Will Wednesday - John Bishop (1709-1785)

John Bishop was my 6th great grandfather.  He was born in New London, CT on May 25, 1709.  He and his 4 sons (John, William, Peter and Timothy) removed to Horton, Nova Scotia between 1760-1763.  

He wrote his will on September 18, 1780.  The will was proved after his death on November 7, 1785.

He died in Nova Scotia on October 28, 1785.  

Black Sheep Sunday: Noah Fuller’s illegitimate Child

I feel like I should start a blog series called “Ancestors Behaving Badly”.

While doing some research of my ancestors from Horton, Nova Scotia, I came upon records indicating that Noah Fuller (Born: 1750), my 4^th great grandfather, was charged with an “Order of Filiation”.

I was unfamiliar with the term, but learned that it is commonly a legal action to connect the birth father with an illegitimate child and force the parent to pay for the child's support.

I obtained a copy of the document and here is a transcription.

Kings County 

The order of Lebbeus Harris and Nathan Dewolf esquires, two of his Majesty’s Justices of the Peace in for the said county  and both residing in Horton near to the township of Cornwallis in the said county, made the fourth day of May in the year of our Lord one thousand seven hundred and seventy eight [1778] in [the] morning a female bastard child, lately born in the township of Cornwallis aforesaid, of the body of Abigail Pierse [I am unsure it is Pierfe or Pierse due to the way “S” was written at this time] singlewoman.

Whereas it hath appeared unto us the said Justices as well upon the complaint of Joseph Pierse Esq. and Mr. James Fillis  principle inhabitants of the said township of Horton, as upon the oath of the said Abigail Pierse that she the said Abigail Pierse on the fifth day of April, was delivered of a female bastard child at Cornwallis aforesaid in the said county, and that the said child likely to be chargeable to the said township of Horton, and further that Noah Fuller of Horton in the said county yeoman did beget the said bastard child in the body of her the said Abigail Pierse, and whereas the said Noah Fuller hath appeared before us, in pursuance of our summons for that purpose and hath not showed any sufficient cause why he the said Noah Fuller shall not be the father of the said bastard child :  We therefore upon examination of the cause and circumstances of the [unknown word], as will upon the oath of the said Abigail Pierse as otherwise do hereby judge him the said Noah Fuller to be the reputed father of the said bastard child…… 

And thereupon we do order, as well for the better belief of the said township of Horton, as for the sustententation and relief of the said bastard child, that the said Noah Fuller shall and do forthwith, upon notice of this our order pay or cause to be paid to the overseer of the poor of the said township of Horton or the same of the sum of four pounds…….for and towards the lying in the said Abigail Pierse and the maintenance of the said bastard child to the time of making this our order….. 

And we do hereby also further order, that the said Noah Fuller shall likewise pay or cause to be paid to the overseers of the poor of the said township of Horton the sum of three shillings weekly every week from this present time for and towards the keeping sustenation and maintenance of the said bastard child, for and during so long time as the said bastard child shall be chargeable to the said township of Horton…. 

And we do further order the said Abigail Pierse shall also pay or cause to be paid to the said overseer of the poor of the said township of Horton for the time being, or to some one of them the sum of three shillings…..

Weekly every week so long as the said bastard child shall be chargeable to said township of Horton, in case she shall not nurse and take care of the said child herself….

It is unfortunate that the order doesn’t give us any insight into the circumstances of Abigail and Noah’s relationship.   Noah was married to his wife, Elizabeth Bishop on November 6, 1777.  So it would appear that Abigail become pregnant by Noah prior to his wedding to Elizabeth Bishop.  Noah and Elizabeth stayed married and had at least 9 children together.

My understanding that the governments main concern in the event of an illegitimate child was making sure that a father was found to prevent the local government from the burden of paying for the child's care.

Being about 200 years removed from the event, I am intrigued about what happened to Abigail and Noah’s daughter.  The child is never named in the order.  Did she have the last name Fuller or keep the name Pierfe/Pierse?  How old was Abigail when she gave birth?  Did she ever marry?  I have not been able to find anything about her or her mother. 

