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That the Past May Live 

Tales of childhood and youth in Stanley

Martha Vinetta (Gilmore) Johnston

Usually Grampy had a story to tell that would keep us sitting on the edge of our chairs. But tonight it was a really boring conversation with Mum about a letter he had received from a nephew, giving him the news of the arrival of the fellow’s first grandchild. It seemed they had given this baby an often used family name.

Grampy went on to remind Mum that his parents had chosen his names carefully. One was for   his father’s younger brother, a doctor in Boston, and the other was for Bishop Medley.

Martha V. (Gilmore) Johnston’s mother, Mary Fox Howe, was born in Ballinasloe, Northern Ireland, when her mother, Esther (Sutherland) Howe was making a visit to the home of her parents in 1837. A friend of the family, Colonel Fox, asked to choose a name for the baby. Since he had no children, he named her for his wife, Mary Fox. Furthermore he gave her one hundred pounds in honour of the name. A few years after Mary’s parents returned to Canada, death struck them both down, leaving Mary Fox Howe and three siblings as orphans in Quebec.

When Mary was twenty, she made her way from the Blake Home in Connecticut, where she had lived since she was ten years old, to Boston, Saint John, Fredericton, and then by horse and wagon to Penniac to the home of her Howe grandparents. Two years later, in June of 1859, she married Thomas Gilmore. Their daughter Martha Vinnetta was born in 1863 in Stanley.

The 1978 publication ‘That the Past May Live’ is Martha Vinetta Gilmore Johnston’s tales of her childhood in Stanley, in which she relates for her children and grandchildren, the happenings of long ago.

The writer takes one on a personal journey not only of her growing-up days and family connections in the Stanley area but shares her experiences of the trials and tribulations of a young female teacher in the 1880's.

That the Past May Live’ is available at several research institutions in New Brunswick.

**
By the way, the September meeting of the Saint John Branch of the New Brunswick Genealogical Society will be held on September 28, 2005 at 7:30 p.m. in the Lions Den at the Loch Lomond Villa.
**

Query 1349
Stewart - Weir: Seeking burial record for Mary Weir Stewart, widow of Dunbar Douglas Stewart, both originally of Newport, Hants County, Nova Scotia.  Mary Weir Stewart born 1810, died 17 Aug 1863 at Saint John, New Brunswick, having moved there circa 1850.  Their children were: Isabell Frances, Rachel Mary, Charles Beckwith, Charles Murray Porter, Sidney Beckwith - who died in Portland, Maine after 1910, Isabell Elizabeth and Eliza Cochran.
SHERRY McNAIR
Box 428
Arcola, SK
Canada, S0C 0G0
E-mail randsmcnair@sasktel.net

Query 1350
Sheck: Interested in any family history on the Sheck family from Sussex, New Brunswick.
VICTORIA CARROLL.
E-mail v.carroll@sympatico.ca

Query 1351
Shives: Robert Shives immigrated from Scotland to Saint John circa 1800. He was married to Martha Wiggins. They had three sons; Robert, William, and Alexander. Who were his parents?  What is the family connection to Bishop Robert Kilgour of Peterhead, Scotland?
PATRICIA CRAIG
925 Parkside Drive, Centreville
NS, Canada, B0P 1J0
E-mail pcraig95@yahoo.com

Query 1352
Byrne: John Byrne, age 65 and wife  Mariah, age 58  were listed on the 1881 census of Dumbarton Parish, Charlotte County, New Brunswick. I am interested in the date and place of their death and the burial location.
PAUL R. BURNS
32 Moulton Hill Rd
Stafford Springs, CT
06076, USA
Email  wilgoos@cox.net

Query 1353
Pearson -Coates: My grandfather, Henry William Pearson, came to Canada from Birmingham, England, in 1914, to join the Canadian Expeditionary Force. He had a sister married to a Richard Coates in Fredericton, New Brunswick at 641 George Street, in 1914. Searching for the descendants of Richard Coates and my Great Aunt Pearson, first name unknown. She was born in Birmingham, England circa 1877. When did she come to Canada? Did she and Richard have a family?
BARBARA F. PEARSON
476 Pearsonville Road
Pearsonville, N.B.
Canada, E5P 1S6
Telephone 506-433-3569
E-mail barbara3@nb.sympatico.ca


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Ruby M. Cusack is a genealogy buff living in New Brunswick, Canada. Send your New Brunswick genealogical queries to her at:  rmcusack@nbnet.nb.ca.  Include your name and mailing address for the benefit of the readers of the newspaper who do not have access to E-mail but could have information to share with you. Please put "Query" followed by the surnames in your query. For more information on submitting queries, visit http://www.rubycusack.com/Query-Instructions.html
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