Harriet Atwood Harnett (1838-1905), is my 2nd great grandmother. She married John McCain in Florenceville, New Brunswick, in 1875. But it wasn't until I found her daughter's, my great grandmother's, obituary in the Portland Press Herald, last summer, that I realized she had an earlier married life.
As I dissected Bertie's obituary, I noticed a few names that made no sense to me. Evelyn and Harriet were familiar to me as Bertie's daughters. Bessie J. McCain was her sister, and J. Frazier McCain was her brother.. But who was this other sister Annie Burtt? And a brother, E.W. Boyer, where did he come from?
One of my favorite genealogical sources is Daniel F. Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics, 1784-1890, accessible through the Public Archives of New Brunswick. It was there that I found a piece from the Saint John Christian Visitor, announcing the 1870 passing, at age 33, of Edward Wheeler Boyer of Florenceville. He left a wife and two children.
The widow ended up being Harriet and her two children, Edward W. and Anna Belle. My 2nd great grandmother had been married twice!
(Annie went on to marry Winslow Jordan Burtt, and they had a very famous son. But that's fodder for a future blog post.)
Lisa Alzo of The Accidental Genealogist blog is presenting her Fearless Females: 31 Blogging Prompts to Celebrate Women’s History Month series in honor of National Women’s History Month.
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