How I Found Norman Parker Smith in Online Records - Pt I

Benjamin and Norman Parker Smith were two of my maternal grandfather's brothers. They died in infancy in 1889 and 1903 in Quebec. Finding their graves was an eight year search that began when I knew absolutely nothing about genealogical research.

When I first realized that, unlike my grandfather and the rest of his siblings, I could not locate Benjamin and Norman's graves, I had no online memberships. I stumbled on interment.net and later findagrave.com, there were free resources at Library and Archives Canada and, of course, there was Google.

Google led me to a cemetery where my great-grandmother's relatives were buried and I had hopes of finding records because the cemetery was associated with a church, but I had no luck. Once I had an Ancestry World membership I was able to search the records of the Insitut Genealogique Drouin who had filmed the civil copies of church books in all denominations in Quebec, but still I found nothing for the babies. The collection did not include the records of that church in Buckingham and somehow Norman Parker had no records that I could find even though he was born after the family had moved to Thetford Mines, about 250 miles to the east. I knew a Canadian research trip was needed but couldn't find the right time. I moved on to other research and genealogy activities.

One day, much to my surprise, Ancestry provided me with a hint about Norman Parker. It was his baptismal record from a church in Montreal, a place that was completely unexpected.

The names and dates in the record were a match, though, and sadly he was baptized only eight days before his death as recorded in the family Bible. I thought that meant his burial record would be in this same church book, but he was not buried from this church.

Years went by again, and it was Spring 2017. The Dean family (also of Quebec) reunion was coming fast. I began researching the children of my 2nd great-grandparents. My great-grandfather and three of his siblings were baptized at the same church, according to church records, but I couldn't find a record for the fifth. Further searches showed that the book for Maggie Dean's likely year of baptism was not in the collection on Ancestry. I knew I wasn't going to make it to Canada for research before the reunion but were there online resources that I was missing? Did someone else have these records online? It dawned on me how much of a beginner I was when I started researching Quebec ancestors and how many records come online every week now. I needed to approach my search like a beginner. I needed to start from scratch but with my eight years of experience behind me.

I remembered the DearMYRTLE Beginner's Series in 2015. Practically the first thing DearMYRTLE mentioned was the Family Search Wiki, which I had turned to since then when researching a new area. And so that is where I went, and the very first link I clicked showed me that it might be possible to find these records from my desk on Long Island. BMS2000 had indexed a baptismal record for Maggie Dean at the Waterville Congregational Church in 1872. I was on my way!

To be continued.

The Case of the Vanishing Headstone

If I were playing Randy Seaver's Saturday Night Genealogy Fun from last month, I would now be able to go back in in an unbroken chain of headstones to my 4th great-grandparents, Moses Quimby Bean and Elizabeth Kezar (pronounced Kee-zer with the emphasis on the first syllable). This cemetery, as I wrote about last week, sits on property set aside by Moses for this purpose and was called the Bean Burial Ground in some church records.

Moses Bean

DIED

Oct. 19, 1825

Ae 52 yrs 8 mo

Betsey Kezar

Wife of

Moses Beane

DIED

Oct. 25, 1830

Ae 54 yrs 7 mo

I may also have another set of 4th-great-grandparents buried here, but more research is needed to verify that. Of course, I had planned to photograph their headstones anyway since this cemetery isn't exactly around the corner from me. But when we got here, there were no signs of any headstones for Isaac Gordon and Mariam Wells.

They were listed on interment.net but my mother and I walked the thankfully small cemetery twice and had no luck finding them. Once home I logged onto the site and saw that the compiler had last updated this cemetery in 2004, so it was certainly possible given the age of the stones and the condition of some of those in the cemetery where repairs, sinking and leaning were evident, that Isaac and Mariam's headstone(s) had been lost to time.

Next I contacted Leslie Nutbrown, who had transcribed this cemetery, because I knew that he sometimes transcribed from photos, and I was in luck, he had a photo and sent it to me right away.

Used with permission of the photographer,

Leslie Nutbrown, who transcribed the stones in this cemetery in 2004.

Isaac Gordon

Died

Nov. 25, 1853

Aged 74 Yrs.

-----

Mariam Wells

His Wife

Died Mar 19, 1862

Aged 74 Yrs.

6 Mo. 4 Dys.

I still look at this photo and shake my head that a monument this seemingly sturdy could just disappear. But the property does lie on a busy road. In the time that we were there, many trucks flew past us hauling lumber and other cargo towards the border. I would imagine that kind of activity produces a lot of vibration that could be damaging to these monuments, and if it had been leaning like a similar family monument here, I guess it could very well have toppled over and broken apart.

