Online New Brunswick Land Records

On September 29, 2025 the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick announced their updated RS686: Land Grants database with a new look, and even more importantly, digitized images of the records. Previous to this release of these images, if you didn't live near the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, one would have to request the microfilm via interlibrary loan or find someone to make a copy of the pages found on the microfilm. 

Screen capture of the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick RS686: Land Grants database released 29 Sep 2025.

Why is this newly released digitized collection important for our research?

It fills in a gap between the petitions and the deed books.

The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, PANB, has had their searchable database "Index to Land Petitions: Original Series, 1783-1918" from RS108 available for a long time. With that database, although not linked to any images, with some effort we could find the digitized images on FamilySearch in their collections:

• Land petitions, 1783-1857
• Land petitions, 1858-1918

Accessing the images on FamilySearch isn't perfect since, due to probably licensing restrictions, the images can't be easily download to your computer. Of course, that doesn't stop you from using various clipping tools to grab what you see on the screen to save to your computer for safe keeping.

For example, when I search the "Index to Land Petitions: Original Series, 1783-1918 (RS108)" for Caleb Howe, my 5th great-grandfather, a result from 1907 is returned:

Name: HOWE, CALEB
Year: 1807
County: Kings
Microfilm: F4171

Fairly quickly — mainly because I've used this collection and similar ones on FamilySearch quite often — I was able to locate the start of his file from 1807 on Image Group Number (DGS) 8191404 starting at image 610 of 846. There I find his petition where he, as a half pay Lieutenant of His Majesty's Late Regiment of Queens Rangers, is asking for 500 acres :

Screen capture from FamilySearch for Image Group Number (DGS) 8191404, image 611 of 846 showing the image of the petition for land by Caleb Howe, late of the Queens Rangers.

But those are the petitions. 

The "RS686: Land Grants" collection takes us from the petitions to the actually granting of the land to the settler. But was Caleb granted his request?

I knew he had been because I found him listed on a map and even in the county registry books. Yet it's always nice to see the document that actually granted Caleb the property.

When I searched on his name, Caleb Howe, in the new "RS686: Land Grants" database nothing was returned. However, I also know that often the "e" is missing from "Howe" so a searched again but for Caleb "How".

It returned only one match:

Name: HOW, Caleb
Grant: 518
Date: 1809-12-13
Acres: 500
County: Kings
Place: Kennebecasis 

Clicking on the "View" link I was brought to the details page

Screen capture of the New Brunswick Land Grant RS686 result page for searching for Caleb How.

In Caleb's case, he is mentioned with 42 other grantees. Since trying to read the images in my browser can be a bit of a challenge since I can't easily zoom right in, I downloaded the four images to my computer. Fairly quickly I found that on page 2 on image 1 he is recorded:

"...unto the said Caleb How Lot number forty one in the fifth Division containing five hundred Acres,..." 

After the land has been granted then we can turn to the "New Brunswick, county deed registry books, 1780-1930 : COLLECTION RECORD" collection of county deed registry books found on FamilySearch for viewing and downloading from the comfort of one's home. There we find when the property may have been sold, a possible will associated with lot, and even mortgages taken out on the property.

To aid us in our exploration of where our ancestors may have lived in New Brunswick, we probably want to find the lot on a map. For that we can turn to the "Place Names of New Brunswick: Where is Home? New Brunswick Communities Past and Present" After we type in the community name to find, and then select the right place, we come to a page with a description of the community, a map showing the parishes, and the ever useful cadastral maps. I've found that I need to download the full size version map to see the whole map and not just the one presented zoomed on the screen.

On map No. 150 to the left of the letter "U" in Upham I found Caleb Howe on Lot 41 with 500 acres and Charles Howe on Lot 42 with 200 acres. Charles is Caleb's son.

New Brunswick Cadastral Map No. 150 which includes the parishes, parts or whole, of Springfield, Sussex, Norton, Hampton, Upham, and Hammand in Kings County, New Brunswick; Provincial Archives of Ontario (https://archives2.gnb.ca/App_Handlers/FileDownloadHandler.ashx?filename=/DigitizedDocuments/Communities/Maps/Cadastral/_Oversize/GRPA158.jpg).

For those with early New Brunswick roots, these online land record collections can be a valuable resource in learning how our ancestor acquired the lots the family may have lived on for years.

 

But the research has already been done!

