The Joys and Messes of Puppyhood

 

October 10, 2024

“The Joys and Messes of Puppyhood”

 

 

 

“These were their settlements. And they kept good family records.”

 

Don’t forget to look for the title which is embedded in the chronicle.

 

 

FAMILY ALBUM

 

 

FLORIDA

 

I have seen on my Facebook scroll that Paula, Beth, and Linda are safe. I know that Daphne had to evacuate. Not sure if Grace is in Maine or Florida right now. I may have forgotten others who live in Florida.

 

GRATITUDE

 

                Thanks to Celia, Julia, and Jeanni for your encouraging, inquisitive emails after the last chronicle. Celia mentioned that her mother, Janet Nolte, just turned 91. She’s not the matriarch, but she’s a close second that I know of, second to Elsa Ballantyne. Happy Belated Birthday, Janet! I know, next year you’ll be 89, right?

 

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 remember Mum telling me about the dogs at the farm. I remember two names, Rags and Bones. I don’t really remember dogs being there in my day, though. As we navigate the joys and messes of puppyhood, I wonder how many of us grew up with dogs, cats, other kinds of pets. We had cats, when I was a girl. Without fail, they all disappeared. None of them were house cats, none of them neutered, so they just roamed away, or maybe taken in by someone else or killed by a car. We also had a budgie named Tweetie. Tweetie was a house bird, but she did get out one night in a snowstorm. She flew over to the neighbours and Dad caught her. Or him.  One of those farm dogs, Mum told me, was trained to bring home the cows. By himself. (I don’t know if the dog was a him or a her, so I’ll call him a him.) Gramp Floyd would tell him “go get the cows,” and off he’d go, up the hill, to round them up and herd them back down to the paddock. I guess they can learn just about anything. Soon, I figure, I’ll be able to trust Piper Dax enough to be able to sit down and do some genealogy, research, and writing. But, for now, she must take up a good deal of my attention.

                Is the dog in the photos the one that fetched the cows? I don’t know.

                In the first dog photo, the dog is sitting on the bob sled or sleigh. In the second, you see the same tractor that is in the header photo, as well as Jim and Bryce Holmes, sons of Floyd Holmes of the Charles R Holmes line. Same basic view, winter and summer.                                                                                                                             Haying season is now about done for 2024, but the header photo caught my eye as I browsed. I’d say Charles R is driving the tractor, Cecil or Floyd is on top of the load of hay, and Mum is down below. I can’t identify the buildings in the header photo – any ideas?

 

MUM’S MEMOIRS

 

Wrote a lot of letters to friends in the service- mostly ones overseas. Bryce had gone quite early so wrote often to him, Harold Chapman, Howard, Maurice, David, Austin. It was quite a job getting letters off. Sent airmail forms 10 cents each mostly.           They didn’t have to put stamps on their letters but sometimes a lot of the letter would be cut out, most of the letters were censored. They weren’t supposed to write anything of where they were, when they would be moving or what was happening.

 

THE TWINS

 

The focus, Dad David says, is on eating and growing. They are now two weeks old. And here is their big sister, Hannah, peeking at one of them in the incubator.

 

 

Miss Piper Dax Vasseur

Aka Yellowroses Piper Dax

 

She’s part puffball, part climber and jumper, and always a hungry girl.

 

 

 

Carolyn’s Blog Post

 

I found cousin Carolyn Brown’s recent blog post interesting. It is titled “Death in Canada.”

 

https://carolynbrown.net/blog/?fbclid=IwY2xjawF0qjVleHRuA2FlbQIxMQABHUiItoRrI4R-wRsJhJ8VoRb3j_rbXV1bcxwe306AaUqmtoVJIJy-I4dcCA_aem_aT3skzDZMYNXYIwHOpFMig

 

FAMILY HISTORY LESSON

 

https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-C3Q2-29C8-J?i=617&cat=25350

 

“. . . now in the possession of the said Samuel Holmes situate  lying and being on the West side of Aspy Bay near Sugar loaf Hill in the County aforesaid beginning at a stake on the shore thence bounded by a line running by the magnet north fifty five degrees west one hundred chains thence South eighteen degrees west twenty two chains thence South forty five degrees east one hundred chains more or less to the shore thence by the shore northwestwardly to the place of commencement containing two hundred acres more or less . . .”

This is property at Sugar Loaf, Aspy Bay, Cape North, Cape Breton, Nova Scotia. Samuel Holmes Jr, my third great-grandfather and also Byron Holmes’, was ceded back to the person who sold it to him, as far as I can tell, as Samuel owed money to the late Mr. Bown’s estate and didn’t have the money to continue making payments.

Somewhere in this house is a compass and some graph paper. Where, I don’t know. If I knew, I’d draw it.

Besides my media editor duties, this is all I did for genealogy this week. I transcribed this document, which is an indenture for land which Samuel Holmes Jr made to pay the debt he owed to the estate of William Bown Jr. There is one word I haven’t figured out yet. This will go into the Cumberland County chapter of CCC, and a brief blurb about it into my Daniel article for the family.

 

Sale of land in Cape Breton from Samuel Holmes to the Executors of William Bown in order to pay off his debt to the estate.

 

FamilySearch: Film # 008558417, Images 618, 619. See link at the beginning. There are three pages, I included the first for you. Go to the link to see more, if you wish.

