Uncle Peg’s Chronicles
April 4, 2024
“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.
“Tthe Old Familiar Furniture, the Tools
and Farm Implements, and the Doodads”
FAMILY ALBUM
Letters to Mum. See 2024 -2028 section.
GRATITUDE
Grateful to Annmarie. I can’t believe I forgot about our
little sleuths’ group. T’was there I found my stash of history that I knew I
had read before.
Thanks, Jane, for proofreading. I’m famous for being off by
a century.
Had a great conversation with Marvin about why New
Brunswickers joined with the Confederate as well as the Union sides in the
Civil War. We both learned something.
MY GENEALOGY GOALS
- Chronicle
several times, and publish on Thursday morning.
- Make some
corrections in regards to the March 14th chronicle.
- Keep
writing my next article for Generations, which is about the will of
Daniel Holmes.
- Spend
a bit of time on Moore family research: “Three Peas in a Moore Pod.”
- In
the evening, after chores are done, edit the Charles and Phoebe family
genealogy.
- Index
old newspapers for NBGS. On hold.
- Index
Riverbank Visitors for NBGS. Put old newspapers on hold while I do this.
1924 to
1928
Those
are the years that our great or great-great grandparents 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.
2024 to 2028
I am all het up again
this week. The wheels are spinning, but they started off slowly and gradually
worked their way up to a tumbleweed in a Maritime breeze. (We don’t really have
tumbleweeds here. We do have big breezes, though.) They started turning last
Wednesday evening, March 27th, at a genealogy meeting of one of our
branches about advances in DNA technology. The speaker said that there is
technology in the works that will soon (I don’t know how soon) be available for
the genealogist to submit samples of DNA for their late family members. Already
they have used stamps on envelopes well over a hundred years old to extract DNA
of the person who licked the stamp. The
following morning, I mentioned that in our Gen Society Facebook group. Soon the
like icons appeared, and then the conversations. I was happy that I posted. I
pulled out my letters that I keep in my fireproof box, to see what envelops
with stamps I could find. I found a couple from Dad, one from Uncle Jim Holmes,
one from Aunt Nan Holmes Lutes, and one from my grandfather, Floyd Holmes. I
thought to myself, this will probably be expensive, and I haven’t any old
letters that would help me in my research. Or,
would I? Last evening, those wheels started tumbling.
Floyd.
Son of Charles Robert Holmes and Phoebe Jane McMonagle.
Phoebe. Wife of
Charles and Daughter of Edwin McMonagle and Elizabeth MNU. (Maiden name
unknown.)
Edwin. Parents
unknown. Suspicious that he is related to Hugh John McMonagle of Lot # 6, who
remembered Phoebe McMonagle in his will, for when she came of age.
Mum, me, and Janet Minella
Nolte – lots of matches to people with the last name “Corey.” Is there a Corey
connection?
Janet
Minella Nolte – her unknown grandfather. Any old stamps, Janet?
My Heritage seems to
be the company driving this technological/scientific initiative to provide DNA
results to genealogists, but perhaps others are involved as well. I heard
figures of over $2000 to have this test done. I will not pay that much money
for it, but perhaps, as the technology improves and comes to market, the price
will come down. My
ask this week is, whether or not you are interested in genealogy, you look for
and preserve old letters from your ancestors, direct and collateral. If you are
not interested, send them, or at least the envelopes, to someone in your family
who is, along with the name and dates of the sender, if you know them. The
stamps must be intact, and if the seal is unbroken, don’t tear it. There is
saliva on the seal as well. There
is always a chance that the sender of the letter was not the licker of the
stamp and the envelope, but we genealogists won’t know until we try. I often
look at my DNA matches for people who connect to my Holmes family. And perhaps,
I will eventually have to join My Heritage. DNA
testing is a genealogical tool. It should be used alongside traditional
research methods. This is something for the foreseeable future; it is something
to anticipate. Do you have brick walls in your lines? Look for envelopes. No
brick walls, but you have envelopes? No interest? Please do not throw them
away. Interested? Go to this link and
listen to the first 17 minutes:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=jKaQagg2efM
EXCERPT FROM MY DANIEL ARTICLE
A work in progress - unrevised.
See how it grows – I have added a section called “probate.”
My article is officially way too long – for the magazine, I
will have to cut, cut, cut.
For us, I will have to cut. We’ll see how the revision
goes.
When
the executors, Murray Keith and Thomas Herrett, entered the farmstead of Daniel
Holmes on that spring day, they didn’t find much of value to record. Oh, the
old familiar furniture, the tools and farm implements, and the doodads were
still there. They probably sat for a spell at the kitchen table, warming up
with a cup of tea and a sweet served by Hattie, with her young’uns in tow. The
older children worked away at their lessons and chores. Abner gave them a tour
of the house and the outbuildings. Everything was still there, but it now
belonged to Abner and Hattie; it just needed to be made official. What actually
still belonged to the late Daniel? A horse and a sheep; a good harness and an
old, ratty one; a carriage and a sleigh; and a watch and chain were the only
items they recorded as goods and chattels.
PROBATE
New Brunswick
County of Westmorland, S. S.
