Digging Down East: Hamilton Melvina

Showing posts with label Hamilton Melvina. Show all posts

Sunday, July 20, 2014

52 Ancestors: #29 Frederick Parker Bustin (1886-1965)

Frederick Parker Bustin, my great grandfather, was born on this date in 1886, in Mechanic Settlement, Kings County, New Brunswick, Canada, the ninth of nine children born to Samuel James Bustin and Mary Ross, and their seventh son.

At the age of 18, Fred emigrated to the States, ending up in Portland, Maine. His brothers Benjamin and Thomas eventually left Canada as well and came to Portland.

Fred Bustin As A Young Man

A couple of years later, Fred married Melvina Jane "Vina" Hamilton, a young woman from Upper Stewiacke in Nova Scotia, on May 1, 1907, Portland.

Children arrived quickly for the young couple, first a daughter, and three sons thereafter:

Flora Vesta, b. 1907

Suther Ross, b. 1908

Marvin Howard, b. 1911

and

Laurence Albert, b. 1913

In 1910, Fred went to work for the Maine Central Railroad, and worked at the Rigby Railroad Yard in South Portland.

Rigby Yard railroad crew. Fred, back row, 4th from left.

Fred and Vina always lived in Morrill's Corner, in what was once known as the Deering District of Portland, at first on Morrill St., and afterwards at two different addresses on Stevens Avenue. They always kept a garden, which yielded a substantial crop of corn and pole beans.

Fred Bustin With A Pal In Front of 827 Stevens Ave.
Morrill's Corner

Fred and Vina at home

Fred worked for the Maine Central Railroad for 50 years, as a section hand, an engine wiper, and a machinist, and in 1960 he was presented with a 50-year pass by the president of the railroad. It was noted in the railroad newsletter.

This is how I remember my great grandfather, whom we all called "Pap."

On Christmas Eve in 1965, Pap passed away at the former Osteopathic Hospital on Brighton Avenue, in Portland, Maine. He never used his 50-year pass.

He, and "Nana," are buried in Evergreen Cemetery (not far from "the Corner").

Sources:

1891 Census of Canada; Census Place: Cardwell, Kings, New Brunswick; Roll: T-6301; Family No: 24, Frederick G H Bustin.

1901 Census of Canada; Census Place: Elgin, Albert, New Brunswick; Page: 9; Family No: 75, Fred Bustin.

1910 US Census; Census Place: Portland Ward 9, Cumberland, Maine; Roll: T624_539; Page: 1A, Fred P. Bustin.

1920 US Census; Census Place: Portland Ward 9, Cumberland, Maine; Roll: T625_640; Page: 4B; Enumeration District: 59; Image: 907, Fred P. Bustin.

1930 US Census; Census Place: Portland, Cumberland, Maine; Roll: 831; Page: 13A; Enumeration District: 0075; Image: 796.0; FHL microfilm: 2340566, Frederick P. Bustin.

1940 US Census; Census Place: Portland, Cumberland, Maine; Roll: T627_1476; Page: 1A; Enumeration District: 3-110, Frederick P. Bustin.

Ancestry.com. Maine, Marriage Records, 1713-1937 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010, Fred Bustin and Melvina Hamilton.

Ancestry.com. Maine, Naturalization Records - Originals, 1906-1929 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2012, Frederick Parker Bustin.

“Fred P. Bustin,” obituary, Portland (Maine) Press Herald, 25 December 1965.

Frederick P. Bustin tombstone, section U, Evergreen Cemetery, Portland (Cumberland County), Maine; photographed by Pamela Schaffner on 7 August 2009.

New Brunswick. Registrar-General. Late Registration of Births, 1810-1899. #1886-B148. 1944. Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, Fredericton, NB, Canada. http://archives.gnb.ca/. Accessed and downloaded 5/13/2012.

***

This is the 29th in a series, “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks,” coordinated by Amy Johnson Crow at No Story Too Small.

Tuesday, April 15, 2014

52 Ancestors: #15 Albert Thorburn Hamilton (1895-1979)

Albert Thorburn Hamilton, my great grand uncle, was born on this date in Upper Stewiacke, Colchester County, Nova Scotia, in 1895, the seventh of nine children born to Peter Suther Hamilton and Isabella Fulton MacKay, and their third son.

When he was around 23 years old, in 1919, Bert immigrated to the States, stating that his destination was the home of Mrs. E. K. Noyes, who was his sister Mary, married to E. Kent Noyes and living at 1367 Washington Avenue in Portland, Maine.

In the 1930 U.S. Census, Bert was living with his brother Dan, as well as his mother Isabella, at 67 College Avenue in Portland, and working as a truck driver. By 1940, he was lodging in Hannah Fowler's rooming house at 10 Shepley St., in Portland, with Dan and Dan's wife Lettie.

