52 Ancestors: #54, Theresa (Murphy) Nera

This week's 52 Ancestors prompt is "Favorite Photo." While I have lots of favorite photos, this one has to qualify as my favorite of my mother, Kathleen Murphy, and her sister, Theresa. I mean, who could resist those sombreros? Since I already wrote about my mother as a 2014 Mother's Day post (52 Ancestors #19), this post is about Aunt Theresa.

Theresa (left) and Kathleen Murphy, Edinburgh, Texas, ca 1926

Theresa Murphy, 1924

Theresa Mae Murphy was born 18 May 1923, in Lewiston, Maine, the second daughter of William George Murphy and Glenna Rabideau.¹ She grew up in Lewiston, aside from an apparently brief period the family spent in Texas, where the photo was taken, according to a handwritten caption on the back.² I have no idea why they moved to Texas or just how long they were there, though it couldn't have been long. I have a vague recollection of my mother once mentioning that they spent some time in Texas, and I gathered that her mother had hated it there. I wish I had gotten more details when I had the chance!

I have few details of her childhood. Sometime in 1924 she had her photo taken seated on a pony. This photo was mounted on a card with a small 1925 calendar affixed and a ribbon to hang it by; a handwritten note on the back reads "To Auntie and Uncle – Teresa [sic]."³ Hard to say which "auntie and uncle" this was intended for – Glenna had two married sisters and William had at least six married siblings at the time – or how it ended up back in my mother's family photo trove.

In 1937, Theresa was one of 14 local girls to win a prize in a national Shirley Temple doll contest, making the local newspaper.⁴

      

Early school photo⁵

"City Locals" item, Lewiston Evening Journal, 24 Apr 1937

Theresa attended Lewiston schools with her sister, including Jordan Grammar School (aka "Jordan Platoon School"), and graduated from Lewiston High School in 1940 as a member of the National Honor Society.⁶ The statement in her yearbook profile that "She plans to do secretarial work" was prophetic: after graduation she worked as a stenographer for the NYA (probably the National Youth Administration) and the Maine Shoe Company⁷ before joining the Women's Army Corps, after which she spent the rest of her career in Civil Service, as a secretary and court stenographer.⁸

Theresa Mae Murphy in The Folio 1940, Lewiston High School yearbook, Lewiston, Maine

In April 1944, Theresa enlisted in the Women's Army Corps⁹ and was initially stationed in Boston.¹⁰ In August she was transferred to the U.S. Army Recruiting Office in Manchester, N.H., and by the following February she had been promoted to corporal.¹¹ I have not yet found a record of her discharge, but it was probably in 1946.

    

PFC Theresa Murphy, Lewiston Daily Sun, 19 Jul 1944

Theresa Murphy, August 1944

Theresa was unlucky in love. She was engaged to Joseph Wilfrid Potvin, a soldier serving overseas who was killed in action in France in 1944.¹² On 12 Feb 1945, in Manchester, N.H., she married William Duane Olson,¹³ a member of the Army Air Force stationed at Dow Field in Bangor, Maine.¹⁴ A week later he was transferred to Mather Field in Sacramento, California,¹⁵ and served overseas from 30 Mar 1945 to 29 Jan 1946.¹⁶ Theresa remained in New England, and it's possible they never lived together; the marriage ended in an annullment by October 1946.¹⁷ In 1947, she married Filipino musician Cayetano Lopez "Kaye" Nera in Boston.¹⁸ Not long after, they moved to Washington, D.C., where Theresa went to work as a secretary at Bolling Air Force Base.¹⁹ They had no children, and eventually divorced, sometime between July 1953 and November 1955.²⁰

  

  

Theresa Murphy and fiancé
Joseph Wilfrid Potvin

William D. and
Theresa (Murphy) Olson

Kaye and Theresa
(Murphy) Nera

Although Theresa continued to live in the D.C. area for the rest of her life, she frequently came "home" to Maine to vacation. My memories of Aunt Theresa are of her semi-annual visits to her sister, my mother. Throughout my childhood, Theresa arrived like clockwork, mid-summer and Christmas, at the Lewiston-Auburn Airport on a Northeast Airlines flight, dressed to the nines complete with high heels, gloves, and a hat. That was the way women dressed for air travel in those days – and she couldn't wait to get to our home where she could change into comfortable slacks!²¹

Whenever she visited Maine, Theresa always wanted to get two specific foods not available in the D.C. area: Italian sandwiches (a peculiarly "Maine" type of sub), and chocolate donuts – the cake-type version dipped in granulated sugar that seems to be unknown south of greater Boston.²²

  

The well-dressed 1960s air traveller

Aunt Theresa waves before boarding her flight

After visiting her sister, half-brother, and old friends in the Lewiston area, and satisfying her Italian sandwich and chocolate donut cravings, she would put on her travelling outfit and we'd drive her to the airport for her return flight. It was years before the advent of security screenings, and we could all go to the boarding gate with her and wave goodbye as she crossed the tarmac (no boarding tunnels!) to the plane.

In 1966 Theresa became a court stenographer for the Washington, D.C., police department, retiring in 1979.²³ She died on 15 July 2002 in Alexandria, Fairfax County, Virginia, after suffering a heart attack,²⁴ and was buried next to her father in Mount Hope Cemetery, Lewiston, Maine.²⁵

Theresa M. Nera grave marker, Mount Hope Cemetery, Lewiston, Maine

(This post was inspired by Amy Johnson Crow's 2018 "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" challenge. My numbering for this year began at 53 – I wrote #1-52 in 2014 while participating in her original 52 Ancestors challenge.)

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SOURCES

1. "U.S., Social Security Applications and Claims Index, 1936-2007," database, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 2 Apr 2016), entry for Theresa Mae Murphy, died 15 Jul 2002.
2. Photos of Theresa and Kathleen Murphy, Edinburgh, Texas, ca 1926, and Theresa Murphy on pony, 1924, Kirk-Murphy Family Collection; privately held by the author, Virginia Beach, Virginia. These photos were in Kathleen's collection, which passed to her daughter (the author) at her death in 1993.
3. Ibid. 
4. "City Locals," Lewiston Evening Journal, 24 Apr 1937, p. 12, col. 1.  
5. School photo of Theresa Murphy, ca 1928, Kirk-Murphy Family Collection; privately held by the author, Virginia Beach, Virginia. 
6. The Folio 1940 (Lewiston, Maine: Lewiston High School, 1940), yearbook photo and profile for Theresa Mae Murphy; imaged in "U.S., School Yearbooks, 1880-2013," database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 7 Jan 2018), > Maine > Lewiston > Lewiston High School > 1940 > image 59 of 162.
7. Manning's Lewiston, Auburn ... (Maine) Directory for the Year Beginning [Month, Year] (Boston: H.A. Manning Co., 1942-1944), p. 181 (May, 1942) and p. 184 (January, 1944), entries for Theresa M Murphy; database and digital images, "U.S. City Directories, 1822-1995," Ancestry.com (http://www.ancestry.com : accessed 11 May 2014). 
8. "Theresa M. Nera," obituary, Washington Post, 3 Aug 2002 (https://www.washingtonpost.com/archive/local/2002/08/03/obituaries/ac4e6b6e-64c8-4acf-ba25-ce110299af34/ : accessed 15 Apr 2016). 
9. "Corp. Theresa Murphy's Marriage Is Announced," Lewiston Daily Sun, 14 Mar 1945, p. 3, col. 2-3.
10. "Service Records," Lewiston Daily Sun, 19 Jul 1944, p. 6, col. 8, PFC Theresa Murphy.
11. "Corp. Theresa Murphy's Marriage Is Announced," Lewiston Daily Sun.
12. "PFC Joseph Potvin, Lewiston, Killed in Action in France," Lewiston Daily Sun, 20 Jul 1944, p. 12, cols. 7-8. 
13. “New Hampshire, Marriage Records, 1637-1947,” database and images, FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org : accessed 20 Feb 2012), William Duane Olson- Theresa Mae Murphy marriage, 12 Feb 1945, Manchester.
14. "Pfc. Wm. Olson of Ayrshire Weds Cpl. T. Murphy," Emmetsburg (Iowa) Reporter, 15 Mar 1945, p. 2, col. 1.
15. Ibid. 
16. "Iowa, World War II Bonus Case Files, 1947-1954," database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 12 Jan 2018), claim number 44517 for William Duane Olson, 1949.
17. Theresa's sister Kathleen (the author's mother) confirmed that the marriage was annulled. Also, "William G. Murphy," obituary, Lewiston Daily Sun, 17 Oct 1946, p. 20, col. 3. Her father's obituary refers to her as "Miss Theresa Murphy of Boston."
18. "Massachusetts, Marriage Index, 1901-1955 and 1966-1970," database, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 1 Dec 2013), entries for Theresa M Murphy and Cayetano L Nera, 1947, Boston; citing vol. 12, p. 319, index vol. 149, reference no. F63.M36 v.149.
19. "Theresa M. Nera," obituary, Washington Post. 
20. Photo of Kaye Nera, ca July 1953, Kirk-Murphy Family Collection; privately held by the author, Virginia Beach, Virginia. In this snapshot, taken in the kitchen of the Neras' Washington, D.C., apartment (probably by Theresa), a 1953 calendar displaying the July page is clearly visible on the wall behind Kaye. Also, "Dorothy Jean Nera," obituary, Journal Courier (Jacksonville, Ill.), 20 Oct 2010, states that Dorothy married Cayetano Lopez Nera in November 1955. 
21. Personal knowledge of the author.
22. Theresa said when she described the Maine chocolate donut she was looking for to D.C. area bakeries, she was met with blank stares and outright disbelief. I always thought she must be exaggerating about the unavailability of this donut where she lived, until I moved to Tidewater Virginia 16 years ago and found that it was quite true: you can't get a good chocolate donut here.
23. "Theresa M. Nera," obituary, Washington Post.
24. Ibid. Also, "Virginia, Death Records, 1912-2014," database, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 31 May 2015), entry for Theresa M Nera, 15 Jul 2002, Fairfax; citing certificate no. 2002030119, "Virginia, Deaths, 1912–2014," Virginia Department of Health, Richmond, Virginia.
25. Mount Hope Cemetery (Lewiston, Androscoggin County, Maine), Theresa M Nera grave marker, read and photographed by the author, 13 Aug 2012.
26. All photos not otherwise identified are from the Kirk-Murphy Family Collection; privately held by the author, Virginia Beach, Virginia.

52 Ancestors: #53, Dominic Murphy

A note on the post numbering: Back in 2014, just as I began this blog, Amy Johnson Crow issued a New Year's challenge on her No Story Too Small blog to write about "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks," which I successfully completed. Although Amy extended the challenge through 2015, with the addition of weekly prompts, I chose not to continue at that time, and have since posted only sporadically. Now, Amy has brought back the 52 Ancestors challenge for 2018, on her eponymous blog, and I've resolved to revive my blogging by once again accepting the challenge (though I may not always take my theme from the prompt). Since I already have posts numbered 1-52, I'm going to start the 2018 numbering with #53.

This week's prompt is "Start," and I've chosen to focus on the ancestor who, along with his family, was the first I ever researched – if you can call my bumbling around in Prince Edward Island "research" – my maternal grandfather's father, Dominic Murphy.

It all began back in the mid-1980s, when my then-husband and I went over to Prince Edward Island while vacationing in Nova Scotia. I was only vaguely aware (if at all) that a quarter of my heritage was from PEI; we simply had enjoyed vacationing in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia, and decided we should check out the smallest Maritime province too. When we got there I phoned my mother to tell her where we were staying. She informed me that her father came from PEI, and maybe I could find out something about the family while I was there? She told me her grandparents were named Dominic and Rose, and that her father had ten brothers and sisters, only nine of whose names she could recall. That was all she could tell me: no place names (she was under the impression that the whole island was only about 10 miles long, and so probably figured it couldn't be that hard to find the old homestead). I copied down the names and said I'd see if I could learn anything, but it wasn't much to go on.

In the event, I actually managed, against all odds, to find a surprising amount: some census records; Dominic and Rose's marriage record and Dominic's death certificate; a vertical file of Murphy obituary clippings, some identifiable as "my" Murphys by matching names to that list of my mother's aunts and uncles; and the microfilmed parish register from the church where the children were baptized. Then, since the parish records after 1900 were closed at the Archives, we hunted down the parish priest, who obligingly let us look through the later register to find and copy out the last few baptisms and Dominic's death. Even more important, he told us where we could find an elderly gentleman who was Rose's nephew – my first cousin twice removed, Ray McIntyre. When we looked him up, Ray was happy to regale us with stories about Dominic and his family, and told us exactly where they had lived (the "old homestead" was long gone, replaced by a small bungalow, but my mother was thrilled to have photos of the location and its view of the Northumberland Strait across the road).

Dominic Murphy was born probably 23 Dec 1854 in or near Georgetown, King's County, Prince Edward Island,¹ the oldest child of William Murphy and Flora Ann McDonald. Dominic's early life is a mystery. Because the 1861 census of PEI was only partly nominal (head-of-household only), and the 1871 Canada census didn't include PEI, he first appears in a census in 1881, age 26, a labourer on Angus Steele's farm in Township 8, Prince County.² According to cousin Ray, Dominic and Angus had walked the length of the island from Georgetown to Township 8, settling on a farm near Neil McIntyre,³ who was enumerated just before the Steele household.

1881 Canada census, Township 8, Prince County, PEI, Neil McIntyre and Angus Steele households.

Angus Steele and Neil McIntyre farms, 1880.

The youngest McIntyre daughter, Rose Anne ("Rosina" in the census), became Dominic's bride on 15 Oct 1883 at St. Anthony's Church in Bloomfield, PEI.⁴ In 1891, they were living next door to Dominic's parents in Township 51, where he was making a living as a sawmill hand and trapper; Rose Ann, like her mother-in-law, was a weaver.⁵ They couldn't have been there long, however, as the first three children, born 1884-1888, were all baptized at St. Mary's Catholic Church in Brae,⁶ located in Lot 9 next door to their 1881 residences.

1891 Canada census, Lot 51, Kings County, PEI, William Murphy and "Domnic" Murphy households

Likewise, all the children after Joseph (born 1890), beginning with Neil in 1892, were baptized at St. Mary's,⁷ so evidently, shortly after the 1891 census he had brought his family back once again to settle permanently in Lot 8, where they were enumerated in 1901.⁸ While six of his brothers and sisters emigrated to Massachusetts (mostly to Newburyport) over the last two decades of the 19th century, Dominic stayed in PEI.

1901 Canada census, Lot 8, Prince County, PEI, "Domine"[?] Murphy household

Around 1904, Dominic's parents followed their migrating children to Newburyport, and a 1910 border crossing manifest reveals that Dominic made at least a couple of trips to the States: in 1910, he was visiting his mother in Newburyport (his father had died the previous year), and previously had been in Bath (Maine, presumably) from October 1907 to January 1908.⁹

Canada to U.S. border crossings, manifest, Vanceboro, Maine, Sep 1910, sheet 6, line 11, Dominick Murphy

Dominic appeared in the census a final time in 1911, with Rose Anne and their full complement of eleven children.¹⁰

1911 Canada census, Township 8, Prince, PEI, "Dominick" Murphy household, listing all 11 children of Dominic and Rose

A few months later, Dominic's older children began following their aunts and uncles to the U.S. After William and John J. established themselves in Berlin, N.H., Dominic visited them in October 1912 and again in September 1913, the second time accompanied by son Joseph (who probably remained with his older brothers), and David Murphy (William's cousin and possibly Dominic's nephew).¹¹

Canada to U.S. border crossings, manifest, Vanceboro, Maine, Sep 1913, sheet 4, lines 3-5,
Joseph, David, and Dominick Murphy

This was probably Dominic's last visit. He died at home on 29 August 1914¹² and was buried in the St. Mary's churchyard. (His marker no longer exists.) A little more than two months later, his widow and the seven younger children joined the three older boys in Berlin.¹³

My descent from Dominic Murphy:

• Dominic Murphy + Rose Ann McIntyre
• William George Murphy and Glenna Marie Rabideau (my maternal grandparents)

(This post was inspired by Amy Johnson Crow's 2018 "52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks" challenge. My numbering for this year begins at 53 – I wrote #1-52 in 2014 while participating in her original 52 Ancestors challenge.)

