Uncle Peg’s Chronicles
September 28, 2023
“In Consequence of their Loyalty”
This photo made me smile this week. This is Greg Hall
and his wife, Julia Nolte, of the Charles R Holmes line, with their two
grandsons, who sure have grown up! They are at a neighbourhood fall festival in
Texas, and they got to pet a kangaroo.
I
am grateful to Jolynda Tresner this week. Surprise, Jolynda! I went
looking for an old email, and in my search, found one from Jolynda dated
October, 2016. I searched for this book recently and couldn’t find it for
looking. In that email, I found the link
to the little book, which I still can’t find by googling. More about the writer
and the poem later on.
I
am grateful, also, to Byron Holmes, for his email about the map I
inserted in last week’s chronicle. Now, I am sure it is the one I want to
include in my Lotham article. Here’s what he had to say: “I'm glad you included that map in the
Chronicle. As a civil engineer, I have seen a lot of old maps in my career.
This is one of the better ones. The title area is some great calligraphy, and
the detail showing some of the topography is well done, especially considering
that was done over 250 years ago. Great north arrow too. Truly a work of both
art and engineering.”
~
My genealogy goals for this week were to:
- Chronicle
several times, and publish on Thursday morning.
- Keep
writing my next article for Generations, which is about the will of
William Lotham. Francis Holmes is mentioned in his inventory both as owing
money and being owed money.
- Continue
indexing old New Brunswick obituaries and death notices for the NBGS
website project.
- Spend
a bit of time on Moore family research.
- Think
about and make lists for a welcome back in person party for our genealogy
society branch in October. It will have a book theme – old
genealogy/history books on a popup library display, and a for sale table
for books we longer need. Two short speakers, five to ten minutes each
tops. Leftover time will be for reacquainting and meeting new people, and
looking at books.
- Find
fourthree speakers for January to May of 2024, for the genealogy society. - In
the evening, after chores are done, edit the Maggie Holmes and Billy
Snider family (second child of Daniel and Charlotte) the same way I did
the Louisa, William and Carrie lines. No rush on that.
I chronicled several times. I worked on
Lotham. I focused on getting ready for the October meeting. I am working on the
sign. “And the sign says . . . : ” Ye SEB BOOKE FAIRE. I am also
preparing the craft. Maybe I’ll remember to post photos next week. I worked on
Uncle Billy’s ancestry. I can find the names, but not much in the way of
sources. Billy’s father and grandfather’s names were Elias, Jr. and Sr.
~
Featured this week are Mark Holmes, Peggy
Steeves, and Paul Worster.
I met Mark in about 2005, on one of my visits
to my cousin and his father, Bob Holmes. He had no clue who I was, and didn’t
see his father while I meandered down his lawn towards the lake. He came
outside to chase this stranger off his property! Fortunately for me, he saw his
dad before he started yelling. Mark lives in Nova Scotia and has three children
of university age – Pierson, Lauryn, and Tanner. Mark likes long early morning
hikes and camping in a tent in the woods in cold weather – maybe all sorts of
weather. He is the son of Bob and Lesley (Knight) Holmes and is in the Charles
R. Holmes line.
I haven’t met Peggy personally but I see her
often on Facebook, proudly showing off her four sons and her grandchildren. She
left Florida a few years back to be closer to her grandchildren. She is the
mother of four sons: Chris, Keith, Greg and Daniel. I call her “the other Peggy”;
like me, she is really Margaret. Peggy is the daughter of Ray and Elizabeth
(Albert) Steeves, and is in the Carrie (Holmes) Steeves line.
I haven’t met Paul yet either, but I have met
his parents, Stoney and Jeanni (Lloyd) Worster, and Jeanni chats about her
three “children,” Ami, Paul, and Matt, often and fondly. Paul and his wife,
Leah Nickel, live in Massachusetts and have two young daughters. He works as a
librarian at Harvard University, and he told me a while back that he likes to
hike. I wonder, Paul, if you still find time to hike. Paul is in the William N
Holmes line.
~
My
Saturday Adventure
Well
before I met Jerry, I had a dream as well. When Fen W Holmes made his first
visit to Petitcodiac, he found Daniel and Charlotte’s headstones, but he
couldn’t find any Holmeses. He wandered the village and asked people, until he
came to the last place he looked. No, Brett, it was not Stu’s Barber Shop. It
was the post office. The postmaster told him that there were no longer any
Holmeses in the vicinity. Fen left a letter with the postmaster, and asked him
to deliver it to any member of the Holmes family, should he meet them. A while
later, the postmaster went to the same funeral as my mother did, remembered,
and scurried back to the office to find the letter and give it to her. The rest
is history: my eventual start of pursuing our Holmes family history.
