Uncle Peg’s Chronicles
February 12, 2026
“My Objective to be
Objective”
“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
I
found the header photo online. This is where Fenwick lived from 1913 to 1917.
Not sure where his home was – perhaps not even built yet. He purchased property
in 1914.
https://www.facebook.com/groups/HistoricFloridaX/posts/4380944122229244/
And I Quote:
“I love
the rambles. So, from a fellow ‘rambler,’ keep up the good work!
I'm learning lots.” ~ Ruth
“I received this from
our town librarian, who has at least a dozen non-fiction books to his credit,
but also has done fiction. No best sellers, but he loves to write.
Worth at least a Google Books try! The titles strike me as fiction, but I may
be basing it on the Steven King authorship of one of them. Hope they have
something that interests you!” ~ Jeanni (A blurb follows.)
Thanks to Jeanni who
went looking for how-to nonfiction books for me, in reply to my comment in the
last chronicle.
“Is
Holstead the same as Halstead?” ~ Julia
It
can be, Julia. Spelling was not a big issue at the time. I don’t know if we are
related to those particular Halsteads, but our Holstead’s are also referred to
as Holsted’s in the early records of Nova Scotia.
1925
to 1928
Those 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.
2025 to 2028
My
choir director is always saying, “that’s the first mistake I made today,” or
sometimes “the eleventh mistake,” or something like that. Well, I made a
mistake, actually about thirty of them, and now I am taking the time to correct
them all, and it is not easy. And, it’s in footnotes – citations. Not the most
fun thing, and usually I check those things after in the final revision.
I
decided to do the easy thing, and as you know, using the easy means of doing
just about anything doesn’t always work out. I decided to cut and paste the
citations from the University of New Brunswick Archived Newspapers. I did the
same thing for other sites. Eventually, I needed to refer to one of them, so I
clicked on the link and said to myself, “Peggy, that is not the right
newspaper.” It was a newspaper from 1926; Fenwick died in 1917, and there was
nothing on the page that referred to him or to Rat Portage. When it happened a
second time, I said to myself, “Oh oh, Peggy, you have a problem.”
How
to fix it? Go to every footnote from that source. Look at the number, and find
it in the text. See what it is about. Go searching the full text box for the
article again. Sometimes it pops right up, and sometimes it does not – I have
to put in a lot of key words to find it.
When
I find it, I correct it, Chicago Style. I have a pink sticky note with the
order in which to type it.
All
because I didn’t read the Citation instructions provided by the University. I
am to write my citations following their one guideline.
One
good guideline for life is to learn from our mistakes. Another lesson under the
belt.
My response to Jeanni’s friend.
Thanks to Jeanni, who put me in touch
with a writer friend/librarian friend of hers,
in regards to advice on writing
non-fiction. This is my response to her challenge.
She hooked, lined, and sinkered me.
Good
morning, Jeanni and Dan. I went to your website, Dan, and had a read.
Excellent, varied list of accomplishments. Especially tickled to see one
co-written with your daughter.
Thank
you for your suggestions, and they are written on my list of new book wishes.
Darn, what a way to start - a passive sentence. That Jeanni, isn't she a
corker! Stuck a challenge right in the middle of the email
thread: "I doubt she will reach out, being quite an
introvert." I'll email anybody - just hate picking up the phone.
I write
for my "cousins" in a bi-weekly newsletter I call "Uncle
Peg's Chronicles," and I write for a journal called
"Generations." My New Brunswick Genealogy Society publishes the
journal four times a year, and my aim is to dress it up a little and, well, to
view my name in print, to be perfectly honest. I pick out a long-dead ancestor
and write their story. Imbedded, I try to include, for my genealogical
audience, hints as to where and how to find things about their own ancestors. I
find the "showing" in non-fiction to be a challenge to accomplish -
way more limited to the truth about them than a character I might create from
my imagination, if I can even ferret that information out, and
sticking to my objective to be objective. But, I give it my best shot and
editor Dave always inserts my jottings in the journal . . .
My rule
that I follow to a point, and then I drift off to variations on a theme:
Introduction - three or however many main points I need, and sub-points (and do
use either nouns or verbs, not both, for said points), and conclusion relating
back to the introduction. Basic as can be. Writing 101. Current article: Intro
- a bridge in Rat Portage. I: New Brunswick. II: Ontario. III: (back to) New
Brunswick (wife dies). IV: (back to) Ontario, alone. V: Florida, alone. (Tried
to cross the border in a drunken state, had to sober up to enter
the USA). Conclusion - bridging the gaps between said places.
Character
development: Fenwick, a man with lots of charm, charms his bride, who sings for
temperance meetings; charms his fellow new settlers in new settlement; takes
out lots of mortgages (all his life) in the new settlement and back home; has
two periods of insolvency; goes to Florida and works. He dies alone, in
Florida, without a headstone. He always works, although at various
careers. He starts out with quite a lot of community involvement, but it
gradually dwindles. He dreams big, but seems to me, too big for his britches.
He either lies or embezzles his story about being a mayor; he was a reeve but
never a mayor. He is a functional alcoholic.
Because
I worked for a functional alcoholic, and because he was my favourite leader
ever (he hated to be called the boss), I have a personal bias in favour of my
great-great uncle Fenwick. Said leader hit bedrock, and climbed back up. I
don't think Uncle Fenwick did.
He
caused a lot of problems for a lot of people. I can't imagine his wife's life.
And yet, in my family, there are six Fenwick(e)s. Why? I wonder. My
great-grandfather, his brother, did not like him one bit. Others obviously did
- they probably saw more of his charm and less of his everyday self.
And this
email is for your interest - to answer Jeanni's statement and hopefully
brighten your day - not looking for assistance, just rambling down my road to
Rat Portage in Keewatin, Manitoba, and Ontario (it took a little war).
