52 Ancestors Challenge Week 9: "Females" - great-great-great aunt, Isabelle Nancy McLean

I think that aunts fill a really important role in one's life. If for no other reason, they have the ability to help a child understand the parent. I have 4 magnificent nieces. No boys here. Just beautiful feisty girls. I certainly have much more experience in dealing with their mothers than any of the girls do, simply based on my age. As the oldest sibling, my nieces' mothers have been my sisters their whole lives. So, I would hope as the girls grow up, they each know they can come to me for some insight into why their mom is being like that. What else are aunts for? Besides showering them with gifts and field trips .

The women in my family are strong, independent, hardworking women. By hardworking, I do not mean they worked outside the home necessarily. Historically the women in my family have held very traditional roles; they were mothers and homemakers for the most part. Except for the women on my mother's paternal line, almost none of my foremothers have an occupation recorded in a census record. My mother, though, descends from several women who were listed as nurses in census records and city directories. One of those women was Aunt Belle.

Back in 2012, early on in the start of my blogging days, I wrote about Aunt Belle. She is a story I often revisit in my mind but she deserves revisit in word. Aunt Belle was Isabelle Nancy McLean. She was born on April 4, 1871 in Stanstead, Quebec, Canada. She died on May 24, 1922 in Lowell, Massachusetts. She was the younger sister of my great-great grandmother, Lydia Ann McLean-Sharp (15 September 1868 - unknown).

As you can see I don't know when my great-great grandmother died. I can estimate that it is between 1911 and 1915. I also don't know when Belle moved from Canada to Lowell, Massachusetts but it was prior to WWI. When her niece, my great grandmother Mary Elizabeth "Mayme" Sharp-Gardner (2 October 1891 - 25 January 1961), moved to the U.S. with her younger brother Daniel, it was Aunt Belle who they went to live with. This signifies to me that there was an obvious caring relationship between Aunt Belle and her niece, Mayme. It is also meaningful to mention here that Mayme is one of the women in my family tree who also listed as a nurse in several U.S. census records; just like her Aunt Belle.

It was actually a medium who told me I'd research this Aunt Belle which is the strangest of all my genealogy research stories.  A friend of mine has a sister, Mary, who is a medium. Regardless of how you feel about psychics, Mary is no joke. I had never had a reading before I sat with her. She said the most amazing things to me; things no one could have possibly know. And I am sure everyone who goes to a psychic and is taken back by what they say, says that; "the medium told me things no one else could possibly know." But can you tell me how Mary could have known this...

There were many things Mary said during my reading that still stand out to me, including that it was wonderful to read someone who knew their family history. I do believe the spirit of our loved ones surround us and it was easy for me to understand who Mary was referring to in the reading. Towards the end of the session Mary said to me, "You're going to come across two family names in your research; Williams and Evans." It didn't strike me as remarkable at the time; I mean, they aren't that uncommon of surnames. In fact, I completely dismissed the Williams at the time because my Cousin Kelly had recently married into a Williams family. I took what Mary said with a grain of salt and filed it away.

She then asked me, "Who is David?" I shrugged. I didn't know a David. I mean I had in my lifetime met many Davids. I had worked with a few. My father's cousin had a son named David, but I didn't really know him well. Nope, I didn't really know any David really well.

Not more than 3 days after my reading, I was going through some family papers, papers I had looked at a hundred times if I had looked at them once, and there on my great grandmother, Mayme's boarder crossing card from Canada into the United States I noticed a name. Mayme listed that she was headed to Lowell, Massachusetts to see her Aunt Belle EVANS. EVANS. And Mary's words floated back to me.

At that point I had not branched out and researched my great-great grandmother's siblings at all. I didn't recall finding an Aunt Belle in the research I had done. Now I was on a mission to find out who this Belle Evans was. It was a mission that took a very long time and depended significantly on the kindness of well-connected friends.

I began by searching census records for Belle Evans and sure enough I found a Belle married to a Fred Evans in Lowell, Massachusetts. I assumed this was Aunt Belle but then I put my research down for a while, as we all do from time to time. 

Several months went by. I attended a genealogy conference. There I befriended a genealogist who was from Massachusetts. His name was...wait for it...wait for it....David. It didn't really strike me at the time that I now knew a David. Sincerely, I had forgotten that Mary asked me about a David. But here he was.