Contacting the local historical society is near the top of my genealogy to do list. I hope they can help me learn about the cemetery and tell me who maintains it now.

Best Laid Cemetery Plans

It looks like I accidentally deleted my pre-reunion post detailing my plans for visiting cemeteries in Quebec and the contents of my new cemetery kit, so I'll review it a bit here.

Before heading home from last week's reunion, Mum and I had hoped to visit six cemeteries to pay our respects to our ancestors and photograph their headstones. Our previous attempt three years ago had to be called for weather when the area was hit with six inches of snow the night before our arrival.

Denison/1848-1920

Well, you know about best laid plans, right? I still think we could have completed our mission, but we chose to spend some extra time with our cousins instead. There was also one cemetery we decided to skip on this trip because the cemetery didn't respond to my inquiries for plot numbers before we left, and it is a big cemetery.

As I packed my clothes and other necessities, I also assembled a cemetery kit in a large knapsack on wheels. Inside were:

First aid kit that included a whistle and compass

Sunscreen

Bug spray (containing Deet due to a bad tick season in the area)

Lint rollers (to check ourselves for ticks, they can be very small)

Long dishwashing gloves (again, tick protection)

Gardening gloves

Exam gloves just because I had some

Pruning shears

Cardboard wrapped in foil for directing sunlight on hard to read stones (a large mirror would also work but I was trying to reduce weight)

Soft paint brush for removing dirt from lettering

Spray bottle filled with plain water which I had heard can sometimes enhance the lettering on stone if it is difficult to read/photograph.

Old throw pillow covered in plastic tarp for kneeling on while trimming any overgrowth around flat stones or foot stones.

Crate for sitting on to take photos at the level of the stone.

Extra memory card for camera.

Extra/rechargeable batteries for camera.

Directions because I didn't have cell service in Canada, printed lists of stones, extra paper and pen all on a clipboard.

I also had soft cleaning brushes with me from cleaning Donald's grandmother's headstone, something his parents wanted us to do. We hadn't planned to use them, but we did decide to remove some of the lichen from my great-grandparent's stone. It is a thick, sturdy stone and was practically illegible when we got there. I know that scrubbing stones is controversial and there are plenty of stones we saw and visited that we would not have touched, but this one in particular we thought would be okay. If both of us hadn't had sore backs that day, we probably would have gotten a better result.

George R. Smith M.L.C./Feb 17 1860-Feb 20,1922
Isabella F. Smith/Aug 12 1868-Feb 20 1940

I still had to spray the stone with plain water to get it this legible. I'm not sure if we're going to leave it at this point, or try again with the soft brushes and water on our next visit. I'm sure the stone can take it, but I don't want to damage the raised lettering.

Even though this plot is in the same cemetery as my grandparents, I only remember visiting my great-grandparents once before and had forgotten that George's foot stone included the Masonic symbol, or that he was even a Mason.

All three of these stones must have been something to see when they were new. I hope we can figure out a way to keep them legible and looking as my great-grandparents wanted without harming them.

Funeral Card Friday - John Dean

Well, if you read my last blog post about my then upcoming trip to Quebec for a family reunion, I'll end the suspense for you now and let you know we did not make it to six cemeteries while we were there.

We did have a wonderful time, I did meet cousins I'd never met before and see others I hadn't seen in decades. I did get to share my research and photos to much appreciation and I don't regret a moment of how we spent our time, only that we couldn't have stayed longer.

And I wasn't the only one to bring goodies. One of my cousins made a foam board display covered in photos and ephemera that was absolutely wonderful! It included the funeral card (1) of my 2nd great-grandfather, John Dean, who died of pneumonia in February of 1888.

I cannot even describe my reaction to this piece of family history. I just about fell over when I saw it. I had no idea that Susan had such treasures. I am able to share this scan with you thanks to the treat that I bought myself a the week before we left, a Flip-Pal mobile scanner. It paid for itself the moment I was able to bring home all of Susan's treasures in digital form.

You may notice that the scan is cut off at the top. That is not the fault of the scanner. The Flip-Pal comes with instructions and software for stitching scans together when you scan something larger than the glass, but I didn't have time to learn that trick before I left. I have this image for now, though, and I can always ask Susan to take this out for me the next time we visit.

I still haven't found the burial record for John Dean, but I do have two newspaper notices with conflicting dates of death, so this is a nice addition to my documentation about his death.

