Uncle Peg’s Chronicles
September 17, 2026
“The Back-to-School
Smell”
“These
were their settlements. And they kept good family records.”[1]
Don’t
forget to look for the title which is embedded in the chronicle.
FAMILY ALBUM
Holmes Family Reunion 2014 in Cornhill, New
Brunswick
Back row: Bob Holmes, Lesley Holmes,
Roger Sylvestre, Michelle Holmes, Mayor Jerry Gogan, Lesley Gogan, Pat
Booth, Erin Vasseur, Julia Nolte, Paula Holmes, Kennon Wilson, Eleanor
Holmes Wilson, Neil Duncan, Roxanne Duncan, Brett Nolte, Ami Slater, Andy
Slater, Maggie Slater, Conrad Digennaro, Phyllis Digennaro, Sandra Thorne, Richard
Thorne
Centre row: Hoshi Anklesario, Celia
Anklesario, Betty Sylvestre, Stoney Worster, Grace March, Brook March, Chandler
Hall, Graham Hall
Front row: Peg Vasseur, Janet Nolte, Marg
Moore, Nathan Slater, Angela Ramirez, Logan Slater, Rafael Ramirez, Marilyn
Powell, Clem Powell, Karl Holmes, Pauline Sarrazin, Emily Nolte
Very front row: Julie Vasseur
Missing from the photo: Greg Hall, Stephen
Ramirez, Phyllis Holmes, Mike Holmes. Any more?
Those who are no longer with us are in
italics.
The photographer was Brian Alcorn, a friend
of mine.
Mayor Jerry Gogan and his wife, Lesley,
attended our reunion and Gerry spoke at our banquet. Richard and Sandra Thorne
were genealogists and family historians, and helped me with my research.
Marilyn Powell was Phyllis Holmes’ sister.
And I Quote:
Interesting
read. – Cindy
Thanks,
Peg. – Grace
Even with special
company, you put out a special chronicle, many photos, and did some tricky
research. I'm glad I found that little black book and that it was full of
good hints. - Jeanni
A fascinating read. I
don’t know how you keep from ripping your hair out. Ruth
The past is
past and all issues are resolved, for good, bad, or otherwise. I go back there
to relax, away from politics and the insanity of the world. I do get a shock
from time to time. Peg
That’s a wonderful way
to look at it. It sounds like a peaceful escape, even with the occasional
shock. Ruth
(Conversation thread
between Ruth and Peg.)
Another
interesting Chronicle - articles and pictures! I hope that you feel rested
after your vacation. Mom and Brett are on the road. It will be strange not
having her home for her birthday, but delighted that she will be celebrating
with him in New Hampshire. – Julia (Mom is our matriarch, Janet
Nolte. I snatched a selfie photo from Brett without his permission.)
1926
to 1928
1924 to 1928 are the years that our Holmes ancestors spent
renewing relationships that had somehow fallen by the wayside but with
organization, letter writing, and challenging travel – by hook or by crook –
they managed to come together again. They reacquainted and rediscovered their
family ties. And then, one by one, they died, and many of those ties died with
them.
2026
to 2028
September to me means
back to routine. I need new notebooks and fresh pencils. I need to smell the back-to-school
smell. I must get to the store. I suppose they pulled the cheap but handy
Hilroy notebooks from the shelves, due to their embarrassing faux pas. (I
checked yesterday – they did.) They forgot to put Cape Breton and Newfoundland
on their map. There’s lots of map talk lately in the Facebook News feed, but
for this mistake, the Hilroy Company had red faces and apologies galore.
I remember a little
lie I told. We were visiting my cousins in Ontario, and Karl and I might have
been ten or so. Karl told me he was a cartographer, and asked me if I knew what
that meant, and I said yes. I didn’t. I had no clue, couldn’t even guess. Funny,
the things that stick with you.
I have relied on
Google Maps for many years. That’s for current maps – for family history
purposes - it’s to know how far one place is from another in our ancestors’
lives. I did it just this week – checking out Portage Vale to Kingston in Kings
County, New Brunswick. It is about an hour’s drive, nowadays, it tells me.
