A Black Hole No Longer - Queens County, New Brunswick, Canada

One of the many challenges faced by genealogy and family history researchers is accessing records for places that are a distance from you. Even with the Internet, this problem still exists since many of the records are still only available in archives and libraries. This has long been the case for me when researching my ancestors that lived in Queens County, New Brunswick, Canada. For many years I considered that region of New Brunswick a genealogical black hole...people may have gone there but, aside from the decennial census, almost no trace could be found of them except in indexes. That is until recently.

NordNordWest. “File:Map of New Brunswick Highlighting Queens County.png.” Wikimedia Commons. Wikimedia Commons, January 29, 2010. https://commons.wikimedia.org/wiki/File:Map_of_New_Brunswick_highlighting_Queens_County.png.

In the past year the New Brunswick Genealogical Society has freely made available to all a number of publications on their web site. This includes two extremely useful books pertaining to Queens County. The first is the often referred to but hard to find History of Queens Co., N.B. by E. Stone Wiggins, LL.D. This work is the copy, made in 1993, by George H. Hayward, of the 1876 history of Queens County that was originally published, starting on 7 Oct 1876 and ending in 17 Feb 1877, in the Saint John, New Brunswick newspaper The Watchman. What makes this book so important for those researching families in Queens County is that there are short biographies of many families that resided in that county at that time.

The second book of particular interest to Queens County family history researchers is the Queens County, New Brunswick, Marriage Records, Registers A, B and C, 1812-1887 found on the New Brunswick Marriage Records page. This compilation by Elizabeth S. Sewell & George H. Hayward had been a challenge for researchers to find in their local libraries and archives. It is a challenge no longer.

However, that extract of the marriage records is just that...an extract. Here is a snippet of one of the families that I am particularly interested in, the Jenkins line.

Elizabeth S. Sewell and George H. Hayward, editors, Queens County, New Brunswick, Marriage Records, Registers A, B and C, 1812-1887  (Fredericton, New Brunswick: Elizabeth S. Sewell and George H. Hayward, August 2002),  5.

What if you want to see where this information came from? The preface of the book states that the records were transcribed from Provincial Archives of New Brunswick microfilm reels F15491 and F15492. If you have access to a library that participates in the interlibrary loan program then you might be able to arrange to have those microfilms delivered to a local library for you to view.

However, this is another option and that is to visit a hopefully nearby Family History Center. Due to the massive microfilm digitization project undertaken by FamilySearch you can view and download pages from the digitized version of the Marriage registers A-C, 1812-1888, for Queens County, New Brunswick found on film 851191.

Here is the entry in the digitized microfilm of the marriage register for Maria Jenkins and W F Howe.

Queens, New Brunswick, Marriage registers A-C, 1812-1888, W. F. Howe-Maria Jenkins; FHL microfilm 851,191, image 442.

However, this isn't the original source of the information. A little bit of searching within the FamilySearch Catalog for "Canada, New Brunswick, Queens" results in finding several additional catalogue entries including Marriage certificates, 1812-1887.

Queens, New Brunswick, Marriage certificates, 1812-1887, W F Howe-Maria Jenkins; FHL microfilm 1,508,597, item 1, image 549.

Without being there for the marriage or holding the original piece of paper, this is as close as you are going to get to the register entry for Maria Jenkins and W F Howe (William Franklin Howe).

Of course, those aren't the only records available but due to the ravages of time we do get bitten at times when researching Queens County. For the 1851 census of New Brunswick that took place on 11 Jan 1851 the only sub-district where that census enumeration has survived for Queens County is for Wickham found on microfilms C-996 and M-7482¹. If you had family in the Gagetown area in 1861 you are also out of luck since those records haven't survived².

We are fortunate that land books for Queens County have been preserved on microfilm and digitized for us. They can be found on FamilySearch in the New Brunswick, Queens County, deed registry books, 1786-1919; index, 1786-1993 collection. Much like the marriage registers above, there is no electronic index to bring you to the right page but with a little bit of practice and patience you can learn to find the right documents fairly quickly. Even better, unlike the digitized marriage registers and certificates, you can do the research from the comfort of your home.

