Sarah (Cluney) Dawson Sherbrooke, NS

[valeriec]

I totally agree with what aghadowey has found. I was just about to post the same information.

I would like to add a few things though. It is entirely possible that Finley is the son of either Bridget or Sarah. With such large families, older children would take care of the youngest children in the family often taking some of the younger children with them when they married. It is also not unusual for families to split up such as Thomas and Bridget did and live with sons and daughters depending on their financial and health situations.

In my own family, my mother brought up her youngest brother who was 19 years younger than her. My great aunt had a child and brother that were the same age. Also members of the family used a naming pattern so the same names were used over and over again so it does become confusing.

Most of the Cluney's living in the Halifax area were from Newfoundland with no connection to the Cluney's in Sherbrooke that I could find.

BMD registrations for parts of Nova Scotia were haphazard at best and many were not registered. Sherbooke would have been very rural in the 1880's so you would need to rely on church records.

[valeriec]

Sarah wife of George Dawson probably died in 1881 or 1882 and he remarried to provide a mother for the children. That was very common in rural Nova Scotia. Widowers would usually find someone younger in need of a husband to marry out of convenience not love. Life in that part of Nova Scotia would have been very harsh with many women dying in childbirth and that is probably the case of Sarah.

When looking at cemeteries take into consideration that many families had wooden crosses and not granite stones that you see today. The crosses from the 1880's will not still exist. The most likely cemeteries for burial are Indian Harbour Lake - Sunset Rest and Riverside Cemetery in Sherbrooke. Also St James Anglican for some members of the Bennett family. When you go through the census records that have survived and also the BMD's Indian Harbour Lake is a common area for the surname Cluney and Bennett.

I would definitely look more at the site for the Conrad tree that was given earlier. Also, I would suggest when you look at records that are available to pay attention to all the info that is given. Your best bet may be to contact some of the local genealogy and historical groups to see if they have books on local families or newspaper clippings that may be of use. They may hav a lot of info that isn't available on line.

[valeriec]

When looking at
www.novascotiagenealogy.com
these are the only records that are available.

Births 1864-1877, 1908-1909
delayed registration 1830-1909

Marriages bonds 1763-1864
Registrations 1864-1934

Deaths 1864-1877, 1908-1959
City of Halifax 1890-1908

As I said before many BMD's were not registered.

[sammie]

Again tyvm to Val and Agha for your time and your replies

Was interesting getting my tree amended to show adopted son Alexander was the son of adopted daughter Ida but managed it in the end, was getting a little confused. I had not previously looked that far into the adopted children.

Going back to the death of Sarah Cluney (1849) who married ? George Dawson and to where Finley Dawson is after 1881 I am still in the same position as needing a kind person to look up the posibble death records in the church records.

It is all very interesting.

So I am now going to try and get contact information for genealogists in the Sherbrooke area and seek their help.

Thanks everyone for your helpon this matter, very much appreciated

kindest regards
Sammie xxxxxx

[aghadowey]

Think it would be worth contacting owners of several online Cluney and/or Dawson trees to exchange information if you haven't done so already, especially the one that says Sarah, daughter of Thomas and Bridget, died in 1923 (giving NS vital records as the source). I did start looking for Sarah ? died 1923 N.S. but still haven't checked surnames beginning with m, n, r, s and t.
I did check online gravestone records on N.S. Genweb site for Gutsborough and found nothing although as Valerie says many markers may not exist.
Wonder if there would have been a write-up in any newspapers (either local or Halifax papers) about Christina (McDonald) Dawson's suspicious sounding death and possibly George Daawson's death.

[valeriec]

Most early church records are at the Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management.

http://www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/

You may find the site useful at some point.