Uncle Peg’s Chronicles
January 9, 2025
“Les Tailleurs de Pierre”
“These
were their settlements. And they kept good family records.”[i]
Don’t
forget to look for the title which is embedded in the chronicle.
GRATITUDE
So
many of you responded to my last chronicle – I’d leave out someone for sure. Do
you remember Romper Room? Waiting for your name to be called out? Although
there were many, I am going to call out only two names this time. Annmarie will
recognize them: Denis Savard and Kim MacDermid Campbell. Fellow researcher
Denis, and new cousin, Kim. What a great rabbit hole we found!
FAMILY ALBUM
At the
2016 reunion in South China, Maine, we visited the cemetery where James and Augusta
(Corey) Holmes were buried. Grace March, descendant of James and Augusta, gave
us a history.
Left to
right: Stoney Worster, Ami Slater, Jim Oksen, Meg Slater, Andy Slater, Kristin
Holmes Jeanni Worster behind her, Brook and Grace March, Trish Holmes, Douglas
Holmes, Pat Booth, Heather Dropps, Glenn Holmes, Karl Holmes, Kevin Dropps,
Brenda Holmes behind Kevin, and Pauline Sarrazin.
1924 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.
2024 to 2028
Holmes
Gathering in South China, Maine, 1925
Photo coloured
at My Heritage
Standing: Eliza
Wilson Jones Allard, John Glocksen, Maude Holmes Glocksen, Walter Holmes, Anna
Geitz Holmes, Harry Holmes, Roy Ballantyne, Kingsley Ballantyne, Rugh
Ballantyne, Laura Hall Ballantyne, Mary Weatherbee Holmes, Kate Warren
Ballantyne
Sitting: Della
Holmes Chadwick, Augusta Corey Holmes, Corey Holmes, James Holmes, Peter
Holmes, Jean Weatherbee
One hundred years ago, our ancestors, the
remaining children of Daniel and Charlotte Holmes and their grandchildren, were
planning their second reunion. This year, they chose to go to South China,
Maine, where James and Augusta (Corey) Holmes made their last home. Some of us
who attended the 2016 reunion stood in front of that home. I wondered why no
one came out of the house to ask what we were doing there. We walked down the
street where they lived. We met new family members and reacquainted with
others. As far as I
know, from the picture above, only James and Peter attended that reunion. I
know Charles stayed home as he and his wife had a big celebration of their own
planned, with all nine of their children returning home to Hill Grove, so they
probably couldn’t afford to go. William and Carrie must have had their reasons,
as well. I
wrote in “A Homestead on the Old Post Road,” page 33: “Several grandchildren
and great-grandchildren of Louisa, Hattie, James and William’s families came to
this reunion. I love a reunion where several generations take part. I think it
is important to keep family memories alive, keep in touch, and carry on
traditions. James and Augusta must have been pleased that their children made
it home for the reunion. Della lived nearby, but Harry and Anna came from New
York and Maude and John, from Kentucky. It amazes me now how far people will
travel now for a gathering, but it amazes me even more how far they traveled in
the 1920s.” Page 34: “‘Who
were all of these people?’ I wondered. Eliza Allard was the widow of Abner
Jones, and the step-mother of Abner and Hattie Jone’s children, the only mother
the youngest children probably remembered. John Glocksen was Maude Holmes’
husband and James and Augusta’s son-in-law. Walter Holmes was William and
Anna’s son, the husband of Mary (Weatherbee), and the guardian of Jean
Weatherbee. Anna (Geitz) Holmes was the second wife of Harry Holmes, son of
James and Augusta, and I believe their son, Corey, sat in front of James and
Augusta in the front row. Roy Ballantyne was Daniel and Kate (Warren)
Ballantyne’s son and Robert and Louisa Ballantyne’s grandson. Kingsley
Ballantyne, son of Robert and Louisa (Holmes) Ballantyne, was there with his
wife, Laura (Hall), and daughter, Ruth. Della Chadwick, James and Augusta’s
daughter, sat to the left of her parents, and Peter Holmes was on their right , holding little Jean.”
The 2016
reunion, standing in front of James and Augusta’s home in the 1920s. Jolynda
took the first photo; I took the second.
OUR LOYALIST -
ACADIAN CONNECTION
Annmarie Holmes put a lady named Kim in touch with me. Kim also
contacted an acquaintance of mine, Denis Savard, who is a genealogist
specializing in The Mothers of Acadia and Les Filles du Roi genealogy and
history. That threw me for a loop, temporarily. Kim found she has Acadian DNA
and wondered how to follow the trail to her Acadian ancestors, and how they
linked to the Holmes family. I set out to discover if she was a descendant of
Samuel and Betty Holmes Sr, and how she might relate to us.