 

Merriam – Webster dictionary

 

Messuage: a dwelling house with the adjacent buildings and curtilage and other adjoining lands used in connection with the household. Anglo-French, probably alteration of Old French mesnage dwelling house, ultimately from Latin mansion . . . [mesnage is the spelling used in this document.]

 

Amenance: (obsolete), behavior, bearing. Anglo-French, action of bringing, from Middle French amener + ance.

 

Indenture Between Samuel Holmes Jr and the Estate of William Bown Jr

 

This Indenture made this twenty first day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand eight hundred and twenty seven, Between Samuel Holmes of Cape North in the County of Cape Breton in the Province of Nova Scotia Yeoman of the one part and Elizabeth Bown Thomas Samuel Bown and William Richard Bown all of Sydney in the county and Province aforesaid Executrix and Executors of the last Will and Testament of William Bown Junior late of Sydney aforesaid Esquire deceased of the other part Whereas the said Samuel Holmes is indebted to the Estate of the said William Bown deceased in a large debt or sum of money towit the sum of Fifty one Pounds seven shillings and six pence and in satisfaction of the sum as it is agreed by and between the parties to these presents that the said Samuel Holmes shall and will convey and transfer to the said Executrix and Executors the premises herein after described. Now this Indenture witnesseth that for and in consideration of the said debt or sum of Fifty one Pounds seven shillings and six pence now remitted by they said Executrix and [end of first page shown below]

 

 

Executors and also of the sum of five shillings of lawful money of Nova Scotia by them in hand well and truly paid unto the said Samuel Holmes at and before the ensealing and delivery of these presents the receipt whereof is hereby acknowledged He the said Samuel Holmes hath granted bargained and sold aliened ____ released and confirmed and by these presents doth grant bargain and sell alien ____release and confirm unto the said Elizabeth Bown Thomas Samuel Bown and William Richard Bown their heirs and assigns all that certain mesnage or tenament with the premises now in the possession of the said Samuel Holmes situate  lying and being on the West side of Aspy Bay near Sugar loaf Hill in the County aforesaid beginning at a stake on the shore thence bounded by a line running by the magnet north fifty five degrees west one hundred chains thence South eighteen degrees west twenty two chains thence South forty five degrees east one hundred chains more or less to the shore thence by the shore northwestwardly to the place of commencement containing two hundred acres more or less, and also the reversion and reversions, remainder and remainders rents and services thereof, and also all the estate right title interest claim and demand whatsoever of him the Said Samuel Holmes of in and to the said premises and of in and to every part and parcel thereof. To have and to hold the said mesnage or tenement and premises within mentioned with the appurtenances unto the said Elizabeth Bown Thomas Samuel Bown and William Richard Bown their heirs and assigns being such Executrix and Executors as aforesaid, to their own purpose use benefit and behoof forever. And the said Samuel Holmes for himself his heirs and assigns doth covenant and grant to and with the said Elizabeth Bown Thomas Samuel Bown and William Richard Bown their heirs executors administrators and assigns, that he the said Samuel Holmes now hath good right full power and lawful authority to grant bargain ____ release and confirm the herein before granted and conveyed premises in manner as the same are herein and hereby sold and conveyed or mentioned or intended so to be. And also that it shall and may be lawful for the said Elizabeth Bown Thomas Samuel Bown and William Richard Bown their heirs and assigns at any time and at all times from henceforth hereafter to enter into have hold occupy possess and enjoy the said mesnage or tenement and premises with all and singular the appurtenances herein and hereby granted and conveyed or mentioned or intended so to be without the lawful let suit trouble action molestation or disturbance of him the said Samuel Holmes or of any other person or persons lawfully claiming or to claim by from or under him or them of any of them, and further that he the said Samuel Holmes and his heirs and all and every other person and persons and his and their heirs any thing having or claiming in the said premises above mentioned or any part thereof by from or under him the said Samuel Holmes shall and will at all times hereafter at the requests and costs of the said Samuel Holmes his heirs and assigns make do and execute or cause to be made done and executed all and every such further and the lawful and reasonable grants acts and amenances in the law whatsoever for the better and more perfect granting conveying and assuming of the said premises hereby granted with the appurtenances unto the said Elizabeth Bown Thomas Samuel Bown and William Richard Bown their heirs and assigns to the only proper use and behoof of the said Elizabeth Bown Thomas Samuel Bown and William Richard Bown their heirs and assigns for ever according to the true intent and meaning of these presents as by the said Elizabeth Bown Thomas Samuel Bown and William Richard Bown their heirs and assigns or their Counsel learned in the law shall be reasonably devised or advised or required. In Witness whereof the parties to those presents have hereunto set their hands and seals the day and year first within mentioned

 

Signed sealed read and                                                                                  his

delivered in presence of                                                                  Samuel X Holmes

Edm^d M. Dodd                                                                                               mark

W^m Nagles                         

 

Ent^d on Record at Five OClock afternoon on the twenty first day of May 1827 on the oath of Edm^d M. Dodd of Sydney one of the subscribing Witnesses, by me

 

                                                                                                                Charles P Ward Dep Reg^r

 

[Edmund Murray Dodd can be found in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.]

 

This ends week forty-two of our centennial virtual celebration.