Honorable Mention

John Lemuel Vincent, the son of John William Vincent and Mary Ann Rogers, was born in River John, Nova Scotia, died in Chicago, IL and married a girl named Maria Giles (Della) Henderson McRobie in Winnipeg, MB.

John was a printer and I believe he ended up in Chicago working with a brother of Maria's at a print shop.  However, Maria & John divorced and she remarried a horse dealer by the name of Charles H Reed.  It doesn't appear to have gone well for John L after the break up as his death certificate puts his place of death at the local jail.

Just an aside from the left field - my 3x grandfather, Robert, was into horse racing and even owned a couple of horses and there was a Nova Scotian by the name of John Sydney Osborne Vincent who was a jockey - could be they all travelled in the same circles.

Anyways, lets get back on track......

Maria's parents, William Orme McRobie and Hellen Reid Craib from Scotland, initially settled in Ontario then moved to Winnipeg. He was the first fire Chief of Winnipeg and invented the fire extinguisher!

It is rumoured that he was known to ride his horse into the local bar for a pint! I love the family stories (see his find a grave memorial)!!!

Here's a bit of write up on Mr McRobie from the The Manitoba Historical Society - Memorial Manitobans: Pioneers and Early Citizens of Manitoba

Photo by Jim Hicks

Fireman.
"Born at Perthshire, Scotland in 1838. With his parents he emigrated to Canada and settled in Montreal in 1850. He joined the volunteer fire brigade of Montreal when only 14 years of age as a torch boy, and was promoted to the position of branchman at 19. When the paid brigade of Montreal was organized he was appointed foreman, and in 1872 he was given the position of captain of the salvage corps, from which he resigned in 1881 to write his memoirs, Fighting the Flames.

After finishing his book he became a traveller with the Canadian Rubber Company until June 1882, when he accepted the position of Winnipeg's first Fire Chief at a salary of $1,800 per year. He held this position until his retirement in 1889. He then took up the manufacture of chemical fire extinguishers, and travelled all over western Canada selling his invention.

McRobie was active in Winnipeg municipal life until his death, which occurred on 12 May 1908."

Books by William McRobie 

Find A Grave Contributors

I wanted to take a moment and thank all the other genealogy addicts out there, especially those who contribute to the millions of memorials at the Find A Grave site.

I can not tell you how much of my family was discovered simply because a researcher had taken the time to key in cemetery records; or share photos of their expeditions to a cemetery; or the family member who created a place for others to share the memory of a loved one.  It is amazing!!

I recently decided to create "The Vincent Family Burials" virtual cemetery on Find A Grave. It has provided me with an opportunity to revisit where I started and see how far I have come - my research skills have gotten so much better!  And, this tool provides a place to collect all the Vincent Family memorials that I can find.  Again, a lot of it would not exist without the generosity of others, thank you.

Our Scarlet and Rhett

"Perhaps - I want the old days back again and they'll never come back, and I am haunted by the memory of them and of the world falling about my ears."   
Margaret Mitchell, Gone with the Wind
 

by Thomas Kinkade

Ok, "Gone With The Wind" this is not.....she was neither from the south nor did she live on a plantation. She was a city girl from Glens Falls, New York and I am not sure if he was a handsome rouge, but his last name was Butler!

As a young lady, Annie Huntington Rosekrans, the daughter of Judge Enoch Huntington Rosekrans and Caroline Elizabeth Josephine Beach, moved to Utica to complete her education at Miss Kelly's School.  Along the way, she met and fell in love with a young gentleman by the name of John Germond Butler.

John was a Civil War Union Army Officer. He served during the Civil War as Colonel and commander of the 147th New York Volunteer Infantry. 

During the infancy of their courtship, Annie had received word that John had been killed in the Battle of Big Bethel.

It is a tragedy that all military families fear.

However, destiny intervened and Annie's grieving was short lived when in walked her hearts desire returning from the war!  The happy couple were married 8 Aug 1861 at Glens Falls, New York.

Empire State Building

The Empire State Building is located in Midtown Manhattan, New York and was designed in the Art Deco style.  It is 1250 ft tall without the pinnacle; add that in and another 200 or so feet makes it a whopping 1453ft tower! It cost approx $41 million dollars to build which would be a little over $635 million today - WOW! It was at one time the world's tallest building.  The building was designed by William F Lamb and the contractor for the job was The Starrett Brothers and Eken Company.  The excavation started on January 22, 1930 and construction itself started on St Patrick's Day, March 17; the ribbon cutting event occurred on May 1, 1931.

What does this have to do with the Vincent family?

Harriet Amelia, 'Millie', Vincent, born in Nova Scotia, was the daughter of my John William Vincent and married a Mr James King.  James worked as a bookkeeper for the railroad company.  The couple moved west with her brother Robert for a bit and then landed in New Haven, CT.  I believe James died before 1915, most likely in Connecticut, because by 1915, Harriet and her surviving children were living in Elizabethtown, New York.  Harriet was a dressmaker; Fred was a stenographer; and Olive and Creighton were working for a hotel.

