Thursday, September 5, 2019

Elizabeth Nimmo's Books - Treasure from the Attic



Elizabeth "Bessie" Nimmo was one of my 2nd great-grandmothers. If you've been reading my posts for a while you have read her name before.

Bessie was born about 1841 in Ireland or Scotland and emigrated to Canada about 1851 with her mother, Elizabeth Louden, sisters Margaret and Martha and brother Charles. In 1867 she married John Dean at a Scottish Presbyterian church in Montreal and moved to the farm he had purchased six months earlier in Minton, now North Hatley, Quebec. John died at the young age of 49 in 1888 but Bessie was almost 83 when she died at the farm on March 21, 1924. Sometime after Bessie's death, some of her possessions were apparently put into storage in the attic of the farmhouse and remained there for decades.

More than seventy years after Bessie's death, following the death of my great-uncle Ken, my mother helped his daughter to clean out this attic and her labors were well rewarded; she brought home Bessie's photo album, which I have had for years and these two books which my mother gave to me last month.








It really is something to hold an object that belonged to an ancestor as far back as a 2nd great-grandparent, it gave me chills, but the great surprise was that the second book actually helped to confirm some information I found in census records.

A unique feature of the Canadian census, at least through 1921, is that it asked people their religion. This would be controversial today, to say the least, but I am grateful for the additional information about my ancestors because I might not have found it anywhere else.

In most census years, Bessie is listed with the same religion as the rest of her household but it changes from one census to the next. I haven't found the Nimmos in the 1861 census, the information is illegible in 1871, but the Deans are all listed as Congregational in 1881, Fellowship in 1891, and Methodist in 1901 and 1921. In 1911, however, when she was enumerated in the home of her daughter Anna and her family (Anna's husband was a Methodist minister), Bessie is listed as Plymouth Brethren. Perhaps it took a minister to recognize Bessie's right to be associated with her own faith, or maybe she was the only one home when the enumerator came by. Either way, I found this very interesting.

So, how do these books figure in all of this? Well, the first book does not really, except to tell us something about what was important to Bessie, but one of the fun things about the second book is that it was stamped by the bookseller.


The stamp is a bit difficult to read, but with the help of a 1921 Montreal city directory found on the BAnQ (Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Quebec) website, I was able to confirm that the name of the seller was Bible and Tract Depot. Google did not return any results for this shop but did for a similarly named bookseller in London who, according to an article on enyclopedia.com, were publishers for the Plymouth Brethren for many years. Information about the author, Edward Dennett, can be found on a site called the Brethren Archive. He was considered a great preacher and teacher and was "converted" to the movement after meeting Brethren during his convalescence from an illness.

According to Wikipedia, the Plymouth Brethren are an "evangelical Christian movement whose history can be traced to Dublin, Ireland in the late 1820s..." which fits with other relationships in this family. Bessie's sister, Martha, married a man from Belfast, and her daughter, Maggie, also married an Irishman and Maggie and her husband gave their religions as Brethren on the 1911 and 1921 censuses.

Maggie's husband was William Thompson, by the way, and if you look at the inscription above, you'll see that the book was a gift from a James Thompson. I think I have found James in the 1921 census. It is a common name but in this area in 1921, there is only one James Thompson who lists his religion as Brethren. Also, he was, according to the census, a merchant, and may have made frequent trips to Montreal or even sold books in his own shop. Was he related to William? That may be harder to pin down and I am not actively researching this line at the moment, but it is an intriguing question that I would love to answer one day because all of this adds color and flavor to my knowledge of Bessie and Maggie, who died fairly young and without children.

The Plymouth Brethren do not seem to have had any churches in the Eastern Townships in Bessie's lifetime. In all of my research in the area, I have never seen church records attributed to a church of the Plymouth Brethren (it just occurred to me that this may be why I have never in my extensive searches found Bessie's burial record), but I am hoping that some historical society, archive or library somewhere in the Townships has some kind of record left behind by someone in the movement. We shall see!

If you have been lucky enough to inherit books that belonged to your ancestors, take some time to research the titles, the authors and anything else you might find in them. You just never know what they could reveal about your ancestor.

Sunday, September 1, 2019

The Honor Roll Project - Mineola, NY

As part of Heather Wilkinson Rojo's Honor Roll Project, I have transcribed these Rolls of Honor in Mineola, NY to make the names visible to search engines so that family researchers may find them. Please consider finding the Honor Roll(s) in your town or village and transcribing them on your blog or website. And even if you don't have a blog or website, see the Honor Roll Project for instructions on how you can submit a transcription.




The war memorial and rolls of honor for Mineola are found in Memorial Park behind the Mineola Memorial Library.






DEDICATED TO
THE GLORY OF GOD
AND IN HONOR OF THOSE
FROM THIS VILLAGE
WHO SERVED THEIR COUNTRY

IN MEMORY OF


Roger W. Patterson
George H. Griffiths
Charles E. Butler
Charles G. Gossell
Adolph Block
Thomas J. Halleran



HONOR ROLL


Grace Briggs
Florence Brown
Evelyn S. Cowell
Nelly B. Jackson
Sadie Logan
Jeannette Pringle
Helen R. Millar
Lillie M. Nohowec
Mary Pearson
Laura E. Pickens
Alice M. Ryan



Joseph Allwang
Archer Albin
Arthur H. Andrews
Ralph Addeo
Charles Anderson
Andrew N. Burkard
Philip Borner
Lester D. Birdsall
John Balena
John W. Behrmann
Charles Blancke
William J. Borner
Harry G. Burt
William J. Breen
August Block
Frank J. Cihlar
Benjamin C. Craddock
Michael Carula
Cecil Cornwell
John J. Coleman
Edward Coffey
George W. Davis
Antonio DeMartino
Peter J. Dowdell
Clarence W. Dean
Frederick T. Eward
Douglas W. East
Harold P. Fleming
Alvin C. Free
Martin Fisher
Sebastiano Fusco
John F. Fleming
Leroy Forsman
John Fenski
John Fordham
Charles A. Gagliano
John Garvey
William Gherken
John H. Goatley
Charles D. Gower
Harry E. J. Green
Griffin M. Gower
William L. Gay
Harry E. Hicks
William J. Hickey
Philip G. Hubert
John Hughes
Philander Hartwell
Hubert V. Horan
George H. Johnson
Conrad G. Johnston
John Krumboly
John Kaspoposki
George A. Kramer
William Kempf
Walter F. Kelleher
Maurice Katz
Henry Labels
John Labens
John Laiola
Charles S. Lyon
Alexander D. Latham
Frank A. Laiola
Howard L. Mott
Charles L. McKee
Carl J. Moorehouse
Pellegrino Mozzonzoello
Gilbert Moorehouse
Joseph Nohowec
Richard J. O'Neill
John J. O'Connor
Joseph J. Percival
Frederick Platt
Joseph A. Patterson
Thomas K. Patterson
John F. Petre
Herbert Pape
Grovano Passanello
George Pearsall
Henry A. Ryder
Charles Rousseau
Matthew R. Rousseau
George Sause
Alfred Sommers
Oscar Swenson
Peter C. Sylvester
Thomas F. Shade
Theodore K. Schmidt
Martin Schneider
Henry W. Super
Andrew M. Smith
Frank E. Seaman
Harrison Seaman
Peter K. Thomopulos
Charles Trojan
Frank Tischner
Edgar Tubbs
Kenneth K. Underhill
William L. Walker, Jr.
Harry Whitney
Edward B. Whitney
Arthur K. Westbrook
Joseph Yankuksi
Henry Young
ERECTED BY THE DAUGHTERS OF ISABELLA
COURT 444



Under the WWI Honor Roll is this plaque.


THIS MEMORIAL IS DEDICATED TO ALL THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO MADE THE ULTIMATE SACRIFICE, AND ALL THOSE WHO SERVED WITH HONOR FOR THEIR COUNTRY IN WORLD WAR II, KOREA, VIETNAM AND ALL OTHER MILITARY ACTIONS SINCE 1919.

ADOLPH BLOCK POST #1305 VFW
MINEOLA MEMORIAL POST #349 AMERICAN LEGION



This plaque is on the other side of the boulder. It illustrates the "price of freedom" in the numbers of participants, POWs/MIAs and deaths in service for all military actions from the American Revolution to Bosnia.

Also found around the monument are these plaques.




IN MEMORY OF OUR VETERANS

TREE PRESENTED BY THE MINEOLA MEMORIAL AMERICAN LEGION AUXILIARY UNIT 349
1992




THIS TREE PLANTED IN MEMORY OF

Roger Williams Patterson
WHO DIED APR. 23, 1918
FOR GOD AND COUNTRY




DEDICATED TO THE MEN AND WOMEN VETERANS WHO WERE PART OF THE AMERICAN ARMED FORCES TOTALING 16,353,659 DURING WWII
DECEMBER 7, 1941 - SEPTEMBER 2, 1945
THE WAR COST AMERICA 407,316 DEAD IN BATTLE
POW'S: 124,079 MIA: 30,314

PVT. ADOLF BLOCK POST #1305
VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS OF THE U.S.
MINEOLA, NOVEMBER 11, 2001




DEDICATED TO THE MEN AND WOMEN WHO SERVED DURING THE VIETNAM WAR FROM JULY 8, 1959 TO JANUARY 27, 1973 AND THE FIVE YOUNG MEN FROM MINEOLA WHO GAVE THEIR LIVES IN THE WAR



Spec 4 Thomas Steven DeLuca
Pfc Peter Geoghan
Spec 4 Joseph Gilbert
Spec 4 Thomas Nicholas Motto
Sgt Kenneth Charles Scruton


THE AMERICAN LEGION MINEOLA MEMORIAL POST 349

VETERANS OF FOREIGN WARS OF THE UNITED STATES
PRIVATE ADOLPH BLOCK POST #1305 MINEOLA




IN MEMORY OF

SPECIALIST FOUR THOMAS N. MOTTO
UNITED STATES ARMY
BORN JULY 20, 1948
KILLED IN ACTION JULY 3, 1969
IN THE REPUBLIC OF VIETNAM
AWARDED A BRONZE STAR MEDAL
FOR MERITORIOUS SERVICE



As it states this plaque was placed

IN MEMORY OF THOSE WHO LOST THEIR LIVES IN THE L.I.R.R. TRAGEDY DECEMBER 7, 1995
DONATED BY THE FRIENDS AND NEIGHBORS

This tragedy was a shooting on a Long Island Rail Road commuter train that claimed the lives of six Long Islanders, three of whom were from Mineola.

Finally, the largest monument in the park was an Eagle Scout project and is to remember those killed on September 11th.





Since My Last Post

  Carl Anderson (rt), his son Axel (lt), his grandson Gilbert (standing), and great-grandson. Since my last post, I've spent a good deal...