The 1980s - Obits - Haggart, MacKay, Schiappa

courtesy of Jody MacKeil - Find A Grave

Chronicle Herald, Mon, 28 Sep 1987
William Garvin Haggart – Toronto, and formerly of New Glasgow died Friday at home. Born in New Glasgow he was a son of the late James and Ruth (MacDonald) Haggart. He is survived by three sisters: June Nichols – New Hampshire; Bonnie Demetre – Trenton; Evangeline – Dartmouth; two brothers; James – Edmonton; Donald – Truro; several nieces and nephews. He was predeceased by a brother, Kenneth; a sister, Elizabeth Irving. The body is at R.H. Porter Funeral Home, New Glasgow visiting Tuesday at 2 p.m. Funeral service will be Wednesday at 2 p.m. in Bethel Presbyterian Church, Pictou Landing, and Rev. Brian Weatherdon officiating. Burial will be in Murray’s Point Cemetery. Donations may be made to the Canadian Cancer Society. He was buried on 29 Sep 1987 at Murray Point Cemetery in Lower Barney's River, Pictou Co, Nova Scotia.

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Chronicle Herald, Mon, 28 Sep 1987
Charlotte Abigale MacKay – 78 [68], of The Ponds, Merigomish died Sunday in Aberdeen Hospital, New Glasgow. Born in New Glasgow she was the daughter of Charles and Elizabeth (Arbuckle) Mason. She was a member of St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Merigomish. She is survived by a son, Lawrence – The Ponds; three sisters; Mrs. Eva Winott – Bridgewater; Hilda (Mrs. Ed Roy) – Merigomish; Shirley (Mrs. Paul Baltzer) – Aylesford; and two grandchildren. She was predeceased by her husband, Cecil and three sisters; Ruby, Emily, and Virginia. The body is at the R.H. Porter Funeral Home, New Glasgow. Funeral service will be held Tuesday at 2 p.m. in St. Paul’s Presbyterian Church, Merigomish, Rev. Pat Rose officiating. Burial will be in Murray’s Point Cemetery.

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courtesy of Cheryl Maibush - Find A Grave

Muriel E (Hamm) Schiappa, 64, of 1672 Pleasant St, Athol, Mass, died Tuesday March 11, at her home after a long illness.  Her husband, Ugo Schiappa, died in 1983.  She had lived in Athol for six months, coming from Keene, NH where she resided for 20 years.  Born in Winterport, she was the daughter of Eugene and Daisy (Arbuckle) Hamm.  She is survived by a daughter, Rose Marie Schiappa of Athol; four brothers, Rudolph Hamm of Merrow, Conn, Raymond Hamm of Norwood, Mass, William L Hamm of Dexter, and Walter L Hamm of Belfast; eight sisters, Cecilia Small of Norwood, Mass, Christina Wheeler of Lindley, Ny, Kathleen Smith of Warehouse Point, Conn, Ethel Bevereage of Hamden, Conn, Carlene Carrano of New Haven, Conn, Ann Wardwell of Searsport and Dorothy Dyer of Manchester, NH; an aunt, Marjorie Wadleigh of Winterport; two uncles, John Arbuckle of Winterport and Lewis Arbuckle of Dexter; several nieces, nephews and cousins.  The funeral was Friday, March 14, from the J Edward Murphy Funeral Home, with a Mass at ten o'clock in the Church of Our Lady Immaculate.  Burial was in the St Joseph's Cemetery, Keene, NH.

James Ronald Vincent

J 'Ronald' Vincent was the son of John McCallum Vincent and Jennie Blanche Smith and according to his obit, the call of the blue open skies was too much to resist and he set sail for England to join the Royal Air Force just before WWII and unfortunately died there.

courtesy of Frank Grant - Find A Grave

Medicine Hat Daily News, Mon, 2 May 1938

James Ronald Vincent was born in Calgary, Alta, in December, 1911.  Along with the family, he came to Medicine Hat in 1920, took his High School course here, and for a number of years was a clerk in the local Dominion Bank branch.  In 1936 he was transferred to the Moose Jaw branch. 

