Uncle Peg’s Chronicles
October 9, 2025
“Buried the Day After his Death”
“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.
And I Quote:
Quoting Brian, in his letter to the
editor, and you can see my answer in our Facebook group, “Is his name
Howard Fenwick or Fenwick Howard? A genealogy my Dad (Fenwicke William)
prepared lists him as Fenwick H.” I am grateful to Brian for this
question, which shows me that he is protecting his father’s awesome work of his
and our Holmes genealogy and family history. I’m sure cousin Fen would be happy
as well.
FAMILY ALBUM
This newsletter features my continued revision work of the chapter about
Howard Fenwick Holmes.
This photo’s original bottom right corner had been torn off, and was
restored.
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
I haven’t forgotten about Uncle Billy
and Aunt Maggie, but Uncle Fenwick and Aunt Maud took over – a rabbit trail.
Rabbit trails are common for genealogists. The problem is, sometimes what we
were working on before just fades away. I cannot let that happen. But now, I
need to finish revising my chapter about HF. Thank you for your comments last
week, I think that was the most interest shown to my chronicles in many a day.
It was encouraging. I think you will find this history lesson explanatory. The
next one requires a timeline approach. These two separate articles are not the
finished product for the chapter, but the approach I am taking to prove or
disprove hypotheses. I hope it to be a teaching tool for more novice
genealogists in the NBGS branch Facebook group, as well as to convince myself.
Hope this rambling makes sense; if not,
chalk it up to my quickly advancing age.
~~~
I forgot Charlotte’s birthday on
October 1st. So sorry, G G Grandma. She was 212 years old that day.
I usually put the announcement in our Facebook group.
The Death Record of Howard ‘Fenwick’
Holmes
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FPD8-KY5?lang=en
A death record is
only partially an original source; only the part written by the medical person
should be carefully considered as proof of death. The information about the
deceased individual’s past is given by the informant. I cannot read the last
name of the informant, and I don’t know who the person is. Perhaps he was a
friend or co-worker. How well did he know Uncle Fenwick? Sometimes, the
informant’s relationship to the deceased is given, but not in this case. It is
important that the researcher verify all the information that they can.
Let’s take it section
by section.
Along the left are
instructions for the people filling in the form, asking them to write plainly
and give all information. I have never read that before. It says to see the
instructions on the back of the form. I don’t have the back of the form.
It states the place,
the bureau of vital statistics, and that it is the certificate of death.
Probably, I could send for the original, but I am satisfied with a digitized
copy. It gives the registration numbers that I would have to include if sending
for the original. He died in Jacksonville, Duval County, Florida. From other
research, that makes sense to me. I googled St. Catherines Hospital. I cannot
find any information about it. I don’t like that. I would prefer that his full
name be spelled out, but he was often referred to as HF. I am not in doubt that
his is our Fenwick’s death record, given other information.
Information on the
left side of the document:
His personal
information, given by C A ___: Fenwick was male, white, and widowed. I have his
christening record, his photograph, and Maud’s death records and obituary, so I
know he was widowed. The 1901 census gives his full date of birth, which
matches the document. He was born on April 18, 1857. The informant lived in
Hilliard, Florida, which was Fenwick’s destination when he tried to cross the
border from Canada to the USA in 1913. What I was pleased to find was that he
was working for the railroad as a surveyor and timberman. This helps to confirm
my statement in the history lesson; his occupation is consistent with other
jobs he held. We have records to confirm
that he was born in Canada. This was registered by a Mr. Purdy on April 21,
1907, three days after his death.
Information on the
right side of the document:
This was given by the
medical attendant. He died on April 20, 1917. The doctor or medical attendant
treated him from April 1, 1917 to April 20, 1917. He or she last saw him alive
on April 19. I cannot read the time. His cause of death was Chronic Interstitial
Nephritis. I cannot read the signature
of the medical attendant. It is dated and the address given. He was in the
hospital for twenty days, and his former residence was Hilliard, Florida. He
was buried the day after his death, on April 21, 1917, in the Evergreen
Cemetery, which is in Jacksonville, Florida. It was signed by the undertaker in
Jacksonville. According to Google, the fastest route from Hilliard to
Jacksonville nowadays is a distance of thirty-one miles.
There is one further
detail: the number 120. What is this? This is a number assigned by the World
Health Organization for the International Classification of Diseases. It is
helpful if you can’t read the cause of death. You need to know the year the
individual died, as the numbers were reassigned periodically. Fenwick’s number
120 is in the years from 1909 to 1919. The list has a 120A and 120B. The 120A
is from the previous list, and is Bright’s Disease, an outdated term by 1917. I
can read the record well enough to know it is 120B, nephritis and uraemia, now
spelled uremia. Go to http://www.wolfbane.com/icd/index.html to see the lists – Fenwick is in
Revision 2.
Thanks to Annmarie
Driscoll Holmes, who found this certificate for me. I didn’t have it when I
wrote my book. It answered several of my questions and confirmed others.
The fact that he was
buried the day after his death sounds lonely to me.
