Uncle Peg’s Chronicles
June 15, 2023
“Babies Are Never Born Before Mothers. Ever.”
This photo made me smile this week – just imagining
all the scenarios. Dad is Derek Sylvester, of the Charles R. Holmes line. His
son is a few months older than my Winston.
This chronicle is important to our family genealogists.
New this week are Roger Holmes and Brett
Nolte.
In weather news is Tropical Storm Brett. Will it
become Hurricane Brett? We have our own Brett.
I met Roger Holmes at the 2016 reunion, but I
feel like I’ve known him for ages. Roger is in the William Holmes line, and is
the son of Carlton and Gladys (Clements) Holmes. His family knew Fen’s family
and Fen did everything he could to learn about the Holmes family. As Roger
lived in the vicinity of our Holmes ancestors of Bedford, Westchester County, Fen
gave him his marching orders, sending him to archives and libraries and whatnot
in the vicinity to dredge up information of said ancestors. I don’t think Roger
has worked on our genealogy too much, but he has helped me. He is a DNA match
to several of us, and he would obviously be a DNA match to Daniel Holmes, for
he is our Daniel Holmes lookalike. Roger is married to Bonnie (Meller), and they
have a son and two daughters, and I’m not sure about grandchildren.
I met Brett Nolte when I was well into my teens
and he was starting into his teens. I can’t say I really remember their visit,
but he does, perhaps because it was such a long drive from Houston to
Hillgrove. The Nolte family does enjoy travel. I met him again in either 2008
or 2010, after some emailing back and forth. His visits in the new millennium
have certainly been memorable. The Noltes have no cousins on their mother’s
(Holmes) side, but they have several adopted cousins in the Ella and Floyd
families. He is an awesome uncle to several nieces and nephews, and I’ll
include Erin (who only met Doubting Brett once, and had to meet him to convince
him she is a real person) and Julie, who knows him quite well. I do hope some
day he can meet Winston and Eliphalet. Brett is in the Charles R. Holmes line,
and is the son of Ralph and Janet (Minella) Nolte.
~
My hearty gratitude to Gretchen Wentzell Lowerison,
for her quick reply to my Ancestry message and her curiousity. She has our
Daniel Holmes in her family tree to see if there is a connection to her brick
wall, James Holmes and his wife Elizabeth Bennett, and she did a good job on
our family. In case you haven’t noticed, many people don’t.
~
My genealogy goals for this week were:
·
Chronicle several times, and publish on Thursday morning.
·
Research Anna Rand.
·
Keep researching and writing
about Daniel Holmes for the “Where There’s a Will” article.
·
Send the booklet about
the William N Holmes line to Elizabeth for the Lincoln Historical Society.
·
Continue indexing old New
Brunswick obituaries and death notices for the NBGS website project.
·
Get ready to scan Uncle Billy’s
guest book for the NBGS website.
·
Revisit “Fairfield” of CCC.
·
Spend a bit of time on Moore
family research.
·
Plan a genealogy outing to
Portage Vale for this Saturday, with a rain day next week just in case, as we
will be traipsing through cemeteries. Local folks will be invited to visit the
newly cleared out pioneer cemetery of our Ketchum ancestors.
·
Finish up work on Elizabeth
Wright and Samuel Holstead. Lots of time needed for one little paragraph.
~
I spent most of
my research time reviewing Marie’s “Holmes Family Tree” this week. I sent her a
summary of my thoughts and in so doing, renewed my commitment to do and
document the best research I can. I learned a few things from this time well
spent. Hopefully, Marie, you will too. I started revising the Fanny Holmes
Ballantyne line, to bring it up to consistency with the three lines I did for
the Lincoln Historical Society. I will admit to finding several Geneanet
sources in my Ballantyne tree, and yes, I removed the source and the data, with
regrets. I learned an interesting tidbit and shared it with you further down. I
did spend a bit of time on Daniel’s probate. I’m stymied on quite a few words,
which I believe you will understand when I consider it finished and ready to
share with those of you who are interested.
I also connected
with Gretchen Wentzell Lowerison, who has our family in her tree, and gave her
some hints. I don’t think we are of the same Daniel Holmes, but it would appear
that her husband has some common DNA with my Colpitts family and also the
descendants of Samuel Jr and his second wife, Elizabeth McElmon – Jane’s line.
Darn. A day of
rain in the forecast for Saturday, “genealogy in Portage Vale” day. We prayed
for rain. We got it. We are still getting it.
I didn’t do much
on the rest of the stuff.
~
Graduation
Congratulations
to Benjamin Grant Burden, son of Keith and Alisha Bell Burden and grandson of
proud grandmother, Peggy Steeves. He graduated from South Kingston High School
in Kingston, Rhode Island. His plans are to join the United States Army. Ben also
won the Bob Kavanaugh Team Player Award at the Athletic Awards Banquet.