Ronnie, however, was too mechanically inclined, loved the open so much, and was too active to remain in an indoor job, so in August of 1937, he went overseas and joined the Royal Air Force.  He loved that experience and felt that aeroplane flying was part of his very nature.  He was getting to like Old England, and was establishing a great connection of friends over there.  His letters home drew vivid and charming pictures of his experiences.  His particular chum was Brock La Pointe, from Victoria, BC, apparently a young man very similar to himself.  The two of them together had been very successful in their training and had reached the senior period of their flying instruction. 

On Thursday morning, April 7th, they took out a large plane and went on as usual but had not gone many minutes which they were observed to be in difficulties; their engine failed to function; they were not high enough to permit of readjustment, and soon their plane crashed to the ground.  Brock La Pointe was killed instantaneously; Ronald was badly injured, never fully regained consciousness and died peacefully in the Cottage Hospital, Malmcebury, Wiltshire.  Full particulars in very sympathetic letters have been received. 

The funeral was conducted on the Saturday following by the chaplain and the local Presbyterian Minister in the quiet little cemetery of Hullavington, surrounded by the spring beauty of Old England in Wiltshire.  A variety of pictures of the cemetery, the gathering at the service and the general situation will be received in due time.  The news of this tragedy came as a very sever shock to the family here and to the whole community of Medicine Hat. 

A Memorial Service was held in Fifth Ave United Church on Sunday morning, May 1st, conducted by the Minister Rev J W Bainbridge, Ronald, along with his family, was quite active in this church.  He attended the Sunday School for years was a member of the boys' groups, later became an usher, and sang in the choir.  The minister delivered a comforting and very suitable message based on Psalm I: 1 to 3.  Mr Harry Leece, a fellow choir member, sang Ronnie's favorite hymn as a solo, "Some Day We'll Understand." 

His father, Mr John M Vincent, predeceased him in February, 1933.  He is survived by his mother, one brother, John Smith and one sister, Frances Aileen.  The whole community extends its sympathy with the family in this tragical bereavement.

Collaboration Continued

Last blog I wrote about the son of John I Vincent & Mary Clements, today I write about them - and this would not have happened without Ellie!

Again, we ensured we started with the same information from the Vincent Family Book of 1996 by Sheridan Vincent where he writes:

John I. Vincent was mentioned as a son in his father’s will, but apparently died before his mother wrote her will in 1849.  It is not clear that the John Vincent born in 1778 and husband of Mary Clements is the same as Jeremiah’s son, John.  Information on them was copied from the family Bible of John T. Vincent who lived in Saratoga Co., NY.  There is a guardianship document dated 20 March 1817 on file at the Saratoga Co., NY Surrogate (Guardian Box 34, File 31) where Mary Vincent and John Clement were bound to the guardianship of children under the age of 21-years: Matilda Vincent, Thomas Vincent, Maria Vincent, and Janet Vincent. 

Based on the above, we made two hypotheses:  

·        Given the lack of mention in the will of 1849 and the date of the guardianship, it is probable that John died late 1816, early 1817

·        The action of guardianship suggests that John & Mary had more than one child, otherwise, why bother?

We can't prove definitively the first but we most definitely proved the 2nd!

We scoured, wills, land transactions, censuses, newspapers, made lists of names and more!  After ruling out many a family in Cayuga, Wayne and Saratoga County, Maria was still outstanding - sigh.  

BUT - we did prove that Matilda Irish was ours and that her sister Janet had married Darius Wetherel!   

And, Ellie found a Sons of the American Revolution application which revealed that Mary Clements had remarried and is buried at the French Cemetery in Victory! 

Again, I would have given up if it hadn't been for Ellie - her skills far surpassed mine - huge thanks to her and her willingness to join me in this quest! 