It wasn't long until I called upon David's expertise in locating records in Massachusetts to helped me locate a marriage certificate for this couple, Belle and Fred Evans. At that point I wasn't even 100% sure that this was "Aunt Belle" or that Aunt Belle was really my great-grandmother's aunt. Belle could have been a friend of the family as is often the case with my family. There are many instances when very close family friends are called Aunt and Uncle despite the fact they are not related; it can and often is just a term of respect. Sometimes Aunt and Uncle are titles given to near relatives too. For example, I call my father's first cousins Aunt Ro, Uncle Charlie, Uncle Ed, etc. So was this Aunt Belle really an aunt to my great grandmother?

David helped me to secure this document:

If you look at the details about Isabelle you'll see her last name is listed as Williams. What?!?! Yes, Williams, was the surname of her first husband. Her marriage to Fred Evans was her second marriage. In parentheses after the Williams you will see the name McLean. 

I knew the parents of my great-great grandmother were, Lydia McLean-Sharp, were Donald McLean and Elizabeth Walker-McLean. I now knew, without a doubt, that Isabelle Nancy McLean-Williams-Evans was the sister of of my great-great grandmother Lydia McLean-Sharp. Aunt Belle was absolutely the biological aunt of my great grandmother Mayme.

And there it was; Williams and Evans. Staring me square in the face were the names I was told I would research. A document I probably would not have seen if not for the help of a David. Again, Mary is no joke.

Aunt Belle played a pretty critical role in my family's history. She was the person who facilitated my great-grandmother's move from Canada to the United States. Several generations before, this line had lived in New Hampshire but moved up to Canada for land. Great Grandma Mayme moved to from Canada to the U.S. for work, likely because she had just lost her mother. I don't know how she met my Great Grandfather Albert Gardner (21 September 1891 - 11 February 1946) who lived most of his life in New York. However, had Mayme stayed in Canada, someone else would be writing this blog. Thus, I am incredibly grateful to Aunt Belle. Thank God for aunts!!

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 7: "Landed" - great-great grandpa, Daniel Sharp's Moore Line

It is very common for American's to hyphenate their ethnicity. We're kind of obsessed with it and, dare I say, hung up on our ethnic identities. The irony of American culture, if you ask me, is that while we pride ourselves on being an immigrant nation, and yet, historically we are not very fond or accepting of the newcomers, also known as immigrants. 

I don't really identify as a hyphenated American. I don't say I am Irish-American or German-American, etc., although I am. I descend from a bunch of ethnic groups. I don't feel especially any ethnicity. I just say I am an American because I am. It's where I was born and my people have been here a long time. A long time. I'm just American.

I do not know when all of my ancestors arrived on this continent, or "landed" as it were. If I reflect on my most recent immigrant ancestors, though, I am Canadian-American. Canada, though, is also a nation of immigrants, although Americans really do not think of our neighbors to the north as equal in that way. If I didn't do genealogy research I would know little to nothing of Canadian history. Before researching my Canadian ancestors I thought of Canada as the place where the un-American went; 1970s draft dodgers, British Loyalists who lost the Revolution, people who couldn't get into the U.S. because of immigration quotas.

All of my grandparents were born in the U.S.; a stone's throw from where I live now. All of them were born in New York. Only two of my great grandparents weren't born in New York; they were born in what is now Canada. Great grandpa Abram Thomas Earle was born in Twillingate, Newfoundland. At the time of his birth, Newfoundland was a British colony so technically he was never Canadian. Which brings me to my maternal line and my great grandmother, Mary Elizabeth Sharp-Gardner, who has frequently been recorded as "Mayme" and who is my most recent immigrant arriving in Lowell, Massachusetts in about 1919.

Mayme was born October 2, 1891 near Drummondville, Quebec to Lydia Ann McLean-Sharp and Daniel Sharp. Although they lived in Quebec, an area dominated by French inhabitants, records (and her maiden name) identify this family as being of Scottish origin. With my very American mindset of believing those who live in Canada are "un-American", you will understand my awe when I discovered that this line links me to 2 American Patriots. Yes! Two! Two men who served in the American Revolution, not as British Loyalists but as American Patriots.

So how did this line wind up in Canada? I'll get to that.

My great grandmother Mayme's father, Daniel Sharp (1822-1898), was named after his great grandfather, Daniel Moore (1730-1811). Make that Colonel Daniel Moore.

Here is a little snippet of my tree to help you follow who I am writing about:

You will notice that Daniel Sharp's mother, Annie Moore-Sharp (1782-1868) was the offspring of William Moore (1763-1817) & Eleanor Moore-Moore (1767-1836) (and Moore and Moore and Moore - hee hee). William and Eleanor were first cousins. Their father's were brothers. Robert Moor (1724-1778) - correction: Lieutenant Colonel Robert Moore and Colonel Daniel Moor (1730-1811) both served in the American Revolution and both were sons of John Moor (1683-1774) & Janet Gray-Moor (1685-1776). You will also probably notice that the spelling of Moore also appears as Moor. But whatever, people, spelling is fluid, we just need to accept that.