If you have the belief that “these types of things” didn’t happen back in the “good old days”, it just goes to show that things may have not been quite so different than they are today. 

Funeral Card Friday - James Kurtz (WWII Casualty)

Veterans Day is the perfect day to remember those who fought for our country.

Over 416,000 Americans died in World War II, but I can only find one that was closely related to me.

Lt. James Kurtz, my great uncle.

I know very little about him.  He was a pilot during WWII and flew 27 B-25 bomber missions over Germany and Italy.  While he must have come under fire in ALL those missions, it was on landing and takeoff drills that he met his death in a training accident in Tunisia, Northern Africa.

I have already posted a picture of him and his obituary in a previous post, click here to see it.

He died on November 4th, 1943 (almost exactly 68 years ago).  However, he body wasn't returned to the family for burial until May 30, 1948.

Here is the Funeral Card from the funeral service conducted in 1948.  He is buried at Mount Pleasant Cemetery, Mt. Pleasant, PA.

Surname Saturday - The "Lost" Cary Family of Horton, NS

This is Part III in a series of posts demonstrating evidence that my 3rd great grandfather, David Fuller married Mary Cary. Up until now, It has been widely accepted that his wife was Mary Curry.


Please read the first two posts to see all the evidence.
Part 1: Can a published genealogy be wrong?
Part 2: Mary Curry's TRUE husband

In the previous posts, I have demonstrated how David Fuller removed his family to Portland, Maine from Horton, Nova Scotia, the fact that he had 6 previously unknown sons and the fact that the woman that was believed to be his wife, Mary Curry, actually married Silas Hatch.


The one missing piece is "Who was Mary Cary"? If David Fuller did marry Mary Cary, how did he meet her, since according to the Horton Township books, there was no Cary family living the settlement. What information do we have about her family? Where was she from?


The answer is that we know very little about her.  


According to the 1850 US Census records, Mary was born in Massachusetts and according to her son, David Bishop Fuller's death record she was from Plymouth, Mass.  Although, later census records indicated that she was born in   Nova Scotia.  Her Maine death record does not include her parents names or places of birth.  Her death notice from Sept 16, 1873 is short.

I was unable to find any specific records which pertain to Mary Cary coming to Horton, Nova Scotia from Massachusetts. I will keep digging...


But, Yes, Virginia, there was evidence of a Cary family living in Horton, NS.  


Even though, there is no record of a Carey family in the Horton Township Books, there are land transaction records pertaining to Cary families.  And to sell land you must have at least purchased the land and more than likely lived there.  Looks like the Cary's probably arrived in late 1700's.  I have found records for John, Joshua and Samuel Cary.  They may have been Mary Cary's brothers or one was her father.

Here is a record of them selling land.  

Not to mention, the 1838 Horton census records.

During the 1920's and 1930's there were a series of articles published in Nova Scotia which was intended to track the genealogies of many of the families of Nova Scotia.  The series was called "New Englanders in Nova Scotia".  In one addition, it references a woman named Lydia Cary and identifies her as a descendant of the pilgrim, John Cary.  I have included an excerpt.  While this isn't proof of Mary Cary being descended from John Cary or the descendants from his family that arrived in Nova Scotia, it does say in the article that "John Cary has many descendants living in Nova Scotia."

One last thing, the marriage record which is recorded between David and Mary on the Familysearch.org(LDS) website indicates that David Fuller married Mary Cary.  

Phew!  That is it.  That is my case.

Have I convinced you, yet?


Also, if you have any clues or information on the Cary family of Horton, Nova Scotia.....please contact me at pilgrimage1620@gmail.com . Thanks!!

Thriller Thursday - Mary Curry's TRUE Husband!

In my last post, Can a Published Genealogy Be Wrong? I presented a compelling case for why the established belief that my 3rd great grandfather, David Fuller, married Mary Curry was incorrect.  

Sadly, no matter how strong my evidence that David Fuller married Mary Cary and NOT Mary Curry, it has been met with disbelief. The fact that he had married Mary Curry was in several published books and genealogy reports.  

Please review my evidence in my last post for the details.

