Looking for Barbara (Barabary), Isaac, and Deborah Cuffe (Cuffee) - ca 1730-1800

[Amber1867]

I'm looking for three people: Barbara, Isaac, and Deborah Cuffe. Their last name had various spellings and could include Cuff, Cuffee, Cuffe, etc. Barbara may have also gone by Barbary.

Here's what I know:
They lived in Liverpool, Nova Scotia from 1764-1778, possibly to 1780. It's possible they returned to the USA during the American Revolutionary War.

Barbara may have been enslaved by Samuel Bartlett of Plymouth in 1734. However, she was a midwife and a free Black woman during her time in Nova Scotia.

If you could point me in the right direction, that would be great. I've already searched Ancestry and read about half of the the Vital Records for Massachusetts.

Thank you!

[oldohiohome]

Are you working backward or forward? In other words, what do you already have and what are you trying to learn?
When and where were they born, to whom, etc?
Did they marry? When and where did they die?
Are they brother and sisters?

I Googled "liverpool" nova scotia black history and Barbara Cuffy's name was in the results, but I imagine you have that:
https://archives.novascotia.ca/africanns/archives/?ID=6

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'enslaved in Plymouth' - Plymouth Massachusetts?

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Off hand, I don't know why they'd return to the US, unless they were pretty positive they weren't going to be captured and enslaved again, and I don't know if it was possible to be that positive. Their descendants might have come to the US. I knew a family in Mass. who were descended from Black Canadians.

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In general, if you have exhausted everything you can find in the online records the next steps are
1. Google the surnames with the location and see what happens. Google things like Black families, Liverpool NS, also. You are hoping that someone has done further research and put it on their own family website or a local county or city site.
2. look for local history/genealogy groups on facebook and see what they know.
3. find the local history and genealogy societies in the area and see what they know.

[Amber1867]

Hi,

Thank you for responding. I feel I have exhausted records locally in Nova Scotia, both at the Archives and other places. So, I am hoping to find more info both before and after their time in Liverpool, NS - which leads me to the US. Notes on microfilm suggest there are descendants (at least there were in 1909) and possible ties to Plymouth, Mass., and Yarmouth. I do not know which Yarmouth and have tried searching online sources for both.

I'm hoping someone from the New England area may know where to look other than Plymouth vital records. I cannot find any additional information online that I don't already have. Unfortunately, I do not know who Barbara's parents were. Barbara purchased land in NS and was a midwife. I suspect she might have returned to family around 1778. Sympathies towards the American Revolutionary War may be a reason for that return as well. Birth, death dates, and Barbara's maiden name are also not known. Deborah and Isaac are her children. And finally, if there is a repository with confirmed information, I am considering a trip to check it out.

Thanks again!
 

[oldohiohome]

Still thinking and looking around.

Look at this site. I think you can search the catalog for free. I don't know if the catalog includes what they have only on microfilm in the library in Boston.
https://www.americanancestors.org/
They are the New England Historic and Genealogical Society. If there is a New England or Atlantic Canada record around, they have a copy or know where it is.

They will do research for you but they charge. You can join and if you are in Boston, you can use the library as part of your membership. Or get a discount on their research. Decide if it is worth it.

Maybe closer to you: look at the catalog for the Allen County (Indiana) Library. Very good genealogy library that might have something. Also Newberry Library in Chicago.

and this, if it is on line yet. I just grabbed the link a few days ago and haven't checked it out. PERSI is an index to all published research. Lots of it not online.
https://www.irishgenealogynews.com/2022/01/apcls-periodical-source-index-persi-to.html

Look also at the catalog at familysearch. not the searchable databases. It lists all books available in their library in Salt Lake City. Lots of them are not online yet either.

