Anglican Records, Holy Trinity, Lascelles

Well actually I'm going to put up the burial records that the minister for the wider area including Eardly, Low, Wakefield and Lascelles. I don't know the area particularly well so I am including them all. This list is subject to change and to revision when I have more time to take better notes. So here it is, warts and all-- there will be errors so don't take these as gospel. I stopped at 1876 because I ran out of time today. I'll get to the others later if I can. A note here, the minister, John Seaman, was not overfond of providing a great deal of information-- he usually says where someone is from (and I see I missed this in some of my notes) but only very rarely says where someone is buried. IF I follow the reasoning I did with my paper then we have a whole bunch of likely burials at Reilly Cemetery-- anyone who has been to Holy Trinity has noticed the lack of headstones there-- perhaps people were more commonly buried elsewhere.

Name	Wife of/Notes	Origin/Twsp of	Died	Place of burial
James Shouldice		Wakefield	14 ??1864
Alexander Higgins		Low	17 Aug 1864
William Smiders		Masham	15 Sept 1864
Luke Brown		Wakefield	24 Nov 1864
Sarah Michel	John Mahon, Reilly witnesses	Masham	17 Dec 1864
Hugh Bell Brown		Eardly	13 Dec 1864
Catheren Martin	Henry Wills	Wakefield	6 July 1865
William Collons		Wakefield	1 Sept 1865
Elizabeth Stewert		Denholm	5 Aug 1866
Elizabeth Kentrick??		Alwin	8 Mar 1866
Alade Farburn	William Offertson	Wakefield	19 July 1867	Wakefield
Edward Brown		Masham	26 Dec 1867	Wakefield
Charlot Elizabeth Seaman		Minister’s daughter	18 Aug 1868
Sarah Jane McKitrick			19 Aug 1868
Judith Irwin ??	Robert Shouldice	Masham	10 April 1868?
Helenar Mullin		Wakefield	2? June 1869
Ann Jane ____	Alexander Thomas ______
Mary Jane Denzell??	James Jonston	Masham	12 ??? 1870
John Thompson	Shouldice & Graham signed	Masham	10 May 1870
Robert Wiggans			1 April 1871	Holy Trinity
Mary Seaman		Wakefield	16 May 1871
Thomas Brown		Masham	4 June 1871
Ellen (Eileen?) Adol??	James Mullen	Wakefield	4 Aug 1871
William Johnston		Portland	25 Jan 1871
John James Samuel		Portland	18 April 1871
Phaby Samuel		Portland	26 May 1871
Elizabeth Stinke??	Thomas Mullen	Masham	4 Jan 1872
Margret Simpson Armstrong	Robert Armstrong	Wakefield	24 Mar 1872
Margaret Armstrong	d/o above	Wakefield	30 Mar 1872
Marjory Murdoch		Low	5 April 1872
William Murdoch	See above, sibling	Low	8 April 1872
John Bagnols???		Lascelles	24 May 1872
Isabella Higgins		Masham	20 Sept 1872
Samuel Higgins		Masham	12 Oct 1872	Holy Trinity
Elizabeth Wil__	(Mahon witness)	Masham	20 Oct 1872
Wm Thomas Gabriel ??			19 April 1873	Holy Trinity
Samuel Deagall???		Masham	13 July 1873
Frances Cook	Robert Nesbit, Mahon & Mitchel witnesses	Masham	29 Oct 1873
James Gordon Kennedy		Masham	23 April 1874
Mrs Kennedy	Adam Kennedy, mother of above	Masham	23 April 1874
Sarah Elizabeth Brown	Thomas _____	Hawke??	25 May 1874
Andrew Matchet Murdoch	(not local)		9 Oct 1874
Wm Gordon Fraser??		Wakefield	11 Jan 1875
Elizabeth Wilkes	Wm Craige, O’Hara signature	Masham	17 Mar 1875
Jane Mahon	John Riley (three sons signatures)	Masham/Irland	17 April 1875
Thomas Brown		Eardly	19 Jan 1876

Annual Clearance Day

Hello! Long time no see! I haven't dropped off the face of the Earth but I have been incredibly busy (that pesky working for a living eats so much time). Here's a quick update:

There is going to be a general work day at Reilly Cemetery on May 4. We intend to get at it pretty early -- there's brush to clear and tree bits to drag off and, going by the replies to the newsletter, a fair number of people to chat with and get to know. There will be access to the community centre all day (thank you MM for arranging that!) and there will be food. I believe a pot luck is planned-- I'll get back to you on that. If you plan to come fire me an email (see sidebar) and I will alert the organizers. If you want to be on the newsletter list do the same and I will pass it along to the writer.  An additional note here that our efforts of last year have definitely resulted in a LOT of positive feedback-- people are very pleased and impressed with what we accomplished at Reilly Cemetery. Thanks again to everyone for everything they did for the cemetery and to help me out.