I had to take it one step further. I had to prove that not only did Mary Curry not marry David Fuller, I had to show that she had, in fact, married someone else.

Initially, I had no idea how to do that. But I found a clue.  There are several editions of the Horton Nova Scotia Township Books, which were used to record the births, marriage and deaths of the town residents. I looked at original copies of the township books, not transcriptions, so I could see for myself what was recorded.  In one of the records, it doesn't provide any clues, but in another township book I could find it clearly said "Hatch". This seems to be pretty common practice that they record the married names of women (when it is known) next to their names.  

See below the two versions of the Horton Township records:

But, of course, just having a random name next to Mary Curry's in those records doesn't PROVE anything.  

So I had to dig deeper.

I was able to find a family tree which showed that a Silas Hatch married a Mary Curry. It looked like this could be what I was looking for, but if I couldn't find any 3rd party verification of this union, then it didn't prove anything.

In the absence of a marriage record, I was able to find the next best thing.  A marriage announcement in the Bangor Weekly Register on December 28, 1819.  Not only had Mary Curry not married David Fuller, she had married once prior to marrying Silas Hatch!!

Just in case there are any doubters that wonder if this announcement refers to someone other than Marry Curry, it does clearly state that Mary's father is Richard Curry.  There was only one Richard Curry in Horton, NS and he had only one daughter named Mary.

It appears that Silas and Mary Curry had at least 6 children:  Abigail(1817), Isaac(1819), Silas C.(1821), Charlotte(1825), Richard(1826), Louisa (1827)

The only troubling thing is that it appears that the couple had some of these children in Horton, NS and some in Maine.  Their youngest child was born in 1827, but that is at odds with the belief that Marry Currry died in 1822.  It is possible that either the record that appears to state that she died in 1822 is incorrect or Silas may have remarried.  Hard to say.

Which leads to my final post on this subject:  The "Lost" Cary Family of Horton, Nova Scotia

Wisdom Wednesday - Can a Published Genealogy Be Wrong?

The short answer is "of course".


Genealogies are written by people and people make mistakes. I have made more than a few, myself. But, I will say that once information is published in a book or genealogical research paper, they become part of the "conventional wisdom" and are treated as established fact in the genealogy of those individuals.  


My personal experience is that the quantity and quality of evidence needed to alter what is accepted fact after a genealogy is published becomes quite a challenge. In some cases, the amount of evidence needed to overcome the current accepted belief greatly exceeds the original evidence used to create the initial assumptions.  

The case that impacts me is about my ancestors David Fuller (Born:  1781, Horton, Nova Scotia) and his wife Mary. David Fuller was the son of Noah Fuller Jr (Born: 1750, Salem, MA). and grandson of Noah Fuller (Born: 1712, Salem, MA).  Noah Fuller Sr. was one of the original settlers to Horton, Nova Scotia. These settlers are known as New England Planters. More about them in future posts.


David Fuller, wife and sons removed from Horton, Nova Scotia and moved to Portland, Maine between 1840-1850.


There is not a lot of expert genealogical interest in David Fuller. He was not a famous figure nor was he a person of historical significance....at least not that I have uncovered. But according to my research he is my 3rd great grandfather, which makes him important to me.  However, if I believed what has been written in public genealogy records, then it is unlikely that he could be my ancestor.

The Conventional Wisdom


It has been asserted that David Fuller  married a woman named Mary Curry (Born:  July 11, 1795) daughter of Richard Curry and Rachel Bacon. Both David Fuller and Mary Curry were born in Horton, Nova Scotia. They were married in Grand Pre, NS on Sept 10, 1812. They had 5 daughters all born in Horton:  Lavinia, Rebecca, Sephrona, Matilda and Martha.  No sons.


It has been published that Mary Curry died in 1822, but there is no record of when or where David Fuller died or if he had any further children.


My Disagreement


My fundamental disagreement with this information is that I don't believe that David Fuller married Mary Curry. I believe he married a different woman all together. A woman named Mary Cary.  There is a good reason for this. When I review the original Horton Township Record book for Horton, Nova Scotia (which contains the birth, marriage and death information recorded for the town), it records that David Fuller married Mary Cary.  