(1) Funeral card for John Dean, Dean Family Collection, privately owned by Susan Dean [ADDRESS FOR PRIVATE USE], 2017. Inherited from Kenneth E. Dean, grandson of John Dean.

The Honor Roll Project - Lt. Frank McConnell Park - Richmond Hill, Queens, NY

On Thursday morning, Donald and I found ourselves sitting in a park on the corner of Atlantic Avenue and Lefferts Boulevard in Queens while waiting for a diagnosis on our car from a new mechanic. While we were waiting I realized that there was a memorial of some kind at one end of the park and Donald went over to investigate.

He discovered that this park was dedicated to the memory Lt. Frank McConnell, the first Richmond Hill resident killed in World War I who gave his life, according to a city parks website, on July 26, 1918 in the second battle of the Marne.

Although the monument is dedicated to all of the Morris Park (neighborhood boundaries in Queens are very fluid) residents killed in the Spanish American War, WWI, WWII, the Korean Campaign and the Viet-Nam Campaign, only those killed in WWI are listed.

Last year I shared the WWI memorials in Rockville Centre, NY where I live. Rockville Centre is a village in Nassau County, about a half hour drive from this park. RVC is just a village and Queens is a city county, but I am struck by the difference in the number of casualties between Rockville Centre and just one Queens neighborhood, even 100 years ago.

Anyway, I hope that this post may enable another genealogist to find their relative on this memorial. As listed on the plaque, those killed in action are:

Charles F. Albrecht
Louis E. Ammarell
Edward M. Anderson
Charles G. Baird
Mortimer Benjamin
George B. Burling, Jr.
Robert J. Burtis
Edward Cater
Frederick A. Clark
Harold J. Cokeley
George M. Coleman
Charles. F. Cook
Albert M. Dow
Charles F. Gans
David E. Gladd
Robert Gray, Jr.
Eugene A. Griffith
George B. Hall
Joesph Hartel, Jr.
William F. Hausman
Herome Heime
Charles M. Hoerning
William B. Holler
Andrew J. Hummer
Johannes A. Jensen
Albert A. Justis
Henry Lerch, Jr.
Lewis Lichtenstein
Frederick Lippert
John W. Mark
Daniel C. McCauley
Frank W. McConnell, Jr.
Frank J. Menninger
John J. Mertz
Frank A. Meyer
Finlay W. Millar
Cuthbert C. Murphy
Frederick W. Neumeyer
George R. Nicholson
Bertram S. Noble
George F. Pettit
Louis Pine
Andrew J. Provost, Jr.
Frederick H. Reif
William A. Reihl
Bernard Ripoll
Archibald E. Robbins
Thomas R. Roberts
Paul E. Sallah
Arthur A. Schnorr
Frank L. Schweithelm
Joseph Sheridan
Frederick H. Shirs
John A. Smith
Arthur J. Struck
Stephen T. Sullivan
Adam H. Suttmeier
Frederick W. Sundermier
John Tallario
Dominick Trapasso
Charles L. Trinkard
John T. Vermaelen
George A. Weber
Lawrence Whalen
Harry J. Whitman
William A. Williams
Charles Worth
James P. Young
Peter A. Zeis
Alfred N. Dow

I will be adding this post to the Honor Roll Project.

Planting a Seed - Sharing Family Photos

For the past two months, I have been spending a good deal of my free time preparing for the Dean reunion which is now less than a month away.

Eva Maud Bean and James Louden Dean

I know that at least one cousin who is "into" genealogy will be there, but I am hoping, of course, that many more will be interested in hearing about the family history that my mother's generation remembers, the added details that Sherril and I have uncovered and in seeing the old photos that bring it to life.

But what is the best way to share the photos? I thought about a book, but I just wasn't feeling it, the time and expense are just not happening right now. And I know that when I do eventually start to write, I want to know more than I do now about our immigrant ancestors.

I would love to bring the originals; there's just something about holding that original in my hand, even in a protective sleeve, that really gets me and I'd love to share that feeling. But a 400-mile drive each way, two nights in a hotel and the fact that we would be gathering around food in a large group, no, I had to admit that sharing the originals would not be possible. And digital sharing isn't an option because I don't have a laptop and the farm is very rural and not internet friendly.

So, I have had prints made of all those cabinet cards, cartes de visite and tintypes, but there were 20th century photos that I wanted to share also and didn't want to have too many more individual prints made. Finally, while I was uploading the older photos to Snapfish (with whom I have no affiliation) I was reminded that they make collage prints in 4x4, 4x6, 5x7, 8x8 and 8x10. After experimenting a bit, I decided that this was the best way to share a lot of photos. I made a total of ten collages and I'm so happy with them that I am sure that I will be framing a few of them if they make it back from the reunion in good condition.