At first, I chased the Zorobabel Holmes line, and I’m not done with it
yet. Although it doesn’t fit into my plan (2024 – Daniel and Charlotte; 2025 –
Samuel Jr and Phoebe, Betty, and Sophia; 2026 – Samuel Sr and Elizabeth), I
can’t leave it or I might lose it. I found, in a land petition by Zorobabel
Holmes in 1814, that Zorobabel had two children. In the 1827 census of Nova
Scotia, by heads of family, he had a family of nine, six males and 3 females. I
assume that means he had at least seven children: five boys and two girls. So
far, I am satisfied that he had a son, Joseph and a son, Daniel.
Working with Denis, we discovered a John Holmes in Minudie, Cumberland
County, Nova Scotia. Is this John of our family? If so, we are connected to
Kim, and we have an Acadian connection that I was unaware of. I’ll probably go
back and forth on this for a while. I know that there were at least three other
unrelated Holmes families in Nova Scotia, and I need to be very careful not to
intermingle them with ours. I am now confident that John of Minudie is the son
of Samuel and Elizabeth (Fountain) Holmes.
As I said, I knew about Zorobabel’s son, Joseph. Using Artificial
Intelligence, aka AI, I found Daniel Holmes, son of Zorobabel, and cousin of
our Daniel. Daniel left a wife, Mary, and two children, William and Mary
Elizabeth. Mary remarried to Mr. Joseph Bourgeois of Minudie. I have been
transcribing the probate of this Daniel Holmes, who died testate, but his
wishes seem to have been ignored, likely of a mistake he made in his will.
There’s a lot of drama. Judge of Probate, Charles Inglis Halliburton, Esquire,
must have been a patient man.
Mary, husband of Daniel, was the daughter of John Holmes; they were
first cousins. If I could locate an
early book of Cumberland County Catholic Church records, I should be able to
confirm that Daniel and Mary were married by special dispensation by the
priest. Right now, I am researching the Catholic Church records that start in
the late 1840s, page by page by page. There were so few Acadiens back then,
with only a smattering of surnames. It gets confusing.
From Denis - a document at the Acadian website. He said she was buried
at Scoudouc, NB. I cannot confirm that. Probably the tombstone is gone.
“Quick translation: ‘This day the 28th Jan. 1872 was interred in the
cemetery of this parish Marie Homs spouse of Joseph Bourgeois issued from the
legitimate marriage of late John Homs & Colett Melançon, died the day
before yesterday at the age of 55. Pierre Melanson and André Melanson witnesses
can't sign.’ It is very rare that we give filiation in burial records, outside
the (late) spouse. Very lucky.”
This is probably confusing to you. Just know that I have been digging deep
into our Acadien genealogy through the youngest son of Samuel Sr and Betty, and
working with an expert on the “Mothers of Acadia.” I have learned much. You
know that I like to compare compare compare to make sure I have the right
people. What did our Loyalist/Acadien blended relatives have in common?
·
Place – the French communities of Cumberland – mainly Shulie, Ragged
Reef, Lower Cove, Joggins, River Hébert, and Minudie. Our English speaking
relatives were more in the center in Amherst, Nappan, Athol, Lower Forks, or
communities in southeastern New Brunswick. Map is a snip of Google maps.
·
Language - The men and most of their descendants mostly gave French and
Catholic on the census records, as well as the occupation of quarrymen or
masons.
·
Occupation - Our John Holmes’s family and his nephew Daniel’s family
were mostly tailleurs de pierre, quarry men and stone masons. The main product
of the early quarries in this area was grindstones, which were a necessity in
making and maintaining sharp tools.
I have been to
Joggins. I chaperoned a school trip oh, maybe 25 years ago. At the time, you
were allowed to take out the number of fossils you could hold in your hand. I
did not find a fossil; I wish I had known to look for discarded deformed
grindstones, even though I could not have held them in my hand.
The DNA numbers confirm Kim’s descendancy from this family. Denis is
positive that Kim’s ancestor, Charlotte Holmes, wife of Robert Patterson, is
the daughter of John and Scholastique (Melanson) Holmes. I am convinced that
she is of that line, somehow. He’s probably right. (Sorry, Kim. Something just
keeps niggling at me; I think it’s mostly the English and Protestant, and the
lack of any record to confirm at the point.) We are both convinced, using
records and circumstantial evidence, that James, husband of Elizabeth Bennett,
and alleged up until now the son of Zorobabel, is actually the son of John.