My other challenge is that I believe I am descended from David and Mary's son, James Henry Fuller. But there is no record of him in the Horton Township Record book.


How the Conventional Wisdom became the Conventional Wisdom


Horton, Nova Scotia was a very small settlement. Only 100 or so families settled there in the early 1760s. It was typical that the families intermarried. So it is reasonable to believe that David's wife would be to one of the families already living in Horton at the time.


The Horton Township Book record indicates he married Mary Cary, but there wasn't a "Cary" family recorded as living in Horton, Nova Scotia at the time. The only name that was close was Mary Curry. She would have been about the right age. While it clearly does not say "Curry" in the Horton Township Book, this is explained by the general poor spelling and variations of how names were spelled at that time.  


In addition, Mary Curry was said to have died in 1822. All of the children recorded in the Horton Township Book are all born prior to 1822.


Anyone who has spent anytime working on family research knows that sometimes you have to make some assumptions to connect the dots between certain ancestors. In the absence of specific proof you have to make assumptions and make a leap of faith that they are correct.  


So as assumptions go, I can see why these were made and they do make an awful lot of sense.


However, the preponderance of the evidence I have uncovered indicate that David Fuller never married Mary Curry and that he did, in fact, marry Mary Cary.


The Supporting Evidence


The biggest leap of faith I had to take was that the David and Mary Fuller of Portland, Maine where the same David and Mary Fuller of Horton, Nova Scotia. There is no border crossing records that I have uncovered which show the immigration of the David and Mary Fuller or any of their sons.  


The second leap of faith I had to make was that even with no record of any sons in the Horton Township Book, that they did in fact have 6 sons named, David B., Benjamin W., James H., Theodore, Andrew H., and Colllingwood.


These do sound like pretty major assumptions, but don't judge too quickly. I do have overwhelming evidence to support them.


David. Mary and Sons of Portland Maine were from Horton, Nova Scotia


The US Census from 1850 shows that David, Mary, James, Theodore, Andrew and Collingwood all living together in Portland, Maine. In addition, it indicates that David and his sons were all born in Nova Scotia. It states that Mary was born in Massachusetts....which works, because this might help explain why her family wasn't included in the Horton Township Book.


The US Census from 1860 for Portland, Maine shows Mary Fuller living with Benjamin W Fuller and his family including Benjamin's brother James H.  Fuller.  David Fuller died somewhere between 1857-1860. I have not found his death record.


Mary Fuller died in Portland, Maine on Sept 16, 1873. I found both her death record and death notice in the paper which indicates that she was the Mary Fuller married to David Fuller.


Ok, So David and Mary and these sons were from Nova Scotia, but how do I prove that they are from Horton, NS?

My records show that 4 of the 6 sons became naturalized citizens. Two of the son's records show that they were born in "Norton, NS" and two show "Windsor, NS". Since there wasn't a "Norton, NS", we can discount this as an error. I am confident about this as Andrew H Fuller's naturalization says he is from "Norton, NS", but his obituary states he was born in "Horton, NS". In addition, David B. Fuller's death record states he was from Horton, Kings Co, NS


This is particularly important as Horton, NS was a small settlement. There were several Fuller families, but only one David Fuller who was the son of Noah Fuller Jr. and Elizabeth Bishop.  


David and Mary had Additional Children In Addition to Those Captured in the Township Book


Proving that David B. Fuller and the other men were born in Horton and Windsor, Nova Scotia doesn't prove that their parents, David and Mary Fuller are THE David and Mary Fuller from Horton, NS which are descended from Noah Fuller the original New England Planter.  


Which is why I needed to find some records which showed their mother's maiden name. I think you will agree that there COULDN'T have been two separate Fuller families living in Horton, NS which included a David Fuller and a Mary Cary, right?


I found death records for each of the Fuller sons (which was quite a feat in and of itself). Only 3 of the records included the names of each man's parents. ALL of those records listed the father as David Fuller and the mother as Mary Cary!


In addition, the 1838 Kings County Census records for Horton Township shows that David Fuller had a household of 13 people . The breakdown of ages of males and females lines up well to the fact that David and Mary had a total of 11 children that I have uncovered.  