The Provincial Archives of New Brunswick site also has a number of useful resources that covers Queens County that are easily and freely accessible from the comfort of your home. In no particular order:

• Vital Statistics from Government Records (RS141): These are the birth, marriage, and death records in the government records that we always hope to find. You will find the images of the actual records. Keep in mind that not all counties started keeping records at the same time and not all records may have survived.
• Daniel F Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics: This is the database created out the work primarily by Daniel F. Johnson and his extracts from newspapers. Whenever possible, try to view the source of the transcription. Sometimes you will find additional information that wasn't transcribed.
• Index to Marriage Bonds 1810-1932 (RS551A): This is only an index of the marriage bonds. Keep in mind that the bonds do not mean they actually married. To see the microfilmed copy of the original bond you will need to order the applicable microfilm through the interlibrary loan program.
• Wallace Hale's Early New Brunswick Probate, 1785-1835: This used to be a book that you could either purchase or get at your local library or archive. Now it is available online to search from your home. You will find extracts of the wills of some of the people that lived in Queens County.
• Queens County Genealogical Guide: This has been put together by the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick to let you know what records and microfilms they have in their collections.
• Place Names of New Brunswick - Queens County: If you can't quite read the name of a place that is scrawled in a record then maybe this page will be of great help. Along with a bit of information on the location often there is a cadastral map to view showing lots and owners.
• Index to New Brunswick Land Grants, 1784-1997 (RS686): A searchable index, here you will find details about the size of the grant and the microfilm, volume, and page to view the grant.

For cemeteries there are a few online resources for you to peruse:

• Find A Grave: Cemeteries in Queens County, New Brunswick: If a marker you are interested in hasn't been photographed you can always place a request. Keep in mind that it may take months (or even years) before some kind hearted person takes the photograph for you and places it on the site.
• CanadaGenWeb's Cemetery Project: This project may also have photographs of markers or point you to resources where you can find transcriptions of the markers in a cemetery
• Queens County GenWeb Cemeteries: This site has sort of survived the great Offlining of Rootsweb. Here you may be able to find images and/or transcriptions for a number of cemeteries. Be forewarned that there are still some issues with the pages with SSL security errors/warning.
• Canadian Forces Base Gagetown Cemeteries: There are 44 cemeteries on the land occupied by CFB Gagetown including some in Queens County. Most of the markers have been photographed. Make sure you read the "Introduction" page to learn more about this project.

Knowing who might have received property and goods after someone dies can help establish family relationships. The digitized microfilms in the Probate record books, 1788-1941 and Probate records, 1785-1885 collections are available for viewing at your local Family History Center. There are no quick and simple searchable indexes to those films but they have digitized the indexes to the volumes to help you find the right book to review.

Don't forget to check the Queens County Heritage site to view their virtual exhibition or, if you are a descendant of Samuel Tilley UE, read the Some Descendant of Samuel Tilley, UE c1740-1814 genealogy.

I hope that this helps you out if you too have ancestors that lived in Queens County, New Brunswick, Canada.

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1. See Districts and Sub-districts: Census of 1851, New Brunswick on the Library and Archives Canada web site to find out what other enumerations didn't survive.
2. See Districts and Sub-district: Census of 1861, New Brunswick.

Just When Did He Die?

As part of my research into my own family tree I also look at the descendants of the siblings off of my direct line. In order to help me and others in their research I post my tree on Ancestry (and other sites). It isn't often that I get contacted by another researcher but just a couple of days ago I received this comment attached to Wharton Dunwood Barton, my 1st cousin 4 times removed:

"Wharton D. barton was married to my Great Aunt--Mary Curren. Mary was born at the English settlement on the Queens/King county line. She came from a large family. The 1901 Census has the couple living in Saint john but theres no further records. Mary died as a widow in early March 1945 and was buried on 3-13-1945 at Fernhill Cemetery.. Can`t determine when Wharton died and for some mysterious reason-no record shows up at the provincial Archives. He obviously died some time after 1901 and sometime before 1945. Let me know if you have an answer."