I also use old,
archived maps, from historical sites. The lines changed over the centuries,
after conquests, but when I study an ancestor, I want to know where my ancestor
lived at that time. Pretty sure our New Brunswick map collection will remain
intact at our provincial archives, as well as the rest of Canadian map
collections. Did you know that New Brunswick and Nova Scotia were one colony
until 1784? (Wikipedia). Maps do change
from time to time – from small changes like cities and provinces and states –
to big changes like continents. Genealogists need to look at them carefully.
The following maps are
from Map Quest rather than Google Maps. Its default isn’t as good. Yet. Both
Portage Vale and Kingston are small but real places, but even changing the
sizes doesn’t put them on the map. It only gives Portage Road and Fundy Road. It
does give directions that would get you there. I will have to get used to it,
both for driving from Point A to Point B and for my family history.
Request email to see the maps.
Where
in the World?
Brian and Jolynda
Holmes are visiting Boston and other areas of New England. Looks like they are
having a good time at Fenway Park and an elephant art exhibit.
News
from Holmes
Eleanor Holmes Wilson
Kennon Wilson shared with me, on behalf of Eleanor,
who wanted me to know that his wife, Eleanor Holmes Wilson, passed away
peacefully on September 4, under hospice care at home in Brunswick, Maine, at
the age of sixty-eight. She did not want an obituary or memorial service, so I
told him that I’d write a memorial for her in our chronicle.
Eleanor introduced herself to me in December, 2012.
Hi Peggy,
My name is Eleanor Holmes Wilson, and my
father is Julian C Holmes. Two weeks ago today, he died from a massive
stroke he suffered on December 11th, and since then I have been going through
pictures and papers, and today, got to a pile of notes on family members,
ancestors, family trees. I have been working on reconciling the various
accounts of who is who in our family this afternoon. The letter I just
opened was written to my dad from you in May 2012.
I would be happy to share any
information I have on our common ancestors.
Since last April, I have been living in
the house that Cecil T Holmes (Daniel and Charlotte's grandson if I have it
right) built in 1932, in Brunswick, Maine.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Your cousin (3th cousin?)
Eleanor
The details about Cecil being Daniel and Charlotte’s
grandson, and us being third cousins, is correct.
I knew that Eleanor had cancer in 2021, but I thought
that it was in remission. Rather, her metastatic breast cancer was controlled
by chemotherapy drugs followed by medical attention to lengthen her life. She was private about this, and didn’t want
me to tell people back in 2021. I respected her wish.
She and I shared information about the Peter line for
many years, and renewed that sharing back in the spring, when she began the
IRCC application process for the immigration by descent offer by the Canadian
government. I don’t think she was interested in leaving their beloved Holmes
homestead in Brunswick for any length of time, but maybe for some short term.
She met up with a snag, with the incorrect name given on her grandfather’s
birth certificate. When Cecil T Holmes was born, he had a brother, Harry, seventeen
years his senior, who was asked by the record taker what his brother’s name
was. He replied, “William McKinley.” That is what was recorded on his birth
record, but Cecil aka William always went by Cecil Thomas Holmes. He was the
son of Peter Ketchum Holmes and Hannah Isabel Burpee. That problem cropped up during
his life time, and again, in 2026. I know Eleanor was working on rectifying the
problem.
Eleanor and I share common ancestors on both sides –
Holmes and Burpee, although mine go further back, in my Moore line.
Eleanor Sultzer Holmes – Julian C Holmes and Mary Robb
Sultzer, and second, his partner, Audrey Marra – Cecil T Holmes and Marion C
Dunnells – Peter K Holmes and Hannah I Burpee – Daniel Holmes and Charlotte
Hoyt – Samuel Holmes Jr and Phoebe Holstead – Samuel Holmes Sr and Elizabeth
Fountain.
To Kennon, Eleanor’s husband, I offer my heartfelt
sympathy. Theirs was a beautiful love story, and his loss is heartbreaking. He
called her “the love of my life” when he notified me of her death. My sympathy
also to her sister, Janet (Holmes) Griffith, wife of Gerard Griffith, and
nieces, Victoria Lise and Kristy Eleanor Griffith, who she was close to. She
has one remaining aunt on her Holmes side, Janet (Holmes) Carper.
