Grandma's Granny's Family Album

So my cousin Debbie and I headed to PEI for 2 days of wandering the Island and seeing if any Wests turn up.  (see July 26 2022 post ) .  Prince Edward Island scenery The PEI Genealogy Facebook page members helpfully told us to start in the Archives, where a Master Name Index has catalogued  every single name  in  every single record ever written  in PEI.  And, just like in Kings County, there was only  one mention  of a Levi West.   (see Nov. 27 2020  post) ( see Presbury-Mayflower, West, and Spence Pedigree Charts) It was in the August 1831 edition of the Island Gazette. While Debbie looked up Maxims, I went to the microfilm viewer hoping for a juicy story full of characters, like a blizzard rescue or a court trial.  Instead, flap, whir, whish, I got ....wait for it....someone looking for Levi West and unable to find him! Literally.  It was a July 8 list of people who had letters waiting for them in the post office...

 After 2 years of COVID keeping me in the United States, and another letter from the Mayflower Society historian saying she quit her job, I finally got back to Canada to do some hands-on sleuthing! You will remember that although our ancestor Richard Warren was a passenger on the Mayflower, we cannot prove that his 6xgreat-grandson, Levi West, is really the offspring of his 5xgreat-grandson, Samuel West.  Further, we cannot prove that Levi's daughter, Susan West Rushton, is really his daughter.  All 3 of them have gone to great lengths to hide from me.  The end of the rainbow is more easily found! ( see Presbury-Mayflower Pedigree Chart, West Pedigree Chart, Spence Pedigree Chart ) Horton Landing, one spot where the Planters came ashore in 1760.  It is also one spot where the Acadians last set foot on their land before being cruelly deported by the English in 1755 Samuel was the first child in his family born in Nova Scotia, after his parents and grandparents re...

                                            Never did I think I would see my great-great-grandparents' graves as they are buried on their own land, and I did not even know where that was along Pugwash Road in Roslin, Nova Scotia. But the Cumberland County Genealogy Society knew there was a Baptist cemetery believed to have 3 or 6 Rushtons in it with 1 stone still standing. Rushton Family Cemetery The standing stone is for Grannie Phoebe's sister, Aunt Marthy. Their mother, Hannah Susan West Rushton, died in 1918 and her obituary said she was interred in her family cemetery. So surely, besides Great-Great-Granny Susan and Great-Aunt Marthy, the rest of their family is there too. There would be Susan's husband Thomas R. Rushton (died at age 91 in 1901), and their 4-year-old son Aaron (died of a fever in 1870) and baby Christena/Cristyann (died about 18 months old in 1875). I ...