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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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