This should be of interest to Carolyn Brown.
You can learn more about the
history of the Acadians in Cumberland County at http://www.acadian-home.org/Chignecto-region.html You can learn more about grindstones in Joggins at https://journals.lib.unb.ca/index.php/ag/article/view/atlgeol.2009.001/11939
Scroll down to Early History of
Grindstone Quarrying #35 and Fig. 12.
Athol is where Zorobabel Holmes is buried. Those of our
family who married Acadiens generally lived in the area on the left, along the
river.
Zorobabel and John Holmes were sons of Samuel Holmes Sr. and
Betty Fountain. They were brothers of Samuel Holmes Jr. and others (Stephen,
James, Daniel).
FAMILY HISTORY LESSON
Excerpts from the Probate of the Will of Samuel Holmes Sr, dated 26
September, 1796
Since learning how to use FamilySearch’s Experimental Labs, I have come
across the probate of Samuel Holmes Sr. The will, we already knew about.
Here’s the will and the beginning of the probate.
Image 198
This is the last Will & testament of me Samuel Holmes of Westchester
In the County of Cumberland Freeholder –
First I will and desire that all my Just Debts and funeral Expenses
Shall be paid By my Executors Herein named – I give and desire and bequeath to
my wife Betty Holmes the Right of Land that I love on with all the Improvements
& Buildings there upon Said Right of land I give, desire and bequeath to my
Said Wife all the personal property that I know (sic) hold during her Life or
widdohood Excepting three pounds and no more because I gave two Hundred &
fifty akers of land to him Sumtime agone this three pound I desire and bequeath
to my Son Stephen Holmes to be paid in Stock –
I desire & bequeath to my Son
Samuel when of age, all my Blacksmith tools –
I desire & bequeath to my Son James Holmes the Right of Land Joining
the Right that I live upon Excepting one hundred acers that I desire &
bequeath to my daughter Elisabeth &
to her heirs for Ever and the Said hundred acres fronts fifty Rood wide
beginning at A large burch tree at the Tide hur clear I desire and bequeath that my Son James Shall
give his Sister Elizabeth an intealed Deed of hur hundred acers that it Cannot
be Sold from Hur nor hur heirs for Ever and likewise Shall have a Rode to the
main Road from her Lot
I Desire and Bequeath all my Land that that I Know hold Shall be
prised and Equally divided to my yonger Sons Named Zorobabel Samuel Daniel
& John this is to be done at my wifes Death and not till then or the day of
hur marriage –
I will & desire that all my personal property Shall be equally
divided between Each of my daughters Excepting Elizabeth at my wifes Death and
not till then or the Day of hur marriage
Lastly I do hereby appoint Joshua Brundage Sene: and my wife Exacuters
of my Last will and testaments
– I do hereby put my hand and Seal this twenty Sixth day of September in
the year of our Lord one thousand Seven Hundred and ninety Six
Jeremiah
Rushton Samuel
Holmes
Gabriel purdy
The will confirms that his wife is Betty, and names and confirms these
children were still living at the time of the writing of the will: Stephen,
James, Elizabeth, Zorobabel, Samuel, Daniel, John, and other daughters.
Image 199
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3QS7-89ZB-2QB3?i=198&wc=SN1R-BZ9%3A1411412402%2C1413324701&cc=2134302
County of Cumberland.
Amherst 17th Nov.m 1796.
Court of Probate of Wills
This day the last
Will and Testament of Samuel Holmes within Written, late of Cumberland deceased
being presented for Probate by Joshua Brundage one of the Executors named in
the said Will, Gabriel Purdy One of the Subscribing Witnesses to the said Will appeared
and made Oath on the Italy Avengolists
of almighty God that he saw the said Samuel Holmes Sign and Seal and heard him
Publish and declare the within Will to be his last Will and Testament and that
when he so did he was of sound disposing mind and memory to this deponants best
discerning and that he signed the said Will as a Witness at the Testators
request and in presence of Jeremiah Rushton the other Subscribing Witness, and in the presence of each other –
Sworn before me on the day
and Year first above written
Charles Baker
Reg.t Gabriel
Purdy
I have seen wills that name the Evangelists of God before, and the word
“Italy” looks right, but I’m not sure what it means.
HAPPY NEW YEAR
This ends
week two of our centennial virtual celebration of 1925 - 2025.
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