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SOURCES

1. Census ages of 26 (1881) and 36 (1891) are consistent with the Dec 1854 birth and age 56 reported in 1911. The 1901 census gives the complete date of 23 Dec, though the year appears to be 1855 and the age 45. See footnotes xxx for the censuses. For the birthplace, see the 1913 border crossing manifest, footnote xx.
2. 1881 Canada Census, Prince County, Prince Edward Island, Township No. 8, pp. 29-30, dwellings 113-114, families 113-114, Neil McIntyre and Angus Steele households; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 19 Feb 2012). 
3. "Plan of Lot Eight, Prince Co., P.E.I.," Illustrated Historical Atlas Of The Province Of Prince Edward Island (Philadelphia: J.H. Meacham & Co., 1880), p. 42; digital image, David Rumsey Map Collection (https://www.davidrumsey.com : accessed 10 Dec 2012), item 4475024. The map shown above was cropped from the full lot map.
4. Division of Vital Statistics, Public Archives of Prince Edward Island, Prince Edward Island marriage registers, Marriages 1878-1888, p. 309, "Dominique" Murphy and Rose A. McIntyre (1883); digital images, “Prince Edward Island Marriage Registers, 1832-1888,” FamilySearch, (https://familysearch.org : accessed 12 Feb 2014).
5. 1891 Canada Census, Kings County, Prince Edward Island, Township 51, p. 10, families 34-35, William Murphy and "Domnic" Murphy households ; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 19 Feb 2012). 
6. "PARO Collections," database, Public Archives and Records Office of Prince Edward Island (http://www.gov.pe.ca/archives/parosearch/ : accessed 13 Apr 2016), entries for Mary Ann (1884), William (1886), and John J (1888) Murphy baptisms.
7. Ibid., entries for Cornelius [Neil] (1892), Florence Agnes (1895), Elizabeth (1898), Marion (1900), Daniel (1902), and Catherine Belle (1904) Murphy baptisms. There is no entry for Bernard (1907). The entry for Joseph (1890) lists him as baptized at St. Teresa; it also gives his mother as Ellen McQuaide, so I don't know what to make of it. The birth date and father Dominic definitely identify this as the correct Joseph, however.
8. 1901 Canada Census, Prince County, Prince Edward Island, Township 8, p. 16, dwelling 146, family 146, "Domine"[?] Murphy household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 7 Mar 2012). 
9. “Border Crossings: From Canada to U.S., 1895-1956,” database and digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 26 Apr 2012), manifest, Vanceboro, Maine, Sep 1910, sheet 6, line 11, Dominick Murphy; citing NARA, Manifests of Passengers Arriving at St. Albans, VT, District through Canadian Pacific and Atlantic Ports, 1895-1954, Publication M1464, Roll 274, RG 85. The Patrick Murphy listed above Dominic is, as far as I can tell, not related. As yet I don't know who he might have been visiting in Bath. An avenue for further research! 
10. 1911 Canada Census, Prince County, Prince Edward Island, Township 8, p. 14, dwelling 126, family 126, Dominick Murphy household; digital images, Ancestry.com (http://search.ancestry.com : accessed 20 Feb 2012).
11. “Border Crossings: From Canada to U.S., 1895-1956,” manifest, Vanceboro, Maine, Sep 1913 sheet 4, lines 3-5, Joseph, David, and Dominick Murphy. The notation for Dominic under Marks of Identification reads "four fingers of left hand cut off" – a testament to his early occupation as a sawyer and a confirmation of one of the stories told to me by Ray McIntyre.
12. "PARO Collections," database, entry 8519 for Dominic Murphy death, 29 Aug 1914; citing "RG19/s2/ss6: Death registration books, 1913-1919, p. 200."
13. “Border Crossings: From Canada to U.S., 1895-1956,” manifest, Vanceboro, Maine, Nov 1914, sheet 7, lines 23-30, Rose Murphy and seven children.

Skepticism and the Census

Anyone who has spent much time chasing their ancestors in the census knows that you have to take the "facts" on a census return with a few fistfuls of salt. A lot of our forebears, especially the ladies, seemed to view "age" as more of an abstract concept than an objective fact, either not knowing, not caring, or actively lying about their age (how many of yours, remarkably, aged less than 10 years between consecutive censuses?).¹

Then there's the reality that, except for the 1940 US census, we have no idea who actually answered the enumerator's questions – perhaps a step-parent, a 12-year-old, or a handy neighbor. Good luck with getting valid information there.

