How the story ends
...The answers you've been waiting for
by Ruby M. Cusack
Mum could never figure out the reason why flashlight batteries did not last in our home. I can still hear her saying, as if it were yesterday, "I just put new batteries in that flashlight a few days ago, and now they are dead!" It was a comment that I pretended not to hear as I was the culprit.
Hours and hours of my youth were spent with my nose in a book. I loved to read. I would take the flashlight to bed, put the quilt over my head and read until the chapter or the entire book was finished. I just had to know how the story ended.
My brother loved the Dick Tracy stories. Dick could solve all the difficult cases.
Genealogy needs guys like Dick Tracy and girls like Nancy Drew to help find answers.
As a grandmother, I hear the plea, "Please, can't we stay up to watch the end of this really great story? It will be over in just a couple of minutes. If you turn the television off now, we will never know if Wishbone found the lost gold."
Children are not the only ones who want to know how the story ends.
I have been asked question after question about the queries: "Did you find out who were the parents of James Stackhouse?" "Where was the Riggs Cemetery?" "Did anyone know anything about Charles Sweet who lived in Nauwigewauk?" "Who was the model for the Boer War Monument?"
Answers to queries often provide the missing clue. Read on!When Harold Fanjoy, co-author of "The Seelys of New Brunswick," read Query 98-087 (Agnew Seely and others) from Doug Agnew of New Zealand, he knew he had some answers for him. Ebenezer Seely was born in New Windsor, N.Y., and landed in Saint John with the Loyalists in 1783. His wife, Bethia, was the daughter of Josiah Gilbert of Cornwall Precinct, Orange County, N.Y. They had five children. One of their sons, Caleb Seely, was born in 1787 and died in 1847 at Liverpool, N.S. His wife was Phoebe Collins. Caleb Seely was considered the most successful privateer on the Atlantic Coast. He was the Captain of the Liverpool Packet. The original home in Liverpool has been turned into a historic site. Caleb and Phoebe Seely had three sons and two daughters. One of their daughters, Ellen Matilda Seely, married Moore Fred Agnew. It is interesting to note that Captain David Seely of New Brunswick took a load of gold seekers to Australia. He was accompanied by his family. The family stayed in Australia and their descendants drifted to New Zealand.
Frank J. Horgan of Don Mills, Ont., placed Query 98-089 (Horgan, Cleary, Duffley and others). Dave Horgan sent him 60 sheets of detail on different members of the Horgan connection, some on the early Desmond relationship, as well as on the Duffley family. In the material that Dave Horgan sent to him were copies of the great-grandfather's will and the deed transferring title to the family's farm from his grandmother, Margaret, to the Bishop of Saint John in 1922 for $1. This deed gives the residence of Frank Horgan's father as Thetford Mines, Ont. (He had gone to this area to work on the Welland Canal.) Lou Duffley also wrote to Frank Horgan with information on the family of Luke Duffley and Margaret McManus.
Ted Brassard of New Hampshire, who sent in Query 98-092 ( Robert Harold and wife Mary), received some very enlightening information from Mary Harold's great-great-grandson, Harland Nason. Mary Nason was born in 1795, one of 15 children of Lemuel and Mary (Tracy) Nason. She would have been born in the settlement of Tracy, N.B., about 20 miles from Lincoln. Lemuel Nason was the son of John Nason, who was the first of his family to arrive in what is now Saint John, N.B. John was a descendant of Richard and Sarah (Baker) Nason from Kittery, Me.Edna Orr of County Antrim, N. Ireland, wrote in her Query 98-090 that she was looking for descendants of her great-grandmother, Sarah Maxwell, of the St. George area. She is going to have a big surprise in her mailbox soon. Margaret Moore read this query with great excitement and maybe trembling hands. Could this lady in Ireland be looking for her Maxwell family? Margaret loves genealogy with a passion. Excitement fills her voice as she talks about the Maxwell men of Charlotte County. They were famous quarrymen who cut and polished many of the monuments that mark the last resting place of loved ones in cemeteries throughout New Brunswick. Robert Maxwell and his wife Ellen (Moore) immigrated from Ireland to Charlotte County in about 1845 with three daughters: Rebecca, Margaret, and Sarah. Several children were born to this family after their arrival in New Brunswick. One of the sons, John, was born in 1847. He was Margaret Moore's grandfather. His sister, Sarah, who was born in Ireland is the great-grandmother of Edna Orr of Ireland.
Queries have been grouped together to cover the year 1998 and can be viewed at Queries-1998
Ruby Cusack is a genealogy buff living in Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada. Readers are invited to send their New Brunswick genealogical queries to Ruby at rmcusack@nbnet.nb.ca. When E-Mailing please put Yesteryear Families in the Subject line. Please include in the query, your name and postal address as someone reading the newspaper, may have information to share with you but not have access to E-mail. Queries should be no more than 45 words in length.
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