Newlywed taken by appendicitis

One branch of the family tree rarely tended to in my research is that of the Beaudry family, Canadian immigrants who settled in the Massachusetts communities in and around Sutton and Uxbridge.

The patriarch of this particular group was Gilbert Beaudry, who had been born in Canada in July 1836. Gilbert made his way south to the United States as a 20-year-old single man in 1856, and by 1865 was residing on Lynde Street (today Converse Street) in Worcester, Massachusetts. That year's city directory shows Gilbert employed as a "wire roller," while that year's State Census records him working as a "wire drawer." By the summer of 1868, 32-year-old Gilbert was living in Douglas, Massachusetts, working as a carpenter. That August he married Selina Bibeau, a 25-year-old Canadian who was then residing in Sutton. Gilbert and Selina had at least 10 children together, though by 1900 half of their children had died. Louis Beaudry was one of those who had passed.

Louis Beaudry, my 3rd great-uncle, had been born circa 1875 in Uxbridge's north end, a village known as North Uxbridge. Soon after his birth came that of Louise Sanders in Worcester, the daughter of Clarence and Ella (Davis) Sanders. Louis and Louise would marry in Worcester on Monday, December 23, 1895.

Little did the couple know that Christmas, just two days later, would be their one and only Christmas together as husband and wife. The 1895 city directory shows Louis residing in Worcester at 62 Foster Street, a property since absorbed by the Worcester Regional Transit Authority. The city directory shows he worked as a box maker, while the marriage records assert he was a woodworker.

While the Worcester-based newlyweds surely had talked about plans for their future together, perhaps how many children they might raise, where they might ultimately settle, their time together would be a paltry 231 days, fewer than eight months in total. On Monday, August 10, 1896, the 21-year-old box maker's life was cut short by appendicitis. There is no information as to how long Louis had suffered, but surely it was a painful ending. He was buried in the nearby community of Millbury, as were several other family members over the years.

Widowed at age 19, Louise initially remained in Worcester. A few years later, she would remarry and have three children. It was on Tuesday, June 6, 1899 — nearly 33 months after Louis had passed away — that Louise wed a British-born wireworker named Thomas Birkitt Hudson. They moved around a little bit, living on Upsala Street in Worcester as of 1900, then on Oxford Street in nearby Auburn in 1910, before returning to Worcester, living on Allen Street in 1920. By 1930, the couple had settled in Providence, Rhode Island. Together, they had three known children: Edith (circa 1901), Ella (circa 1903), and later a son, