Brick Wall Busters (2012)

Fish family of Hants County
Who were the parents of Isaac Fish [1800-1886]?
My first thoughts were to look at the Sanford Book – a genealogy of that family in Nova Scotia and New England. I found several references to Mary Fish but never as a mother of Isaac, but there is a Mary daughter of Elisha who married Isaac Fish and had a daughter Amy. Mr. Fish says Isaac married Amy Mosher, and this seems to be the case. There is a death record for the daughter Amy, but it only gives her father's name, not her mothers. However, other family records indicate that Amy Mosher was Isaac's wife.

There are very few sources one could check. The ones I thought of were really covered by John Duncanson in his Newport Township history which Mr Fish has checked. There are Anglican records for the area, but Methodist ones only cover marriages from 1824. Heather Long in her collection of marriages for NS to 1841 has no entry for Isaac Fish and Amy Mosher.

I looked at John Duncanson's 3 books about Hants County townships but only Newport had any Fish families. George Fish says he has looked at this reference and that Isaac's origins are not definite. Certainly this book has an Isaac born 1726 married to Edith. Duncanson says a second Isaac was born ca 1800 and suggests this is Isaac's father. This would have made his father very old when the second Isaac was born in 1800. And his siblings were born from 1777 to 1793.

Mr Fish states that the family came to NS from Rhode Island around the time of the American Revolution. Actually, it would seem that the Fish family came as part of the New England Planter migration in the 1760s.

As there is no estate or will for Isaac in early 1800 or in 1886, about all I could suggest is a really good dig into probate records and deeds. Duncanson talks about some Fish probate but look for Isaac's brothers and Mosher connections to see if any mention is made of an Isaac. Is Isaac really a brother of James and William?

A last remote possibility is to look for an obituary in the newspapers for Isaac in 1886. These death notices rarely give parentage, but always worth a try.

Anne: I did a quick search of the following sources:

Janice: When I first read the description of your Brick Wall problem I had little hope that I could solve it.

I am very familiar with the Church Records, Probate Records, and Land Records of Antigonish County and realized that to try to single out your Donald MacDonald from the 100 or so people with the same name living in that County during the latter half of the 19th century, would be a major challenge.

I remembered, however, that the person who prepared the index of obituaries published in the Antigonish Casket newspaper wrote special items on each card to distinguish one Donald MacDonald from others with the same name. With this in mind I began to look at each card of the 100 or so Donald MacDonald index cards and sure enough I found a card on which was written "Brother of the Klondike King". The card led me to the issue and page of the newspaper where your Donald's obituary appeared. I have attached the obituary.

I then decided to stretch my luck by looking at the William MacDonald cards and found a card with the note "father of the Klondike King". William MacDonald's obituary is attached as well and indicates that he came from Strathglass, Scotland in 1834 and two years later married Catherine Chisholm.

Here are the issues of the Antigonish Casket in which I found the obituaries:
Donald: Antigonish Casket, 9 September 1915, page 5
William: Antigonish Casket, 11 July 1901, page 5

Gwen: As you probably heard from Deborah I have very little to add on the parentage of Sophia Lewis. I concentrated on the Digby County Lewis families as you suggested but found there has been very little research done on Lewis in Digby County. I checked with Sheryl Stanton at the Admiral Digby Museum and she contacted me today to say they have nothing on the Lewis families of Digby County and nothing on Sophia.

As you are aware it is a Loyalist family and there are many references to members of the family in Isaiah Wilson. In looking at the 1838 Census for Digby County I note that there were seven separate Lewis families in the County in that year. Six of the families had only one female over 14 years, presumably the wife of the head of the household. Thomas Lewis Sr. had seven in his family including two females over the age of 14, one of whom could have been Sophia considering that she would have been aged ca.18 in 1838 and unmarried. Tomas Sr. died in 1819 and Sophia, a baby, may have been sent to a relative to be brought up in some other part of the County, perhaps Beaver River or Port Maitland. Just a theory.

The only suggestion I can make is to contact the Lewis families of Digby County (there are 21 such families listed for Digby County on Canada411) and see if any of them have family Bibles, diaries, letters, or scrapbooks which would shed light on the mystery of "who is Sophia".

When did Owen McGarry and Mary Trainor come to NS from Ireland: what county and who were their parents? And what was the ship?

First of all a passenger list is next to impossible to find!

I understand why Ms. Bishop has had such trouble with this family. They are known to be in the New Ross Rd area, and nicely show up in census as farmers but neither of us can find any deed or grant to the land they farmed. In the 1871 census there are several Irish Catholic families living nearby: Patrick Corkery, Thomas O'Neal, Thomas Tyrell.

