Proving my Kezar Line II - Eva Maude Bean

Last summer my mother and I went to North Hatley, Quebec for a family reunion. On the way home, we stopped at a cemetery that was once part of the farm of my fourth great-grandparents, Moses Bean(e) and Betsey Kezar. That inspired me to work on Bean research when we got back but I took a detour in September when I found a genealogy of the Kezar line compiled in the 1980s by a distant cousin. He claimed to have traced the Kezars to my 10th great-grandfather who may have arrived in Massachusetts with the Winthrop Fleet; I am fascinated. This line will be my primary research focus for at least 2018.

Eva Maud Bean was my maternal grandmother's mother. Her parents were Denison M. Bean and Jane Louisa Emery¹. She was born in Quebec, probably in Waterville in Compton County, where she and her family were enumerated in the 1881, 1891, and 1901 censuses².

Eva's baptismal record tells us that she was born on April 23, 1874, but the date of her baptism in August of 1891 presents a problem; it occurred 17 years after her birth, making that information less reliable than if she had been baptized as a baby³.

The census records from 1881 and 1891 at least explain the gap, showing each member of the family to be a Free Will Christian Baptist.  Eva could not have been baptized as an infant; as the name of this denomination implies, she had to be able to learn and to believe in order to be baptized of her own free will. Somewhat surprisingly, when she was baptized, it was in a Methodist church⁴.

Ten years later, in the 1901 census, Eva's religion is recorded as Methodist and the rest of the family as Congregationalist⁵.

The 1881 census was enumerated beginning on the 4th of April and the Denison Beans were visited on the 7th⁶. (Census instructions can be easily accessed at Internet Archive.) Eva's age is recorded as 6, which is consistent with the date of birth in her baptismal record⁷. 

The 1891 census was collected by enumerators beginning on the 6th of April and the Denison Beans were apparently visited on the 16th⁸. I say apparently because this enumerator, his commissioner, or someone else changed the date at the top of the page, and all of the pages in the Waterville sub-district, to show the 6th and did so in a different way than was spelled out in the census instructions for correcting errors⁹. Eva's age was recorded as 17 but should have been recorded as 16 since the instructions regarding age had not changed since 1881; meaning it was to have been given and recorded as her age on April 6th. So was the date of April 23rd in her baptismal record incorrect? Did the enumerator make another error? Or did her father jump the gun by a week? Maybe Eva was so excited about her approaching birthday that her father told the enumerator she was already 17. Whatever the case, they certainly could not have imagined that 137 years later, one of Eva's great-granddaughters would be analyzing this information so closely. In fact, Canadian citizens were told that no one would ever see their names except the "commissioners and others engaged in taking and compiling the census", so what difference could a week make¹⁰?

The 1901 Census of Canada, which was enumerated beginning on April 1, 1901, not only asked for age but for each person's date of birth¹¹. Eva's birthdate was once again recorded as April 23, 1874, and her age as 26; consistent with other records but another ten years removed from the event¹².

In 1902, Eva married James Louden Dean in the same Congregational church where he was baptized in 1870¹³. It was likely also Eva's parents' church since it was in Waterville and they are buried in the adjacent cemetery which I have visited. The church record of the marriage again records the names of Eva's parents, including her mother's maiden name, Emery¹⁴.

Following their honeymoon, Eva began her new life at Louden's farm in neighboring Hatley Township in Stanstead County. They were recorded there in what would be Eva's last census in 1911¹⁷.

Enumerators began collecting information for the 1911 census on June 1, 1911¹⁸. Eva's month and year of birth were recorded as April of 1874 and her age as 37. The entire family was recorded as Methodist¹⁹.

Eva and Louden had four children by 1912 (including a son with the middle name Emery²⁰) when Louden lost an arm in a farming accident. Through a newspaper article about the accident²¹, I found written evidence for the first time of the illness that would eventually take Eva's life.

Eva and Louden had one more son in 1914²² and then, just weeks before his second birthday and my grandmother's twelfth, Eva died on February 28, 1916, of what oral family history says was creeping paralysis²³.