Bert Hamilton never married. In my youth, I remember his visits to his sister Vina, my great grandmother, in Portland. I was told he had a "club foot," which, naturally, fascinated me, although I never heard the story behind it.

Nana and Uncle Bert During One of His Visits
Our House in South Portland,
c.1968

By that time, the 1960's, he had moved back down east. He and their unmarried sister Stella lived very near "the old home place," in Nova Scotia, until Stella passed away in 1966.

Bert Hamilton died at the Colchester Hospital, in Truro, Nova Scotia, on January 30, 1975.
His obituary read:

Albert T. Hamilton

UPPER STEWIACKE - Albert T. Thorburn Hamilton, 79, died Thursday at Colchester Hospital, Truro.

Born in Upper Stewiacke, he was a son of the late Peter and Isabel (MacKay) Hamilton. He was a member of Elm Lodge No. 115.
He is survived by a brother, Dan, Portland, Maine.
He was predeceased by two brothers and five sisters.
The body is at the Mattatall Funeral Home, Truro. Funeral and committal service will be held Sunday at 2 p.m. in the the Springside United Church, Rev. David Whiston officiating.

Bert Hamilton is buried with his sister Stella in Pembroke Cemetery in Upper Stewiacke.

Sources:

1930 U.S. Census; Census Place: Portland, Cumberland, Maine; Roll: 831; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 0077; Image: 844.0, Albert T Hamilton.

1940 U.S. Census; Census Place: Portland, Cumberland, Maine; Roll: T627_1475; Page: 4A; Enumeration District: 3-69B, Albert T Hamilton.

“Canada Census, 1901," index, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/pal:/MM9.1.1/KHK2-TGV : accessed 15 Apr 2014), Albert I Hamilton in household of Peter S Hamilton, U, Colchester, Nova Scotia, Canada; citing p. 12, Public Archives, Ottawa, Ontario.

CanadaGenWeb's Cemetery Project. CanadaGenWeb.org. http://cemetery.canadagenweb.org.

“Albert T. Hamilton,” obituary, The Chronicle-Herald (Halifax), 1 Feb 1975, p.40, col 4. Retrieved: Library and Archives Canada, 15 Apr 2014.**

Ancestry.com. Border Crossings: From Canada to U.S., 1895-1956 [database on-line]. Provo, UT, USA: Ancestry.com Operations, Inc., 2010.

** I am particularly grateful to Ken McKinlay in the Nova Scotia Roots Facebook Group, who kindly found Uncle Bert's obit while giving a tour at LAC in Ottawa this afternoon, just in time for this story.

***

This is the 15th in a series, “52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks,” coordinated by Amy Johnson Crow at No Story Too Small.

Thursday, April 25, 2013

Nana's Bible from Scotland ~ Treasure Chest Thursday

I will always be grateful to my great grandmother, Melvina Jane Hamilton Bustin (1886-1974) for her notations on so many photographs that have come into my possession over the years.

So you can imagine how thrilled I am to have discovered her personal New Testament.

It measures roughly 4 by 2 1/2 inches and is leather-bound.

The front cover is embossed with a seal of the National Bible Society of Scotland. My great grandmother was born and raised in Nova Scotia, and her mother was born a Mackay, so this makes perfect sense.,

The frontispiece is the most treasured page, since it is inscribed:

Melvina J. Hamilton

Burnside

This is not my grandmother's handwriting, which I have become quite familiar with, so this makes me think that this miniature volume was a gift.

[The pencil notation of "October 1901" under "Burnside" appears to have been added later by her(?)]

Burnside is her birthplace, a small farming village, part of Upper Stewiacke, in Colchester County, Nova Scotia.

The title page states that the New Testament was printed to be read in churches, and was published by authority of His Majesty in Glasgow in 1891.

It contains all the books of the New Testament,
as well as the Psalms of David,
"In metre:
According to
THE VERSION
approved by
THE CHURCH OF SCOTLAND"

On the last fragile pages are "Translations and Paraphrases, in Verse, and the lyrics of three hymns.

Saturday, March 30, 2013

Fearless Females Blog Post: March 30 ~ "Paddle Your Own Canoe"

Mattie Leighton
My Grandmother
circa 1925

And, written in my Great Aunt Beck's autograph book that same year by her mother,
my great grandmother, Melvina Hamilton Bustin:

Love many
Trust fun
And always
Paddle your own canoe

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.

Friday, March 15, 2013

Fearless Females Blog Post: March 15 ~ Nana's Wordle Tribute

Melvina "Vina" Jane Hamilton Bustin

(1886-1974)

As A Young Woman

As I Remember Her At 80
1966

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.

Friday, March 8, 2013

Fearless Females Blog Post: March 8 ~ A Letter of Condolence

This letter was written to my great grandmother (Aunt Vina) by her niece Anna, following the death of her daughter Vesta in 1964. It expressed her heartfelt sympathy to her aunt and uncle on the passing of their only daughter at age 56.