Sometimes when I'm talking to people about their family history they will state something along the lines of "That branch has already been researched and there is even a book so why should I do it?" When I first started my family history and genealogy research I used to have the same feelings. The Chipman family has a number of books compiled by various family members, same with the Fraser family of which I'm a descendant. Why should I duplicate all the work done by others?

To answer that question, how about we take a look at an interesting case concerning the family of "Daniel Wilsey Hatfield". Daniel married into the Lannen branch descended from Simon Baxter, in theory my 6th great-grandfather¹, of New Brunswick, Canada.

This is from the book "The Hatfields of Westchester : a genealogy of the descendants of Thomas Hatfield of New Amsterdam and Mamaroneck, whose sons settled in White Plains, Westchester County, New York" by Abraham Hatfield published in 1935 that I found on the Internet Archive.

Abraham Hatfield, compiler, The Hatfields of Westchester : a genealogy of the descendants of Thomas Hatfield of New Amsterdam and Mamaroneck, whose sons settled in White Plains, Westchester County, New York, (Rutland, Vermont: New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, 1935), p 99; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/hatfieldsofwestc00hatf_0/page/n1/mode/2up : accessed 23 Jun 2020).

As you can see there is a lot of good information provided. Even better, on the next page the compiler has included the authorities from where he receive the information. Something that is often omitted in these sorts of family genealogies.

Abraham Hatfield, compiler, The Hatfields of Westchester : a genealogy of the descendants of Thomas Hatfield of New Amsterdam and Mamaroneck, whose sons settled in White Plains, Westchester County, New York, (Rutland, Vermont: New York Genealogical and Biographical Society, 1935), p 100; digital images, Internet Archive (https://archive.org/details/hatfieldsofwestc00hatf_0/page/n1/mode/2up : accessed 23 Jun 2020).

So everything should be good to go and we can trust what is written, right?

For those that have been reading my blog you will know that one mantra I stress is along the lines of "Trust no one, verify everything, and even if written in stone it might be wrong."

So what can we verify concerning the facts about Daniel as written in his biography? How about we start with his marriage to Mary Ann Lannen?

We are fortunate that a number of the New Brunswick marriage registers are available on FamilySearch in the New Brunswick marriage registers, 1792-1889 collection. This includes the Kings County, v. A, 1812-1844; v. B, 1844-1867 marriage registers. How do I know to look there? One reason was that Ancestry gave me a hint from the New Brunswick, Canada, Marriages, 1789-1950 collection but the main reason is that back in 2012 at Library and Archives Canada I came across the entry in the transcriptions of the marriages registers by Ruby M. Cusack in her work "Kings County Marriages: Register A".

Kings, New Brunswick, Marriage Register v. A, 1812-1844, Daniel Hatfield-Mary Ann Lannen; FHL microfilm 845,798, item 1, image 163.

According to the marriage register, which would have been created closer to the time of the event than the biography, they were married in 1828 and not 1829. That means for me that everything in his biography from this book is now suspect and needs to be verified.

I've not been able to confirm the date of his birth but based on the decennial census enumerations between 1851 and 1871 he was born about 1798. I was able to locate abstracts of newspaper articles through the Daniel F Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics database found on the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick site to confirm the date of his death in 1878. I haven't taken the time to confirm his land ownership but with the New Brunswick, county deed registry books, 1780-1930 collection on FamilySearch it wouldn't take to much effort to track any land transactions for him.

As for Daniel's middle name, the abstracts from the newspaper articles either record it as "W." or "Wesley". In the land deed records in Kings County, New Brunswick he is recorded as "Daniel Hatfield of Norton" without any initials. His youngest son, Heber, middle name is recorded as "Wolsey" in  the 1871 census of Canada and the articles about Heber's death in Chicago. But it could be Wilsey, we just don't know.

What about Daniel's wife, Mary Ann Lannen? What can we learn about her? Using the Daniel F Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics collection we can find the abstract for her death notices in two newspapers and they both match what is in the biography. That's a good start.

However, it seems that she is not the daughter of Simon Lannen and Abigail Baxter but of John Lannen. This can be found in the abstract in the Wallace Hale's Early New Brunswick Probate, 1785-1835 database on the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick site. There in the abstract from John Lannen's will is written: "Daughter Mary Ann HATFIELD, wife of Daniel HATFIELD land."