I
found out that Fen and the postmaster were right – there was no mention of
Daniel Holmes’ contribution to the village and no people of that name. Jerry
had a dream and a vision; I had a wish. I wrote to my cousins, requesting a
contribution, no matter how small, and we raised a significant fund which
turned into a sign that put the Holmes name back into Petitcodiac. It bothered
me, somewhat, that a brook ran through the town, but there was no sign for that
brook.
Jerry’s
vision and my wish have come true. Jerry’s vision is still coming true. They
are by no means done with this park. It’s a place to play, to hike, to disc
golf, to skate, to feed the needy. What comes next? I don’t know. Sometime I
hope they fix up the Holmes Burnham Sawmill Trail so it’s not quite so difficult
to navigate, but that will require significant funds. I’ll keep watching.
The
first sign in the Maple Street Natural Park (bottom photo)
was provided
by the descendants of Daniel Holmes.
~
I enjoyed looking at your daughter photos on my
Facebook scroll this week – a nice change! If you are not on Facebook, one day
this week was National Daughter Week. Here they are, from their visit last
summer. Also, in the photo is perhaps a granddaughter, or maybe another
grandson. We don’t know, and won’t know until baby arrives. Mama Julie and Auntie
Erin Vasseur, of the Charles R Holmes line.
Katherine’s Poems
These poems are lovely in a vintage way, I think. The author, Katherine Eggleston Junkerman Holmes, was the wife of Fenwicke Lindsay Holmes, son of William Nelson Holmes. I don’t know much about her. She was born in Mississippi in 1874, and married Fenwicke in 1919, becoming a mother to his adopted son, Louis. I don’t know her date of death. The link will take you to a brief biography. You can read the book at the second link.
https://sf-encyclopedia.com/entry/eggleston_katharine
https://archive.org/details/fragranceoflove00junk
~
Happy Birthday Wishes
Welcome to your 90s, Janet Cecile (Minella) Nolte.
Janet is in the Charles R Holmes line. She is the Mom of Brett, Celia, Julia
and Emily, and the widow of Ralph Nolte, a fine man, husband, father and grandfather.
It was my pleasure to meet Ralph and Nolte, and Mum was over the moon to see
them again, about fifteen years or so ago. Happy Birthday wishes Janet, for
great health, adventures, and many more birthdays. Thank you, Phyllis
Digennaro, for sharing this news and photograph. On the left is Emily, and on
the right is Julia – the same Julia who is in the header photo. Charles R
Holmes line.
~
William Snider’s Ancestry
This continues my review and update of William and
Margaret (Holmes) Snider in last week’s chronicle.
Elias Snider aka Schneider was the father of Elias
Snider, Jr, and Peter Snider, (and others) and the grandfather of William
Oliver Snider (and others). William O, who I fondly refer to as Uncle Billy as
I never heard him called anything else, married Margaret Eliza Holmes, our Aunt
Maggie. Margaret was the second child of Daniel and Charlotte Holmes.
“To the Honourable the Commissioners appointed to
examine the Claims of persons who have suffered in their rights properties and
professions during the late unhappy dissensions in America, in consequence of
their attachment to the British Government & Loyalty to the King [ ]
&&
The Memorial of Elias Snider & Peter Snider”
(brothers) “late of Pennsylvania, but now of New Brunswick,
humbly shows
That they with two other Brothers were in the year
1777, taken Prisoner by the Americans, when endeavering to seek protection
within the British Lines – That they were tried, condemned & sentenced to
be hanged, but were afterwards pardoned on condition that they would engage in
the American Service, which they did & afterwards escaped at different
times & joined the British Army. That your Memorialists were possessed of
property in Stork Hay & other articles to the amount of one hundred pounds
Pennsylvania Currency and that the same was taken from them and Sold – That
your Memorialists suffered every species of cruelty in consequence of their
Loyalty, expended all the money they possessed in supporting themselves during
their repeated imprisonments, and that their Father was obliged to sell his
Farm to the counsel to defend them before the Judges. That Your Memorialists
faithfully served the King in Col. Allen’s Battn, and continued in
the Service until the Regiment was disbanded. They therefore most humbly [ ]
that the Honorable Commissioners will permit to exhibit their Claim and produce
proofs of their loyalty, Suffering, Services of [hope], when the Commissioners
shall arrive in New Brunswick, and grant them such relief, as they may think
them entitled unto,
And as in duty
bound shall pray:
Witnesses to
the signing Elias
his Snider
X
Ed Winston mark
Mary Winston Peter
his Snider
X
Mark”
Source: Ancestry: UK, American Loyalist Claims, 1776 –
1835 for Elias Snider.
To be continued next chronicle.
The Holmes Brook from
the new Observation Deck
A Hint of Color
Maple Street Park,
Petitcodiac
Don’t you think autumn
is the best time for adventures? I do.
