Uncle Peg’s Chronicles
May 29, 2025
“I Touched a Piece of our New Brunswick History”
“These
were their settlements. And they kept good family records.”
Don’t
forget to look for the title which is embedded in the chronicle.
GRATITUDE
Thanks to Jeanni. Always, in case I ever forget. Thanks
also for the likes in the Facebook group. Excerpt from Jeanni’s email of May
15. “I enjoyed reading more about Uncle Billy and Aunt
Maggie . . . And to be related to the current Maine governor! She's
a feisty one from the little I have heard about her.”
FAMILY ALBUM
Since I included, below, my rough draft introduction for the Cumberland
County Genealogy Conference this summer, I included this photo of Fen and Bette
(Hoon) Holmes. Colorized at My Heritage.
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
On Saturday, the 24th, I
attended the annual general meeting of the New Brunswick Genealogical Society
in Fredericton, New Brunswick. It was the usual kind of annual meeting,
conducting the business of the society and having a great chat during lunch
break, except for one thing.
At a recent gathering in Saint John to
celebrate Loyalist history, an individual brought a copy of a land grant and
asked if they could donate it. The gift left the hands of the Loyalist group
for the NBGS group, who brought it to the provincial archives for preservation
and safe keeping. Along with the grant was the associated map and the wax seal.
I have transcribed several digitized
original land grants and shared some of them with you, I’m pretty sure. Isaac
Ketchum was one of them. But this was the original document, in a protective
sleeve so I couldn’t touch it. I did touch the seal. I touched a piece of our
New Brunswick history from the late 1700s.
My Rough Draft Introduction
for my Amherst genealogy conference
presentation
Topic still to be approved, but I have
nothing else in mind, so if she doesn’t like it, I won’t be presenting. Some of
you know about this, but some don’t.
“Fenwicke
Holmes wrote a letter to my mother in 19xx,
asking her if she was related to Daniel and Charlotte Holmes of Petitcodiac. He
had been there for a visit, searching for records and relatives of his
great-great grandfather, and was told that none of the family remained in the
area around Petitcodiac, so he left a letter with the postmaster, asking him if
he ever ran into someone from the family, to give them the letter. At a funeral
that my mother attended, the postmaster recognized her and retrieved it. In the
letter, Fen asked about the newish looking stone marking the burial place of
his ancestors. She replied, as best as she could, to his several questions. The
original stone, she told him, had fallen apart, so the family replaced it when
my grandfather passed away, with his blessing.
The
correspondence continued, with many questions Mum couldn’t answer. But, she
always welcomed them, for Fen had a wit that she enjoyed sharing with me. As I
started to dabble in genealogy about 2004, I eventually took over the
correspondence. Fen paid us a visit in 2008, and we took him to our old
homestead in the community of Hill Grove, and to other genealogically
significant places.
Brigadier
General (Ret) Fenwick William Holmes became my genealogy mentor, and I grew to
know him and some of his family over the years. He had a commanding presence,
voice, and pen, and he got things done in an era before there was much
genealogy on the internet. I don’t think he did any online research. He visited
Holmes haunts. He hired researchers. He found and sent family member to
archives and cemeteries. He may not have known it, but he followed the
genealogy proof standard. He generously shared what he learned, mostly in his
finished manuscript that he called a typescript. I only have a few copies of
the original documents he located. Lucky for us, he used footnotes.
Most helpful to
him was a young Gordon Remington, now retired. You may have bumped into him
along the way; if not, know that he devoted his life and career to genealogy,
and worked for many years as a genealogist for Ancestry.com. You can google
him, but as far as I know, he is no longer available for hire. Fen trusted his
judgment on some rather weak links in our Holmes lineage, and I haven’t been
able to confirm or contradict Remington’s findings on those weak links.
I have been on
the hunt to locate what records Fen found, and anything else out there. I can
see, as I reread and refer to his “Holmes Line,” that he found records in New
Brunswick and Nova Scotia, some of which I find online now, especially with the
help of FamilySearch’s experimental labs. I can also add to what he wrote in
his “Holmes Line,” although I won’t change his intellectual property. I share
updates with my family on a biweekly basis, and I have a plethora of binders
full of information.
Fen generally
started his writings with a critique of books or articles by those Holmes
family members who went before us. I often start my writing the same way.
Whoever follows in our footsteps would do well to do likewise, as genealogy
evolves over time as more records become available. Both he and I realize that
previous writers used what information they had at hand at the time, and that
was often oral history rather than records. I trust I will never criticize
those who passed on what they knew, correct or incorrect. You can always find
grains of truth in them; it is best to treat them as items that need
examination before blindly accepting them.
