raised with Lydia's family. Maybe not. I sure would like to know. In fact,  I'd be happy to find out when Lydia died, and where she is buried!

One other benefit from reading old deeds - increased vocabulary! Enfeoffed and messuaged are the latest gems added to my repretoire. Thank goodness for the internet! Although, I did enjoy spending a lot of time with the HUGE Mirriam Webster dictionary that we had in our house when I was a kid, there is nothing like typing a word in Google search and getting many results, including passages in a book printed in the 1800's using the word you are trying to get a definition for.

Happiness is a tool that works!

Arrrrgh! It's coming up soon...

If you always wanted to surround yourself in 18th century Liverpool, Nova Scotia, but you don't want to spend a lot of time immersed in the Diaries of Simeon Perkins... well, there's an app for that.

No, not really.

But there is a really fun event in Liverpool, NS at the end of June that celebrates the early privateer era that the town is known for: http://www.privateerdays.ca/  This year it will be held from June 30th to July 3rd. The photos below are from a 1990 trip to NS to discover our roots and celebrate Pop's 80th birthday.

Wedding performed during Privateer Days celebration.

Beautiful house in Liverpool

Privateer Days reenactment participants - the Militia

Halls Harbor on the North Shore

My nephew standing on a rock in the river - Mill Village, NS -
the Mack family lived here - Samuel owned a lumber mill

South Shore of Nova Scotia - maybe Port Medway, maybe not.

Oh, and the best souvenir... (aside from the photos and memories of our trip of course)

Samuel Mack 1736-1783, Port Medway, NS
Oldest gravestone in Old Port Medway Cemetery

There should be an app for it though. See you there?

C'mon everybody say it with feeling...

Arrrgh!
.
.
.

We have a new addition to our family!

No, not that kind.

The previously living kind - the new-to-us and previously unknown kind.

Minnie Mailman Mack has an older sister Martha Mailman by their father William and Isabella (Martha's mother, but possibly not Minnie's mother). I have to go back to 1849 Mill Village or Charleston, NS records to figure this one out.

Martha's marriage record lists William and Caroline as her parents; but her death certificate lists her mother as Isabella _______ of Mill Village, NS. This would explain why William and Caroline's older children were about Caroline's own age.

Martha married William Gibbons of Mill Village in 1868 (1) and in 1871 they are living in Port Medway, NS. William is 28 and working as a Carriage Maker, Martha is 21, and they have one child Isobel who is 2 yrs old. William's heritage is Irish and Martha's is German, though both were born in NS. (2)

In 1891, William and Martha are living in Liverpool, NS with their family of six children: Isabella, John, William, Gertrude, Frank and P. Annie. (3) In the next year they will move to Boston, Massachusetts in the US.(4)

William Gibbons disappears from records sometime in 1896-97. I haven't found a death record for him in either MA or NS. Martha died on September 25, 1913. She is buried in Everett, MA at Woodlawn Cemetery (5) . Their daughter Gertrude is also buried in Woodlawn Cemetery. (6)

This might be a clue as to why Minnie and Burton moved to Massachusetts.

Genealogy research is peculiar. One often finds the individual pieces of information totally by chance. You have to examine it and see where it fits. Sometimes it doesn't fit just right and it has to hang out in space and time until the piece that connects it to the big picture of the family comes along.

Martha was like that. Fortunately it only took a couple of days to place her into the Mack family. I hope she is resting comfortably now.

(1) Nova Scotia Historical Vital Records
(2) 1871 Canadian Census for Queens Co, Nova Scotia
(3) 1891 Canadian Census for Queens Co, Nova Scotia
(4) Boston Passenger and Crew Lists, 1820-1943, 16 April 1892 and 21 August 1892.
(5) Commonwealth of Massachusetts death certificate, Martha Mailman Gibbons
(6) Commonwealth of Massachusetts death certificate, Gertrude Martha Gibbons

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:

(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.

Oh, dear!

"Saturday, Jan 27th - Cloudy. Wind W.N.W. The Dolphin, Capt. Collins, and Mr. Silvanus Cobb in his Schooner Sail for Halifax before Daylight or one of them, Cobb, did not go till Sunrise. The Wind Starts in to N.W. &c. Very Slippery, & Cold.
   About ten of the Clock in the morning, Capt. Ephraim Dean was taken Suddenly Ill. Supposed to be an Apoplectick fit. He Lived till about 1 O'Clock, when he expired. I understand he was as well as usual about his Business, untill he Complained his tongue was Swelld or Num, that he could not well Speak.  He was perceived to Faulter Immediately, & was only able to Answer two or three questions in a Low Voice, after which he Never Spake more, but Continued to Ly as if a Sleep till a Little before he expired he had Some Struggles. This Death is a Loud Call to the Living, & is a Great & publick Loss to the place, more especially to his Distressed Family & work men, &c."

The Diary of Simeon Perkins 1780-1789, p. 354, courtesy of The Champlain Society who makes it available through http://eir.library.utoronto.ca/.

My doctor husband said it sounds like a stroke. Ephraim Dean was born the 17th of October in 1734. His birth was recorded in the Barstable, MA Vital Records 1625-1903, (courtesy of NEHGS library). I still have to find where he is buried in Liverpool - I got a clue from Simeon where he described the corps [sic] being carried to the back of the Meeting House. Maybe he is there... he is not listed in any of the graveyards in Liverpool.

Ephraim is my 4th great grandfather on the Mack side.

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!