Grandma's Granny's Family Album

Today, 225 years ago, our ancestor Stephen F. Acker and his younger brother John were baptized in Christ Church, Anglican Parishes of St. George and St. Patrick, Shelburne, Nova Scotia.  Stephen was 11 and John was 7.   Just months before in April, their sister Catherine, age 12, and brother Jacob, who was 4, were baptized also.  Their oldest brother Henry didn't get baptized until he got married at the age of 32. (see Robertson Pedigree Chart)   Old Christ Church, Shelburne It seems unusual to me for a family to baptize their children when they are older, in the Episcopal/Anglican church where baptisms usually involve infants.   Why would they do that?  They were on the run?  No, Ester and John Acker had been in Shelburne for 12 years by then and they had land there.  The church had just been built? No,  Shelburne was an established town of Loyalists, people who had remained loyal to England during the American Revolution, and you ...

It's the last one, really.  Do you believe me?  I wouldn't if I were you. Here's Michael Madden, listen to this, who "fell from a large rock on the shore from which he was watching his boys eeling, and died there."  That would be, catching eels to eat for dinner.  In 1809.  See Robertson Pedigree Chart. (quote from Barrington NS Township Records) Michael died without a will, after all, who expects to die while watching children eel?  He had 6 children ranging in age from 4 to 14 and his wife Catherine was 3 months pregnant. Shelburne SS                                                       Court of Probates of Wills                 I Catherine Madden ~ ~ do make Oath on the Holy Evangelists of Almighty God that I do not know or have heard of any last Will made by Michael ~ Madden ...

see Robertson pedigree chart Remember this guy?  Captain Isaac John McSparling Acker, love that name.  One piece of evidence pointing to him being in the Coast Guard is that he didn't own his ship, or at least not when he died.  Here is his will, where he leaves everything to his youngest son Joseph, his executor. In the Name of God Amen.  I Isaac J. Acker of Birch town in the County of shelburne Master Mariner being in good health and of sound and disposing mind memory and understanding do make and publish this my last will and testament hereby revoking and making void all former wills by me at any time heretofore made. 1st In the first place I give devise and bequeath all my real and personal property estate and effects of which I may die seized and possessed wherever situate or to which I may be in any way entitled to unto my son Joseph Acker and his heirs and assigns. 2 I hereby nominate and appoint my said son Joseph Acker sole executor of this my said last will...

Here's the will of William Robertson, where he leaves everything to his son John on condition that John take care of his blind sister Elizabeth.  See post on The First Robertsons and Robertson Pedigree Chart. "In the Name of God Amen. I William Robertson of Birch Town in the County of Shelburne being of Sound and Perfect Mind and Memory..... "set my hand and affixed my seal this First day of June in the Year of our Lord One Thousand eight hundred and thirty-three.  William Robertson John Robertson makes his mark to accept his duties as executor Inventory : 150 Acres Land and House...50 pounds 4 Cows and a Calf.................  6 pounds ( remember one goes to Elizabeth ) 2 Hogs (small).........................5 pounds 6 Chairs...................................12 shillings 2 Tables...................................  5 shillings 1 Chest.................................... 10 shillings 1 Feather Bed and Bedstead...   1 pound 1 small flax wheel..................

Here are 3 different versions of the same will of our ancestor Hanness Coon, who died in Rye, Westchester County, New York Colony, in 1773.  Wills, if you can find them, are wonderful documents, chock-full of information, all sworn to be correct.     Finding the will of Hanness Coon was a wonderful event because it 1. gets our family back another generation and 2. shows where we came from before Nova Scotia.  (see Rushton Pedigree Chart)  We know from several sources that our pioneer ancestor, the Loyalist Mary Rushton, John's wife, had the maiden name of Coon.  Another clue is that a William Coon has a land grant right by Mary and John and family.  But this will is our proof because Hanness's granddaughter's last name is Rushton, so Hanness has to have a daughter who married a Rushton.  Our other clues are the witnesses, people he was close to and trusted,  named Coon and Rushton.  This John Rushton might even be Mary's husband....