John Moor (1683-1774), my 6th great grandfather, was born in Colerain, Antrim, Ireland but his father, my 7th great grandfather, Samuel Moor (1655-1734), was born in Glencoe, Argyle, Scotland and is from the Clan MacDonald of Glencoe. Samuel's brother, also named John, was killed in the infamous Massacre of Glencoe on February 13, 1692.

It was my 7th great grandfather, Samuel Moor, who settled in Londonderry, New Hampshire, now Derry, New Hampshire in the 1720s. His son John followed a few years after him. Robert and Daniel were both born in New Hampshire. So I guess that makes me Scottish-Irish-American-Canadian-American. Anyway - -

There is that kind of "landed," when Samuel and John stepped off the ships onto the earth of the New World and then there is being granted land which, I suppose, is an odd interpretation of the theme "landed" but exactly how my Moore family wound up in Canada. They received a land grant. Now I can't actually find any documentation of a land grant but I have several published family histories that state such.

These include:

Moore, George Washington. 1925. Genealogy of the Moore family of Londonderry, New Hampshire and Peterborough, New Hampshire, 1648-1924.

History of Bedford New Hampshire from 1737: Being statistics compiled on the occasion of the one hundred and fiftieth anniversary of the incorporation of the town, May 15, 1900.

And my favorite: 

Moore, J. Clifford. 1996. The life and times of a high school principal in rural Quebec. 

The consensus is that in 1802, when William and Eleanor were in their mid-to-late 30s, they left their home in Londonderry, New Hampshire and settled in Kinsey, Quebec. As French families moved into the area, the town's name was changed to its present day name, St. Felix-de-Kinsey. French Catholics like to slap a saint on to the places they live.

All that remains of their once beautiful farm and homestead is the Moore Family Cemetery across the road, along the east bank of the St. Francis River. In 1996, Clifford Moore noted in his book that the cemetery was still well maintained by the community. On my visit there in August of 2019 it did not appear to be well maintained.

However, it was an incredibly beautiful piece of land they lived on. This is the view of the St. Francis River from the grave of my great great grandfather, Daniel Sharp, and his mother Annie Moore-Sharp.

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 8: "Courting" - great-great grandparents, Daniel Sharp and Lydia McLean-Sharp

Last week I wrote about my great-great grandfather, Daniel Sharp (1822-1896), and his maternal line, the Moore Family of Londonderry, New Hampshire. This week's theme of "Courting" brings me back to Daniel.

Daniel Sharp was born on March 18, 1822 to Annie Moore-Sharp (1782-1868) and Peter Sharp (1783-unknown). His second wife, my great-great grandmother, Lydia McLean-Sharp was born on September 15, 1868. Oh yeah, that's not a typo. When they married on July 25, 1891 Daniel was 69 years old; Lydia was 22. Three months later their first child, my great grandmother, Mary Elizabeth "Mayme" Sharp-Gardner, was born. You do the math.

The Moore line is where my American Revolutionary War soldiers are; Colonel Daniel Moore and Lieutenant Colonel Robert Moore. When I applied to become a member of the Daughters of the American Revolution (DAR), I did so primarily to have a reputable lineage organization validate my research. No one on my line had gotten into the DAR before. Many members enter the organization based on the fact that their mother, or grandmother, were members. When you apply that way, you just have to document your connection to a previous member. I had to document my lineage all the way back to Colonel Daniel Moore. He was already an accepted Patriot but I had to document the birth, marriage, and death of 8 generations of my family.

1. Colonel Daniel Moore (1730-1811) married Ann Cox (1729-1804) begat

2. Eleanor Moore (1767-1836) m. William Moore (1763-1817) begat

3. Annie Moore (1786-1867) m. Peter Sharp (1783- unknown) begat

4. Daniel Sharp (1822-1898) m. Lydia McLean (1868- unknown) begat

5. Mary Elizabeth "Mayme" Sharp (1891-1961) m. Albert Gardner (1891-1946) begat

6. Clarence Albert Gardner (1927-2004) m. Marilyn Irene Fay (1931-1972) begat

7. my mom who married my dad 

8. and then me

Again, I had to include birth, marriage, and death record for every individual named above. Even with the marriage registration in hand the DAR questioned the validity of Daniel and Lydia's marriage. 

What young woman marries someone 47 years older her? 

Well, Lydia did. 