There is going to be a second cemetery tour in June 15 (though I expect I may practice a bit on the clearing crew) along with a tour of the town of Rupert. I don't know about numbers but it might be an idea to get in touch with the Gatineau Valley Historical Society if you wish to attend.

Sorry, I fell off the bandwagon when it comes to working on the Anglican records-- been too busy doing that gainfully employed thing. There ARE microfilms of it available at the GVHS but they are really hard to get if you aren't fairly precise about what you need (like names and dates). I'm told you can also get specific records from the Anglican church itself for a price. Neither of these options helps general research much and I do still want to get the Anglican records done if only because it will add a fair number of names to my lists (see sidebar). All things in time I guess. I'll see if I can't take a bit of a crack at it over the next week or two just to add a few names and to confirm/disprove my hunch. I might have to limit my efforts to death records.

PS- YES there will be a potluck! HURRAH!

Low and behold...

Gentle reader, the plot thickens.

When I did my research on cemeteries in Quebec back in the fall of 2011 the consensus was that Methodists and Presbyterians were the denominations represented at Reilly Cemetery, along with a few Anglicans -- Anglicans like Catholics are usually buried in consecrated ground. Nowhere in my research did I come across any mention of any ceremony consecrating the ground at Reilly Cemetery, but that does not mean it never happened-- it just means I haven't seen any written record saying so. At the time I did my archival research the records for the Holy Trinity Church at Lascelles (Anglican) were nowhere to be found. When I put my lists of the confirmed and likely buried at Reilly Cemetery I used only those for which I had a written record. Two thirds of the headstones at Reilly Cemetery did not have corresponding entries in the Methodist and Presbyterian records. The Anglican records recently turned up-- they were there all along, just labelled in such a way as to be misleading. The Anglican diocese was of North Wakefield, the records were listed as being from Low. Well now that I have my hands on these I have started the long process of transcription, along with a few fools volunteers who have agreed to help me out. There are HUNDREDS of entries and we are doing them all-- baptisms, marriages AND burials. If you'd like to help out drop me a line, we need more willing victims to get this massive job done!

Anyhow, those familiar with this blog will remember that from time to time I could cheerfully choke men of the cloth for their less than adequate record keeping. Again I am experiencing that desire. John Seaman, long time minister at Holy Trinity, only very rarely records a place of burial, I have yet to see a cause of death or place of death, and his spelling and grammar are...interesting. I realize that everyone's handwriting has variations depending on haste, standing or sitting, angle of the paper and all that stuff but I"m pretty sure that someone else wrote out a fair number of the entries (naughty Vicar, NAUGHTY!)-- namely his wife. I base this on the 'hand', and the fact that she could spell and he could not. Mrs Seaman was also passingly familiar with the use of commas. Rev'd Seaman was fond of underlining AD, he often inserted e's or shortened words to suit his fancy or lack of space, and he joined people in Wholey Matrimony. Neither Mrs nor Rev'd Seaman were great with punctuation, for they capitalized almost capriciously and neither used periods. These little, sometimes entertaining, irritants are NOTHING compared to what is coming in another 20 years or so of records for I HAVE SEEN into the future (insert revivalist preacher tone here) and the man who replaced Seaman writes in loops. Seriously, lots and lots of loops with remarkably little by way of  dotted i's, crossed t's or any other differentiation of letters. Looking ahead to those records makes me want to cry.

What does all this have to do with Reilly Cemetery? Some of the names that are in those Holy Trinity records are very VERY familiar. Ignoring the vagarities of spelling there are Fairburn, Moore, Mahon, Riley, Shouldice, Shannon, Obre, and Chilcott names in these birth, marriage and burial records. I've recognized a few already but there is, frustratingly, no place of burial given most of the time. I'm wondering if those headstones without Presbyterian or Methodist records may belong to Anglicans...so that would mean that I need to add some names to the likely list and the paper over which I slaved so long and hard tells only part of the story. But that is the fun, and the point, of doing academic work-- there is always more to learn! No story is ever entirely told or unchanging and that appears to be the case at Reilly Cemetery.

The Presbyterian records, lost for a second time, are up

Yes, somehow I managed to lose this file...it was hidden in the deepest, darkest recesses of my computer's memory and only sheer serendipity lead to its discovery (actually I was looking for another file I managed to make go*poof*). So for your viewing pleasure, I direct you to the new pages I have put up. Both the Presbyterian and Methodist records for the entire diocese/charge are up. Have fun hunting!