Wedding Wednesday - John Dean and Elizabeth Nimmo

John Dean and Elizabeth Nimmo, two of my 2nd great-grandparents, were married 150 years ago this week, six months after John purchased the family farm that I have written so much about.

They were married at the Crescent Street Presbyterian Church in Montreal by the Rev. Mr. McVicar.

The Rev. Mr. McVioar

Family lore says that John and Elizabeth's three-day trip home to North Hatley was their honeymoon. I don't know for how long they lived alone in the log cabin on the farm, but it couldn't have been too long because Elizabeth's mother, Elizabeth Louden, does not appear in any Montreal directories after 1868 but is in their household in the 1871 census.

John and Elizabeth welcomed their first child, my great-grandfather James Louden Dean, in 1870. He was followed by three girls and another boy. Sadly, John died of pneumonia in 1888.

Elizabeth Nimmo and her five children.

Elizabeth lived to be 81-years-old, dying at the farm in 1924. She is buried with her husband and mother at Reedsville Cemetery in North Hatley.

My mother took this beautiful photo in 1990, the farm is still in the family today.

Tombstone Tuesday - A Lesson in Patience & Persistence

Patience is not exactly my middle name, but photographing one ancestral headstone, in particular, taught me that it will pay off when paired with persistence.

In November of 2014, my mother and I set off for a few days at our cousin's farm in North Hatley, Quebec over American Thanksgiving weekend. I was armed with a list of four cemeteries that I wanted to visit and headstones to photograph. The night before we left, North Hatley and the surrounding area were blessed with six-inches of snow on bare ground. We did visit two cemeteries, but there were no good photos to be had, although I did give it a shot with North Hatley being an eight-hour drive from home.

Among the headstones that I wanted to photograph was the shiny, pink granite headstone of my 3rd great-grandmother, Elizabeth Louden, and my 2nd-great-grandparents, Elizabeth Nimmo and John Dean. This side, with the names and dates, faces east-ish. This was about the best shot of the day.

Legible? Mostly. Ideal? Certainly not. I also cannot tell you what time of day we were there, but if I had to guess, I would say late morning or early afternoon.

Last summer, in early August, we were back in North Hatley for a family reunion. Although we had planned for a day of visiting cemeteries, we decided to spend more time with family while we could. My instincts were telling me that this shiny and very reflective headstone would be best photographed at noon, but we could only get there in the mid- to late-afternoon. I thought it was still worth a try because the sun would be somewhat behind the stone, reducing glare. What I didn't count on was the easterly-facing side would be very dark.

I thought we might be able to get here about noon the next day, but we didn't make it back at all until just this week.

We started a day of cemetery visits just after 9 am and decided to make this cemetery our first stop, although I had a feeling morning would not work for this stone.

The morning light did not create the reflections I had anticipated, but the writing was still difficult to read. I decided we would head to other cemeteries and try to be back here at noon.

These were the results at just about 12 noon. Still not the most legible stone, but I do believe this is as good as it will ever get and I have been able to play with the contrast a bit in Photoshop without really changing the photo.

This stone really gave me fits, but I learned a lot along the way about the importance of good light for good headstone photos. We returned to the cemetery again in the late afternoon for photos of our west-facing headstones and saw improvement in those results, too. It was a hard day on my back but I was able to photograph all of the headstones I wanted and fulfill some requests for Find A Grave.

Reedsville Cemetery is large and the engraving on many of the older stones will soon be lost to time.

I hope that I can return soon to save the images of these stones before that happens. And if anyone in the area has stumbled on this post because of references to Reedsville or North Hatley, I beg you, please consider giving some time to the genealogical community and to history, grab your camera and get out to this or any old cemetery in your area to make lasting images of these stones and then share them wherever you prefer.

War Memorial - North Hatley, Quebec

I have been visiting North Hatley, Quebec since I was very little. I have no idea how many times I have been to the farm that my 2nd great-grandfather founded 150 years ago and where my maternal grandmother was born. I've been to and through the village of North Hatley on the beautiful and picturesque Lake Massawippi just as many times, and yet I had to ask the location of the North Hatley war memorial last year in order to take photos. Even more ridiculous, the memorial is located right across the road from LeBaron's General Store which I have also visited many times.

Last year's photos weren't good enough for transcription, but I finally visited again this week and can now transcribe the names here.

This memorial commemorates the service of all who served, with a cross or star next to the names of the men who were killed. I also just noticed that there are names on the WWI plaque with U.S. next to them. My mother thinks perhaps those men came to Canada to fight between 1914 and 1917 before the strongly isolationist United States entered the conflict. I think she's probably right, but I will have to contact a local veteran's group and or the historical society to see if they have a definitive answer. Also, to see if they have the full names of the men who served in WWII and Korea; they are listed on the monument with only first initials.

World War I

    Hamilton F. Armstrong - U.S.

    T. Gardner Aspinwall - U.S.

✚ Henry M. Atkinson, Jr. - U.S.