And that brings us to one last discrepancy regarding Eva's age. The headstone²⁴ gives Eva's birth year as 1876. As of now, I don't have any records or oral family history to explain this inconsistency.

Eva is buried with her husband at Reedsville Cemetery in North Hatley, Quebec. Also remembered on their headstone is their youngest son, Lawrence Nimmo Dean, who was killed in the last weeks of World War II and rests at the Groesbeek Canadian War Cemetery in Holland which I visited with my mother and grandmother in 1983.

Although I tend to believe that the birthdate in Eva's baptismal record is correct, this analysis puts a few items on my to-do list: to inquire about the availability of cemetery records, additional local newspapers, and school records and to investigate the possibility of non-sacramental church records, like bulletins and newsletters that might have an item about a family's new arrival. And as long as I'm shooting for the stars, I can always hope to find a Family Bible. Fingers crossed!

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1. 1881 Census of Canada, SubDistrict "O"- Village of Waterville, Compton County, Quebec; population schedule p. 4-5, dwelling and family 18, Denison M. Bean household, digital image Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed February 12, 2018, citing Statistics Canada Fonds, Record Group 31-C-1. LAC microfilm C-13162 to C-13286. Also 1891 Census of Canada, Sub-District Waterville Village, Compton County, Quebec; population schedule p. 17, family 82, Denison Bean household, digital image Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed February 12, 2018 citing Statistics Canada Fonds, Microfilm reels: T-6290 to T-6427. Also 1901 Census of Canada, Sub-District 9-Waterville Village, Compton County, Quebec; population schedule p. 12, D. M. Bean household, dwelling and family probably 126 (illegible on Ancestry and Library & Archives Canada sites), digital image Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed February 12, 2018, citing Statistics Canada Fonds, Microfilm reels: T-6428 to T-6556. Also, Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968. H>Hatley>Methodist Church>1891 p.17, leaf 9. Baptism, Bean, digital image Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed February 12, 2018, and Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968. W>Waterville>Congregation Church>1902 p.10-11, 10th leaf.

2. 1881 Census of Canada, Compton Co., Que., pop. sch., Waterville, pp. 4-5, dwell. and fam. 18, Denison Denison M. Bean family. Also 1891 Census of Canada, Compton Co., Que., pop. sch., Waterville, p. 17, fam. 82, Denison Bean family. Also 1901 Census of Canada, Compton Co., Que., pop. sch., Waterville, p. 12, fam. 126, D.M. Bean (also indexed as Been) family.

3. Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968. H>Hatley>Methodist Church>1891 p. 17, Baptism, Bean.

4. Ibid, p.1, First Leaf.

5.  1901 Census of Canada, Compton Co., Que., pop. sch., Waterville, p. 12, fam. 126, D.M. Bean (also indexed as Been) family, Column 16.

6. For the census start date, see Department of Agriculture (Census Branch); Manual containing "The Census Act," and the instructions to officers employed in the taking of the second census of Canada, (1881). (Ottawa: Printed by Brown Chamberlin, 1881), p. 8; digital images, "Manual containing "The Census Act," and the instructions to officers employed in the taking of the second census of Canada, (1881)," Archive.org (https://archive.org/details/1881981881i11882engfra : Accessed February 16, 2018.) For the Bean family enumeration date, see 1881 Census of Canada, Compton Co., Que., pop. sch., Waterville, p. 6. Per census instructions p. 26, "The date of each day's enumeration is to be entered by the enumerator on the last line filled of Schedule No. 1, opposite the last name registered, and only at the end of each day..."

7.  For Eva's age, see 1881 Census of Canada, Compton Co., Que., pop. sch., Waterville, pp. 5, line 1, column 9. For baptismal record, see Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968. H>Hatley>Methodist Church>1891 p. 17, Baptism, Bean.