And of course, there are the enumerators themselves: they sometimes missed individuals² or whole families,³ applied great creativity to the spelling of names,⁴ often had atrocious handwriting, and no doubt compounded these problems with copying errors.

But did you ever consider whether the pages were even numbered in the right order? I'm not talking about pages being microfilmed or digitized out of order, or missing pages – that's a whole separate issue. And I don't mean the often multiple numbers confusingly stamped or scrawled on pages after whole cities or counties were assembled. No, I mean when the pages are actually numbered 1, 2, 3, and so on, within a single enumeration sub-district or similar entity, and appear in that order on the digitized microfilm. I always pretty much assumed that could be relied on.

Until the other day, while I was working on my Saint-Cyr line in Quebec's Eastern Townships.

For those who aren't familiar with the 1861 census of Canada East (Quebec), it's a fully nominal census (i.e., all household members are named, not just heads of household), enumerated on 50-line sheets. However, there are no dwelling or family numbers, and no relationships to the (unidentified) heads of households. You have to deduce where a dwelling begins from the columns describing what the house is built from and how many stories it has, and where a family/household begins by how many families live in the house and who has an occupation listed. To further complicate matters, the enumerators were inconsistent (at least where my folks lived) about the order in which they listed family members after the apparent head and apparent spouse: sometimes they're in decreasing age order; sometimes boys first, followed by the girls, or vice versa; if a household member was absent at the time of the census (there are columns to indicate that), they might be listed at the end of the household, or mixed in with the others in whatever order they were in.

With that background out of the way, there were two "Sinsire" households (a father and an adult son) in district 2 of Arthabaska Township, Arthabaska County,⁵ the father's household (all surnamed Sinsire) occupying lines 45-50 at the bottom of page 3 and the son's (mixed Sinsire and Bélanger, from the wife's previous marriage), lines 44-50 at the bottom of page 7. Of course I checked page 4 to see if there were any more "Sinsires" at the top – there weren't – and page 7 was the last page of sub-district 2, so there were no more in the son's family. I thought.

Then I moved on to the 1871 census, where I discovered the son had two additional children, both well over 10, who should have been there in 1861, but apparently weren't.⁶ Was there a missing page 8 in Ancestry's database? (There was no page 8 or 9, with district 3 starting at page 10.) I checked on Library and Archives Canada. There was no sign of a page 8 there either. I checked that specific district for "Sinsire" entries, and, oddly, turned up two additional names, neither of which were the missing ones from the son's household. They were aged 14 and 11, listed on lines 1 and 2 at the top of page 6... but the last household on page 5 started with the surname Croteau on line 50. I began to smell a rat.

One of the missing children from the son's family was named Felix, so I searched for the first name in that district. Lo and behold, there was a Felix Bélanger – I had been looking for a Felix Sinsire, because in 1871 he was listed with the surname St Cyre – as was everyone in the household including the known Bélangers. Along with Felix Bélanger in 1861 was Edèse Bélanger. My other "missing" child found in 1871 was Thedèse St Cyre. And both of these kids were exactly the right ages. That was when I realized that they were too old to have been St Cyrs: they had been born before their mother had been widowed and remarried. Like the two mysterious extraneous "Sinsire" children, the two Bélangers were at the top of a page, in this case page 3, while page 2 ended with a Bilodeau family.

In short, the seven pages for the district had been numbered 1 to 7, but in apparently random order. By examining the names at the tops and bottoms of each page, I determined that the proper order of the pages is as follows:

• 1 – Laliberte ... Barbier⁷
• 7 – Turgeon ... Sinsire [fils]/Bélanger
• 3 – Bélanger ... Sinsire [père]
• 6 – Sinsire ... Frenette
• 4 – Frenette ... Perrault
• 2 – Perrault ... Bilodeau
• 5 – Bilodeau ... Valliere/Croteau (2 families, 1 house)

Once I had the pages in the right order, all became clear. The two Bélanger children were the "St Cyre" children in the son's family in 1871, and the two extra "Sinsire" children belonged to the father's family.⁸

I have no idea if the rest of the districts – or the rest of county or province, for that matter – are as confused as this one small chunk. But I'm sure going to keep this in mind for the future: checking the "next page" for additional family members may give you a false negative – the page numbers may simply be wrong, and those additional members may be on an unexpected page.

