My Canadian Branches ~ I'm a Steeves, Are You?

Throughout the past year, I have dedicated this blog to selected Canadian branches of my family tree. I have always found that my research leads me down the most interesting paths when I focus on one family group, one line, one person, or one theme. This has proven true especially in 2015. As I stated in my first post, I chose to work on the following 10 families:

Nova Scotia

Archibald

Creelman

Fulton

Hamilton

MacKay

New Brunswick

Beck

Bleakney

Bustin

Smith
Steeves

My last Canadian branch is the Steeves branch. By way of intermarriage between members of the Steeves family and the Smith family in New Brunswick, I happen to descend from 2 of the 7 sons of my sixth great grandparents Heinrich Stieff and Regina Stahlecker, Matthias and Jacob.

Line 1:

Matthias Steeves (c.1761-1848)

--Jacob Steeves (1788-c.1846)

----William Bleakney Steeves (c.1823-1899)

------Robina Elizabeth Steeves (1854-1929)

--------Wylie Herbert Smith (1874-1952)

----------Harriet Cheney Smith (1906-1985)

------------Marilyn Louise Bustin (1931-    )

--------------Me (1955-    )

Line 2:

Jacob Steeves (1750-1803)

--George Steeves (1785-1870

----Caroline Steeves (1816-1903)

------James Henry Smith (1850-1915)

--------Wylie Herbert Smith (1874-1952)

----------Harriet Cheney Smith (1906-1985)

------------Marilyn Louise Bustin (1931-    )

--------------Me (1955-)

Probably the most prominent member of my Steeves family tree is my 2nd cousin 4x removed, William Henry Steeves, known in the annals of Canadian history as The Father of Confederation.

More on William Henry Steeves can be found at:

Spray, W. A. -- "Steeves, William Henry". -- Dictionary of Canadian biography online. www.biographi.ca/EN/ShowBio.asp?BioId=39400

Next year, 2016, will be the 250th Anniversary of the arrival of Heinrich and Rachel Stieff to New Brunswick (from Germany, by way of Pennsylvania). In preparation of this momentous event, a week-long celebration and family reunion is being held in Hillsborough, New Brunswick. Steeves descendants are coming from around the world, and Yours Truly will be among them!

For more on the Steeves story, and on next year's BIG CELEBRATION, including our attempt to set a Guinness World Record for the largest gathering of individuals with the same last name in the same place at the same time, in the Moncton Coliseum, visit:

https://steeves250.com/

My Canadian Branches ~ My Clan MacKay and My Shelburne County Roots

Alexander MacKay, my third great grandfather, arrived in Canada from the Scottish Highlands as a young man of 29.  A few years later, when he married Eleanor Brown, he was living in Jordan River, in Shelburne County, Nova Scotia. These pictures (made into postcards) have my great grandmother's writing on them.

The young couple, with their first three children, Isabella, Catherine, and John, were living in Ragged Island, by the 1871 Census of Canada. The next 30 years, however, saw the family resettling and living in Upper Stewiacke, in Colchester County. There were six children in all, the first three born in East Jordan, the younger three born in Upper Stewiacke. The oldest, Isabella Fulton MacKay, is my second great grandmother.

       Standing: Hugh Dunlap MacKay, Catherine Margaret MacKay,
 John William MacKay, Isabella Fulton MacKay, George Alexander MacKay.
  Seated: Flora Jane MacKay, Alexander MacKay, Eleanor MacKay (Alexander's wife).

