I couldn't believe my eyes, Old Man Winter had dumped about 15 inches of snow while we were fast asleep.

There would be no going sledding until paths had been cleared to not only the woodshed but the henhouse and the other out buildings. Ken could always find an easy way to do things and his brain was now working overtime. With two pieces of slab wood, he made a V shaped plow and attached it with old belts and pieces of rope to the front of a ski-runner sled.

Cliff sat on the sled while Ken pulled and I pushed. In no time at all, we had beaten a narrow road to all the out buildings. It seems to me that Ken was always coming up with an invention to make work easier.

Speaking of making work easier Curtis Mainville of Ottawa has been working on an idea for an easier way to search the records of Queens County.

At the age of ten he got hooked on genealogy. His father was a teacher and summers were spent in New Brunswick visiting friends and relatives. A favourite spot was the top floor of the New Brunswick Museum, sorting through papers looking for clues to family history.

Other interests preoccupied him for several years, including getting a degree in English from the University Of Ottawa and joining the military. When he was posted to CFB Gagetown so close to his ancestral home, his curiosity in family history was rejuvenated. While taking a course at UNB in Loyalist History, he used the opportunity to write a detailed research paper on everything he could find on his forefather Philip Huested and became obsessed with family history. One of the things that bothered him, however, was the fact that he was constantly reviewing the same sources. Thus he  began to think about  ways of collating data and presenting them in a meaningful and efficient manner.

After four years of development, he was able to design a database program that enabled him to come up with a CD he calls Queens County Sources or QCS for short. It represents a giant leap forward in genealogical research. Spanning the last decade of the nineteenth century, five sources: the 1891 and 1901 Dominion Census records; County birth records between 1888 and 1901; Provincial Marriages from 1888 to 1899  and  Hutchinson's Provincial Directory for 1896 - have been carefully linked to one powerful search engine, allowing both the novice and  most experienced user to download ancestral information in only a matter of seconds.

He is not alone in the design and enthusiasm for this product and wishes to pay special thanks to Bill Arthurs and Cleadie Barnett.

Curtis states, "QCS is miles ahead of anything like its kind in North America. The key to
the program lies in its search engine. Each database has been painstakingly linked to a master index by a series of references. In this matter, databases containing a total of approximately 30,000 records have been tied to 18,000 different residents.  QCS is the future of genealogy."

The Queens County Sources (QCS) Cd is available for $15 from Curtis Mainville, 1474 Thurlow St., Orleans, Ontario, K4A 1X6. E-mail to curtis_mainville@hotmail.com

Query 799
Baptist Records - Gregg - Keirstead: Does anyone have information on St. John Parish, Kings County? ( Probably referring to a church parish - in the mid 1800s). Is there any way to access Baptist church records from the 1800s in Kings County? I am researching the Grigg, Gregg and Keirstead surnames.
 -Melissa Bonn, 24300 S. Beavercreek Rd.,Beavercreek, OR., 97004, USA. E-mail to dmbonn@bctonline.com.

Query 800
Collins - Kilcollins - Merrithew: James Collins was born in1785. The first record I have of his existence in New Brunswick is his Marriage in 1820 to Ann Merrithew. In the 1851 census, he is living in Summerfield, Wicklow Parish and his name is written as Kilcollins. He may possibly have served in the War of 1812 in the104th Regiment. My interest lies in trying to establish his place of origin and his parents and proof or denial of a brother in Nova Scotia.
 -Dwayne Kilcollins, HCR 61  BOX 39, Stockholm, ME., 04783, USA. E-mail to dkilcol@nci2.net.

Query 801
Gray - Wiggins - Lester - Peters - Palmer - Carle - Dedcoat: I am searching for information and collecting relatives too, on my ancestors, most of whom were Loyalists, and made their way to Saint John. The widow and children of Mordecai Lester arrived in Saint John, as did Samuel Wiggins with his family. After they married they had 8 children, the  eldest being Stephen. His first wife was Frances Ann Peters, daughter of Thomas H. Peters and Susannah Palmer. Thomas was the son of Samuel Peters and Mary Carle and grandson of Thomas Peters and Margaret Dedcoat. Stephen and Frances Wiggins had a daughter named Ann Eliza Wiggins. She married Benjamin Gerrish Gray in Saint John on Oct. 12, 1857. They left for England before their children were born. Does anyone have any information, or could you be related to members of the above mentioned families? I would love to hear from you. Apparently there was also a minister in Saint John at the time, also with the unusual name of Benjamin Gerrish Gray. If anyone knows if they were connected, I would appreciate hearing from them.
 -Sue Hogan, Lot 5 Gowrie Rd, Duri 2344 NSW, Australia. Email to
dandshogan@bigpond.com.au.

Query 802
Grigg: I am searching for information on Nicholas Grigg who emigrated from England to
Canada with a brother, William Grigg. Later a third brother, John, joined them. They first settled on Kierstead Mountain, Kings County. The date of arrival seems to be in the1830s. Nicholas Grigg married Deborah Kierstead, William Grigg married Eliza Jane Kierstead and John was married to Mary Ann (last name unknown) before leaving England. I would appreciate hearing from anyone who has information to share with me on the Kierstead and Grigg families.
 E-mail MyraDPerry@aol.com

Query 803
Millican - McCracken: Elizabeth Millican, the daughter of Andrew Millican of Barnesville married John Floyd McCracken in 1885 at Hardingville. I am seeking information on the parents of John McCracken to help me in determining his place of origin in Ireland. Any help would be appreciated.
 -Mrs. Sydney (McCracken) McCusker, 23 Parkcrest Drive, Victoria, B.C., V9B 5L9. E-mail:
sydmcc@home.com.

Query 804
Byers - Mawhinney - Sweet: John and Sarah (Mawhinney) Byers of Lorneville had four children near the turn of the century including my grandmother Edith (Ada) Maria Byers who was born in March of 1890. The other children were Mary, Hazen and John. My grandmother Edith Byers married Arthur Jarvis Sweet of Lancaster, New Brunswick. I am most anxious to find information on John and Sarah Byers. Does anyone have information on them? Any help would be greatly appreciated.
 -Dan Sweet, 2792 W. DeShong Dr., Pendleton, IN., 46064, USA. E-mail arabian118@aol.com.
 
Ruby is a genealogy buff. Readers are invited to send their New Brunswick genealogical queries to her at rmcusack@nbnet.nb.ca. When E-Mailing please put Yesteryear Families in the Subject line. Please include in the query, your name and postal address as someone reading the newspaper, may have information to share with you but not have access to E-mail. Queries should be no more than 45 words in length.