Glenda is so lucky to at least have the note from the Bishop indicating that McGarry was living there in 1846. He certainly is there in 1861 as well as in the provincial directory for Sherbrooke Road1866-67.
I could find no McGarry in this area getting land grants or deeds, although there is an incomplete petition for a James McGarry for Hants county, 1829. It doesn't tell us anything of interest. In the early census- 1871-1881 Mary is listed as being born in Ireland. By 1891 and1901 she is said to be born in NS and thus no year of immigration being given. One can assume the earlier census are closer to the truth, than the later ones when her son is giving the information.

I looked for Mary's Trainor family to see if the young couple came out with her parents and found very few Trainors. There is a land grant for Patrick Trainer of 200 acres on the New Annapolis Road, 1821. I found a death record for a Patrick Traynor, age 82y who died in Cornwallis in 1870. Is this the man who died in 1872? Probably. There is no indication that he and the McGarry's were connected though. Worth following up.

One thing I was able to add to this tree is a child born between Ellen Margaret in 1841 and Peter who was born about 1849 in Nova Scotia. In the on-line NS Historical Vital Records there is a death registration 1870 for Francis P McGarry, son of Owen and Mary, born in Aylesford in 1843 according to his brother Peter. This moves the arrival time to between 1841 and 1843. I checked some Annapolis and Aylesford records for any McGarry but found none.

I checked the indices to the RC records of the Hfx Archdiocese and see the names McGarry and Trainer in Halifax registers from 1826-56 that would be worth looking at. One entry is for a Margaret McGary marriage to Thomas Trainer 1843-1845 in Hfx's St Marys registers. I have copied this as it seemed a coincidence that the two families intermarried again:
“ Thomas Trainer was the son of P Trainer and Ann McManus of co. Monah[?] married Margaret McGary d/o Patrick McGary and Ellen Bolan of Co. Sligo.” The Windsor parish has an entry for Margaret McGarity in the1834-1840 register. I did not check this out at this point.

I did keep an eye open for any strange spellings…the family was indexed under Owen in the 1871 census

I found no Probate

The other area that has McGarry is Cape Breton, where a branch descends from Dennis. I could find no connection between the two at this time.

At the GANS lecture, someone suggested checking the Prospect RC registers. I did not check these indices as I was looking for either Hfx City or something near Kentville. However, we were told that there are records in Prospect's registers for the Annapolis Rd area. I have yet to check this for you but will soon.

Looking for proof of parentage for Allen Henry Manuel: Death certificate says Henry and Mary of Mahone Bay, marriage record says James and Sarah, St. Margarets Bay

In general I would go with the earlier marriage information as the man himself would have given this to the minister. Unfortunately, as Allen was not a young man when he married and he married a much younger woman, so the age sometimes will be lessened so that the age difference isn't too much! Another reason not to accept the death record as gospel is that this information is given at a time of stress by the wife who in this case did not know where or date her husband was born. His daughter when applying for a late birth registration in 1961 gives Allen's birth place at Peggy's Cove.

Sources I thought might be helpful:

*Try St Paul's and other Anglican church records for an entry for Allen's baptism.

*Check NS marriage records for children of James and Sarah to see if Allen is a witness to any of these marriages, indicating he might be a brother.

*Try to find Henry & Mary of Mahone Bay and check for their children: I looked for references to a Henry and Mary Manuel and could find none in the time frame that Allen was born. In Lunenburg County, there is a William and Caroline Manuel. This man was born in Peggy's Cove and I believe an older brother of Allen's. William Henry Manuel - born 1841. Their marriage records says he is born Peggys Cove. It would make sense that in later years, Allen visited his brother and family in the Gold River/Chester area.

* Is there an obituary for Allen? No Kentville Advertiser or Hants Journal for the time. I did not do Hfx papers.

*Probate: no will or estate for Henry or James, Halifax or Lunenburg counties.

*Florida marriage records: Allen has been found in Florida in 1877, 1880, 1885 and a reference to his marriage but no scanned image to see if those records gave parent's names. The reference is in familysearch for Allen Manuel and Frances Sterrup marrying in 1877.

* Church registers: I did recheck the French Village Anglican registers where children of James and Sarah baptised many of their children. I DID find a baptism for a child of theirs, the * name had been scratched out and what looks like “Charles Alen” has been written back in. this child was born Aug [5th] and baptised Sept 22, 1850.

From various records Allen Manuel was born 1850, 1852, 1854,1849, 1850. In 1901 he gives August 25, 1854, but in 1911 he says August 1849!

I have found a baptism for a birth Aug. 5 or 15th, 1850, son of James and Sarah so I am pretty sure this is the correct proof she is looking for.