Somewhere there must be the land records and wills for Plymouth, Mass for that time period. There are an awful lot of NE records in existence, so they must be somewhere.
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There is a Mabel E Smith in Yarmouth, NS, in 1911.
https://www.familysearch.org/ark:/61903/1:1:QV9R-KS46

and a Mabel E Smith in Dennis, Ma, in 1900 and 1910. I haven't looked hard at her. Her father was born in Gemany, mother in Massachusetts. All in the  family were white. But that doesn't prove much 100 years later, because you don't know what Barbara Cuffee's complete ancestry was.

https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/22514791:7602?tid=&pid=&queryId=c690f3285c1fd2044fcebbce5fe61749&_phsrc=sxY2&_phstart=successSource

I'd bet on the one in NS since the archives article says she hired a noted African Nova Scotian to do her research.

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Have you looked for Samuel Bartlett's records? for things like an accounts book or household records that would include slaves? Or, maybe that is how you placed Barbara with him. In other words, what makes you say she was enslaved by him? If she was the widow of Steven Cuffey in 1764 then she wouldn't have been called Cuffey in 1734.

Edited to add: Unless they were both enslaved, or at least if she had married Stephen by then.

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Do you have any ages for them. Barbara enslaved in 1734 helps a bit. Any ages for her children? Isaac stayed in Liverpool. What about her daughter, any stories about where she went or did she stay? I assume no records for her husband Stephen?

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Liverpool is called a New England planter township. Have you found out when it was settled and where did the British bring people in from to settle it? The British were settling NS with Protestants loyal to the crown, replacing the French they drove out in 1763. They brought in Scots and German Hugeunots [spelling?] also.

Knowing where the settlers came from might help find Steven Cuffee before he came to NS. -
Edited to add: I just reread that and Cuffey is not on the list of original settlers, so it might not help as much. Was he black?

[oldohiohome]

Diary of Simeon Perkins, extracts

1772
 4 May Mon.  : John  Carroll  (Irish)  marr.  Deborah  Cuffee  (Free Negro) before witnesses of clergy and magistrates in own ceremony.
  http://nsgenealogy.ca/en/the-diary-of-simeon-perkins/diary-of-simeon-perkins-1766-80/

[oldohiohome]

Atlantic Parlour Culture: Loci of Power
By Amber Melinda May Hanrahan
A Thesis Submitted to Saint Mary’s University, Halifax, Nova Scotia in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Master of Arts in Atlantic Canada Studies

September, 2015, Halifax, Nova Scotia
Copyright Amber Melinda May Hanrahan, 2015

pp 77, 78

On 4 May 1772, “Mr. Cheever desired to marry John Carroll, an Irishman, to Deborah Cuffe, a negro free woman. Mr. Cheever took the advice of the magistrates. Finally, Esquire Doggett, Samuel Freeman, Esq., and Myself, with other gentlemen, attended their house and told them that if they were determined to live together, stand up and take each other in our presence, which they did”. fn225

 fn 225: Simeon Perkins, The Diary of Simeon Perkins, 1766-1780, Vol.1, ed., Harold A. Innis, p 45
 
https://library2.smu.ca/bitstream/handle/01/26456/Hanrahan_Amber_MASTERS_2015.pdf?sequence=1&isAllowed=y

edited to add, you might have had this from the NS Archives
https://archives.novascotia.ca/africanns/archives/?ID=9

[Amber1867]

Hi,

Thank you again for your help. I took your recommendation on Mabel and spent a few hours looking for her today. I think I found the right one, but wasn't able to trace her backwards to the Cuffe family. I won't give up on that just yet.

And thank you for the reference to the Perkins' diaries. I am actually studying them, which is how I came across the Cuffe family. References to them end in 1780 except for occasional ones referring to the lot they used to live on. One of them had to have stayed in NS though because of Mabel.

As for your previous question about Barbara being enslaved, I've seen references to this on microfilm. I believe her connection to Samuel Bartlett and Stephen were referenced in a book, "Annals of Liverpool...". It's out of print and not available near me. I've sent off a request for someone to look into it. *Fingers-crossed*

I have checked Samuel Bartlett, at least what's in the Plymouth Vital Records. I've also done generic searches for him online. I learned a little, but nothing that mentions Barbara specifically. That family does have connections to Liverpool though, so that makes me think the book could be correct.