DIGGING DEEPER
I am pondering
what to do to celebrate the centenaries of the five family gatherings held by
our ancestors, the descendants of Daniel and Charlotte in the 1920s: from 1924
to 1928. That’s only half a year away. Back then, our ancestors sometimes
invited other family members to join them. Much as I enjoyed our gathering in
2016, I’m not sure I’m up to planning another big reunion. I’m thinking maybe
that we should hold smaller gatherings closer to home, and sharing news and
photos, just like our ancestors did. And, while we are at it, include friends
and family members, just like they did. It’s all at the “on my pillow” stage
right now. If you have ideas, let me know. Send me an email or stick a post in
our Facebook group.
I’m not going to
set a completion date for CCC – but one thing I would like to do is create an
updated family tree. This, of course, is a tree that constantly changes.
Births. Marriages/partnerships/divorces. Deaths. Just like a real tree, a
family tree is a growing, changing thing, but one thing that should never
happen is to let it die. How does a family tree die? From the roots of the
past, to the tallest limb of our patriarchs and matriarchs, to the various
extended branches, to the individual leaves – it needs nurture, pruning,
fertilizer, attention, and upkeep. Neglect will kill it.
What it doesn’t
need is the grafting in of the invasive species of errors. Is that even
possible? Probably not entirely, but I will sure try.
As I prepared
the three booklets for the Lincoln Historical Society, I reviewed each
individual who would appear in them. It took much longer than I expected, but
it gave me an idea of the who, what, when, where, why, and how our big tree
should actually look, and what it should contain. Yes, I found some errors.
Hopefully, what I have provided is correct.
The tree won’t
have the stories, only the vitals. The stories will go into CCC. It will be
humongous. It will eventually be up to our future genealogists to nurture. Who
will they be? Don’t forget to include your children in family history discussions,
cemetery visits, and family historical places.
I’m going to
start with some of the invasive species; people who never actually grafted into
our tree. Although these may have been nice people, they don’t belong. There is
no sap of DNA. I realize that some people did join our tree as in-laws and
never had children: Ralph, Marie and I discussed this just last week. They do
belong. I’m talking about never being part of our tree but someone said they
were and unsuspecting genealogists added them to the point that they are now
accepted as fact. The word is putative: “generally accepted or reputed to be.” They belong in different trees, but not ours.
I am going to carefully continue the process of determining the validity of
everyone in our tree. Actually, I’ve tried to do that for a long time, but now
I want to be proactive about it. If you are a genealogist working on a
different tree, I hope to motivate you to “dig deeper” for your own tree.
I am going to
mention names, to suggest to our own genealogists to check their tree. I don’t
expect you to just take my word for it – I hope you will “dig deeper.”
I started this
week with Marie, working on Anna Rand. Did Anna Rand exist? Yes. But, I am
convinced that she is an invasive species that surface genealogists putatively
added to their tree. Who started that rumor, and why? I doubt I’ll figure out
the who, but I do see the why. Let’s look below the surface, and give some
breathing space to those roots.
Who
was Anna Rand?
There were
several Ann and Anna Rands, all of whom I located in Massachusetts, with
varying dates of birth; most give her date of death as 1810.
Kudos to Marie,
who, upon further digging, told me that as she lived in Massachusetts, but her
alleged husband lived in New York, she probably didn’t belong in our tree. That’s
a great start. As a source, she gave Ancestry Family Trees, from here on
abbreviated AFT. AFT is not a source, it is merely a suggestion. If you haven’t
removed her, Marie, you can now. Fen will breathe a sigh of relief.
Kudos to
Annmarie, who did not give Nathaniel Holmes a wife at all. Better to include
nothing than an error.
Carolyn and
Ralph, you did, and your sources were solely AFT.
Sarah Hein (of
the Ancestry tree Buffam/Bailey), not in our group, used as her sources AFT and
Sons of the American Revolution (SAR) application of Leon Woodbury Rand, descendant
of Bartlett Holmes. I looked this over and dismissed it. You can decide. She
gave Ann’s date of birth as 1770, and her son Samuel’s date of birth as 1744.
Samuel Holmes, born c 1744, IS our ancestor. His birth, however, was not before
his mother’s.
Rozella is not
in our group but is known to some of us and is part of our family. She used, as
her sources, AFT, Massachusetts Compiled Birth, Marriages, and Deaths, and Find
A Grave. She tried, but she did not consider the places and dates. She gave Anna’s
vitals as (1725 – 1810), even though she used FAG as her source. FAG gives
Anna’s dates as 1771 – 1810, and burial place as the Mayflower Cemetery,
Duxbury, Plymouth, Massachusetts.
Did Anna Rand
exist? Did she marry Nathaniel Holmes? Did she have a son, Samuel? The answer
to all those questions is yes. Bless her heart. She may have been a nice lady.
She died young, at age 29. Her husband, Nathaniel Holmes, probably no relation
to us, died relatively young at age 47. Their son, Samuel Holmes, was allegedly
born 1813 and died in 1888. They are all
buried in the above said Mayflower Cemetery.
I realize that
not everyone knows that our Nathaniel Holmes lived in Westchester County, New
York. Not everyone knows that the Francis Holmes’ colonial descendants lived
most of their lives in either Connecticut or New York.
