Ruby M Cusack - Brenan’s Funeral Home - The records of funeral homes or morticians are not commonly found in archives but fortunately the preserving of the records of Brenan’s Funeral Home 1901 to 1971 and having them available up to 1959 online on the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick’s website opens the gate to some very informative details and is invaluable to many researchers.

Brenan’s Funeral Home Records provide a resource for examining the past.

Published Saturday May 16th, 2009

Mum was concerned about the cold Grampy had been fighting and the danger of his getting pneumonia again.

Once the evening barn work was completed, Dad drove us to Bloomfield. We found Grampy still had a really bad chest cold even though he had used a mustard plaster to break it up. But he assured Mum the old clock in the parlour would not be stopping due to this bout with the flu.

That comment did not make any sense to me until he started to sing:

“My Grandfathers clock, was too large for the shelf, So it stood 90 years on the floor.
It was taller by half, than the old man himself, Tho’ it weighed not a penny more.
It was bought on the morn of the day that he was born.
But it stopped short, never to go again, when the old man died.
Ninety years without slumbering – His life seconds numbering.
It stopped short, never to go again, when the old man died.”

As I approach my senior years, I really don’t want to think about my death and funeral parlours but, on the other hand, in my search for facts on those who have gone before, death and funeral records can add a lot of information to the family tree. The records of funeral homes or morticians are not commonly found in archives but fortunately the preserving of the records of Brenan’s Funeral Home 1901 to 1971 and having them available up to 1959 online on the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick’s website at http://archives.gnb.ca opens the gate to some very informative details and is invaluable to many researchers.

The database has been set up so it can be searched by the surname of the deceased, the mother, the father, the spouse, occupation or cause of death.

I checked for my grandmother’s sister’s death in 1948. The information included her age, marital status, residence, place of birth, occupation, mother’s maiden name and place of birth, father’s name with his place of birth, the cemetery of interment, attending physician, newspaper that carried her obituary, clergyman who conducted the funeral. Under comment the name of her cousin was given. When I checked for this cousin in Brenan’s Funeral Home Records, I was able to locate the cousin’s parents. Her mother was born in 1854, which led to the name of her maternal grandparents and their place of birth.

Brenan’s Funeral Home Records provide a resource for examining the past.

<>Query 1668
Fish – Any information about origins of the Fish family of Miramichi/ Newcastle and especially about progenitor, William Fish (1789-[1827?]), who emigrated from Maine after the War of 1812 and settled in Blackville; where and when he died; will or estate papers. For a book about his great-granddaugher, Frances L. Fish (1888- 1975), first woman lawyer in Nova Scotia and for forty years a lawyer in Newcastle.

Barry Cahill, PO Box 2673 Station M, Halifax, Nova Scotia, B3J 3P7; email yorkhill@ eastlink.ca

Query 1669
McCarthy - Edward and Margaret McCarthy were born in Ireland and were living in Saint John, New Brunswick circa 1856 when their daughter Agnes M. McCarthy was born. Agnes emigrated to Massachusetts, USA prior to 1874. I am unsure what became of her parents.

Kate Fulham Kelley, PO Box 81, Dennis, MA, 02638, USA; email kateoncapecod@ comcast.net