8. For the 1891 census start date, see Department of Agriculture (Census Branch); Manual containing "The Census Act," and the instructions to officers employed in the taking of the second census of Canada, (1891). (Ottawa: Printed by Brown Chamberlin, 1891), p. 4; digital images, "Manual containing "The Census Act," and the instructions to officers employed in the taking of the second census of Canada, (1891)," Archive.org (https://archive.org/details/1891981891i1891engfra : Accessed February 16, 2018.) For the Bean family enumeration date, see 1891 Census of Canada, Compton Co., Que., pop. sch., Waterville, p. 17, the date is at the top of the page.

9. Department of Agriculture (Census Branch); Manual containing "The Census Act," and the instructions to officers employed in the taking of the second census of Canada, (1891).p. 18

10. Ibid, p. 2

11. For the 1901 census start date, see Department of Agriculture, Census Office; Fourth Census of Canada 1901, Instructions to chief officers, commissioners and enumerators. (Ottawa: Government Printing Bureau, 1901), p. 4 #4; digital images, "Instructions to chief officers, commissioners and enumerators." Archive.org (https://archive.org/details/1901981901I1901eng : Accessed February 16, 2018.) For instructions regarding columns 8-10, Ibid, p. 13 #50.

12. 1901 Census of Canada, Compton Co., Que., pop. sch., Waterville, p. 12, fam. 126, Eva M. Bean (also indexed as Eva W. Been) Row 23, Cols 8-10.

13. For Eva and Louden's marriage record, see Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968. W>Waterville>Congregation Church>1902 pp. 12-13, Tenth leaf. For Louden's baptismal record, see Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection) W>Waterville>Congregation Church>p.7, Fifth and sixth leaves.
 
14. Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968. Waterville Congregational Church, Tenth leaf.

15. Bean, Eva Maud, and Dean, James Louden. Photograph taken ca. 1901 (the author believes it to be a wedding photo), privately held by the author [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE] Rockville Centre, NY and digitized in 2017. The photograph was passed from Eva Bean's daughter to her granddaughter to the author, her great-granddaughter.

16. "WATERVILLE," The Sherbrooke Examiner, 24 October 1902, p. 5, col. 4, digital images, Google News Archives (http://news.google.com.newspapers : accessed 26 May 2017.

17. 1911 Census of Canada, SubDistrict 10- Village of Hatley, Stanstead County, Quebec; population schedule p. 10, dwelling 115, family 116, Louden Dean family, digital image Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed February 16, 2018, citing Statistics Canada Fonds, Record Group 31-C-1. LAC microfilm C-20326 to C-20460.

18. Department of Agriculture; Fifth Census of Canada 1911 Instructions to officers, commissioners and enumerators. (Ottawa: Government Printing Bureau, 1911) p. 12 #28; digital images, " Instructions to officers, commissioners and enumerators." Archive.org (https://archive.org/details/1911981911I21911engfra : Accessed Feb 16, 2018.

19. 1911 Census of Canada, Stanstead Co., Que. pop. sch. Hatley, p. 10, dwel 115, fam 116, Louden Dean family.

20. Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968. M>Minton>1906, p. 10, Tenth leaf. digital image Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed February 16, 2018, citing Statistics Canada Fonds, Microfilm reels: T-6428 to T-6556.

21.) "Minton," The Stanstead Journal, 17 Oct 1912 p. 5, col. 4; digital images, Google News Archives (http://news.google.com/newspapers : accessed 28 May 2017)

22. Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968. M>Minton>1912, pp. 4-5, Second leaf. digital image Ancestry (http://www.ancestry.com: accessed February 16, 2018, citing Statistics Canada Fonds, Microfilm reels: T-6428 to T-6556.

23. Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968. L>Lennoxville> Methodist Church>1916 p.4, Third leaf. Digital image Ancestry ((http://www.ancestry.com: accessed February 16, 2018, citing Statistics Canada Fonds, Microfilm reels: T-6428 to T-6556.

24. Bean, Eva Maud Headstone. Photograph taken in November of 2000 and privately held by the author [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE,] Rockville Centre, NY and digitized in 2017.