To Murray Keith and Thomas Herrett
Esqs
GREETING:
You are hereby empowered to take an inventory of all the Real Estate Goods,
chattles, and credits of which Daniel Holmes late of Salisbury in
the County aforesaid, Farmer died seized or possessed within the
Province, and according to your best skill and judgement truly appraise the
same, which when completed you will deliver to the Executors of said
deceased, to be returned, together with this warrant in three months from the
date hereof.
Given
under my hand this second Day of April A.D., 1883
A E
Oulton
Judge of Probates
County of Westmorland
NEW BRUNSWICK
County of Westmorland, S. S.
The above-named appraisers
personally appeared before me, and made oath that they would faithfully perform
the services to which they are appointed by the above warrant.
Fred W. Emmerson
A Commissioner for taking affidavits to
be read
In the Superior
Court.
FACTS
I
would dearly love to know who inherited the watch and chain.
From various wills, I have
gleaned insights into the lives of my direct ancestors and collateral lines.
Some of these gleanings are the financial statuses of the testators. You might
generally determine how much money and assets they had. As a retired bank
employee, I have some idea about budgets and wealth management. “Money” was and
is, of course, not only cash. It is assets and liabilities: belongings, land,
debts, etc. These are often covered in the inventory. To know a person’s true
financial wealth, however, I would think further study would be necessary. How
did the ancestors compare financially to their neighbours and peers. Did their
financial status change as they aged? In Daniel’s case, you need to know that
he took care of financial business in the years preceding his death. You might
consider the conversion rate from pounds to New Brunswick monies to Canadian
monies. This intrigues me, but not enough to ever be a true focus of my
genealogical research. I am quite happy to know if they were generally
impoverished, comfortable, or wealthy, and if their situations changed over
their lifetimes.
- Daniel inherited a piece of land. Did he sell it? Haven’t
found that yet, but I assume he did.
- Daniel purchased, worked a sawmill, and sold a boggy,
forested piece of land that is now the village of Petitcodiac. I’ve spent
plenty of time in the village, and with some of you, walked the soggy
forest. He was about twenty. He must have had some cash or means to pay
for it.
- Daniel purchased land along the Post Road and built a
home that remained standing until the province removed it to install ramps
on the new highway.
- Daniel purchased three original lots in Hill Grove.
These he sold to a son and two (I think, more work needed) sons-in-law. He
issued mortgages to assist them.
- Daniel sold all of his land before he died, even his
farmstead. It did, however, remain in the family until #3.
- Daniel remembered all of his living children in his
will.
The photos in this section will not be in the article. The
numbered comments will be written in narrative form. And you will have to ignore them. Blogger has a mind of it's own.
FAMILY HISTORY LESSON
CORRECTIONS TO THE CHRONICLE OF MARCH 14. PART
TWO OF THREE.
Jane Williams advised me that I had three
errors in my genealogy. I am looking into the errors she mentioned; if you keep
track of these chronicles, please take note.
“Marinda
died May of 1858. She did not die in the first half of the 1860's. She was not
in the 1860 census.“
Marinda is
Betsy Marinda Holmes Witherell Freeman, daughter of Samuel Holmes Jr and his
second wife, Elizabeth McElman. She is also the half-sister of Daniel Holmes.
Did she know that? Did Daniel know that? The McElman name is used
interchangeably in records with McElmon.
I did a
brief review of Marinda. I don’t have exact dates of birth and death for her,
only circa dates. Here is a brief timeline from my tree.
- Abt.
1828, Betsy ‘Marinda’ Holmes was born to Samuel Holmes Jr and his wife,
Elizabeth (McElman) Holmes, in Brownville, Jefferson County, NY. She was
Elizabeth’s fourth child and Samuel’s sixth child.
- March
1847, Marinda married Henry G Witheril in Machias, Cattaraugus County, NY.
Henry was born in 1810.
- January
1849, Henry and Marinda’s first child, George R Witheril, was born in
Yorkshire, Cattaraugus County, NY.
- June
1851, Henry and Marinda’s second child, Henry Eugene Witheril, was born in
Yorkshire, Cattaraugus County, NY.
- August
1851, Henry G Witheril died in Yorkshire, Cattaraugus County, New York.
- ____,
Marinda married Franklin E Freeman, born 1836 and died 1916.
- 1856,
Marinda’s third child and Franklin’s first child, Franklin Loyal, was born
in Yorkshire, Cattaraugus County, NY
- 1858,
Marinda’s fourth child and Franklin’s second child, Mary M, was born in
Cattaraugus County, NY. I have Machias, unsourced.
- Abt.
1858, Marinda died.
What is
our source for Marinda’s death? It is a Surrogate Court record, dated May 9, 1859,
of Cattaraugus County. Re: the Guardianship of George R Wetherly (sic) and
Eugene Wetherly (sic) – minors under the age of fourteen years. “Marinda
Freeman of the town of Yorkshire in said county, the mother of George R
Wetherly (sic) and Eugene Wetherly (sic) of ____, deceased, residing in the
town of Yorkshire . . . “
The line
before “deceased” is left blank.
Marinda
died between the birth of Mary in 1858 and the court record of May 9, 1859 –
probably closer to the date of the court record. She does not appear in the
1860 Census. Her husband, Franklin E Freeman, and father of two of her
children, lived with his parents and without children in the 1860 Census. I
don’t know where his children were. Marinda’s cause of death is unknown at this
time.
This ends
week fourteen of our centennial virtual celebration.
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