In Search of Agnes - New Brunswick Research

One of Judy's cousins is interested in finding the ancestors of his grandmother, Agnes Teale, of Tisdale Saskatchewan. Agnes was married to Augustus "Charles" Teale, from Hessle, Yorkshire, England. I am well acquainted with the ancestors of Charles Teale, but his wife was somewhat of a mystery, so I thought it would be interesting to find out more.

This was her second marriage, and what our branch of the Teale family thought was her maiden name, was in fact her married name from her first marriage. So her maiden name was not Agnes Clayton, it was Agnes Murphy. Armed with that information from the cousin, I started looking for additional information. The cousin mentioned that her first husband was Joshua S Clayton, and they were married in New Brunswick, and had two Clayton children. After Joshua's death in Belgium in WWI, the children were raised by her in-laws.

New Brunswick Provincial Marriages 1789-1950
Name Joshua S Clayton
Event Type Marriage
Event Date 23 Feb 1909
Event Place Saint John, Saint John, New Brunswick, Canada
Gender Male
Age 21
Birth Year (Estimated) 1888
Father's Name Joshua B Clayton
Mother's Name Eva Scribner
Spouse's Name Florence Murphy
Spouse's Gender Female
Spouse's Age 18
Spouse's Birth Year (Estimated) 1891
Spouse's Father's Name Wm Murphy
Spouse's Mother's Name Enora Ragan [Honorah sounds like Enora.]
Certificate Number 001420
Page 48

I found the church marriage record in the Drouin Collection in Ancestry.com and also found the government marriage record. Strangely enough, her name is given as Florence Murphy in these marriage records. And multiple official records of her children give her name as Florence Agnes Murphy or Agnes Florence Murphy. Her father's name is given on Drouin and government marriage records as William Murphy. However, her mother's name is indexed differently depending whether you look in FamilySearch or Ancestry.com

I found the record of the marriage of her parents.
http://mv.ancestry.com/viewer/ebac9c04-07a1-448a-bdf4-030f2dab5be3/9060474/24011431723
Oct 1880 Sussex, New Brunswick, Canada
"William Murphy and Hanorah Regan
On the eighteenth of October eighteen hundred and eighty I married William Murphy and Hannorah [sic] Regan after dispensing with banns, both of Studholm, Kings County, in the presence of Dennis Regan [or Ryan] and Margaret Ann Graham. James Vorcker"

Now I searched the New Brunswick Vital Records for the birth of Agnes. I believe this is her birth although the given names are recorded as Mary Agnes. There is no record in the New Brunswick Archives of the birth of a Florence Murphy to a William Murphy that can match our girl. Florence may just be a nickname. In the document below, the father's name is a perfect match and the mother's surname fits too. I cannot find any other William Murphy married to a Regan in this time and place.

RS141A2/2
Index to County Birth Registers
Name MURPHY, MARY AGNES  
Sex F
Date 1890-04-27
Place MILLSTREAM
County KINGS
Father MURPHY, WILLIAM  
Mother REGAN, JOANNA O.  
Code 5-1-14-87
Microfilm F13367
http://www.archives.gnb.ca/Search/VISSE/141A2_2.aspx?culture=en-CA&guid=CFB11926-F3A0-4D74-BF59-F2E3DAC92138

In the Canada Census records from 1871-1911 we can see the family of William Murphy of Studholm RC Parish, Kings County, New Brunswick. Firstly we see him with his first wife, Mary. Then with Joanna, and lastly with his third wife, Elizabeth. 

On Ancestry.com I found a profile page for him that includes this information and lists his parents as Robert Murphy and Julia Anna Keleher of Ireland. 

But I have had very little success searching for Honora/Joanna. 

The New Brunswick Archives site has wonderful scanned images of the original documents for FREE. The search engine is very limited but it is still a great place to do research. 

http://archives.gnb.ca/search/VISSE/?culture=en-CA

Saskatchewan, New Brunswick, and FamilySearch

For the past few weeks I have been in touch with one of Judy's cousins in Saskatchewan. This is another of those situations, where a few years ago I could have asked some of the older Teales, Hamiltons, and McGillivrays about friends and neighbors. But that generation is gone now, and when I could have asked them, I didn't know the right questions.

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I have badly neglected this blog. I remain very involved in family history, but not so much in my personal research. Every Thursday evening Judy and I serve in the Edmonton Riverbend Family History Center. We have had some evenings when nobody comes and others when there are more people than we can handle. It is fun teaching people to find their ancestors in online databases or teaching them to scan and upload old family photos! Sometimes we even get to teach them to use the microfilm readers.

 

Since April 2015, I serve about 25 hours per week in FamilySearch Support, where we help people experiencing problems with our website https://familysearch.org (This is the world's largest free family history website.) We provide toll-free telephone numbers from most areas of the world as well as email at support@familysearch.org and real-time text chat. I am one of about 450 people serving in North American English Support during our daytime. In our evening, the Asia- Pacific Support team looks after English language support, and they are followed by the Europe-Middle East-Africa Support team, before it becomes the turn of North America again. Our website is available in 10 major languages, but English is the most heavily used. I find it a personally rewarding service. 

If you are doing family history research, I encourage you to visit our website!