I will refer to
the work of Fen and others, but my main focus today is on a document found in a
book at the Cumberland County Genealogy Society, a compilation of family group
sheets dated 2011 by the FGS Committee. It is not my intent to change this copyrighted
work. It is, rather, the results of my years of study, which is ongoing, of the
Holmes family, whose origin was England, about 1635. Francis Holmes and his
four children settled in Stamford, Connecticut, where Francis died in 1674 or
1675, leaving an incredible will dated 1671.
I will show you how I critiqued a good resource carefully. I still do
not have all the answers, and will let you know why my conclusions are either
the same or different than this committee’s. I have the utmost respect and
appreciation for their work on my family’s behalf. I
have the permission of the Cumberland County Genealogical Society to use this
document as the basis for my presentation. (Still to do, soon.)
Fenwick Holmes
did the bulk of his research in the 1990s, and assisted me until a couple of
years before he died in 2018, although I believe his research ended about 2002.
I doubt that he had a copy of this document.
WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE
Our patriarch, Roger Holmes, and his
wife, Bonnie, are (or were) at Cayman Islands:
sunshine, a cool beverage, and a good
book.
Peg and Ruth Anne (fellow representative to the NBGS)
In Fredericton for one day.
Karl Holmes and Pauline Sarrazin are
(or were) in Sicily now.
Sisters, Cindy Steeves and Jennifer
Bell, are (or were) in Colorado for a family reunion.
This may become a regular feature as I am working on
the Holmes genealogies. It is not part of News From Holmes – just obituaries I find
that are out of the ordinary.
Harold Axtell provided a little family
history – I am not sure if he or someone else wrote it. It is located at the
Harold Axtell Archives (wherever they are), and is courtesy of Tim Sebum on
Ancestry. If you want more information about cousin Harold, just google. There
are lots of links. If you want a copy of the two-page document, let me know.
The ancestral history of Harold H
Axtell:
Harold Hamilton Axtell and Rachel
Cornman) –
Ulysses F Axtell and Katharyn B
Thompson –
James H Thompson and Susan R Holmes –
Alson Holmes and Betsy A Betts –
John Holmes and Rachel Scofield –
John Holmes and Catherine Slason –
Peter Holmes and Mary MNU –
Richard Holmes and ? –
Richard Holmes and Mary Miller –
John Holmes and Rachel *Waterbury –
Francis and Mother Holmes.
*See a bit of Waterbury history in the
family
history lesson.
FAMILY HISTORY LESSON
I am using the search box in a book I
recently located: “God’s Country: A History of Pound Ridge, New York,” by Jay
Harris. It was published at Pequot Press, Connecticut, in 1971. Of course, I
typed in “Holmes” first; then more familiar names popped up. I am verifying
everything – I find it quite good but a few small errors like dates of birth,
marriages, and deaths.
I haven’t talked about the Waterburys
for a long time, so I thought I’d share what they say about them in this book.
Images 489 – 491; pages 470 – 472.
“WATERBURY (Lockwood Sketches, Ella
Curtis Smith, Elizabeth Waterbury Schultz)
William and Alice Parcett Waterbury and
their son, John, came from Sudbury, England, to Watertown, Mass. After arriving
at Boston in 1629-30. John Waterbury came to Stamford in 1650 or earlier.
John Waterbury b. Dec. 31 30,
1621 m. Rose Lockwood [?] in Watertown, c: Rachel Parcett b. Watertown 1639, m
John Holmes; Sarah b Watertown 1646 m. Zachariah Dibble; John b Stamford 1650;
Jonathan b. Stamford 1653; David b Stamford 1655.
Rachel Parcett Waterbury da/John and
Rose Lockwood [?] Waterbury b 1639 on March 11, 1659 John Holmes of Stamford.
C: John Holmes b Oct. 8, 1660; Mary Holmes b. Sept. 25, 1662; Stephen Holmes b
Jan 4, 1664; Rachel Holmes b Dec. 7, 1669; John Holmes b Oct. 18, 1670.”
I have, in my tree, John married to
Sarah MNU first; Rose Lockwood second – marriage to Rose in 1858. As Rachel was
born in 1639, that is why I give Sarah as her mother. My source is “The Early
Settlement of Stamford Connecticut, 1641 – 1700,” by Jeanne Majdalany. Page
195. It makes sense to me.
I have eleven or twelve children for
John and Rachel. (Jonas may or may not be part of this family – there is no
proof, although some genealogists add him as a son.)
We descend from Francis Holmes through
his son John and John’s wife, Rachel Parcett Waterbury. We also descend from
his son Jonathan, who married Dorothy Roberts. As there are three pages, you
may wish to read more at the link, above.
This ends
week twenty - two of our centennial virtual celebration of 1925 –
2025
