Down Those Narrow Stairs

 

Uncle Peg’s Chronicles

May 15, 2025

“Down Those Narrow Stairs”

 

 

 

“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

 

Thanks to Jeanni, Julia, Mary, and Ruth.  Thanks also for the likes in the Facebook group.

FAMILY ALBUM

 

 

Thanks to Kevin Hoeg for bringing to my attention that Governor Janet Mills of Maine is a descendant of our Holmes and Mills families. I worked on her early lineage and I think it is correct. It should remain private, please and thanks, but genealogists, feel free to use it (of course, verifying it as you go) in your trees. This is from the Daily Kennebec Journal of January 2, 1907. Sumner P. Mills is her grandfather. Her personal information is available as she is a public person, and I was able to make the connections through Find a Grave, and then adding other sources.

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

For the first time in a long time, I forgot that this had to be ready for this Thursday, today. Not that it has to be – it’s a voluntary thing – but I do have a schedule of media events to follow. Every second Thursday, this chronicle. 15^th or close to the middle of the month, my welcome to the New Brunswick Genealogical Society Facebook group to newcomers. Last day of the month or thereabouts, a recap of the stats and interesting posts of the said NBGS Facebook group. Add to that, sometimes, like this week, write up minutes for NBGS. I guess this chronicle just fell out of my head.

What am I working on so intently that I could forget something so important to so few? I am back to Uncle Billy and Aunt Maggie’s article for Generations. As some of you know, I wrote a historical fiction account of their lives a few years back. This account is not fictional, and follows the families who lived in the house that Isaac Ketchum built in the early 1800s to the current owners of the house, David and Christy Matthews. The emphasis will be on Billy Snider, who lived there from the early 1830s till 1916, and his wife, Maggie Holmes, daughter of Daniel and Charlotte. For those of you of other Holmes lines of a previous generation, these are descendants of Samuel Holmes Jr and his first wife, Phoebe Holstead. They had no children.

I’ve learned more about Uncle Billy and Maggie’s timeline events since I wrote “The Fiddler’s Tale.” At that time, I hadn’t delved into probates and land records. I was able to unravel the provenance of the property. I talked to the previous owner. I had help from Cliff Marks with the newspaper articles he found about the Doull/Matthews time in the house. They continued on with the lodge, and I think later took in elderly boarders. Cliff had previously helped me with information about the church, which sat on their land. I found the approximate location of the church, which was important to our Anglican ancestors. I’ve stood before the stones of our early Ketchum ancestors. I’ve met the current owners, and I can hardly wait to walk the five kilometers of trails on the opposite side of the road – over the river and through the woods, to Uncle Billy’s turf I go. Instead of a fishing pole, I’ll take my camera.  

Here is part of my introduction – subject to change, of course. What is in red, you know by now, is note to self for some reason or other.

Tentative Title:

Riverbank Visitors: the Story of William and Margaret (Holmes) Snider

 

“Billy was born circa 1828. Do not be deceived by the gravestone of William Oliver Snider, for he was christened in 1829 by H N Arnold, the son of Elias and Deborah Snider, who resided in Sussex Portage,^[ii] a year earlier than the etched date of birth of 1830. His wife, Margaret Eliza, called Maggie, was born in 1838 to Daniel and Charlotte (Hoyt) Holmes. Unlike ten of her siblings, I cannot find a record of her baptism. Maggie’s grandmother, Frances Ketchum, was an older sister to Billy’s mother, Deborah. Billy was about forty-seven, and Maggie, thirty-six, at the time of their marriage in 1874. Billy and Maggie had no children, but devoted much time to the care of their four elderly aunts and uncles.                                            Those four Ketchum aunts and uncles brought Billy and his older brother Doug up from quite a young age, after their mother died when Billy was about four. Billy had seven siblings and five step-siblings; Maggie had eleven siblings. Billy needs verification. Billy lived most of his life in Portage Vale, Kings County, New Brunswick. Maggie lived in Petitcodiac, Westmorland County, New Brunswick until her marriage. They both died in Hill Grove, Westmorland County, while visiting Maggie’s brother for the winter months.                     I first learned about Uncle Billy when I discovered an old violin in an old case in an upstairs closet in the old house in Hill Grove where he and Maggie died. Perhaps they died in that very room; I do not know. I don’t know how they died within days of each other. Perhaps they fell down those narrow stairs that led to and from the upper chamber. That is not part of the story but is for the benefit of those who know our farm house. His life story grew over the years, especially when I got into genealogy in 2005. My mother was a story-teller, and so was her grandfather, and I don’t remember when I didn’t know that he and Aunt Maggie existed. I always had a strong feeling that they were dearly loved by her family. When I started putting their information into my family tree, I was surprised to know that Mum had never met them; she made them so real to me. They died six years and eight months before she was born, in the same house where Mum was born. That old house that Charles R Holmes built is gone now, about a hundred years after Billy and Maggie died, but I still see every room as clearly as if I was actually peering through the old windows.                                                                                                                                                                            The violin went through a rough period after Billy died, standing in its old case right beside the flue. Wood needs humidity but all it received was dry wood smoke from the chimney behind the closet in the other room of the upper chamber, causing it to crack a little. It has been maintained since I began taking lessons, even when it isn’t being played. I am told that instruments need to be played, as if they were animate objects. I regret not playing it after I grew up, and now I have lost my touch.                                                Uncle Billy and Aunt Maggie, I haven’t forgotten you, and I will love you until the day I die. I am grateful for my great-grandfather, who told the stories to my mother, and to my mother, for telling them to me. Premise or purpose statement: As Billy and Maggie had no children to tell their story, I, their great-grand niece, attempt to keep their memory alive. Walk with me through the house that Isaac built and tap your toes to the music that Billy played.”

 

WHERE IN THE WORLD ARE

Karl Holmes and Pauline Sarrazin are in Italy. Charles R Holmes line.

Keith and Sara Burden were recently in France. Carrie (Holmes) Steeves line.

 

FAMILY HISTORY LESSON

This is the genealogy of Governor Janet Mills of the state of Maine. I added her genealogy recently, but I did the Holmes information years ago. I can’t quite guarantee it – and if you disagree with me about anyone, let me know.

 

Available by email. 

 

This ends week twenty of our centennial virtual celebration of 1925 - 2025.

 

 

 

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[i] The Message. I Chronicles 4:33

[ii] NBGS, Anglican Registers Project, Register MC223-515-646, Page 0021 (URL: https://arp.nbgstwo.ca/records/display Record/MC223-S15-641a-0021_baptism_0090, Retrieved on April 28,2025)