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SOURCES

1. I have at least one who miraculously managed not to age at all between two censuses. 
2. My father and his sister, aged 8 months and just over two years, respectively, were apparently not in residence with their parents when the census taker came around in 1920. Where else they would have been in January, in Maine, I can't imagine. I also can't imagine my grandmother just forgetting to mention them.
3. Like, say, my mother's entire family in 1930.
4. I can see maybe having trouble with an uncommon name like "Sukeforth," but you would think it would be hard to foul up "Kirk." You would be wrong.
5. 1861 census of Canada East, Arthabaska County, Quebec, district 2, Arthabaska township, pages 1-7; database and digital images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.com : accessed 9 Aug 2017).
6. I also had some issues with matching up daughters in the father's family, but three quarters of Catholic French-Canadian girls are named Marie something-or-other, and the names they actual go by are as malleable as their ages, so it can be pretty hard to tell who's who from one census to the next. Plus, they could have gotten married and left home.
7. Or, this page could belong at the end. It's the only "standalone" page that can't fit between any two of the others.
8. At least one of the names even matches up to a known St Cyr daughter (Loise = Marie Eloyse). The other one was listed only as Marie in the 1861 census, so she might correspond to just about any of the younger known daughters.

Taking Up the Canada's 150th Genealogy Challenge

Yesterday was Canada Day, and a very special Canada Day at that – the 150th anniversary of Confederation, the creation of the Dominion of Canada from the former British colonies of Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Canada (comprising Quebec and Ontario). Patricia Greber of the My Genealogy Life blog celebrated with a Canada's 150th Genealogy Challenge, asking bloggers to "List all your ancestors that were living in Canada in 1867, the dates they arrived (can be approximate) and where they first settled."

So, albeit a day late, I'm going to answer this challenge for the three-quarters of my maternal lines that are Canadian. (My paternal lines are solidly English, Scots, and German.) My maternal grandmother's father descended from French-Canadian stock who first arrived in Quebec in the late 17th century, while my maternal grandfather immigrated to the U.S. from Prince Edward Island; his PEI forbears came from Scotland (Outer Hebrides) and Ireland.¹

All except my 3x great-grandfather Michael Murphy were born in Quebec or Prince Edward Island, so for them there are no "arrival dates" or locations "where first settled". Instead I have listed their probable locations in 1867. (Michael Murphy arrived from Ireland ca 1820 and first settled in Georgetown, PEI.)

Ancestor	Relationship	Probable residence in 1867
*Louis Rabideau (1850-aft 1913)	2x great-grandfather	Saint-Paul-de-Chester, PQ
*Celina Cloutier (ca 1850-1881)	2x great-grandmother	unknown
Louis Robidas (1832-1921)	3x great-grandfather	Saint-Paul-de-Chester, PQ
Marie Deshaies-St. Cyr (1829-1895)	3x great-grandmother	Saint-Paul-de-Chester, PQ
Divine Louise Girardeau( 1790-1875)	4x great-grandmother	prob Stoke or St. Camille, PQ
**Jean-Baptiste Deshaies-St. Cyr (1806-unk)	4x great-grandfather	possibly Nicolet, PQ
**Victoire Lemire (1811-unk)	4x great-grandmother	possibly Nicolet, PQ
Dominic Murphy (1854-1914)	great-grandfather	Georgetown, PEI
Rose Ann McIntyre (1862-1937)	great-grandmother	Lot 19, PEI
William Murphy (1830-1909)	2x great-grandfather	Georgetown, PEI
Flora Ann McDonald (1832-1911)	2x great-grandmother	Georgetown, PEI
Neil McIntyre (1814-aft 1881)	2x great-grandfather	Lot 19, PEI
Mary Ann McLellan (1817-1896)	2x great-grandmother	Lot 19, PEI
**Michael Murphy (ca 1800-aft 1861)	3x great-grandfather	Lot 41, PEI
**Magdelen Morison (ca 1800-aft 1861)	3x great-grandmother	Lot 41, PEI

* Louis and Celina married in 1869, probably in New Hampshire, but I believe they were still in Quebec in 1867.
** These ancestors may well have been alive in 1867, but so far I haven't located any death records for them.