[update - Maria was found!]

The Result of Collaboration

A while back, I worked with a distant cousin, Ellie, for a few weeks on one of the Vincent lines - my inbox blew up! I had so much fun and the results of our joint efforts were amazing!

We worked together on John I Vincent and Mary Clements.  Her 5x maternal grandfather I believe, and my 3rd cousin, 6x removed.

We started with their son Thomas and the information from the Vincent Family Book of 1996 by Sheridan Vincent:

Thomas Vincent born 30 November 1803; married Matilda Taylor; died 3 August 1842 at age 38.  Matilda Taylor was born 30 November 1802.  She died 30 July 1847 at age 44. 8 children were listed: Mary Ann, John Taylor, Mary S, Judson, Emily Ann, Elosa, Frances Amelia and Mary August.

A puzzling piece of information that couldn't be over looked was the cemetery listing in Victory that showed the information for a Jonathan & Matilda V Irish where she died on the same date combined with the cemetery listing in Saratoga Co.  It strongly suggested that there were 2 women and that the information had gotten mixed up somehow.

Ellie shared the 1850 Dix, NY census she had found where it showed two Vincent girls living with Rockwell and Matilda Rood, speculating that Frances was going by Amelia - and she was right - but who were the Roods to them?

The turning point was when I stumbled across an article about an "Aged Party", a farewell for Matilda who was going to live near her sons in Brockport.  Another Woot! when I found an 1890 obit for a Mrs Matilda Vincent!

It listed a daughter, Mrs Isaac Clement which turned out to be Eloise!  And more research revealed that Frances Amelia had married John Philip Coons - sadly she died 2 years after getting married.  

Not only have we corrected the death date for Matilda Taylor but also we have found 2 more children for Thomas & Matilda - of the 8 children, 4 are resolved!

How amazing!  It was soo much fun working with a collaborator who was and is as enthusiastic about all of this as I am!  

AND - AND - AND -  we made another huge breakthrough!

Picture Series - Smith/Stone

The following pictures were provided by Julie Kelly on Ancestry 

Merl & Myrtle Smith

Merl Smith was the son of Joshua Smith & Mary Jane Vincent.  He married Myrtle Whidden (right) - together they had 4 children - Dorothy, Theresa, Verna & Wylie.

Verna was born in 1926 at Bible Hill and married Russell Eldridge 'Bus' Stone in 1942 at Truro.  Together they had 3 children - Carol, Nancy & Russell Jr.

Verna T Smith

Russell E Stone

As told by Julie, the picture of Russell on the right was when he served in the Canadian Armed Forces - he was known as a 'batboy' and served as a personal assistant to high ranking officers while at the base in Newfoundland

He died in 1990, she in 2016 - they are buried at the Robie Street Cemetery

An Ackles Story

A while ago I wrote a Charles Murray Ackles who died in a mining accident having never met his son.

In reviewing my tree, I pulled a thread on ancestry that unravelled the following...

Charles Murray Ackles Jr not only lost his father before he met him, but also lost his mother when he was six years old!

Bella Arsenault was from New Brunswick and it appears she might have returned home after Charles Sr’s death to be with her family.  Trees on Ancestry lead to this death entry on the New Brunswick Vital Stats link.  Although it is in her maiden name and can be challenged, it does fit with what becomes of her son.

Charles Murray Ackles Jr was a dead end until the same tree on Ancestry lead to a marriage entry on the Nova Scotia Vital Stats site.........you have really examine it 

Charles Alexander Smith got married....but look at the Name of Father line........is that not C Ackles with John written over top?  Charles was adopted by John D Smith & Elizabeth Campbell ~~ confirmed with the 1921 census where John D Smith and family have an adopted son living with them.

Charles Smith married Annie Royale and according to the same tree on Ancestry, he lived a full life dying in 1998 in Osoyoos, BC!