Alexander MacKay (1830-1901)

Eleanor Brown MacKay (1835-1924)

Their Children:

Isabella Fulton MacKay (1861-1945)

Catherine Margaret MacKay (1864-1927)

John William MacKay (1866-1945)

George Alexander MacKay (1872-1955)

Flora Jane MacKay (1874-1941)

Hugh Dunlap MacKay (1878-1934)

Alexander and Eleanor MacKay are buried in the Burnt Hill Cemetery, in Upper Burnside, Nova Scotia. My great grandmother took this picture many years ago:

A recent photo by a findagrave volunteer shows the monument today:

Sources:

1871 Census of Canada; Census Place: Ragged Island, Shelburne, Nova Scotia; Roll: C-10547; Page: 41; Family No: 132. http://ancestry.com

1881 Census of Canada; Census Place: Upper Stewiacke, Colchester, Nova Scotia; Roll: C_13175; Page: 4; Family No: 12. http://ancestry.com

1891 Census of Canada; Census Place: Upper Stewiacke East, Colchester, Nova Scotia; Roll: T-6311; Family No: 124.  http://ancestry.com

1901 Census of Canada, http://automatedgenealogy.com/census/ViewFrame.jsp?id=8896&highlight=38.

Colchester Historeum Marriages 1864-1914, http://colchesterhistoreum.ca/search/.

Find A Grave, database and images (http://findagrave.com : accessed  4 Dec 2015), memorial page for Alexander MacKay (1823-1901), Find A Grave Memorial no. 124797256, citing Burnt Hill Cemetery, Upper Burnside, Colchester County, Nova Scotia.

My Canadian Branches ~ My Smiths...Not To Be Confused With Your Smiths

I imagine most family historians dread the research into their lines with common surnames, like Smith and Jones. So it was when I began my research into my Smith line. I really lucked out, though, because my Smiths descend from one of the most famous Canadian settler families.

My Smith research really began fifteen years ago, during my last visit to Canada. The year 2000 marked the 225th anniversary of the Yorkshire Migration, when, between 1772 and 1775, over 1000 settlers immigrated from Yorkshire, England to the Chignecto Region of Nova Scotia.

My fifth great grandparents, Nathaniel and Elizabeth (Duck) Smith, with their family, sailed out of Hull, England, aboard The Albion in March of 1774. The ship arrived at Fort Cumberland at the head of the Bay of Fundy in Nova Scotia during the third week of May after first making port in Halifax. Their oldest son, Benjamin, had emigrated a year earlier and purchased a 1500 acre farm with a house and livestock in Cumberland County on his family's behalf. Nathaniel was 54 years old when he and his family left the village of Upsall, Yorkshire, to join Benjamin in the New World.

The first instance of the Smith surname in my family tree is my grandmother, Harriet Cheney Smith.

There are many great source materials on the Yorkshire Migration. In 2000, I was able to purchase a thick, spiral-bound paperback, entitled "The Descendants of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Smith," compiled by Philip and Joan (Smith) Brides. I refer to it often in my Smith research.

For specific background on Nathaniel Smith, I recommend "Nathaniel Smith : Stranger in a Strange Land," published by the Tantramar Heritage Trust, in conjunction with the anniversary.

There is an excellent bibliography at the website Yorkshire Immigration To Nova Scotia, 1772-1775.

My Canadian Branches ~ Bella MacKay Hamilton and the Moose Chair

Peter Suther "PS" Hamilton and Isabella "Bella" MacKay Hamilton, my 2nd great grandparents, lived in Burnside, Upper Stewiacke, Colchester County, Nova Scotia, their whole married lives. They raised nine children, one of whom was my great grandmother, Melvina Jane "Vina" Hamilton Bustin, from whom I inherited a wonderful treasure trove of photographs.

I came across two pictures that piqued my interest. The first shows my great grandmother's mother, Bella, in front of the "old home" in Burnside, posing beside what appears to be a wooden sculpture of some kind.  It looks like antlers to me.

The second, more yellowing, photo provides another clue.  It was a chair, made out of, presumedly, moose antlers. The handwriting on the front is my great grandmother's, and the back states the same, The Moose Chair, in Bella's handwriting.

Was this some kind of trophy chair made from antlers of hunted moose, or was it a household curio, with no particular connection to family lore?

I have learned that my great grand uncle and aunt, unmarried brother and sister Bert and Stella Hamilton, were the last two family members to live at the old place, so I have to wonder whatever became of the "Moose Chair."