But can we trust Wallace Hale's work? So far I haven't had any issues but since I try to verify everything, through the magic of the interlibrary loan program, back in 2015 I ordered a copy of the microfilm from the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick that holds the probate file for John Lannen.

Kings County, New Brunswick, Probate Files, RS 66, John Lannen, 1832, will, p 2; Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, F11570. 

Although authorities have been listed for the information, this book doesn't indicate where they got their information. Was it from newspapers or bibles or was it from what they were told as they were growing up? We will probably never know. Just from a bit of digging through the records that are available to us we can see some mistakes in the biography of Daniel Hatfield and Mary Ann Lannen were found.

Can we blindly trust these sorts of compilations of family histories and genealogies? For me, I'd say no. However, they can provide clues for us to follow and confirm through using our own research skills.

So even if there is a book written about your family, take a look at the information held within and take the time and effort to verify and validate the facts recorded. You may just find that you discover something else that no one else has found that could change the family narrative (Widow's Pension Application = One Less Brick Wall).

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1. I say "in theory" because I've not been able to connect, to my personal satisfaction, my 4th great-grandmother, Hannah Baxter, to her probable parents of Elijah and May (nee Smith) Baxter.

Finding Loyalists Claims Online

Back in 2014 I wrote a post about Online Resources for Your Loyalist Research Project and in several of my other posts I've touched upon using land records to help you in your genealogy research.

Recently I came across this query in the United Empire Loyalists Association  (UELAC) Facebook  group and decided to see what I could find using just online resources since, with COVID-19 restrictions, brick and mortar archives and libraries are pretty much off limits. I'm also going to look at other sources of information to see what also can be uncovered.

My Orange County, New York ancestor John Darrington settled in May 1783 in King's County, New Brunswick. Does anyone know where I would find details of his 1787 claim to the British Government for his losses as a loyalist? There is a very helpful paragraph in Dubreau's New Brunswick Loyalists - a Bicentennial Tribute (1983), but Dubreau didn't cite any sources beyond a bibliography. I've purchased a copy of the most likely item in that bibliography but it came up short. Any recommendations appreciated.

I took a look at Sharon M. Dubeau's book "New Brunswick Loyalists - a bicentennial tribute" published in 1983 by Generation Press to make sure no key details were missing from the query. The paragraph on John Darington does include the statement that he settled along the Kennebecasis River in Kings County along with the death of his wife, Joanna, in Portland (Saint John) in 1840 at the age of 95 years. What is interesting to me is that the New Brunswick Genealogical Society's "First Families" sources Dubeau's book for their entry but spells the name "Darlington".

For the various claims made by Loyalists we have to look at the Audit Office AO 12: American Loyalist Claims, Series I and AO 13: American Loyalist Claims, Series II to see if we can locate the documents. These are held by The National Archives in England but fortunately Library and Archives Canada have a microfilm copy of the files. Even better, LAC has had the microfilms digitized as part of the Héritage Project. The challenge for us is that AO 12 and AO 13 on the Héritage Project site aren't really indexed for searching. We can manually review the various pages in the microfilms but there is an easier way.

On Ancestry there is the "UK, American Loyalist Claims, 1776-1835" collection which has name indexed both AO 12 and AO 13.

A search of that collection returns three possible records:

Screen capture of Ancestry search results from the UK, American Loyalist Claims, 1776-1835 collection for John Darrington.

Yes, there is a name difference but that is often not unexpected.

There is also another challenge we face with the collection on Ancestry. When I viewed the first record the source citation stated:

The National Archives of the UK; Kew, Surrey, England; American Loyalist Claims, Series I; Class: AO 13; Piece: 025

However, on the side of the image it states A.O.12 /25

Screen capture from Ancestry image from UK, American Loyalist Claims, 1776-1835 collection for John Derington, Account of Losses.

I've actually verified that it is from AO 12/25 by checking the same entry from the Héritage Project. Please bear with me since, as I mentioned, the microfilms that have been digitized by the Héritage Project are indexed by name and I'm going to use their images..

First I had to find volume 25 in AO 12. After a bit of jumping around in the images I found that it started on image 404 on microfilm C-12904. The index started on the next image and that is where I found John Derington listed.

Extract of index from AO 12/25 on Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-12904, image 405.

The first number is the page for the Memorial with the next number being the page for the evidence.

Here is his claim for £209 and 12 shillings.

Claim of John Derington, p 389, AO 12/25 Claims, American Loyalists - Series I, Evidence, New York, 1786-1787; citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-12904, image 757.

