“The Maternal Ancestry of Mary Rae Thompson”
John E. D’Anieri
The
threshing crew arrived early in the morning and worked steadily until
exactly twelve o’clock when the men filed into the house to eat the
meal that Mum had spent days preparing. Only the sound of knives and
forks hitting the plates and the slurping of tea could be heard.
Once the stomachs were filled, the tongues loosened and the talking
began.
One of the men complained of being afflicted with a pain in his side.
The fellow across the table from him, suggested he go to the pasture
and pick a certain plant and steep it as it was a good remedy for many
ailments.
Gramp quickly spoke up, “You better know what you are doing or you may
end up in the graveyard as James Morrison did in 1853, when his wife,
Mary Upham Robertson treated him with a home remedy from the bloodroot
plant.”
Stories such as this are considered to be family lore and are difficult
if not impossible to document when writing a family history.
Although John E. D’Anieri makes mention of this incident and
other family lore stories in his book, he depended on true primary
sources and publications with documented sources to verify or disprove
them when compiling, “The Maternal
Ancestry of Mary Rae Thompson”.
By the way, John was careful to note the source of each item of
information used in his publication on the Loyalist families of Allaby,
Beyea, Bull, Sherwood and Smith as well as the Irish and Scottish
emigrants of Bateman, Elkins, Meigher, Morrison, Robertson and
Sullivan. Ten of these New Brunswick families settled in Kings County
while the Batemans came to Gloucester County.
John retells the family lore about James Beyea passed down from Andrew
Beyea and then discusses which parts of this lore are or are not
corroborated. Photos of James Beyea born in 1789, his wife Mary
(Smith), son James and granddaughters Elizabeth Ann and Martha put
faces to some descendants of this Loyalist family.
Tragedy was no stranger to the folk of the past as another story that
has been handed down was of the death in the mid 1700's of the youngest
child of Richard Curry, who was on his father’s lap, when hit by
a stone from the chimney that collapsed during a severe thunderstorm.
The eulogy at the funeral in 1796 for Sarah Wells Bull gave information
not only on her spouse William Bull but of her twelve children and 335
descendants.
Agnes (Meigher) (Kent) LeBlanc the great grand-daughter of William
Bateman was 86 years old in 1972, when she wrote a three page memoir on
the Bateman and Elkins families.
The Maternal Ancestry of Mary Rae
Thompson, who is the wife of John E. D’Anieri, also traces
the life led by her grandparents, James Beyea Morrison who was born in
1872 on the family farm in Titusville, New Brunswick and his spouse
Margaret Jane (Jenny) Meigher who was born in 1878 in Hampton Station,
New Brunswick, in their move to Orono, Maine in 1899 and the subsequent
years and events in their family to the present generation.
A copy of the 130 page book - including an every-name index - is
available for viewing at the Kings County Museum in Hampton, New
Brunswick Provincial Archives, and the Saint John Free Public Library.
The publication can be ordered
from John E. D’Anieri, 1226 Godfrey Lane, Niskayuna, NY, 12309-1240,
USA. E-mail danierij@localnet.com
Query 1499
McCann
- Hewitt - Brocklebank: My father, Gordon Brocklebank
lived with Burton McCann in Rollingdam circa 1911-1918. He was a friend
of an M.(?) Hewitt in St. Stephen. I am planning to visit New Brunswick
in September and would like information on the present day location of
McCann’s farm and any living relatives.
G. SMITH
32349 Mud Lake Rd
Lake Linden, MI
49945, USA
E-mail gsmith@up.net
Query 1500
Green
- Carpenter: Who were the parents of James Green -
Loyalist, who married Elizabeth Carpenter, settled on the Washademoak?
Was their daughter Catharine, born 1802, adopted? She married (1)
Willett Carpenter (born on the ship Cyrus in 1783), son of Willett
Carpenter and Mary Davenport (2) Coles Carpenter.
CAROL LEE ELLIOT
20 Simone Street
Rothesay, NB
Canada, E2S 1A5
Email clelliot@lycos.com
Query 1501
Upham
- Chandler: I am looking for a photograph of the grave
site and headstone for Mary Chandler Upham, widow of Judge Joshua Upham.
BOB UPHAM
2919 E. Frye Road
Phoeniz, Arizona
85048-8564, USA
E-mail RFUpham@aol.com
Query 1502
Watson
- Dow: Stephen Brooks Watson married to Esther Dow, 12 Jul
1819, in Woodstock, New Brunswick. I am searching for information about
Stephen's lineage; his father was Peter Watson and his mother was
Louisa (surname unknown). We believe Peter was a Loyalist, and know he
applied for a number of land grants in the Province.
V. FLANNERY
381 Caribou Road
Presque Isle, ME
04769, USA.
E-mail vflannery@maine.rr.com
Ruby Cusack can be reached at rmcusack@nbnet.nb.ca or read her past
columns at www.rubycusack.com. Her column appears Tuesdays.