Also, thank you for your suggestion about the library in Boston. I see they can suggest sources for me, so I will get in touch with them as well. You've been very helpful.

[oldohiohome]

you're welcome. I enjoy working on challenges. Part of my wife's family was in NS for a while - 1770 to 1870's -  and the shortage of records makes it very difficult.
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you might have some of this:
1. worldcat.org will tell you what libraries have a book.
searched worldcat for
A Copy of the Annals of Liverpool and Queen's County, [Nova Scotia], 1760-1867, By Robert James Long · 1926

results:
print: Harvard University, Cambridge, MA and Acadia University, Wolfville, NS
microfilm: Family History Library, Salt Lake City

https://www.worldcat.org/search?qt=worldcat_org_all&q=Annals+of+Liverpool+and+Queen%27s+County

The LDS used to loan out microfilm to their local Family History centers and to affiliated libraries (public or private, not LDS). I don't know if they still do. You might get a copy of the film that way.

2. Google Books snippets says that in Simeon Perkins' Diary - John Carroll is mentioned on page 255 of the same volume that mentions the marriage. I lost track of the volume number, I guess it is the one that covers the years 1766 to 1780.

3. This might save you some time: I traced Mabel E Smith's line back through her mother's, mother, etc. So far, I verified everything except the oldest wife, Mary Ann Yates. The only source for her name is on wikitree, referencing a Macrae family history. I didn't do the males in this line.

Alexander Macrae (?1774 - ?1875)
  + Mary Ann Yates? [wikitree]
    1814: married [wikitreee]
    - Mary Ann McCrea (24 Dec 1828/9, Sanford NS - 29 Oct 1905) bur Darlings Lake Cem, Yarmouth Co
        30 Oct 1845: marriage [wikitree]
        1895: widow in Yarmouth Directory
      + Samuel Trefry (1819, NS - bef 1895)
          1871: Scot, Baptist, in Ohio, Yarmouth, NS
        - Sylphia Trefry (1855 - )
          + Augustus Sullivan (1855, NS - )
            - Mabel (Mary?) Estella Sullivan (7 Oct 1873, Sanford, Yarmouth NS - 27 Jan 1934, prob RI)
                buried Pawtuxet Mem Park, Cranston RI
              + Arthur Dennison Smith (1872-1961)

Some of the sources:
Alexander MacRae page at wikitree
https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/MacRae-2#_note-0
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1871 Census Samuel Trefry household.
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/2116560:1578
an ancestry hint for Mary Trefry shows her daughter Agnes' death in Massachusetts which names her father.

1891 Augustus Sullivan hsld
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/13599:1274

Arrived at Boston [to marry her husband who was working there at the time, I guess]
arrived at Boston from Yarmouth, January 10, 1895
Miss Stella Sullivan, 22, lady
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/114217:8745

Massachusetts Marriages
January 10, 1895
https://search.ancestry.com/cgi-bin/sse.dll?dbid=2511&h=13743817&indiv=try&o_vc=Record:OtherRecord&rhSource=60525
gives her parents as Augustus and Sylphia

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Port of Yarmouth, applying for admission to US, December 1911
Mrs Estella May Smith 5'4", fair complexion, light brown hair, blue eyes, born in Yarmouth
Jessie Leah 12, Henry Judson 10, Joseph Archibald 7, Robert 6, Zelpha May 4, Elizabeth 3, Victor 1
contact: Aunt Mrs John Thurston, Yarmouth NS,
destination: Danvers, MA
trip paid for by husband, their destination: Arthur D Smith Bell St, Danvers.
had been in US before in So Boston in 1909
most of the kids have blue eyes, fair complexion, light hair
https://www.ancestry.com/discoveryui-content/view/270369:1075

They ended up in Rhode Island and she is buried in Cranston. I didn't keep that stuff since I was working backward, but it is easy to find if you are on ancestry. Except the RI death records - they are not on line for that era.