The next page was the sworn statement by John Derington stating his service to the crown.

Evidence for John Derington claim, p 389, AO 12/25 Claims, American Loyalists - Series I, Evidence, New York, 1786-1787; citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-12904, image 758.

Here we learn that according to John, he joined the British soon after Fort Washington was taken. That event took place November 16, 1776 at what is now Manhattan, New York City. So we know approximately when he joined the forces on the side of King George III. He served in the 55th Regiment of Foot as a Private.

There is also the Minutes that Ancestry returned when we searched for John Darrington in the collection. Again, Ancestry's source citation references to AO 13/98 but, like the Account of Losses and Evidence, it is actually found in AO 12/98.

Minutes pertaining to John Derington Memorial, p 302, AO 12/98 Claims, American Loyalists - Series I, Various, Minute Book, Halifax and Nova Scotia, 1785-1888; citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-12904, image 2020.

One thing to note about the images I've shown above and those on Ancestry. These images from Library and Archives Canada appear to be transcriptions from earlier records. Below is the image from Ancestry for the minutes from AO 12/98 for John Derington that is taken fro mthe collection at The National Archives in the United Kingdom.

Audit Office., AO12: American Loyalists Claims, Series I, Piece 098: Minute Book, Halifax and Nova Scotia, 1785-1788, p 302, minutes pertaining to John Derington.

However, where else can we look? How about the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick? If we search using the Federated Database Search we will probably either want to search for all of the variations of the Darrington name we can think of, or we can with the Soundex Utility link on the Federated Database Search page to do some of the work for us. There the Soundex search finds 39 possible name variations based on the Soundex algorithm. Most don't apply to this name but there are some interesting possibilities.

In Daniel F Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics we find the entry for the death announcement of Johanna Darington, the wife of John, from the January 29, 1840 edition of The New Brunswick Royal Gazette:

d. Thursday morn., Short Ferry, Portland (St. John) age 95, Johanna DARINGTON relict of John DARINGTON, Hampton (Kings Co.), one of the British Loyalists. 

For the surname Darrington there several records concerning land that are of possible interest:
Index to New Brunswick Land Grants, 1784 - 1997 (RS686)

Name	DARRINGTON, John
Volume	NS-1
Page	9
Grant number	3
Place	Kingston Township
County	Sunbury
Date	1784-12-27
Accompanying plan	Yes
Acres	200
Microfilm	F16300
Comment	Re-registered NS Grant of 1784/07/15: Plan 150 Rs. *2/39

[This grant had 26 other names associated with it.]

Index to Land Petitions: Original Series, 1783-1918 (RS108)

Name	DARRINGTON, JOHN
Year	1796
County	Kings
Microfilm	F1039

[This petition has 4 hours names associated with it.]

Index to Land Petitions: Original Series, 1783-1918 (RS108)

Name	DARRINGTON, JOHN
Year	1798
County	Kings
Microfilm	F1040
See petition of	DICKIE, HECTOR

[This petition has 9 other names in addition to John Darrington.]

The first record from RS686 is interesting since that is a re-register of a Nova Scotia grant. Just to refresh your memory, until August 16, 1784, New Brunswick was known as Sunbury County, Nova Scotia. We are fortunate that the Nova Scotia Archives has digitized the early land papers in their collection Nova Scotia Land Papers 1765-1800. Even better, the collection is name searchable!

There I found the image of the grant along with the surveyor's report and certificate, all available for download for free. This was a grant for a total of 4509 acres on the River Kennebeccasis in the Township of Kingston. County of Sunbury (now Kings County, New Brunswick) for 27 people.

John Darrington (Gaynor, James and others  —  year: 1784  —  place: New Brunswick); Record Group 20, Series A, Land Petitions and other material; digital images, Nova Scotia Archives, "Nova Scotia Land Papers 1765-1800," Nova Scotia Archives (archives.novascotia.ca : accessed 31 Mar 2020).

What about those land petitions in RS108. I logged in to FamilySearch and looked at the catalogue for "Canada, New Brunswick" and came across an open set of digitized microfilms in the "Land petitions, 1783-1857" collection. Within the digitized microfilm "1793 Lee, Samuel - 1796 Knox, John" on DGS 8191398 (FHL 1288461) starting at image 738 I found  the land petition from the New Brunswick microfilm F1039.

