RootsChat.Com
Research in Other Countries => Canada => Canada Lookup Request => Topic started by: mariekirkwood on Friday 13 May 11 04:31 BST (UK)
-
Is anyone able to direct me to the right place to find proof of birth for the following please:
William Gordon JACOBS, born in St John, New Brunswick, c1831 (my 2xgreat grandfather)
It is unclear whether he was given a middle name at birth, or whether he added it later.
It is currently believed that his parents were William JACOBS and Hannah nee OLMSTED
I am looking for evidence to connect these parents (or not) to this son.
I have all of the OLMSTED history back to the 1400s, but have no information on William JACOBS senior - whether he was born in New Brunswick, Canada, United States or further afield.
I am not sure where to begin to find a Canadian birth for 1831 - I am not sure whether in fact New Brunswick was a part of Canada at that point, or whether it was still considered a part of the United States.
I am in New Zealand, on a very limited income, so am finding this piece of my research particularly difficult. Still and all - God Bless the internet! :D
Thanks everyone,
Marie Kirkwood nee Jacobs
-
First things first... New Brunswick was NEVER part of the United States. Canadian confederation didn't occur until 1867 so prior to that New Brunswick was a British colony.
There was no statutory registration at that time. You might want to try checking out this thread on New Brunswick resources in the Canada Resources section of RootsChat:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,219737.0.html
The Daniel F Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics at that New Brunswick Archives website has the following entries:
Marriage of William Jacobs and Hannah Olmstead in 1811:
http://archives.gnb.ca/APPS/NewspaperVitalStats/Details.aspx?culture=en-CA&guid=f141e29e-3b28-4e6e-838d-0de79e6ab75d&r=1&ni=147733
and the death of Hannah:
http://archives.gnb.ca/APPS/NewspaperVitalStats/Details.aspx?culture=en-CA&guid=6422782f-dfbe-4948-abb3-852654edd5d9&r=1&ni=147733
By the way, I saw your family tree at Ancestry. You have Civil War information for a William Jacobs which you were uncertain whether he was yours or not - it looks like that William was killed during the Civil War as there is a pension application submitted by his widow - both documents reference the same regiment - 26th Maine Infantry.
Jacquie
-
Hmmm...you are very lucky to have this marriage recorded in the newspapers! I've been searching for years for some of mine in the NB archives :P :)
There are in fact 10 pages of Olmstead references, here:
http://archives.gnb.ca/APPS/NewspaperVitalStats/NameIndexResults.aspx?culture=en-CA&name=7OO0tayqXvG5hBgMRBasbmQKr7sfFpo/rY0t93PwN5w=
DON'T use the back button though...if you want to go back, use the "previous" arrow on the page...it's kind of an unusual page setup.
Cheers,
China
-
First things first... New Brunswick was NEVER part of the United States. Canadian confederation didn't occur until 1867 so prior to that New Brunswick was a British colony.
There was no statutory registration at that time. You might want to try checking out this thread on New Brunswick resources in the Canada Resources section of RootsChat:
http://www.rootschat.com/forum/index.php/topic,219737.0.html
The Daniel F Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics at that New Brunswick Archives website has the following entries:
Marriage of William Jacobs and Hannah Olmstead in 1811:
http://archives.gnb.ca/APPS/NewspaperVitalStats/Details.aspx?culture=en-CA&guid=f141e29e-3b28-4e6e-838d-0de79e6ab75d&r=1&ni=147733
and the death of Hannah:
http://archives.gnb.ca/APPS/NewspaperVitalStats/Details.aspx?culture=en-CA&guid=6422782f-dfbe-4948-abb3-852654edd5d9&r=1&ni=147733
By the way, I saw your family tree at Ancestry. You have Civil War information for a William Jacobs which you were uncertain whether he was yours or not - it looks like that William was killed during the Civil War as there is a pension application submitted by his widow - both documents reference the same regiment - 26th Maine Infantry.
Jacquie
My apologies, Jacquie, for not replying sooner.
I had already gone through all of the links you suggested, and have the marriage and death notices. I was hoping I might have missed something, lol. :)
With regards to the pension application by William Jacobs' wife - was that in the military records at Ancestry.com? If it is I obviously missed it. The record I have says he mustered out, but he could well have died later from wounds. I was amazed at how many men named William Jacobs there were in the registries! Most of them did not have middle names or initials listed, which makes it very hard to know which is the right person.
Thanks for your reply, it is much appreciated.