And they had 2 children together; my great grandmother Mayme and her younger brother, Daniel Sharp (1895-1974). 

My great-great grandfather, Daniel, had been married once before to a woman named Mary Ames. Little is known about her. She appears in the 1861 Census of Canada married to Daniel, as well as in the 1871 and 1881. She appears to have been approximately 9 years older than Daniel. She died on July 6, 1890 at the age of 78. 

In the 1891 Census of Canada, Daniel is living with Lydia but she is listed as his "niece". WHAT?!?! I'll explain. It should be noted first though, that on the date that census is taken, April 28, 1891, Daniel and Lydia are not yet wed and great grandma Mayme is not yet born.

So did Daniel marry his niece? Well, kind of.

Daniel's first wife, Mary Ames-Sharp (1812-1890), was the daughter of John Ames (1790-1819) and Hannah Lester-Ames (1796-unknown). After John died in 1819, Mary's mother Hannah remarried to Archibald McLean (1792-1884). 

See that McLean name? 

Yeah. 

Well, Archibald McLean and Hannah Lester-Ames-McLean are the grandparents of Lydia McLean-Sharp. Daniel Sharp, my great-great grandfather, married his first wife's half-brother's daughter. 

Such an arrangement, in my mind, was likely just that, an arrangement. Lydia, who was the daughter of Donald McLean (1821-unknown) and Elizabeth Walker-McLean (1842-1871), probably went to live with her uncle (well, half-uncle by marriage), after he was widowed. At that point Daniel was well into his 60s and Lydia was probably, initially, his caregiver. The one child he had with his first wife, also named Mary Sharp (1844-1869), died very young. Note that Lydia was significantly younger than Daniel's daughter would have been. Sheesh.

What was that courting like? 

Daniel would have been alone after his first wife died. Perhaps he married Lydia so that she could inherit his property. That being said though, she would have been about 6 months pregnant when they married. And they did have 2 children together. One would hope there was a loving relationship there. I hope there was but there are no accounts of the life they lived together. It is indeed a relationship I wonder about and I struggle to find out what happened to Lydia after Daniel passed in October 1896. 

52 Ancestors Challenge Week 6: "Maps" - 4th great grandmother, Lydia Ann Smith-Losee

I shared this map a few weeks ago. 

It is an 1873 map of the northern end of Freeport in a section that was once known as Greenwich Point. Now the area is Roosevelt. My 4rd great grandfather Leonard Losee and his son Leander Losee owned large tracts of land clearly indicated on the map; towards the bottom on the right side of the map.

Leonard's wife, Lydia Ann Smith-Losee, my 4th great grandmother, was born May 15, 1820 and died on December 31, 1887. She lived her life in what is now Freeport and Roosevelt, Long Island, New York. She married Leonard L. Losee (21 January 1817 - 21 November 1886) and together they raised 5 children: Mary Jane, John M., Benjamin Franklin, Leander L., and Sarah Elizabeth; all born between 1840 and 1856.

Many years ago it was brought to my attention that there was a Losee Family bible. I don't remember the cousin who had the bible in her possession. It was one of my Grandpa Earle's second cousins; that much I recall but I have photocopies of some of the pages of the bible that contained family history notes. 

They aren't good photocopies. These were made for me back in the early 1990's; back before people had scanning technologies in their own homes. Remember when you had to go to a place called a copy center, places like Kincos, and pay like a quarter to get a copy? What I wouldn't give to get my hands on that bible now. If for no other reason than to digitize these pages. 

Among the notes scrawled in that bible was a description on Lydia Losee's passing and funeral which included a list of her pallbearers. Rich detail. 

My photocopy looks like this:

Don't even try to read it. I cleaned it up digitally to look like this:

It reads:

Freeport Dec. 31/87
Lydia A. Losee departed 
this life at half past twelve
in the day the last day of the 
year of the month & week sat.  
funeral Jan 3 /88 at half past 
twelve at W. B. Seaman's house

This hair was taken from 

mothers head Dec 31/87

Greenfield Cemetery 

Mon Dec 19/87 mother commenced 

to feel bad went to bed wed 

21st 7 31 = Died & Mr Pesell 

tended the funeral services at 

Paulbarers Nelson Smith &

Mothers     Strangers

hair lite      Daniel Terry 

                  Noah Terry 

                  Henry Rhodes 

                  Alexander Smith

What does that have to do with the map? Well, this map shows where those bottom 4 pallbearers lived in proximity to the Losees. Pallbearers names are circled in red. Lydia's husband's property is circled in blue.

If you ask me, is very cool and says something very profound about community and the kindness of neighbors.