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“The Maternal Ancestry of Mary Rae Thompson”


 John E. D’Anieri

The threshing crew arrived early in the morning and worked steadily until exactly twelve o’clock when the men filed into the house to eat the meal that Mum had spent days preparing. Only the sound of knives and forks hitting the plates and the slurping of tea could be heard.

Once the stomachs were filled, the tongues loosened and the talking began.

One of the men complained of being afflicted with a pain in his side. The fellow across the table from him, suggested he go to the pasture and pick a certain plant and steep it as it was a good remedy for many ailments.

Gramp quickly spoke up, “You better know what you are doing or you may end up in the graveyard as James Morrison did in 1853, when his wife, Mary Upham Robertson treated him with a home remedy from the bloodroot plant.”

Stories such as this are considered to be family lore and are difficult if not impossible to document when writing a family history. Although  John E. D’Anieri makes mention of this incident and other family lore stories in his book, he depended on true primary sources and publications with documented sources to verify or disprove them when compiling, “The Maternal Ancestry of Mary Rae Thompson”.

By the way, John was careful to note the source of each item of information used in his publication on the Loyalist families of Allaby, Beyea, Bull, Sherwood and Smith as well as the Irish and Scottish emigrants of Bateman, Elkins, Meigher, Morrison, Robertson and Sullivan. Ten of these New Brunswick families settled in Kings County while the Batemans came to Gloucester County.

John retells the family lore about James Beyea passed down from Andrew Beyea and then discusses which parts of this lore are or are not corroborated. Photos of James Beyea born in 1789, his wife Mary (Smith), son James and granddaughters Elizabeth Ann and Martha put faces to some descendants of this Loyalist family.

Tragedy was no stranger to the folk of the past as another story that has been handed down was of the death in the mid 1700's of the youngest child of Richard Curry, who was on his father’s lap, when  hit by a stone from the chimney that collapsed during a severe thunderstorm.
   
The eulogy at the funeral in 1796 for Sarah Wells Bull gave information not only on her spouse William Bull but of her twelve children and 335 descendants.

Agnes (Meigher) (Kent) LeBlanc the great grand-daughter of William Bateman was 86 years old in 1972, when she wrote a three page memoir on the Bateman and Elkins families.

The Maternal Ancestry of Mary Rae Thompson, who is the wife of  John E. D’Anieri, also traces the life led by her grandparents, James Beyea Morrison who was born in 1872 on the family farm in Titusville, New Brunswick and his spouse Margaret Jane (Jenny) Meigher who was born in 1878 in Hampton Station, New Brunswick, in their move to Orono, Maine in 1899 and the subsequent years and events in their family to the present generation.

A copy of the 130 page book - including an every-name index - is available for viewing at the Kings County Museum in Hampton, New Brunswick Provincial Archives, and the Saint John Free Public Library.

The publication can be ordered from John E. D’Anieri, 1226 Godfrey Lane, Niskayuna, NY, 12309-1240, USA. E-mail danierij@localnet.com

Query 1499
McCann - Hewitt - Brocklebank: My father, Gordon Brocklebank lived with Burton McCann in Rollingdam circa 1911-1918. He was a friend of an M.(?) Hewitt in St. Stephen. I am planning to visit New Brunswick in September and would like information on the present day location of McCann’s farm and any living relatives.
G. SMITH
32349 Mud Lake Rd
Lake Linden, MI
49945, USA
E-mail gsmith@up.net

Query 1500
Green - Carpenter: Who were the parents of James Green - Loyalist, who married Elizabeth Carpenter, settled on the Washademoak? Was their daughter Catharine, born 1802, adopted?  She married (1) Willett Carpenter (born on the ship Cyrus in 1783), son of Willett Carpenter and Mary Davenport (2) Coles Carpenter.
CAROL LEE ELLIOT
20 Simone Street
Rothesay, NB
Canada, E2S 1A5
Email clelliot@lycos.com   

Query 1501
Upham - Chandler: I am looking for a photograph of the grave site and headstone for Mary Chandler Upham, widow of Judge Joshua Upham.
BOB UPHAM
2919 E. Frye Road
Phoeniz, Arizona
85048-8564, USA
E-mail RFUpham@aol.com

Query 1502
Watson - Dow: Stephen Brooks Watson married to Esther Dow, 12 Jul 1819, in Woodstock, New Brunswick. I am searching for information about Stephen's lineage; his father was Peter Watson and his mother was Louisa (surname unknown). We believe Peter was a Loyalist, and know he applied for a number of land grants in the Province.
V. FLANNERY
381 Caribou Road
Presque Isle, ME
04769, USA.   
E-mail vflannery@maine.rr.com

Ruby Cusack can be reached at rmcusack@nbnet.nb.ca or read her past columns at www.rubycusack.com. Her column appears Tuesdays.
New and Used Genealogical and Historical books of
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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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