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QUERIES and BRICK WALLS
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Genealogical queries and selected answers are published in Generations and on our website. Or, you may post your query in our Facebook group (find the link on the home page)
Queries should be brief and to the point, or be well sourced brick wall queries. There is no charge for queries. Submit as many as you wish. Queries may be edited before publication. Send your queries to:
Or post them in our Facebook group.
Click on the name in RED to respond to a query by email. If you respond to a query, please send a copy of your answer to the Queries Editor citing any sources you consulted. The responses will be reviewed and selected answers will be published.
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Reply to: Q25-5885-HOWE: I wanted to pass along thanks to those who responded to my inquiry regarding John Howe. I also am looking for help with identifying the adult male on the far-right side of the picture. The only detail I have regarding him is that his first name is Dale. To put the Howe family picture in context I have the following details from left to right:
Lena Oakes 1881-1958
John Thomas Howe 1882-1959
U/K female
George Cyril Howe (rear) 1905-1959
Ruth Howe (Sell) 1910-1962
Jean Howe 1921-1943
U/K male first name Dale
Fred Thomas Howe 1931-1988 (my father)
Mary Howe (front) 1930-2020
This should date the picture in the neighbourhood of 1940. I do not know if Dale in the picture is a family member or friend. Thanks in advance for any help you can provide.
(rec’d 15 Apr 2025)
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Q25-5889-McHUGH: I would greatly appreciate any information regarding my grandmother and her relatives.
Annie Madeline McHugh (aka Anne, Ann)
B. 16 June 1905 in St. John, N.B.
Graduated from Saint Peter Girls School in July 1920
Lived at 24 Sheriff St. St. John before emigrating to Massachusetts in 1922
James McHugh – B. 1864 in St. John
Mary Elizabeth (Wilson) McHugh (aka “Lizzie”) – B. 1874 in St. John
Myrtle (McHugh) Brown – B. 1909 in St. John
Robert Wilson - B. 1825 in Ireland
Bridget (McIntyre) Wilson – B. 1826 in Ireland
William Edward McHugh – B. 1833 in Ireland
Martha Ann (King) McHugh – B. 1842 in St. Martins
Patrick McHugh – B. 1804 in Ireland
Susanna (McKnight) McHugh – B. 1805 in Ireland
(rec’d 19 Feb 2025)
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Q25-5888 Mac/McDERMAID: As a genealogist, we all have encountered research where we just can’t go further up a line or have a disconnect missing link in a line. A brick wall. A road block. An obstacle. Unfortunately, my brick wall happens to be in my Mac/McDermaid line which is my maiden name. Not the line that I wanted to have a barricade. However, that is where I stand. I will explain.
My grandfather, James Rexford McDermaid was born in 1908 in Chatham, N.B. (now known as Miramichi). His sister Irma Lenore was born in 1905, also in Chatham, N.B. In each of their late registration of birth and baptism, William MacDermaid and Mary Elizabeth Nina Dick are listed as their parents. So far, so good.
William MacDermaid who was married to Mary Elizabeth Nina Dick, died in 1902 in Chatham, N.B.
Do you see where I have a slight problem?
So, my next task was to prove or disprove William’s death date. In 1911 Census, Nina is showing as a widow, however that census was taken after James Rexford and Irma were born, so that didn’t prove what I needed. The cemetery headstone located in Riverside Cemetery, Chatham, N.B., shows 1902, however data on headstones are not always correct. William’s obituary is published in 1902. The documents from W.S. Loggie and Co., Chatham, N.B., where William was working as a bookkeeper, show correspondence ending from/to William in 1902, with a new bookkeeper taking over the correspondence. Some family land transfer documents, dated long after 1908, list all of William’s children, except James Rexford and Irma Lenore. I am satisfied that although William is listed as their father, he is not.
Could Nina be the mother and had two children after William died? Could one of William’s children be the parent and Nina brought them up as her own children? Could they have been children of another MacDermaid relative and Nina brought them up as her own children? Could they have been adopted by Nina? I don’t know the answer to this brick wall…. yet.