Marie
-
Hmmm...you are very lucky to have this marriage recorded in the newspapers! I've been searching for years for some of mine in the NB archives :P :)
There are in fact 10 pages of Olmstead references, here:
http://archives.gnb.ca/APPS/NewspaperVitalStats/NameIndexResults.aspx?culture=en-CA&name=7OO0tayqXvG5hBgMRBasbmQKr7sfFpo/rY0t93PwN5w=
DON'T use the back button though...if you want to go back, use the "previous" arrow on the page...it's kind of an unusual page setup.
Cheers,
China
Thanks very much for this link. There were, and are, a lot of Olmsteds!
Marie
-
With regards to the pension application by William Jacobs' wife - was that in the military records at Ancestry.com? If it is I obviously missed it. The record I have says he mustered out, but he could well have died later from wounds. I was amazed at how many men named William Jacobs there were in the registries! Most of them did not have middle names or initials listed, which makes it very hard to know which is the right person.
There is a Civil War Pension Index database at Ancestry. The William Jacobs you referenced in your tree was with the 26th Maine Infantry and there is a pension file for a William Jacobs who served in the 26th Maine Infantry with a widow named Sarah. I did a more extensive search after looking at the index card again and it appears William died after the war. There are two application dates listed on the index card - one by the "invalid" which was filed in 1886 and another by the "widow" in 1893. This William Jacobs was still alive in 1890 as he is listed on the 1890 veterans schedule portion of the US census in Appleton, Knox County, Maine. From checking the 1880 US census there is a William and Sarah Jacobs in Appleton. That William was born in Maine about 1831. Also in the household was Harriet Jacobs (88, born Maine) who was listed as "mother" in the relationship to head column.
Jacquie
-
Thank you so much Jacquie - I really appreciate your input!
My William Gordon Jacobs lost an eye, and we have been told he lost it fighting in the civil war. It seems like an impossible mission trying to track him through the records. :(
Marie
-
I'm having no luck finding a William Jacobs who fits the bill on the 1860 US census or the 1861 Canada census so far.
Just to make it a little easier for anyone who wants to help, here's some information from Marie's tree at Ancestry:
The death registration for William Gordon Jacobs indicates he was married first to M. Campbell in America c1854 at age 23 and second to M. Smith c1860 at age 29. His parents are listed as William and Ann Jacobs. He was in Lyttleton, New Zealand prior to moving to the Chatham Islands in Mar 1866. He married his third wife Jesse Seymour nee Martin in Oct 1866. The death registration says he was born in America. William was a carpenter as was his father.
Jacquie
P.S. Do you have copies of all of the articles from the "incident" in 1882? There are a bunch of them at Papers Past if you don't (http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz). It's quite fascinating.
-
Just to make it a little easier for anyone who wants to help, here's some information from Marie's tree at Ancestry:
The death registration for William Gordon Jacobs indicates he was married first to M. Campbell in America c1854 at age 23 and second to M. Smith c1860 at age 29. His parents are listed as William and Ann Jacobs. He was in Lyttleton, New Zealand prior to moving to the Chatham Islands in Mar 1866. He married his third wife Jesse Seymour nee Martin in Oct 1866. The death registration says he was born in America. William was a carpenter as was his father.
Jacquie
P.S. Do you have copies of all of the articles from the "incident" in 1882? There are a bunch of them at Papers Past if you don't (http://paperspast.natlib.govt.nz). It's quite fascinating.
LOL! Yes, thanks, I have all of the newspaper stories from Papers Past. I don't mind discussing it. See below. ;)
First, though, the names we have for William Gordon Jacobs' first two wives may or may not be correct. I have not been shown any verification, and the source is unreliable. It is definite, though, that he married twice before coming to New Zealand. Somehow, (nobody has shown me any evidence) we know that his first wife died - probably in child birth as she was very young. He may well have still been married to his second wife when he came to New Zealand. We have no evidence, and there are no family stories about this. It is highly likely they were American women, according to family stories, and I have found a document which indicates (I think) his father moving the family to Maine after Hannah's (his mother's) death, when William Gordon would have been 6 years old. His mother's name was Hannah Jacobs nee Olmsted. :)
William Gordon Jacobs came to New Zealand as part of a ship's crew - ship's carpenter - and was based in Lyttelton as a builder, where he met and married the widow Jessie Seymour nee Martin and took over the role of father to her three sons to Seymour. Their first (Jacobs) son was born before the marriage - my great grandfather William Walter Jacobs. Shortly after William's birth in 1866, the family moved to the Chatham Islands. William and Jessie married later that same year.
The Chatham Islands were/are a very isolated group of small islands in the Pacific, about 500 miles off the east coast of New Zealand. The story is that (my 2xgreat grandmother) Jessie had refused to have "relations" with her husband because her last child (of 10 children) was born with Downes Syndrome. William (my 2xgreat grandfather) thought she must be having an affair. They fought, and Jessie moved out to stay with a neighbour. Another contributing factor was that Jessie's oldest Seymour son had run away with the young maori wife of one of William's close friends, and William and Jessie were bitterly divided over this.