Darrington, John et al, 1796; RS108, Land Petitions; Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, Fredericton; FHL microfilm 1,288,461, image 739.

The next page has an important note on it concerning John Darrington where it states "...In the survey made by Jno. Wetmore 25th Sept 1798 only John Darrington is included"

Darrington, John et al, 1796; RS108, Land Petitions; Provincial Archives of New Brunswick, Fredericton; FHL microfilm 1,288,461, image 740.

What about the second land petition from RS108? That can be found a few microfilms further down in the one titled "1796 Leonard, George Jr. - 1798 Raymond, Samuel". In this case you don't look for John Darrington but for Hector Dickie. There, starting at image 647, we find the file folder for that that petition. If you read it very carefully you will see that it is signed (yes, a real signature!) by John Darrington junior. So this is possibly the son of the John Darrington from New York that served in the 55th Regiment of Foot.

Yet another source of possible information concerning land, and even wills, are the Deed Registry Books for New Brunswick. In this case we want to check the New Brunswick, Kings County, deed registry books, 1785-1920; index, 1785-1992 also on FamilySearch.

"New Brunswick, County Deed Registry Books, 1780-1930," images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:S3HT-6S6X-WX?cc=1392378&wc=M69X-RM9%3A13841801%2C16555201%2C22610502 : 21 May 2014), Kings > Index book, grantor-grantee > 1785-1880, A-L > image 314 of 781; County Office of Service, New Brunswick, Canada.

Here we see there are several instances where John is recorded as the grantor. The one that grabbed my attention was the will for John Darrington Senior found in book G-1 starting at page 238 that was written on February 21, 1798. There a copy of his will has been recorded in the deed registry book since the will involved real estate. In the will John Sr. mentions his wife Johanna and his son John, most probably the John Jr. that signed that second land petition in RS108.


There is also Lorenzo Sabine's work "Biographical Sketches of Loyalists of the American Revolution, with an Historical Essay", published in 1864, where he records in volume I on page 359:

DARINGTON, JOHN.  He emigrated to New Brunswick at the peace, and died there. Joanna, his widow, died in Portland, in that Province, in 1840, at the age of ninety-five.

Finally, if we look at the United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada web site in the Loyalist Directory we find an entry for John Darrington that referenced NYGBS; V36 N1 Jan 1905. That translates to the New York Genealogical & Biographical Society Record, volume 36, number 1, January 1905. You can find a copy on the Internet Archive and on page 27 you will find the one line entry about him.

There are many other resources that can be examined but I think we have answered the query in full and then some.

I hope that this helps in your own research into the Loyalists that settled in what later became New Brunswick, Canada.

My Baxter Missing Link

Like everyone else I too have my "problem" ancestors. This year I'm going to see if I can't resolve at least two of these brick walls. In this specific case it is Hannah Baxter, my 4th great grandmother. For the past 10+ years I've been trying to verify who her parents are. So what do I know so far?

• She was born about 1801 (range 1801-1803 from census records) in the province of New Brunswick
• She married Charles Howe, son of Lt. Caleb Howe UEL of the Queens Rangers and Esther Fairweather, on 20 Dec 1822 in Norton, Kings County, New Brunswick
• She appears in the Canadian census enumerations of 1851, 1861, 1871 and 1881 in Kings County, New Brunswick
• She is not found in 1891 census so it is assumed she died between 1881 and 1891
• She had had a large family: Robert, Caleb, Ann, Mary, William Small, George B., Esther, Charlotte Willard, and Joseph
• Her husband, Charles, died 7 Nov 1839 in Kings County, New Brunswick

According to the page "Simon Baxter of Hebron Connecticut" at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~jcahill/simon.htm Hannah is listed as the daughter of Elijah Baxter and Mary Smith. However, I've not been able to find any document that can substantiate that statement.

So where have I looked (other than the obvious places)?

• Marriage records: "New Brunswick, Marriage Registers, 1789-1889" at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2001063
• Land records: "New Brunswick, County Deed Registry Books, 1780-1930" at https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1392378
• Provincial Archives of New Brunswick web site including but not limited to "Daniel F Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics" and "Vital Statistics from Government Records (RS141)"
• Posts on Facebook groups and Ancestry  message boards
• Google searches for references to her or her probable parents

I've not been able to find a death registration or obituary. I've also not come across a will or probate for her probable parents. I still need to look in the 1887 - 1891 editions of the Kings County Record to see if I can find any reference to her death just in case she died in that period.

