By Ruby M. Cusack
The Legacy of Ruth Winona Grant
Gram had received a letter from a relative, inviting himself and family to come for Saturday night supper since he had Cabin Fever. He wrote about how good Sadie’s Saturday night’s baked beans were. He hoped she would also have raisin brown bread and that the dessert would be ginger bread with lots of whipped cream.
It did not make sense to me that someone who was sick would be wanting to visit and have an appetite to eat.
On Saturday evening after the guests had eaten their fill and left, I asked Gram’s sister if this fellow was a cousin as he often came to visit. Her answer was, “Yes, he is our second cousin.”
I had heard lots of talk about ancestors so I asked another question, “Is he my ancestor?”
Gram stopped her crocheting and made the decision that it was time I was told the facts of relationships which I now call genealogy.
According to her way of thinking, only a direct blood line could make someone your ancestor thus, this second cousin was a collateral. Then she went on to explain, since he was her second cousin and I was two generations down the line he would be my second cousin twice removed. To really confuse me she stated that ancestors doubled each generation going back which meant I had two parents, four grandparents, eight great grandparents and sixteen great great grandparents and so on but you didn’t call your grandparents your ancestors. Relatives on the mother’s side were maternal and on the father’s side were paternal.
She went into detail about cousins. Cross cousins are the children of a brother and a sister. Parallel cousins are the children of two brothers or two sisters. Double cousins are the children of two siblings who married two siblings from another family.
Gramp stopped smoking his cigar and sat up on the side of the couch. In a stern voice he seemed to be reprimanding Gram with the following words. “Maggie, Enough is enough! Stop confusing that girl. Next you will be explaining the song, I’m My Own Grandpa!”
Ruth Winona Grant, born in 1913, was the historian of the descendants of Loyalists John and Elizabeth Grant. She married Ernest R. Grant, her third cousins, sharing common great great grandparents.
She was an expert at tracing and sorting out relationships and published several very interesting books about life in and around Southampton New Brunswick as well as genealogical records of the clan.
So much interest has been shown in her out of print publications that her son Nelson is having them reprinted.
Now and Then (1967) is a history of the Southampton area along the Saint John River with twenty-three chapters: Indian stories, Loyalists, settlers, places, border dispute, steamships, roads, railway, mills, ferries, lumbering, churches, mail, clubs, cooking, omens, etc. Loyalist families described include Ingraham (Ingram), Grant-Hillman, Phillips, Hartley, Capt. Attwood (K.A.R.). House-by-house list of Southampton homesteads before the hydro dam flooding. Poem by the author, "Salute to Canada's Birthday."
Bel Viso (1978) - Hillman History in New Brunswick from The Hillman Papers and other records with seven chapters: Coat of arms, Tristram Hillman pedigree, Papers 1775-82 and post revolutionary war -Sloop Nancy, arrival at Shogomoc, Death of Capt. Hillman, Widow Ann Hillman, William Lindopp, Hillman relatives and descendants (Edmund Tristram-Catherine Tompkins, George Sykes-Temperance Tompkins, Ann Maidstone Hillman-William Grant, Peter Grant) The Hillman and neighbouring Baptist churches, Rev. Henry Cronkhite.
The Grant Connexion (1984)The Loyalist Widow Elizabeth Grant, her family and the area in which they settled - 283 pages. Fourteen chapters: Grant clan - End of the War, 1873 - arrival in N.B. - Grants of the King's American Regiment - Widow Grant - Settlement blocks - Peter, William, Finlay, Laurence, John Grant - Cronkhites - Upper St. John River (1785-1855) - Old documents of local affairs, many with names of petitioners, etc. - 3 old travel descriptions - index to first branches in genealogy pages.
The Grant Connexion Addendum (2012) has 20 pages.
The Historic Present (2001) has 72 pages filled with information.
The reprints of these books can be ordered by contacting Nelson Grant by email nelsonpgrant@hotmail.com
Interesting information on the Grant Family can also be found at http://gg08.tripod.com/index.html
Thanks to the many years of research by Ruth Winona Grant, present and future generations, are able to look back at relationships between families and neighbours and gain a better understanding of ancestors and the life they lived.
Query 1823
Reed - Dixon: William Arthur Reed married Mary F. Dixon, who was born in Scotland in 1829 and lived in Saint John, New Brunswick. They had seven children. Seeking information on date of marriage and her date of death.
Contact Bill Reed by email sandybill@xplornet.ca
Query 1824
Richardson - Brown: Claude Francis Richardson operated a grocery store in Saint John at 84 Charlotte St in 1920 to1940. When he married Alice Brown in Saint John on 30 Oct 1916, he lived on 5D Waterloo St. If anyone knows anything at all about him, I would greatly
appreciate an email at marionrichardson@hughes.net
Query 1825
Scott - Hanson - Matthews: I am researching John George Scott, born circa 1821, who married Pheobe Hanson 17 July 1824 in St Andrews, New Brunswick. According to the certificate of marriage, he was from the Parish of Pennfield and she was from the Parish of St. Patrick and they were married by publication of Banns with consent of parents. Their children were: Benjamin J., Levi Albert, John Eliphalet, Winfield, Rhoda Adeline, Charles Sylvester, George W., and Clarisa Ann. John George Scott and Phoebe appear in the following census: Dalton, N.H. 1850; 1860 Census of Maine “C”, Range one Aroostook County, Mars Hill, Maine; 1870 Census of Ft Fairfield, Maine; 1880 Census of Ft Fairfield, Maine; John George disappears from view after that, he is 59 and Phoebe is 55. She is listed in the 1900 Census of Ft Fairfield, Maine, she died after the census on July 22, 1900 and is buried in FT Fairfield, Maine. There is no stone there for John George Scott. I am looking for the parents of John George Scott and any siblings
Contact Phil Matthews, PMatth9878@AOL.Com
Ruby Cusack is family history researcher and columnist. Contact her at rmcusack@nbnet.nb.ca
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