My Nana Ruby Fenderson was from Canada, specifically she was from Harvey Station and her maiden name was Grieve, there is a website (Click Here for the Genealogy of the Cornelius Settlers of Harvey Station, New Brunswick, Canada) all about her ancestry and the immigrants from Scotland and England who took the maiden voyage upon the Cornelius de Sunderland in 1837 and settled Harvey Settlement, there were about 154 passengers on that boat and 15 of them are my direct ancestors!
I found this photo of "Grandmother Messer":

And something about the photo intrigued me. When I first saw it I didn't think I was related to her, since I didn't think we had the last name "Messer" in our family tree, but I printed the photo anyway. I discovered that she had 9 children and that she was my 3rd great grandmother!

My journaling reads " 1st Generation: Alice "Alison" Brown married William Messer on 24 September 1826, she was 31 years old when hse was married. She was born in 1795 in Ford, England. Alison and William had 9 children:
(Alison's age at childbirth in parentheses before each child):
(32) 1. Elizabeth Messer (born 25 June 1827)
(34) 2. Ann Messer (born 20 Feb 1829 - died 1840)
(35) 3. Nancy Messer (about 1830)
(37) 4. Walter Messer (9 April 1832)
(39) 5. William Messer (1834)
(41) 6. Thomas Messer (1836 - 1861)
(44) 7. Ann Isabel "Annie" Messer (1839)
(46) 8. Alice Eleanor Messer (1841)
(48) 9. James Messer (1843)
She had nine children from when she was 32 until when she was 48 years old!!!
William Messer became a Farmer on Lot 6E in Harvey Settlement, he had 200 acres. They were Presbyterians and emigrated in 1837 on the Cornelius of Sutherland when Alison was 42 years old (the same age I am now).

(The red stars indicate the two entries for Alison Brown Messer).
After I made this page, I started filling in my family tree with the information from the site and discovered something somewhat surprising: Grandmother Messer (also known as Alice "Alison" Brown Messer) is both my 3rd Great Grandmother AND my 4th Great Grandmother! No, she didn't give birth to herself. This is how Alison is my Grandmother two different ways:
1. My 4th Great Grandmother: Alison Messer:
Alison Brown Messer and William Messer had Elizabeth;
Elizabeth Messer married Andrew Wood Coburn and they had Charlotte Isabella "Belle" Coburn;
Belle married John "Jack" H. Grieve and they had Frederick A. Grieve;
Frederick Grieve married Sarah A. "Sadie" Wightman and they had Ruby Grieve.
Ruby Grieve was my grandmother whom I called "Nana", she was my father's mother.
2. My 3rd Great Grandmother: Alison Messer:
Alison Brown Messer and William Messer had Ann Isabel "Annie" Messer.
Annie married John A. Wightman and they had Sarah A. "Sadie" Wightman.
Sadie married Frederick Grieve and they had Ruby Grieve.
Ruby Grieve was my grandmother whom I called "Nana", she was my father's mother.
***
So Ruby's parents Sadie and Frederick were second cousins, I think, in other words, Frederick's grandmother Elizabeth and Sadie's mother Annie were were sisters. I guess Harvey Station was pretty remote and there were only so many potential suitable partners. I wonder if Ruby knew this connection and I wonder if my Dad knew - he was, after all, doing the family history research and he does have a file on the Grieve family line - I'll have to check on it tomorrow.
***
The other interesting thing is that all of my lines going back from Ruby Grieve were on that boat in 1837! So I used the backside of the Grandmother Messer page to list out my 15 direct ancestors who were on the Cornelius of Sunderland's Maiden Voyage from Berwick to St. John in the summer of 1837:

"A boatload of English and Scottish people traveled from Berwick to St. John, New Brunswick, Canada holding at least 15 of my direct ancestors: All Aboard the Cornelius:
1. John A. Wightman (1829-1891) (my 3rd great grandfather)
2. Mary Davison Wightman (1795-1871) (my 3rd great grandmother)
3. John Wightman (1789-1867) (my 4th great grandfather)
4. Ann Winter Piercy (1785-1873) (my 4th great grandmother)
5. George Piercy (1785-1873) (my 4th great grandfather)
6. Mary Piercy Grieve (1831-1916) (my 3rd great grandmother)
7. Patrick Turnbull Grieve (1824-1871) (my 3rd great grandfather)
8. William Grieve (1799-1875) (my 4th great grandfather)
9. Eleanor Turnbull Grieve (1794-1860) (my 4th great grandmother)
10. John Cockburn (1785-1806) (my 4th great grandfather)
11. Elizabeth "Betsy" Leslie Coburn (1788-1869) (my 4th great grandmother)
12. Andrew Wood Coburn (1827-1907) (my 3rd great grandfather)
13. Elizabeth Messer Coburn (1828-1904) (my 3rd great grandmother)
14. William Messer (1799-1874) (my 3rd AND 4th great grandfather!)
15. Alice "Alison" Brown Messer (1799-1877) (my 3rd AND 4th great grandmother!)
***
I'm thinking that The Century Scrapbook Project is definately becoming The Centuries Scrapbook Project!
Making a page about a photo really allows me to think about all sorts of aspects of the person's life and to make discoveries like Alison had 9 children but having 9-15 children wasn't all that unusual back in those days in Harvey Settlement; that women were having children up until they were about 50 years old and that my grandparents were super connected.
Scrapbooking Your Family History Tip: When I just look at names and dates in my father's research or even on an online website there is one level of understanding, but when I take the step of making a scrapbook page - even a very simple one - my level of understanding increases dramatically.
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