If I
live long enough, perhaps I'll write the book I want. In the meantime, I'll
adapt the fictional advice to my needs. I don't want anything too technical,
and I do have a newer version of "The Little Brown Handbook," an
experienced editor, and several beta readers. I will buy Goldberg's book and
probably King's as well; add it to my growing collection: Lamott, Littrell,
Thom, and Zinsser.
Enjoy
your day!
FAMILY HISTORY LESSON
My
article is almost finished – a few loose ends to tie up and a gazillion
revisions. Today, I give you some of my introduction and conclusion – which
should refer back to the introduction in a non-fiction article. I’d like your
take on the bridge analogy – do you like it or dislike it or think it a bit too
much or unnecessary. You don’t have to help me revise, but if you see a typo or
read a sentence that doesn’t make sense to you, you can tell me.
INTRODUCTION
NEW BRUNSWICK
My story bridges the gaps between places, times, and events
in the rather short life spans of Howard Fenwick Holmes, my great-great uncle,
and his wife, Maud Marion English, who moved from place to place and back
again. They had no children, at least that made it to a census taking. They
crossed the bridge from New Brunswick to Ontario and back to New Brunswick;
alone, Fenwick returned to Ontario, and then went to Florida. The events are the
piers girded between the life events I do not know about. The allure of traveling and living far from
the family home exists. Fenwick and
Maud’s interest drew them towards the wilderness of Keewatin and Rainy River,
which soon included Rat Portage of Manitoba and then Ontario. In 1905, the name
of the community changed to Kenora. In
my Holmes family, travel to distant, sometimes unsettled, places, was common.
The reasons differed for individuals and eras:
necessity, a better life, a spirit of adventure, and even running away. Fenwick’s
Puritan immigrant ancestor, Francis Holmes, left England in the 1630s to
eventually settle in the young Stamford, Fairfield, Connecticut. His great-grandfather, Samuel Holmes Sr, loyal to the
king, left Bedford, Westchester, New York, at
the end of the American Revolution, to settle at
Remsheg, Cumberland, on the Northumberland Strait of Nova Scotia, and later to
the community of Westchester. His grandfather, Samuel Holmes Jr, moved hither
and yon, starting about 1820, from Westchester to Amherst, Cumberland, to the
ocean shores of the north-eastern tip of Cape Breton, then to two communities
in New York state. He left his son, Daniel, to be raised by his maternal
grandparents, the Holsteads. Daniel Holmes,
father of Fenwick, left the community of Amherst in the 1830s for the new area
of Petitcodiac, Westmorland, New Brunswick, building his home on what is now an
offramp of the Trans Canada highway, halfway between Petitcodiac and River
Glade. Two of Fenwick’s
sisters, Fanny and Louisa, left for the wilds of Iowa after the Civil War. His
brother, William, ran away to Maine. Adventure was in Fenwick’s genes! In
the 1881 census, Fenwick and Maud lived in the Province of Keewatin – B. No. 3
from Winnipeg River to Western Boundary of District 192 B along C.P.R. How’s
that for an address? The Holmes children, who were
all born in Petitcodiac, Westmorland County, New Brunswick, received their
education from their parents, Daniel and Charlotte (Hoyt) Holmes. The boys
helped out on the farm and the mills. They worked at farming, lumbering, or
with the railroad. Fenwick started with the railroad, and had several other
careers. With the exception of Fenwick, the boys married farmers’ and millers’
daughters. Howard
Fenwick, the youngest of twelve children, was born on April 18, 1857, at the
homestead in Petitcodiac, according to the 1901 census. He was christened on
July 12, 1857;[1]
but his name was recorded as Charles Fenwick. This was the only time I saw
“Charles” in relation to Fenwick. His parents, Daniel and Charlotte (Hoyt)
Holmes, were about forty-four at the time of his birth. His father, a farmer, yeoman, and miller, made
several land transactions, buying and selling, in the Petitcodiac area. In his
late teens, Fenwick left Petitcodiac for Andover, Victoria County, New
Brunswick, where he began his railroad career. He met Miss Maud Marion English,
of Woodstock, Carleton County, about seventy-five kilometers south of Andover.
He was twenty-one and Maud, twenty-three, when they married at St. Luke’s
Church in Woodstock. Rector Rev. T Neales joined Maud and Fenwick in holy
matrimony on June 5, 1878.[1] . . .
CONCLUSION
Howard Fenwick Holmes died in the hospital in Jacksonville,
Florida, on April 20, 1917. He was buried in the Evergreen Cemetery, the day
after his death; alone.[1]
To date, there is no Find a Grave account for him, and I don’t know that he has
a headstone.
I bridged some of the gaps of Fenwick and Maude’s lives,
especially where and how they lived. What remains between the piers of
knowledge are their personal lives, about which I can only wonder. Was Fenwick
the charming individual I make him out to be? Would the young, singing Maud of
church and temperance meetings have married Fenwick had she foreseen the
future? Did they have and lose children? Was Maud knowledgeable about the many
documents she signed, or did she just do as she was told? Why did Fenwick say
several times in newspaper clippings that he the first mayor of Rat Portage,
rather than the first reeve? How did he cope with being a functional alcoholic?
How do I feel about Uncle
Fenwick? I am cautious. I am drawn to his charisma, and
I admire him for sticking to his jobs with his disease of alcoholism. Without
having the opportunity to chat with Auntie Maud, I feel for her, and I wonder
if her life was sometimes difficult. If I knew, that might change my opinion of
Uncle Fenwick. Who knows?
I will probably be away for three
weeks or a month, as I am going on a wee journey during the week of my
chronicle schedule.
This ends
week seven of our centennial virtual celebration of 1926 – 2026.