William was a heavy drinker, and one night about three weeks after Jessie moved out, he was walking home from the pub, highly intoxicated, and passed the house where Jessie was staying. He saw her through the window, talking to a man. He thought this was her "lover", and shot her through the window with his rifle (or whatever it was that he was carrying at the time). The bullet - thank goodness! - hit Jessie's corset and was diverted by the whalebone. It passed through her breast and exited under her arm. If she hadn't been wearing her corset she would have been shot through the heart. The man she had been talking to was another Seymour son, fiance and later husband to the daughter of the family Jessie was staying with at the time.
The outcome of the trial was that WGJ was jailed in Christchurch, New Zealand, for 8 years. He died in Whangarei in the North Island of New Zealand some years later - I don't think he ever returned to the Chathams. Before this incident he had been one of the most highly respected men on the Chathams, and was in fact a very early settler there. He moved his family there when most of the population were Maori. I think there were only about 100 - 150 Europeans there at the time, amongst a population of hundreds of Maori.
One of my dearest wishes is to trace the early life of William Gordon Jacobs; to find the two women he married before coming to New Zealand; to find his military record - if indeed he did fight in the civil war; and to find the ship he travelled on to New Zealand, and the date.
The other strongly held wish is to connect him to the family I am sure is his, via some form of documentation, and to track the birth place/country and life of his father, William Jacobs.
There is prolific information about the Olmsted family, and I have Hannah's ancestry and family history all the way back to Essex and her ancestor Richard Olmsted in the 1600s, and even further back than that.
Thanks for your attention everyone. William Gordon Jacobs' story is indeed a fascinating one, which spans several countries - as I am sure do millions of other stories. ;D
Marie
-
At the point William Walter (Willie) Jacobs b: 1866 in Lyttelton, Christchurch, New Zealand Married: 1890 in Chatham Islands d: 10 July 1950 Father: William Gordon Jacobs Mother: Jessie, you get to be aligned with the Clarkson family as William Walter Jacobs had a sister Mary Matilda Jacobs who married my Grandfather James Mortimer Dudley Clarkson. They had 10 children.
The death registration for William Gordon Jacobs indicates he was married first to M. Campbell in America c1854 at age 23 and second to M. Smith c1860 at age 29. His parents are listed as William and Ann Jacobs. He was in Lyttleton, New Zealand prior to moving to the Chatham Islands in March 1866. He married his third wife Jesse Seymour nee Martin in Oct 1866. The death registration says he was born in America. William was a carpenter as was his father. William Gordon Jacobs stood trial for wounding with intent after shooting his wife. The case is reported in Papers Past in the on-line archives maintained by the National Library of NZ SUPREME COURT Star, Issue 4438, 15 July 1882, Page 3.
James Mortimer Dudley CLARKSON was born 18 March 1866 on a ship on the Tasman Sea., and died 22 December 1929 in Patea, Taranaki, NZ. Cause of Death: Killed in a well, (Inquest report) Broken Neck. Medical Information: a Windlass from the well fell on him after Thomas Joseph Dwyer had tied a tow to a car and pulled it into the well. 2 12. 1929
James Mortimer Dudley Clarkson married Mary Matilda Jacobs 7 February 1903 in Wanganui, NZ, daughter of William Jacobs and Jessie Martin, (Seymour). She was born 4 January 1877 in Chatham Islands, NZ, and died 12 March 1937 in Stratford, Taranaki, NZ. Mary Matilda Jacobs was a sister or half sister to William Walter Jacobs.
The children of James Clarkson and Mary Jacobs are:
1. Mary Ellen10 Clarkson, B. 22 June 1903, Patea, Taranaki, NZ; D. 17 October 1940, Patea, Taranaki,
NZ.
2. Joshua John James Clarkson, B. 23 June 1904, Patea, Taranaki, NZ; D. 9 May 1978, Hamilton, NZ.
3. Ruth Matilda Clarkson, B. 25 June 1905, Patea, Taranaki, NZ; D. 3 August 1987, Midhurst,
Taranaki, NZ.
4. Francis Henry Mortimer Clarkson, B. 25 July 1906, Patea, Taranaki, NZ; D. 19 September 1941,
Patea, Taranaki, NZ.
5. Archibald Jacobs Clarkson, B. 17 June 1908, Patea, Taranaki, NZ; D. 6 October 1997, New
Plymouth, ( Hospital)Taranaki, NZ.