I realize that
many of you did not know that there is no record of Francis Holmes coming to
the colonies on the Mayflower. The Rand family may have.
My intent is not
to criticize but to critique. Fix our trees. You are not obligated to change
your trees, but I do urge you to study Anna Rand and make your own decision
based on the facts that you find. Think about the facts. Do they make sense? Do
they corelate with other sources? Babies are never born before mothers. Ever.
People can and did move around, but many of them settled and stayed. Do the
places make sense?
The Find a Grave
website is a useful tool. It is maintained by volunteers and is often correct
but does sometimes contain errors. The Find a Grave numbers for Anna Rand and
Nathaniel Holmes are 142531195 and 142531176 – go to Find a Grave and type in
those memorial numbers in the given box.
I urge you to
challenge me on any person or fact in my ancestry tree – “Francis Holmes Family
Tree.” I welcome the challenge.
If, in future
posts like this, you would rather I not mention your name, let me know and I
won’t.
~
ADAM
BALLANTYNE AND JANET WILSON
I was doing a
bit of work on James W Ballantyne, husband of Frances Ann (Fanny) Holmes. Fanny
was the first child of Daniel and Charlotte (Hoyt) Holmes. Two people might
have special interest in this: Leanne Gaines and Brenda Marquez – plus our
genealogists.
Adam Ballantyne
and Janet Wilson were the parents of James W Ballantyne. Adam was born and died
in Roxburghshire, Scotland. Janet was born in Scotland and died in Ontario,
Canada.
These are kirk
records for Castleton, Roxburghshire, Scotland. They are filed alphabetically,
and are interspersed with other kinds of records. I learned some new words,
although the meaning of antenuptial fornication was what I anticipated. Note
the differences in the male and female records. These are a few indexed details
from the records. I could send for an actual record for £5, but I don’t think I need them for anything other than curiousity.
Castleton
Parish Records
Name:
Adam Ballantyne
Date:
08/01/1832
Case
type: Fornication
Occupation:
Address:
Ovenshank
Role:
Compeared
Details:
‘ Compeared, Adam Ballantyne residing at Ovenshank, desiring to be taken upon
discipline by our Session; in consequence of his having attended the Church for
a very short time previous, he was interrogated if he intended to adhere to the
Church in the time coming, when he answered that he did; whereupon he and Janet
Wilson his wife were rebuked for the sin of antenuptial fornication and
absolved.’
Other
names: Adam Ballantyne; Janet Wilson
https://www.oldscottish.com/castleton.html#AdamBallantyne
Castleton
Parish Records
Name:
Janet Wilson
Date:
08/01/1832
Case
type: Fornication
Occupation:
Address:
Role:
Mother Compeared
Details:
Adam Ballantyne’s wife [see his entry on this date]
Other
names: Adam Ballantyne; Janet Wilson
https://www.oldscottish.com/castleton.html#JanetWilson
Compeare:
(meaning 2) To appear before a
congregation for rebuke or for examination by a jury. Dictionary of the Scots
Language. https://www.dsl.ac.uk/entry/snd/compear
This blog
post talks about Scottish kirk session records, including antenuptial
fornication. http://bluethistlegenealogy.com/antenuptial.htm
I delved
into the lives of Adam and Janet. I thought that James was their first son, but
his birth didn’t seem to be illegitimate. I dug deeper, and I found a record
for the birth and baptism of a son, William. William’s date of birth was 22 Nov
1831. The parents were absolved on 8 Jan 1832. William was baptized five days
later, on 13 January, 1832.
Another
brother was born in 1840, and named William. This leads me to believe that the
first William probably died before he was ten years of age.
It is easy
to judge our ancestors’ actions or the cultural climate they lived in. The
family historian, however, must be objective. Our ancestors did not live in their
eras and place, and to study their lives you must know about the culture and
laws of their time – not ours. That involves digging deeper.
~
TO
OUR GENEALOGISTS –
IT IS IMPORTANT TO READ THIS OCCASIONALLY
We have several
genealogists in our group – some beginners, some intermediate, some expert.
Some are actively researching and some have set it aside. I urge you,
especially if you are actively researching, to give this a read or review. One
thing we need to strive for is accuracy, and following these guidelines will
help.
I wrote a bloggy
type post in our NBGS Facebook group about the Genealogy Proof Standard. It is
something I forget about sometimes. I found three sites: the first one is what
the Genealogy Proof Standard (GPS) is; the second is a layperson’s take on it;
and the third gives an example of how to use it.
https://bcgcertification.org/ethics-standards/
https://www.ngsgenealogy.org/wp-content/uploads/NGS-Folder/NGS-Monthly-Johnson-Gen-Proof-Standard-Jan2016.pdf
~
My fingers are crossed for
Saturday at Portage Vale. Have you any cemetery plans for this summer?
Salisbury Pioneer Cemetery, where rest the
bones of Lewis and Lucy (Jones) Steeves,
parents of Charles Alfred ‘Alf’ Steeves.
Photo by Peg, May 2017
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