FAMILY HISTORY LESSON
I wrote this for my New Brunswick
Genealogy Society – Southeastern Branch’s newsletter – “News and Notes,”
October edition. I am now working on
part two – which I will share with you later. The editor, my genealogy friend
Denis, called it a “good yarn.” It’s kind of like the history lesson of the
previous chronicle, but it is more specific. Note – I have found more info for
my revision of the HF Holmes chapter, but I’m only using sources to prove or
disprove my two hypotheses.
Howard Fenwick Holmes of New Brunswick, Ontario, and
Florida
By Peggy Vasseur
Part One
My current work in progress is a rewrite of a
chapter in a book that I wrote and distributed to my family and a couple of
libraries in 2014. I called it “A Homestead on the Old Post Road.” I have
learned quite a lot in the past twelve years, and there are more records
accessible on the internet than I knew about back then. The book was a family
history and genealogy of my great-great grandparents, Daniel Holmes and
Charlotte Hoyt, and their children and grandchildren. Since
I located a deed of sale between two of their sons in Petitcodiac, I realized
that I had erred in my chapter about their youngest son, Howard Fenwick Holmes
(1857 – 1917), generally called Fenwick. I reread my chapter and found, to my
dismay, that I had been very subjective. I hope to eventually update the entire
book with new-to-me research. My goal is to take this chapter out of the
subjective point of view with an objective approach, and add my new findings,
keeping it anecdotal as much as possible to interest my family members who do
not care to work on genealogy and family history. I shared the notion of my
great-grandfather Charles R Holmes, brother of Fenwick, that Fenwick was the
----- sheep of the family. That needs to go. Charles was a storyteller, and
passed on his knowledge and opinions to my mother, who passed them on to me. I
believe that Charles’ disdain of his brother was based on two details. The
information needs revision, and the feelings need purging, whilst keeping the
human interest in this biography about Mum’s great-grandparents and great-grand
uncles and aunts.
First, I need to verify two statements about
Uncle Fenwick.
- Fenwick
was an alcoholic.
- Fenwick
was estranged from his wife, Maud.
Was Fenwick an Alcoholic?
Charles Holmes told Mum that his brother,
Fenwick, was an alcoholic. In my chapter, I took a rather condescending tone,
having no sympathy for Fenwick, but now I view alcoholism as a preventable
disease. Based on the deed of land that I found, which I will discuss later,
Charles probably spent time with his brother when he and Maud returned to New
Brunswick from 1905 to at least 1907. Charles’ low opinion of Fenwick could be
based on the fact that he saw him drinking to excess. Mr. James Retson,
a historian in Kenora, Ontario, has compiled short biographies of the early
settlers of Rat Portage, Ontario, now called Kenora, where Fenwick lived most
of his adult life. In Retson’s biography of Howard Fenwick Holmes, he stated
that Fenwick was an alcoholic. He gave no sources, but mentioned that there was
a public record of Fenwick trying to cross the border into the US, in 1913. I
have the record. The remarks on the record state that his left arm was
amputated and he was an alcoholic. He was deferred five days for further
examination.[1] From
further records, we know he did get to Florida. Mr. Retson recently removed the
detail that he was an alcoholic from his biography.[2]
I
considered the death record of Uncle Fenwick.[3]
The doctor treated him from April 1, 1917, to April 20, 1917, when he died. His
cause of death was chronic interstitial nephritis, a kidney disease. According
to AI, “heavy or chronic alcohol consumption is linked to a higher risk of
developing chronic kidney disease, which can include interstitial nephritis.”
Not quite satisfied with that answer, I skimmed several medical websites. It
does not appear to me that alcoholism has been proven to be a cause of kidney
disease, although it does affect other organs and could be a contributary
factor. I believe that Howard Fenwick
Holmes, son of Daniel and Charlotte (Hoyt) Holmes, and husband of Maud Marion
(English) Holmes, was a functional alcoholic. When he began drinking to excess,
I do not know. However, he obviously had a drinking problem which led to the
disease of alcoholism. I feel comfortable about sharing that detail, with a
source rather than bias, in my chapter.
To be continued in November.
This ends
week forty-one of our centennial virtual celebration of 1925 – 2025.
[1] Ancestry. US, Border Crossings from Canada to US, 1895-1960. “The
National Archives at Washington, D.C.; Manifests of Alien Arrivals at Buffalo,
Lewiston, Niagara Falls, and Rochester, New York, 1902-1954; Record Group
Title: Records of the Immigration and Naturalization Service, 1787-2004; Record
accessed September 29, 2025.
Record Group Title: Records of the
Immigration and Naturalizations Service.”
https://www.ancestry.ca/family-tree/person/tree/172574017/person/232274063791/facts
[2] Retson, James C. “Howard Fenwick Holmes.” Revised August 24, 2024.
Accessed September 29, 2025. https://www.retson.ca/holmeshowardfenwick1857.pdf
[3] FamilySearch. "Florida, Deaths, 1877-1939", FamilySearch (https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:FPD8-KY5
: Sun Mar 10 05:21:36 UTC 2024), Entry for H.F. Holmes, 20 April 1917. Accessed
September 28, 2025.
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