In these words, I hear the strong, resilient spirit of the women from “down home,” “Down East,” from whom I am descended. The unwavering determination to face all of life’s trials with courage and faith, and a philosophy about death that allows you to continue on with the living - traits I have seen exhibited many times in the women of my family. We have endured the passing of two members of my family tree since the beginnings of this blog. Anna’s words echo through the years, offering comfort, understanding, and love.

Vina outlived her daughter Vesta by 10 years. Anna, a year older than Vesta, died in 1986, at the age of 89.

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.

Wednesday, May 9, 2012

Wedding Wednesday - Double Wedding and Why Not?!

On a mid-summer Tuesday in 1910, two couples traveled from Portland, Maine to Portsmouth, New Hampshire, for the sole purpose of getting married.

Agnes Rachel Hamilton would marry her beau Benjamin Bishop Bustin. Catherine Margaret Hamilton, Agnes' sister, would marry Ben's brother, Thomas Herman Bustin.

"Nessie" Hamilton Ben Bustin

Catherine "Cassie" Hamilton and Thomas Herman Bustin

This is how the June 28th Portsmouth Daily Herald noted the event:

Their marriages would be the culmination of the union of the Hamilton clan of Upper Stewiacke, Nova Scotia, and the Bustin family of Mechanic Settlement, New Brunswick.

That's because Nessie and Cassie's older sister, Melvina, had already tied the knot three years prior, in 1907, in Portland, with Ben and Tom's younger brother, Frederick Parker Bustin!

Melvina and Fred are my maternal great-grandparents.

The romantic story, complete with Cupid in the starring role, took up a full page of the Portland Evening Express that following Saturday, and is transcribed above under the page heading:

3 Brothers Marry 3 Sisters

Monday, April 16, 2012

Morrill’s Corner in the 1940 Census

My grandfather (S. Ross Bustin) was fond of saying that he could stand in the middle of Morrill’s Corner in Portland, Maine, and see every place he ever lived.

When the 1940 census was taken he was 31, living at 1158 Forest Avenue, working as a truck driver for a food manufacturer (undoubtedly Cushman’s Bakery), right in the Corner, with my grandmother and my mother, age 8 (my grandmother, Harriet, and my mother (Marilyn Louise Bustin) are on the following page).

The apartment building now has a store front attached and is barely recognizable as a residence.

My great grandparents, Fred and Melvina Bustin, also lived at Morrill’s Corner in 1940, with their youngest son Marvin, at 827 Stevens Avenue. They appear on the same page of the Census, with my great grandfather working as a laborer for the steam railroad (He worked for the Maine Central Railroad for over 50 years).

In this fantastic picture, I believe that is my mother standing on the front porch,

probably about 8 years old.

Wednesday, August 24, 2011

Hamilton-Bustin-Noyes Graves in Pine Grove Cemetery

Today we found the graves of three of my Great Grandmother's sisters, along with their husbands. They are all buried in Pine Grove Cemetery, in Falmouth, Maine.

Graves of Agnes Rachel Hamilton (Aunt Nessie) and Benjamin Bishop Bustin (Uncle Ben)

Graves of Catherine Margaret Hamilton (Aunt Cassie) and Thomas Herman Bustin (Uncle Tom)

Graves of Mary Ellen Hamilton and Edward Kent Noyes

To read the story of the 3 Bustin Brothers who married the 3 Hamilton Sisters, see the page marker above. Sister Mary married the Bustin Brothers' best friend, Ed Noyes.

Sunday, May 8, 2011

Happy Mother's Day - The Moms I Remember

I love multi-generational pictures, and this one is a wonderful remembrance for today.

From left to right: my mother, Marilyn Louise Bustin Seavey, holding my sister Robyn, my paternal grandmother, Mattie Louise Leighton Seavey, My maternal great grandmother, Melvina Jane Hamilton Bustin, and my maternal grandmother, Harriet Cheney Smith Bustin. And, yes, that's me in the front!

Given the ages of Robyn and I, I would guess this was 1957, and I believe it was at 24 Mayfield St., Portland, the home of Harriet and Ross Bustin. Robyn was born in March of that year, and Mom always had us baptized on the Mother's Day after our birth, so this could be Mother's Day 1957!

Tuesday, August 3, 2010

Tombstone Tuesday - Nana and Pap

Frederick Parker Bustin and Melvina Jane Hamilton are buried under this gravestone in Evergreen Cemetery in Portland, Maine. They are my maternal great-grandparents. Fred and Vina came from Canada, he from New Brunswick and she from Nova Scotia.

Actually, Fred and his two brothers married Melvina and her two sisters. There was a big write-up in the Portland paper about it, but that's a good story to save for another post!