So I put it out to all those other researchers, where should I look next? What other resources have I missed in my quest to find out who Hannah's parents are?

Zombie in the census?

My motto when doing genealogy research is "Trust no one, verify everything, and even if it is written in stone it may be wrong." In the case of when I was trying to determine the exact date of death of my 3rd great grandfather, Robert Howe, this motto was my guide.

Robert Howe was born around 1823 most likely in the area of the Parish of Norton, Kings County, Colony of New Brunswick (later Canada). He was the oldest child of nine children of Charles Howe and Hannah Baxter. On 14 Nov 1848 in Kings County, New Brunswick Robert married Sarah E. Pickel. However, the problem with Robert started with what was written on his grave marker.

The Canadian Gravemarker Gallery, digital images (http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~cangmg/brunswic/kings/hammond/hillsdal/index.htm: accessed 15 Sep 2013), photograph, gravestone for Robert B. Howe (1826-1900), Hillsdale Baptist Cemetery, Hammond Parish, Kings County, New Brunswick, Canada.

According to what was written on the stone it was fairly clear that he died in 1900. This was a replacement stone since the original marker had faded away due to the ravages of time and weather.

There was only one minor problem. I found him in the 1901 census of Hammond, Kings County, New Brunswick, Canada living in the household of his son (and my 2nd great grandfather) Frank Howe.

1901 census of Canada, New Brunswick, district 18, sub-district C-1, Hammond, p. 3, dwelling 31, family 31, Robert Howe; RG 31; digital images, Ancestry.com, Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com/ : accessed 1 Oct 2011); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm T-6442

Since I'm fairly certain that enumerators of the 1901 census were not given instructions to count zombies I knew something was wrong and I didn't think the problem was with the census record.

So ... where to start to solve this little mystery?

The obvious place is the Vital Statistics from Government Records (RS141) from the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick website. New Brunswick has digitized and placed online the birth, marriage and death registration images. Even better, you can view and download the images for free! It should be simple to find Robert's death registration ... right? Unfortunately, wrong. His death registration couldn't be found there.

In my collection of goodies I received from various family members was the collected memories of Pearl (nee Howe) Holland, one of Robert's granddaughters. In that collection was the story of Robert's death that she wrote in 1979. Pearl wrote that she was eight years old when Robert died. Oops, that doesn't help to much since her birth was about 1891 and she was writing about an event that took place almost 80 years ago. Next stop?

So off to Library and Archives Canada to see if they have a copy of the Kings County Record, the newspaper that was and still is published in Kings County, New Brunswick, Canada. I got lucky. They did have the years between 1901 and 1911 available. A few clicks of the mouse and I placed an order for the microfilms.

Wait a second ... where did that 1911 date come from? Since Robert wasn't in the 1911 census I was fairly certain he was really and truly dead by then. So an initial upper bounds had been set for this manual search for his obituary or death notice.

I started looking in the Kings County Record edition that came out just after 31 Mar 1901, the date of when the 1901 census of Canada started. Remember, he was supposedly still alive on that date. Fortunately this is a weekly newspaper with not too many pages in each edition. A short time later on the second page in the 25 Oct 1901 edition I came across this little tidbit, "Howe - At Hillsdale, on Oct. 23, R. D. Howe, aged 81 years."

The genealogy happy dance was quietly performed while in the LAC reference room.

However, the real treasure was also on that same page:

"Robert D. Howe an aged resident of Hillsdale died at his son's residence on Wednesday as a result of being severely burned. The deceased had been in rather a poor state of mind for some time past and was ailing with dropsy being confined to his bed. On Monday unnoticed by those attending him, he got hold of the matches and set fire to his bedding which was soon a raging mass of flames. The smoke attracted the attention of the occupants of the house who at once rushed to the unfortunate man's room. The son Frank Howe received severe burns about his face and hands in the attempt to save his father. After a severe fight the fire was subdued, but not until the water supply was exhausted and all the surplus milk about the place was utilized as a fire extinguisher. The deceased was eighty one years of age and leaves a family of sons to mourn the loss of a father."

Everything in this article about Robert's tragic death had been mentioned in Pearl Holland's story. The only thing she was mistaken about was the year. It was 1901 not 1900. A minor little mistake that has confused many researchers of the Howe family tree.

The moral of this little tale? Always verify the dates on the grave markers. Especially if the gravestone is a replacement.