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SOURCES

1. PEI didn't actually join the Dominion until 1873, but since it is informally known as the "Cradle of Confederation" for hosting the 1864 Charlottetown Conference where the initial steps toward Confederation were taken, I'm going to stretch the bounds of the challenge a bit to include my PEI lines.

What Were the Chances? A Tale of DNA

About two and a half years ago, I took an AncestryDNA autosomal DNA test, and linked the results to an Ancestry member tree. I looked over my matches now and then, but practically all of them were in fourth cousin range and beyond, most of them had no tree or only a private one, and few of the ones who did have public trees had any apparent connections to mine. There were a couple of matches around second cousin range and a bare handful at third, but I hadn't gotten around to investigating them further.

Then, a few weeks ago, two new matches, both female, popped up at the very top of my match list – still in 2nd-cousin territory (I have no full first cousins), but the highest yet. The top match (500 cM) was administered by the second match (299 cM), so they looked pretty much like a mother and daughter. And based on one of our shared matches (one of the few which I had been able to identify from their posted tree), the match had to be through my paternal grandfather. Trouble was, the surname was completely unknown to me, and the tree attached to the top match was private.

Even taking into account the possibility of an outlier at the extremes of observed shared DNA ranges, 500 cM is almost certainly in the class that includes first cousins once removed, half-first cousins, great-great-aunts, and half-great-aunts, with a second cousin just barely possible. Anyone at the great-aunt level or older would have been deceased long before atDNA testing began. And, since I have no full first cousins and my grandfather had no siblings who lived to adulthood, I have no (full) first cousins once removed or second cousins on his side.

That leaves half-first cousins. Well, that had potential; before his fifth and final marriage to my grandmother, my grandfather fathered five other children (that I know of) with four different mothers, all before the turn of the 20th century. Thus I had four half-uncles and a half-aunt who could in theory have given me half-first cousins. However, the reality is a bit more restricted in scope:

• Half-aunt Hazel – four sons with children; one daughter, unmarried and childless
• Half-uncle Kenneth – married twice, no children
• Half-uncle Leonard – one adopted son, no biological children
• Half-uncle Chester – no record after birth registration, assumed died as child
• Half-uncle Vinal – died as an infant

In other words, my only known female half-first cousin had no children, male or female – and she died in 1995 and was thus certainly not my 500 cM match! Which left, well, no leads at all.

Unless...

What about half-uncle Chester?

A couple of years ago, I posted some speculations here, entitled Whatever Happened to Chester L. Kirk?, in a 52 Ancestors post. Chester L., the son of my grandfather Chester F. Kirk and Nellie Crosman (who, as it happens, was not one of Chester's five wives), apparently dropped off the face of the earth after his birth was registered. No death record, no census records, no marriage record... he just disappeared. It seemed likely he had died as a child and the record was lost or misfiled.

Research into Nellie's subsequent whereabouts eventually found her in Gloucester, Massachusetts, married to a William Mitchell, with a son Linwood Arthur Mitchell, but no sign of Chester L. However, certain interesting coincidences led me to conjecture that Linwood might actually be Chester, informally adopted and renamed, with a delayed birth certificate naming William Mitchell as his father, and stating a birth date exactly two years (to the day!) after Chester's actual birth.

But, as I said in that post, "Of course, I can't prove (lacking DNA evidence) that any of this is more than just speculation."

What were the chances?

No, there had to be some other explanation. Probably the shared DNA amounts were misleading for some reason (some kind of double-cousin relationship? IBS?) and it really was one of the descendants of my half-aunt Hazel. For that matter, it was hardly out of the question that grandpa could have had additional off-spring that just never came to light before. So I never gave Uncle Chester any serious thought, and with no other apparent possibilities, I started researching Hazel's grandchildren to see if one of them had married into the surname of my new matches.

Two days later, I received an email from a young women who was doing some genealogical research for her grandmother and mother. A couple of months before, she had stumbled across this blog, with its two-year-old post idly speculating about the fate of one Chester L. Kirk. It made for eerie reading, she said, because her family lore held a rumor that her great-grandfather wasn't the biological son of his nominal father.

Her great-grandfather was named Linwood Arthur Mitchell.

Her grandmother – Linwood's daughter – and her mother had just received their DNA test matches.

To a half-first cousin, and a half-first cousin once removed, respectively.

To me.

What were the chances?