This one contains photos from my grandparent's wedding.

I love how this turned out so much that I ordered two so that I can frame one for myself and one for my mother. And it was easy to make. I just uploaded the .jpg files that I wanted to use, and let Snapfish format the photos for me. If I didn't like the auto arrangement it was fairly easy to swap photos within the collage or remove photos, although once or twice in the process of making all ten collages, I did just start over with fewer photos. You also have the option of choosing from their templates.

One word of caution about Snapfish. I'm not sure that I will use them again. I didn't like the fact that you can only use the coupon codes if you want to have the photos shipped to you and then you have to pay for shipping. So, depending on the size of your order, the coupon codes may not save you much money. The package arrived yesterday, two days earlier than their estimate. It was on my door  mat when I got home. The package (a standard shipping envelope) was not in good shape and there was a footprint on one side. That is the fault of the shipping company. But, the 8x10s and the envelopes of smaller prints were just thrown into the envelope with no stiff cardboard or anything inside to protect them. If you look carefully at the above photo you can see that two of the corners are bent. Four of these 8x10s arrived this way. That is Snapfish's responsibility. It has been about twenty hours since I contacted them as I write this and I haven't heard back yet.

Overall, though, I was pleased with the order. I have put the prints in protective sleeves and will start labeling them soon. I even decided to print a few backs to give everyone the feel of the old photos.

At least a couple of my grandmother's siblings were interested in family history and my mother and at least another cousin of her generation are also. I know that a cousin from my generation has a tree on Ancestry, but it seems to be in need of some attention. I'm hoping that we can snag someone from the next generation at this reunion. Or at least plant a seed.

Canada 150 Genealogy Challenge

As you probably already know, Canada celebrated the 150th anniversary of Confederation on Saturday, the day that the colonies were united under the Constitution Act.

I'm a bit late, but I am taking up Patricia Greber's challenge to list my Canadian ancestors living in Canada in 1867 when Confederation was accomplished. The challenge is to list their names, the year they arrived in Canada (can be approximate) and where they originally settled.

John Dean

Elizabeth Nimmo

Denison Minser Bean

Isabella Frances Parker (Center)

James Dean - 3rd great grandfather                               by 1837                 Harrington Twnshp, Quebec
Jane Irwin - 3rd great grandmother                                by 1837                 Montreal, Quebec

John Dean - 2nd great grandfather                                  b. 1839                 St. Patrick, Quebec

Elizabeth Louden - 3rd great grandmother                          1851-1856       Montreal, Quebec

Elizabeth Nimmo - 2nd great grandmother                          1851-1856      Montreal, Quebec

Mark Bean - 3rd great grandfather                                   b. 1806                Hatley Township, Quebec

Denison Minser Bean - 2nd great grandfather                 b. 1848                Hatley Township, Quebec

John Emery - 3rd great grandfather                                      1805-1829     Hatley Township, Quebec

Jane Louisa Emery - 2nd great grandmother                    b. 1850               Hatley Township, Quebec

George Lakin Parker - 2nd great grandmother                     1840               St. Angelique, Quebec
Lucy A. B. Hamilton - 2nd great grandmother                b. 1828                Montreal, Quebec

Isabella Francis Parker - great grandmother                     b. 1867               Manotick, Ontario


James Dean and Jane Irwin both came from Ireland, according to census records, and were married Montreal, Quebec in 1837 at a Scotch Presbyterian Church.

Oral family history says that Elizabeth Louden and her children, including Elizabeth Nimmo, came from Scotland. Census records say Ireland right up to Elizabeth Nimmo's last census, 1921, which says Scotland. I also may have found the family in the Scottish census in 1851 but that is to be determined. Elizabeth Louden first appears in a Montreal directory in 1856.

John Emery appears to have been born in Newbury, New Hampshire in 1805. He may have come as a child, but his first record in Canada, so far, is his marriage to my 3rd great-grandmother, Fanny Chamberlin, in 1829.

George Lakin Parker came to Canada as a child from Barton, Vermont so his parents may also have been alive and in Canada for Confederation, but that is yet to be determined, as is the status of Lucy Hamilton's parents in 1867.

I've made so many fascinating discoveries about my direct and collateral Canadian ancestors preparing for the Dean reunion next month, but putting this list together emphasizes how much I don't know. So much family, only 24 hours in a day!