Up until that time I had only recorded details up to the 1881 census of Canada of Wharton and his siblings since I have been trying to focus on my direct lines. But with this query I figured I should look into what happened to Wharton.

The first step for me was to confirm the details that were provided. A check of the death registration index of New Brunswick, Canada found at the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick web site confirmed that she is a widow and her husband is listed as "Wharton D. Barton". Additionally the informant is listed as "Mrs. Mabel Hayes" of Torryburn, a sister of Mary Barton (this will be important later).

I did a search for any "W Barton" that died between 1901 and 1945. A record for a "W Dunwood Barton", 48 year old male born at The Narrows, of Torryburn that died on 19 Jan 1906 in Torryburn was one of those listed in the search results. It looked very promising but I wanted to make sure. So the next step was to fill in the blanks for both Wharton and Mary.

I checked the Daniel F Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics but no mention was made of either of them. A search of the Brenan's Funeral Home [MC793] collection only returned a result for Mary. Checking the New Brunswick Cemeteries index resulted in nothing found for either of them. So it was off to Ancestry to find the census records I had not yet recorded. I found Wharton and Mary in 1891 living next to Wharton's brothers and sisters and then in 1901 in Prince Ward of Saint John, New Brunswick. But then the trail for Wharton goes cold. I still had one more basic fact to locate and that was their marriage. I had previously purchased the "Queens County, New Brunswick, Marriage Registers, Books B and C, 1861-1887" from the Associates of the Provincial Archives to help me in my research of the various families connected to my lines from Queens County. In that book was the entry for Wharton's and Mary's marriage on 29 Jan 1885.

But I still had that cold trail for Wharton. So it was back to Ancestry to look for Mary Barton in the 1911 and 1921 census for Canada. I first found Mary in the 1921 census of Canada listed as a sister in law of H. P. Hayes living in Torryburn. H. P. Hayes had his wife listed as Mable Hayes. This was probably the same Mabel Hayes listed as the informant on Mary's death registration. But I couldn't find Mary in the 1911 census using the Ancestry transcription/index. So I looked for Mabel Hayes and there listed as a lodger was a "Mary Porton". Could this by Mary Barton? Since I don't trust transcriptions, even my own at times, I checked the image of the census page. It was the Mary Barton I was looking for ... sigh, yet another bad transcription. She is listed as a widow so we know now that Wharton had died between 1901 and 1911. It seems to be that the 1906 registration of death for W Dunwood Barton is the right one.

One thing I did for this bit of research was to keep a log of what I had found (or not found). It did really help to keep track of where I looked and what I looked for. Below is what I recorded in Evernote as I did my research.

2013 Nov 22:

• Searched PANB online for Mary Barton death. Found and recorded details. Maiden surname, as written, is Curran
• Searched PANB online for W Barton death. Found possible for W Dunwood Barton. Date lines up but still need to verify
• Searched DFJ for mention of either person. No hits
• Searched PANB Brennan Funeral Home. Found reference to Mary Barton with no additional details, no mention of W Barton
• Searched PANB cemetery index, no mentions found for either
• Search on Ancestry for records
• Found 1891 census for Warton Dunwood Barton and wife Mary. Living next to his siblings in Queens County.
• Found 1901 census for Wharton Barton and Mary living in Saint John, Prince Ward.
• Checked Queens County Marriage Register Books B & C. Found marriage on 29 Jan 1885.
• found grave marker for W Dunwood Barton at http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~damery/QU/Waterb-06/Waterb-06.html Listed as having died 18 Jan 1906.
• Search on Ancestry for records
• found in city directories up to 1900
• found Mary Barton in 1921 census living in Simonds Parish with sister Mabel's family (Hayes), listed as sister-in-law, widowed
• 1911 census: Searched on sister Mabel Hayes and found mis-transcribed name of Mary Barton, lodger, widowed, living in the same household

Based on these results, the PANB death registration for W Dunwood Barton is believed to be the correct record for Wharton Dunwood Barton.