I have been looking for the answers since 1995. I hope someday to find the missing link. If anyone has any input into this family name or if you have any ideas as to where I could search next or if you happen to find the missing link, please contact me!!!
Wishing all of you good luck in moving around or through your genealogy brick walls.
(received 15 Feb 2025)
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Q25-5887-CHATHAM POST OFFICE: I hope someone is able to help me determine the location of the Chatham Post Office in 1854.
According to By Favourable Winds: A History of Chatham, New Brunswick by James A Frasier, publ. 1975: my 3rd GGF, Robert McNamara (1801-1870) moved his shoe store next to the post office in 1854, and was still in business in 1865. Robert & Ann and their family lived at the corner of Queen and Wellington, per information at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick.
Thank you for your assistance with this question.
(rec’d 11 Feb 2025)
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Q25-5886-LUNN: Who was Mrs. LUNN, nee MERCER, in the Cassidy Lake Cemetery, Kings County, NB?
In the plot plan for the cemetery on the Camp Cassidy site (formerly the Cassidy homestead), there is a person identified only as “Mrs. LUNN.” There is no headstone. She lies between Barbara MERCER and Eunice DeForest. A note on the Cassidy genealogy website states Mrs. LUNN was the daughter of Isaac MERCER (plot 28) and Barbara (ROBINSON) MERCER (plot 29). “Joseph ROBINSON (plot 43) was Emona* MERCER’s grandfather on her mother’s side.” There are no church records for this cemetery.
I have looked at the following records:
- To develop a timeline:
- Marriage record for Isaac MERCER and Barbara ROBINSON to determine a timeline of when daughters would have been born. Result: marriage date October 1867
- Death record for either Isaac or Barbara. Result: Barbara died in 1910, age 67.
- To determine how many daughters they had, did they married, if so, to whom, and did they re-marry. Results to date (Jan 2025) found via the Canada census records for 1871-1891, and PANB and Ancestry (usually the same as PANB) marriage and death records:
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Name
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Birthdate
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1871
(age)
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1881
(age)
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1891
(age)
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1901
(age)
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Person married
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Date
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Death
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Became widow?
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Elizabeth
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1866
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y (4)
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unknown
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Emma S.
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1877
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Y (4)
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Y (13)
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Y (23)
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Roy CAMPBELL
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1903 in St John
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TBD
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Delia
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1879
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Y (2)
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TBD
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Ettie B. (Etta H.)
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1879
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Y (12)
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Y (22)
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Angus McEACHERN
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1910 in St John
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TBD
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Clara Ada
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28 Dec 1887 Salt Springs
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Y (3)
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Y (13)
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James A. MARSHALL
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1909 in St John
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1934
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N
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- *Emona: no one by that name, nor by a nick name “Minnie” (closest was a late birth registration for a Lucy Amina MERCER in Norton, however her parents were not the right ones)
- There was a Mrs. Arlana H. LUNN in the 1911 Canada census, b. 1873, married to an Alac LUNN. A Death record for Arlana H. LUNN stated her father was John P. Foster.
- In the 1891 Canada census, there is a gap between the eldest MERCER son, James (21), and the next eldest child, Emma (13); hypothesis is that “Emona” could have been born between these children, i.e. 1871-1878, however no birth record could be found via PANB or Ancestry.
(rec’d 5 Feb 2025)
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Q25-5885-HOWE: I am looking for information on John Howe born 1811 most likely in Maine US and who died in the Sunbury area of New Brunswick during the 1870s. I found several references to his family in the Boone family history including a reference that his daughter Frances Howe passed away on the 30th of October 1889 and was buried in "John Howe cemetery, Lauvina". I cannot find any further information on the location of this cemetery. I am hoping to locate John Howe's burial location and was thinking this would be the logical place to look. If you can be of any assistance that would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, and looking forward to hearing from you.
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updated Apr 2025
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