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Dictionary of Canadian Biography

For several days, the rain came down in buckets, which caused the ice to go out of the brook. A jam at the bend resulted in many of the ice cakes ending up high and dry in the field below Gramp’s house. Cliff and I were crawling over them when we noticed embedded in the ice, some stones with designs on them.

We were very curious about the pattern which resembled a tiny fern. So off we rushed to find Gramp.

While we waited with great expectations, he took it in his hand and examined it very carefully before speaking to us.

“I think you two should form a steinhammer club and maybe one of you will become as famous as
George Frederic Matthew. “ Then he turned and walked away.

If  way back then we had been able to access the internet and the Dictionary of Canadian Biography Online, we would have found out that George Frederic Matthew was born in Saint John in 1837. His parents were George Matthew and Deborah Eliza Harris. He married Katherine Mary Diller in New York City. They had six sons and two daughters. He died in 1923 and was buried at Gondola Point. But I am getting ahead of my story.

George was very interested in natural history and geology. In 1857, at age 20, he helped found the Steinhammer Club with others who were interested in learning about the rocks and fossils of the Saint John area. Stein meant rock in German.

Although he maintained his career at the Custom House, he became internationally known for his studies in palaeontology.

Information on many other New Brunswickers can be found in the Dictionary of Canadian Biography.

James Robert Inch was born in 1835 in New Jerusalem, Queens County, New Brunswick. He was the eighth child of Nathaniel Inch and Ann Armstrong. He married Mary Alice Dunn. His parents with three children had migrated from Ederney Bridge in Northern Ireland to New Jerusalem in 1824. He began his career in Education at Keswick, then on to Mount Allison. Next he was appointed chief superintendent of education in New Brunswick.

Another educator was Anne Quinlan who was born in 1839 in County Tipperary. Her parents were William Quinlan, a Roman Catholic shoemaker and Susan Medill who immigrated from Ireland when she was a child and settled in Chatham. After her three months of teacher training in Saint John, she took up teaching duties in Chatham and soon became one of the town’s most respected educators. As many as 60 pupils would be in her class.

Educator, botanist, author, editor, and publisher George Upham Hay was born in Norton Parish, Kings County in1843, the youngest child of William Hay and Eliza Fahy. A History of New Brunswick, for use in public schools, 1903, was one of his publications.

William Henry Price, physician and author, was born in Butternut Ridge in1839. His parents were William Henry Price and Charlotte Alward and his wife was Catharine Jane Watts. He practised in the United States where in 1880 he wrote “Baby’s Guide to Health”. The following year he returned to Butternut Ridge where he doctored until retirement in 1901. He subsequently embarked on hog farming, beginning with 200 pigs.

Henry A. Braithwaite was a woodsman and guide born circa 1840, the son of Alfred Braithwaite, a native of England. From his boyhood, Braithwaite followed the life of a woodsman, his mentor being the legendary Maliseet guide Gabriel Acquin.

Eliza Parks Hegan’s father, a native of Belfast, was one of Saint John’s leading dry goods merchants. For some years he was in partnership with his brother-in-law William Parks.

The Dictionary of Canadian Biography holds lots of genealogical and biographical information. It is available at research institutions or online at www.biographi.ca.

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Query 1433
Hunt Family: I am putting together a History Book of the Hunt Families of Balmoral, Athol,
Restigouche, Saint John, and Campbellton of New Brunswick and of Gaspe, Québec. Information on the family names to include George Hunt and Emily Mary Reynolds Hunt, Margaret Ann  Hunt Massie, Theodore Jardine and Margaret Hunt, James Doucet and Elizabeth Hunt, William Henry Hunt and Lena Cyr, William Ingram and Lizzie Hunt, Charles T. Coffin and Widow Emily Mary Hunt, James Love and Mary Hunt, David Randall St Clair and Viola Stella Hunt, John James Chedore and Margaret Hunt, Celina-Amelia Hunt and Mansfield Barton, Mary Mable Hunt and J.Augustin Fontaine, Thomas  A. Hunt and Angelique Savoie, Annie Lavigne and  Edward Lavigne. If you can add to our families history  please send your replies to
GLORIA DEAN
1285 Pinehurst Ave.
Oshawa, Ontario
Canada, L1H8J8
E-mail platinum46@hotmail.com
   
Query 1434
Foster - Tufts: I am looking for the siblings and parents of John Foster who may have been born in Northern Ireland. He married Sarah Tufts in1832 in New Brunswick. He died in St. Martins, New Brunswick about 1869. John Foster’s grandson was Premier Walter Foster.
JO FOSTER KEEFE
1550 Union St., Manchester
NH, 03104, USA
E-mail j.keefe@clrm.com

Query 1435
Dawson - Steeves: Thomas Dawson was born about 1776 in Chester County, Pennsylvania. He married Rachel Steeves of Hillsborough, New Brunswick. Where was the marriage and when? I am interested in knowing the names of his parent with birth dates and places of birth. Possibly his parents were Pennsylvania UEL, James Dawson and Margaritt (last name unknown). It has been suggested to me that they are buried in Maces Bay and Dipper Harbour respectively.  
JIM DAWSON
1740 Notre Dame Place
Sarnia, ON
Canada, N7S 3S3
E-mail jedawson@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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