From their Facebook posts, I know she enjoyed sailing
along the Chesapeake. She loved to visit her sister, Janet, and her family. She
also enjoyed going to New Mexico to visit Kennon’s family.
Baby Eleanor in the same Holmes homestead where she
pass
L to R: Marion Dunnells Holmes, Peter Karl Holmes,
Eleanor, Mary Robb Holmes, Cecil T Holmes, Janet Holmes Carper, Julian Holmes,
and Nancy (MNU) Holmes, wife of Peter K Holmes.
I pulled out my photo album of 2014
reunion photos. I enjoyed meeting them, and I think they enjoyed meeting us.
Here are a couple of snapshots.
In the first one, we had a little
gathering at Mum’s apartment in the social room to welcome and feed the weary
travellers on the first evening of the reunion. There was lots of chatter, even
though we didn’t all know each other.
L to R: Andy and Amy Slater, Stoney Worster, Kennon and
Eleanor Wilson, Karl Holmes; in front, Rafael Ramirez.
Eleanor and Kennon are in the second photo, taken from the
Von Waldow Farm in Cornhill. Jeorg and Jane Von Waldow gave us a tour of their
farm.
Abigail
MacKillop
Welcome
to the world, Abigail Shalom, and congratulations to your family. Abigail was
born September 11th in Rochester, Indiana, to Mark and Kaylyn
(Herrold) MacKillop. She is a baby sister for Mary and Daniel. Abigail is in
the Charles R Holmes line.
Abigail
– Mark MacKillop and Kaylyn Herrold – Raymond MacKillop and Brenda Miller –
Raymond MacKillop and Lillian Shipley – James McKillop and Arletta Holmes –
Charles R Holmes and Phoebe McMonagle – Daniel Holmes and Charlotte Hoyt –
Samuel Holmes Jr and Phoebe Holstead – Samuel Holmes Sr and Elizabeth Fountain.
Request email to see photograph.
FAMILY HISTORY LESSON
The New Brunswick Probate Records (not
completely transcribed yet) are now available to members at the
New Brunswick Genealogy Society website.
The Probate of James Hoyt III, 1784 – 1847, A2484,
transcribed as written, hopefully without errors.
James
Hoyt was the husband of Frances Ketchum and the father of Charlotte Hoyt who
married Daniel Holmes.
“In
the name of God Amen, I James Hoyt of Parish of Sussex Kings County and
Province of New Brunswick Farmer, being in perfect sound mind and memory,
blessed be God, Calling to mind the Mortality of man and knowing it is
appointed for all men once to die do make and declare this my last will and
Testament And
first of all I commend my Soul into the hand of God, and my body to the Earth
to be buried in decent Christian burial at the discretion of my Executors,
nothing doubting but at the General Resurrection I shall receive the same again
by the Almighty power of God. And as touching such Worldly
Estate wherewith it both pleased God to Bless me in this life, I give and
bequeath in manner and form following, that is to say -
I
give and bequeath to my dear Son Azor Hoyt My farm together with all tools and
farming Utensals of every description two Horses two Cows and Six Sheep
I
give and bequeath to my two daughters Frances Hoyt and Sarah Hoyt ten pounds
each and to be provided for while Single out of my Estate
I give and bequeath to my dear
Daughter Charlotte Holmes five Pounds
All
the residue and remainder of my Stock to be divided equally among my three
Children Azor Hoyt, Frances Hoyt, and Sarah Hoyt, after my Just debts are paid
And
I do further make constitute and apoint My beloved Son and my friend John C.
Vail to be Executors of this my last Will and Testament.
And
I do hereby revoke, disannul and disallow all former Wills, Legacies, Bequests
and Executors whatsoever, declaring this and no other to by my last Will and
Testament,
In
Testimony whereof I have hereunto Set my hand and Seal this twenty ninth day of
May in the Year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and forty
Signed,
Sealed, published
pronounced
and declared
by
the said James Hoyt James Hoyt
as
his last Will and Testa
ment,
in our presence and
in
the presence of each
other
have Subscribed
our
names Edwin
A. Vail
Robert
B. Vail”
This ends
week thirty-eight of our centennial virtual celebration of 1926 – 2026.