William Mariner Spence with his 3 youngest daughters, 1913 Twins Helen, on left, and Helena are 4 years old Baby Connie is, what do you think, 8 months? They called their parents Mumma and Puppa, that's how those are pronounced. (see Spence Pedigree chart)

Greenfield Cemetery, Nassau County, New York

Crafted by Joel Brown in his Windsor Chair Manufactory, in Petersburg, Virginia, about 1790.  Located at Prestwould Plantation, Clarksville, Virginia. Chuck poses with his great-great-great-great-grandfather's original chair, repainted and re-upholstered to look as it would have then.  "J Brown" is stamped under the seat. A second chair, not restored

In Memory of John and Sarah (Lovell) Harrison and Descendants who Emigrated from Yorkshire England in May 1774 Placed August 5, 2000 Sandy and I in 2016 sitting on the marker commemorating our earliest Harrison ancestors.  At that time, they were the earliest arrivals in North America I had found.  This stone was placed to replace the many grave markers that had sunk into the ground in this family cemetery in Maccan, Cumberland County, Nova Scotia.  This property is where Sarah and John and their 9 children settled when they arrived in the Yorkshire Emigration as a result of "being over-rented in their land."  It is still owned and farmed by our family today. see Rushton Pedigree Chart

Mt. Olivet Cemetery in Baltimore, Maryland.  Generations of Buckley family members were buried here in this section, according to cemetery records, although we could not find actual gravestones. See Sorenson Pedigree Chart

Here you can see the 500 acres of land granted to our ancestor Mary and John R. Rushton, Sr. in 1785.  (not spelled quite right).  They were our first Rushton ancestors in Nova Scotia.   You can see their land goes right up to the Colchester / Cumberland county line on the west side, and has 2 streams running through it.   Half their grant, on the west side of Fountain Lake Brook, later became the Portapique River Wilderness Area, government protected land.  (see Rushton Pedigree chart) The lines that mark the east end of their grant that look like = = = = = = is, I believe, a dirt road.  The =========== line that follows the river is, I think, a paved road. This is a current GPS map of the same land.  The thick green line is the border of Portapique River Wilderness Area, same as above.  You can see the same rivers and roads, which are now all paved.  The railroad now crosses from northwest to southeast, and the thick orange line, ...

1866 Hutchinson's Nova Scotia Directory, Parrsboro.  These Pettigrews and Rectors are our cousins and uncles. 1868 McAlpine's Nova Scotia Directory, Halfway River Samuel Spence is our ancestor, William Mariner's grandfather, 5 years before he was born.   See Spence Pedigree Chart Voter Rolls on Junction Road in Springhill, Nova Scotia in 1935 - looks like our family was civic-minded! Lovell’s Province of Nova Scotia Directory for 1871  Spring Hill:   A farming settlement in the district of Maccan, county of Cumberland.   Coal deposits have been discovered in the vicinity, but being too far from shipping have not been mined.   Distant from Amherst 22 miles, fare $3. Mail weekly.   Population about 120. ( no familiar names )   West Chester:   A small village in the township of West Chester: county of Cumberland.   Distant from Sackville, a station of the Intercolonial railway, 6 miles, from Halifax, 93 miles, from Pictou 70 miles. Ma...

Ok, so, they're not the first Robertsons ever, but they're the earliest ones I can find.  (see Robertson Pedigree Chart) Funny thing is, my grandparents' names are Robertson and Spence, and those are the names I know nothing about.  All our other ancestors are traced back to the old country (well, almost all of them). On the basis of my grandparents' surnames, I have been going around saying I am half Scottish since I was a kid.  Decades of genealogy later, I have yet to find a Scot.  Anyway, surely the Robertsons are of Scottish descent, because there is a Clan Robertson with a set of official tartans.    There are other mysteries.  That very first year, Auntie Grace, my grandfather's sister, told me that their grandmother's name was Elizabeth Ellis, and she came from Scotland at 8 years old on an 6-masted schooner.  You can still see  Elizabeth Ellis  written in my little-kid handwriting on my first little-kid family tree. This made pe...

Theodore Zoeller, born Mechenhard Bavaria 1825. Immigrated to New York in 1845  Cabinet Maker in Manhattan 1845 - about 1869 Trustee of Manhattan Board of Education, 17th Ward, 1860 & 1861 see Sulzbach pedigree chart This is the type of furniture he made Alexander Zoeller, Theodore & Gertrude's youngest child and only son who lived to adulthood. As a young man early 1880s ( woman in the next picture is possibly his wife?) and as an older man with son Kenneth around World War I Alex's wife Nellie Griffin Zoeller Cousins Joe Sulzbach on left, Kenneth Zoeller on right, about 1910.  Joe is the son of Theodore & Gertrude's daughter Arabella Zoeller Sulzbach Kenneth Zoeller in middle and unknown boys, around 1920 Arabella's granddaughter Ann (Angelica) Stack Smith.  About 1980 on left, graduation from nursing school 1938 on right.  Doesn't she look just like the lady on the left, below? I have decided that these 2 ladies from 1910 are Arabella & Alex's...