October - Way Beyond Life Expectancy

According to data found on Statista, a leading provider of market and consumer data, life expectancy in the United States has doubled since the 1860s. In 1860, life expectancy was 39.4 years, by 2020 it had risen to 78.9 years. In Canada, where my Walker ancestors lived, life expectancy in 1860 was slightly higher than in the U.S., 41.4 years. By 2020, Canadian life expectancy has also nearly doubled to 82.2 years. Canadians generally live longer. Nowadays we might notch that up to better healthcare, better diet, better food-safety standards, lower pollution, less stressful life-styles, who knows for sure. What we do know is Canadians generally live longer. 

My 5th great grandmother, Elizabeth Thompson-Walker, who lived in Barnston, Stanstead, Quebec, Canada for her adult life, lived well beyond even today's life expectancy. She was born in Scotland or Ireland in about 1761. She died on August 27, 1864. I'll give you a minute to do the math.

Yeah, 1864-1761 = 103 years old at the time of her death. 

Since I cannot find documentation of her birth I suppose her age at death is disputable. However, the documentation of her death in the Drouin Collection, the most notable collection of Canadian Vital and Church Records for Eastern Canada from 1621 to 1968, shows her age as 103; so I'm going with it.

Where Did You Go, Lydia?

I have been looking at my tree, considering what family stories I want to record and realizing that there are some ancestors I truly struggle finding any information on, and I kind of want to record that for posterity too; what I don't know and can't seem to discover.

My research into my maternal line I have done with little to no guidance. I am estranged from my mother. My maternal grandmother passed before I was born and my maternal grandfather didn't really discuss the past. Reluctant to talk about his family history, I didn't really dig into his line until after he died in 2004.

One year I set the goal to find the names of all my 3rd great grandparents. I did it. With most of the discoveries came dates of birth and death if nothing else about their lives. However, some of those dates escape me. One in particular that plaques me is the date of death for my 3rd great grandmother Lydia Marie McLean-Sharp. 

She was born on September 15, 1868 in Barnston, Quebec to Elizabeth Walker-McLean and Donald McLean. I know that from her baptismal registration in the Quebec, Canada, Vital and Church Records otherwise known as the Drouin Collection; a rather thorough resource of vital statistics given the time and place of their creation. She was baptized at the Church of England in Hatley, Quebec, not far from Barnston.

For the life of me I cannot find her date of death though. I have combed through those Drouin records a million times; page by page. Index be damned. Maybe there was some mistranscription of something. Page by page in the narrow time period she must have died in, I find nothing in any of the records for that church or any of the other churches where other relatives had their sacraments of baptism, marriage, and burial. I don't know where she went and it drives me batty.

I see her in the 1911 Census of Canada, listed as 38 years-old and widowed, although I believe she would have been 43 at the time. She was living with her two children, Mayme (my great grandmother) and Daniel James Sharp Jr. in the house of a cousin, Calvin Moore. Then no mention of Lydia again. I think she had to have passed before 1916 when her son Dan enlists in WWI and lists his sister as his next of kin.

Lydia was widowed on October 12, 1898, when her husband, Daniel Sharp Sr., 46 years her senior dies in St. Felix-de-Kingsey, Quebec. Yeah, he was 46 years older than her. 46 and a half years older. Don't get me started. It grosses me out too.

Lydia was young when she was widowed. Maybe she remarried? Moved away? Canadians have this great habit of retaining the woman's maiden name though, in their vital records and on their headstones. A headstone would have likely read "Lydia McLean wife of Daniel Moore." Even so, I still think she died before Dan Jr. enlisted otherwise I think he would have listed his mom as his next of kin. 

She had to have died young too, between 43 and 48. Did she? Where did you go Lydia? What record sets do I even look in? 

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!!

Well-connected and Psychic Friends

I have a friend who's sister is a medium. Regardless of how you feel about psychics, this woman is no joke. I had never had a reading before until I sat with Mary. 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 by what they say says just that, "She told me things no one else could possibly know." But could they tell you the story I am about to share with you?

Several things really stand out to me from that reading but most memorable was Mary saying to me that it was wonderful to read someone who knew their family history. It made it easy for me to understand who she was connecting with. Without getting into all the details she shared with me, 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 names. In fact, I completely dismissed the Williams name because my Cousin Kelly has recently married into a Williams family. I took what Mary said with a grain of salt and filed it away.

She asked me, "Who is David?" I shrugged. I didn't really know a David. I had worked with a few. My father's cousin had a son named David, but I don't really know him well. Nope, I didn't know any David really well.

Not more than 3 days later 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 Sharp'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.

Who was this Evans woman? I don't recall finding an Aunt Belle in the research I had done. Now I was on a mission. A mission that would take me a very long time and depend upon the kindness of well-connected friends.

I began searching census records for Aunt Belle. I came upon a Belle N. Evans married to a Fred Evans in Lowell, Massachusetts. Since the time of my reading I had befriended a genealogist in Massachusetts; whose name was...wait for it...wait for it....David. It never really struck me that now I knew a David. Sincerely, I had almost forgotten that Mary had asked me about a David.

I called upon his expertise to helped me locate a marriage certificate for this couple even though I was not 100% sure that this Aunt Belle was really my great-grandmother's aunt; she could have been a friend of the family as is often the case with that side of 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 no-other-than Williams. What?!?! Yes, Williams, the surname of her first husband. And in parentheses after the Williams you will see the name McLean. 

Great-grandma Mayme Sharp-Gardner's mother's name was Lydia McLean-Sharp. My great-great grandmother's parents were Donald McLean and Elizabeth Walker-McLean; this I knew! Without a doubt I also now knew that Isabelle Nancy McLean-Williams-Evans was the sister of Lydia McLean-Sharp. Aunt Belle was absolutely the biological aunt of my great grandmother Mayme Sharp-Gardner.


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 David. Mary is no joke.

And Aunt Belle played a pretty critical piece 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. Here they were moving back to the U.S. in the 1910s for work. Had great-grandma Mayme stayed in Canada someone else would be writing this blog. I'm grateful to Aunt Belle.
 
As I always tell my researching cousins and friends when their hit their genealogical brick walls; some ancestors just do not want to be found but some, oh some relatives most definitely want to be found, definitely.