    Cyril G. Ballin - U.S.

    Harold R. Ballin - U.S.

    Ernest W. Bamping

✚ Alfred Beach

✚ Adelbert Bean

    Charles W. Bennett

✚ Fred A. Bennett
    Octave Blake - U.S.
    Henry Breckenridge - U.S.
    Lucien Breckenridge - U.S.
    R. A. Brock
    Frank Daves Brown - U.S.
    Charles D.F. Brune - U.S.
    Emmons Bryant - U.S.
    Ervine L. Burns
    Andrew L. Cinnamon
    Earl H. Cinnamon
    Charles. S. Clark
    Humphry Cobb
    Eli Copeland
    Donald Dick
    Jackson P. Dick - U.S.
    William J. Dick
    Albert B.C. Dooley
    Arthur N. Dutton
    Charles J. Edgar
    Clifford E. Force
    William J. Gagnon
    Reginald Gallagher
    George Gardner
    Ambrose Gordon - U.S.
    Frank Gosnell , Jr. - U.S.
    H. Allen Gosnell - U.S.
    Dalby M. Grainger
    A. E. Wilson Harrison - U.S.
    Randolph C. Harrison - U.S.
    Charles A. Hawes
    James Hopkins
✚ Kenneth D'O Husband
    William Husband
    Herbert Jacques, Jr. - U.S.
    James Jardine
    H. Holman Ketcham - U.S.
    John B. Ketcham - U.S.
    Simon R. Kezar
    Wilfred J. Kezar
    Oscar M. Kilby - U.S.
✚ Adelbert LeBaron
    Grant A. LeBaron
    Joseph A. Leduc
    John G. Livingston - U.S.
✚ Gordon Lockwood
    Patrick Lynch
    Arnold C. Mayo
    Ashley W. Mayo
    Clifford W. Mayo
    Albert Matthews
    Harry B. Moss
    Herbert A. McCrea
    A. Lee McKay
    John R. McKay
    Robert McVittie
    Thomas C. Parker
    E. Willing Peters - U.S.
    Thomas Phillips
    Sherwood Picking - U.S.
    James R. Pond
    Harford W.H. Powel - U.S.
    Howard H. Powel - U.S.
    Chilton L. Powell - U.S.
    Paul R. Powell - U.S.
    Verner H. Putney
✚ John Ramsdell
    Frank McN Ransom - U.S.
    Warren A. Ransom - U.S.
    James S. Robertson
    Harry Robinson
✚ Arthur E. Seguin
    Augustus Seguin
    J. Adolph Seguin
    Alphonse Sigard
    Fred Sprigings
    T. Ellis Stebbins - U.S.
    E. Vail Stebbins - U.S.
    Sidney M. Taylor
    Clinton E. Woodward
    Andrew Wylie - U.S.
✚ Alton Young
    Clarence F. Young
 

World War II
G. Agon
D. Allen
L. Allen
N. Allen
A. Bachand
J. Bachand
A. Bampton
J. Bampton
J. Barrow
K. Bassett
L. Bean
C. Bennett
M. Bowen
R. Bryant
R. Carmen
W. Carroll
C. Cate
M. Cliche
R. Deacon
L. (Lawrence) Dean ★
N. Ditchburn
R. Ditchburn
A. Doyon
O. Fidler ★
P. Gagnon
W. Gagnon
P. Gauthier
M. Gokey
S. Gomes
R. Gordon
C. Guild
J. Guild
L. Guild
W. Guild ★
C. Hartwell
C. Hawes
G. Hawes
E. Humphrey
D. Johnson
R. Jones
D. Kezar
D. Kezar
J. Kezar
R. Kezar ★
R. Kezar
W. Kezar
C. Ladouceur
G. Ladouceur ★
S. Lavoi
L. LeBaron

R. LeBaron
J. Lennon
A. Lusty
C.  Lusty
D. Martin
A. Marlowe
G. Mayo
E. McCrea
F. McCrea
J. McCrea ★
W. McCrea
D. McKnight ★
G. Meigs
R. Merrill
A. Moore
G. Penwill
W. Penwill
W. Raymond
S. Reed
W. Ride
R. Riley
F. Rudd
J. Sampson ★
A. Seguin
G. Seguin
L. Seguin
R. Seguin
H. Sharman
W. Sharman
G. Smith
E. Stiles
F. Stone
G. Sprigings
H. Taylor
K. Taylor
R. Taylor
S. Taylor
P. Trusell
H. Thwaites
J. Voisard
R. Voisard
H. Wheeler
A. Woodward
W. Woodward
H. Wort ★
J. Wort
J. Young

Korean War
E. Bampton
G. Ditchburn
R. Hughes
D. LeBaron
J. Rasmussen
H. Wheeler


I will be sending this link to the Honor Roll Project so that family history researchers might find family members listed here.

Please consider adding your local war memorial to the project so that other genealogists can find their ancestor.