At the time of the census, David and Mary's children would have been the following ages:

Lavinia - 25
Rebecca - 23
Sephrona - 21
Matilda - 19
Martha - 17
David B - 15
Benjamin W -13
James H - 11
Theodore - 9
Andrew H - 7
Collingwood - 2


This doesn't translates perfectly to the census, but very closely and would depend on when in the year the census was conducted. Also, I can't confirm, but it seems likely that either Lavinia or Rebecca would have been married by 1838 and judging from the time that lapsed between Andrew H and Collingwood's birth it is likely that there may have been another son who was born, but died young.


Connecting David and Mary's Daughters from Horton, NS to David and Mary Cary of Portland, Maine


By now, I hope that you can see that I have made a strong case that David and Mary Fuller moved to Portland, Maine and they did have 6 sons which were not recorded in the Horton Township Books.  

The last missing piece is trying to connect any of David and Mary's known daughters to my David and Mary Fuller or any of their brothers. This has proved to be very challenging!!  Matilda Fuller married Thomas Marine/Morine.  They lived in Kings County, NS, until they moved to Standish, Maine somewhere between 1880-1900. I have found a death record for Matilda Marine which records her father and mother as David Fuller and Mary Cary!!  


One more fact: I recently found out that David B. Fuller's middle name was "Bishop". This is significant because David Fuller Sr's father Noah Fuller was married to Elizabeth Bishop. The fact that David was given the middle name of the family name "Bishop" would be another compelling fact.


For me that was the final piece.  


Through a preponderance of the evidence, I think I have very convincingly proven that David and Mary Fuller of Portland, ME and David and Mary Fuller of Horton, Nova Scotia are one and the same, and they had a total of at least 11 children, 5 daughters recorded in the Horton Township book and had 6 sons who were not recorded.


But....


When presenting this overwhelmingly strong argument, I am ALWAYS told, "but David Fuller married Mary Curry...I read it in the History of Kings, Co or other published genealogy.  Maybe David Fuller remarried after Mary Curry died....these could be the children of his second wife"!!


Ughh!!


It has been very difficult to get anyone to take my evidence seriously,  because they feel like that the fact that Mary Curry married David Fuller is an established fact.   


Which leads to my next post:  Mary Curry's TRUE husband!

Sentimental Sunday - The Untimely Death of Clarence W. Armstrong

One of the reasons I have really dived into my genealogy research is a idea of remembering those that came before me.  Because, really, we owe each of our ancestors a debt to remember them and make their memories live on.


But what about those relatives who never married or never had kids.  In many ways, their memories die with them as there is no direct descendants to keep their memories alive.  


Those of you, who like me, do a lot of your genealogy research on Ancestry.com have probably noticed that relatives who die young or childless are often omitted from family research like they never existed.


This seems to me like a special kind of tragedy.


I will be devoting many future blog posts to those relatives who have few to remember them.  I have already posted about my great uncle, James Kurtz, who died during WWII.  My grandfather named his son, James in memory of his brother.


Clarence W Armstrong was my great grand uncle.  He was son to my paternal great great grandfather, John B. Armstrong.    I don't know very much about Clarence Armstrong except the circumstances of his untimely death.  He was born March 5, 1870 in Cape Elizabeth, Maine and died at the age of 39, September 8, 1909.   He was unmarried.


On the day he died, he had been doing some work at Fort Williams, he was driving a team of horses or mules with supplies for the fort.  He was driving along Commercial street when his horses became frightened by at Grand Truck engine (Grand Trunk was a commercial railroad company) that was passing nearby and started to run.  Clarence leapt from the carriage, probably to escape the runaway horses, but as he leapt his feet became entangled in the reins and he struck the side of the wheel which probably knocked him unconscious.  He was dragged quite a distance and when help reached him he was already dead from a broken neck.

Source: Public Documents of the State of Maine Being the Annual Reports of the Various Departments and Institutions
for the year 1909, Vol III, pg. 248

Clarence W. Armstrong, gone but not forgotten.