6. Edwin Chapman Clarkson, B. 20 June 1909, Patea, Taranaki, NZ; D. April 1974, Stratford,
Taranaki, NZ.
7. Robert Martin Clarkson, B. 4 October 1910, Patea, Taranaki, NZ; D. 17 June 1978, Hamilton, NZ.
8. Elizabeth Maude Clarkson, B. 28 December 1913, Patea, Taranaki, NZ; D. 25 August 1988,
England.
9. George Andrew Clarkson, B. 25 June 1916, Patea, Taranaki, NZ; D. 12 July 1995, Hamilton, NZ.
10. William Paul Clarkson, B. 1 January 1918, Patea, Taranaki, NZ; D. 12 March 1988, New Plymouth,
Taranaki, NZ.
As the attached file shows, my cousin Jim Clarkson, the Grandson of Mary Matilda Jacobs is now the DOC Officer on the Chatham Islands.
(*)
(*) Moderator Comment: e-mail removed in accordance with RootsChat policy,
to avoid spamming and other abuses.
Please use the Personal Message (PM) system for exchanging personal data.
New members must make at least three postings before being allowed to use the PM facility.
See Help-Page: http://www.rootschat.com/help/pms.php
-
At the point William Walter (Willie) Jacobs b: 1866 in Lyttelton, Christchurch, New Zealand Married: 1890 in Chatham Islands d: 10 July 1950 Father: William Gordon Jacobs Mother: Jessie, you get to be aligned with the Clarkson family as William Walter Jacobs had a sister Mary Matilda Jacobs who married my Grandfather James Mortimer Dudley Clarkson. They had 10 children.
Hi Mark,
Thanks for your response. It's always great to hear from extended family members. ;D
Mary was a full sister to Willie. This makes us umpteenth cousins, lol.
I have sent you an invitation to see my tree in Ancestry.com.
Cheers,
Marie
-
Dear Marie
I accepted the invitation to look at your family tree on Ancestry.com. It includes My great grand parents and grand parents, but stops at their children (including my father). The story thereafter was compiled by my (our) cousin Janet Dwyer and a copy is attached.
Also on Ancestry.com Janet compiled the history of the Clarkson line back in Yorkshire to Richard Clarkson Born 1548 under 'Clarksons Yorkshire to NZ". If curious enough, you might log on and follow that trail.
Kind regards
Mark A Clarkson(*)
(*) Moderator Comment: e-mail removed in accordance with RootsChat policy,
to avoid spamming and other abuses.
Please use the Personal Message (PM) system for exchanging personal data.
New members must make at least three postings before being allowed to use the PM facility.
See Help-Page: http://www.rootschat.com/help/pms.php
-
Thanks Mark. :D A lot of my Clarkson information came from Janet, although I haven't heard from her in a long while.
I so much love connecting with extended family members, and following the ancestry trails! ;D
Cheers,
Marie
-
Dear Marie
The Clough family tree (yes we are related) may be of some interest. From page 4 of the attached file, you will find a lot of the Jacobs relatives in and around the Chatham Islands.
Janet is probably just taking it easy. Email her on *
Kind regards
Mar A Clarkson
(*)
(*) Moderator Comment: e-mail removed in accordance with RootsChat policy,
to avoid spamming and other abuses.
Please use the Personal Message (PM) system for exchanging personal data.
New members must make at least three postings before being allowed to use the PM facility.
See Help-Page: http://www.rootschat.com/help/pms.php
-
Do you have a copy of Jacqueline Oliver's book, "Isles of Chance - A Robinson-Clough Family History"? I have attached the flyer, just in case you don't have it, or know someone else who might like a copy. It's now permanently available from the printers, which is great. It's the second edition which is the valuable one.
Cheers,
Marie
-
Sorry the Clough file was too big and I had to convert it to B&W and even then divide it in two. The file in two parts should be attached to this post.
I have not read the book, I willget a copy. Thank you.
Kind regards
Mark A Clarkson
-
Mark, welcome to RootsChat. Just so you know it's against RootsChat policy to include email addresses in posts. It can lead to people receiving a bunch of spam as there are bots that mine websites like these for email addresses to add to their mailing lists. To exchange email addresses you should use the PM system. You can modify your posts to remove the email addresses by clicking on the "modify" button in the top right-hand corner of your post.
Marie, you should also edit your post which quotes Mark's first post as it includes his email address.
-
Noted, with thanks. I do not want to do anything against any policy, but even with SPAM filters 20% of the emails I get are SPAM and I get 350 emails a day. I just figure that is what the 'delete' button is for. I regard it a little like a video game. Eliminate all the space invaders!