Creighton Vincent King, was born in 1895 in Boston, MA and would have been 20 years of age in 1915 working as a bell boy at the hotel.  By 1925, he had married Clida McNeelan and was working as a used car salesman. In 1930, they are in San Francisco - she with her mother & he at a hotel.

In 1942, he registers for the war.....

 




Who would have thunk it!

Mischievous Senior

River John, Pictou Co, Nova Scotia

My 4x grandparents were John William Vincent and Mary Ann Rogers and they are a bit of a mystery.

Mary Ann Rogers was born in River John, Nova Scotia and was the daughter of a David Rogers and Hannah Henley / Healey.  She is buried at Mt Hope Cemetery in Boston.

John William Vincent (JW) was born in Wallace, Nova Scotia and was the son of Joshua Vincent and Hannah Treen.

The story passed down about JW was that he fled Ireland on the wrong side of the law and this plays nicely into the Irish heritage.  How exciting....if only it were true.  All the records show that he was born in Nova Scotia.  There goes that trip!

However, JW's father Joshua had a brother John - eeps, here we go with the name game - anyways, this Uncle John is reported to have gone to Ireland with a couple of brothers to live for a short time.  Could it be that my JW is being confused with his Uncle John?  Uncle John did marry a nice Irish girl, did he have to flee?  Either way, both Johns were born in Nova Scotia.

Another story was that JW was never allowed to return to the United States for unknown reasons.  Again, wonderful finger-rolling intrigue, but alas, it appears to be false as well.  We have a letter dated 1903 New York from him....sigh....

Unless that occurred after 1903 but I am not sure how much trouble a 68 year old man could get into?  Oh wait, the London Jewel Heist involved a 70 year old!

It is true that the family breaks up around 1881.  Robert and John L head west; some of the children and Mary Ann end up in Boston and John William is not found on a census with Mary Ann again.  In fact, Mary Ann indicated that she was a widow on the 1900 Boston census - remember that 1903 NY letter?  What became of John is still a mystery; he may have ended up in Manitoba with his son Robert.

It seems sad given that this little family hammered out a life in northern Nova Scotia. 

The Name Game

 I spent the first couple of years of my research just trying to find my 3x and 4x grandparents and their families – what was with changing their names?  

Once I realized how common it was for a person to be named, christened or baptized as John William but live as Bill, the flood gates opened!!  I have an uncle named Jack, but his legal name is Harold – heaven help us researchers!!

Case in point, my 4x grandfather’s family, John William Vincent born abt 1835 in Nova Scotia and was a shoemaker and one time shipwright.  

John William married a Mary Ann Rogers and went on to have 12 children.  Mary Ann indicated on the 1900 US census in Boston that she had 12 children, 8 living – I have been able to find 10.

Of them, Harriet went by Amelia or Millie; David, well why he became Robert is still a mystery; Hannah went by Olive, James was Burton, and Charles lived as Edward. 

What?      What?       What?  

It took a while but I learned to be creative but I still get frustrated at times...ugg

The most difficult to search – the spelling and transcription errors combined with name variations!  

Visent, Vison, Vicent; Rosekrans, Rosecrans, Rosekrantz; Phebe, Phoebe; Elizabeth, Eliza, Bessie, Betty, Betsy, Lizzie........the list goes on, and on, and on.

In our family, Charles, John, William, Phebe, Mary, Elizabeth and other names couldn’t be more repetitive!

Considering I had nothing more than my grandfather’s name when I started, I have come a long way baby!

Happy Hunting!

Charles Vincent

Let’s start at the beginning, well, sort of…..

“46 Acres, 5 Hogs and a Family” written by G R Vincent in 1986 was a treasure trove of family information!  It turns out our Vincent family was a complicated blend of Loyalists and Patriots.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Queen%27s_Rangers

According to the book, my direct line led by Charles Vincent of 1741 was born in New York, and lived in Fishkill.  He went to war leaving behind his wife, children and what property they had.  He joined the British as soon as they landed in 1776 at New Rochelle and volunteered for the Queen’s Rangers.  He went to Philadelphia where became ill and could not leave with the unit so once he recovered, he joined Delancey’s Regiment as a private.

He mustered out in Nova Scotia with others but discovered he had lost all his property and petitioned for compensation for his loss: 46 acres, 40 bushels of wheat, 70 bushels of buckwheat, 4 acres of corn, 5 hogs and household goods; the land was gifted to him before the war by his wealthy uncle Capt Michael Vincent (who remained a Patriot and was tormented because of his relation to Charles).

Charles did receive land in Cumberland Co, Nova Scotia and settled there with his wife and son George……and so begins the Nova Scotian line of Vincents, but what of his family history?

The first Vincent in our line is reported to be Charles of about 1650 who first appeared in Yonkers as a minor creditor in the estate of George Tibbets and was involved in several early land transactions in Westchester Co, New York.  Charles Sr is reported to have married an Elizabeth Dix.

Based on the work of G R Vincent, two theories exist for the origin of Charles Sr.  One that he stems from Adrian Vincent out of Amsterdam (and resided in New Amsterdam in New York); the other that he might be an immigrant out of Maryland who landed about 1663 (perhaps English).

I am too early in my research to delve into that discussion, but there you have it – based on my family lore, where’s the Irish?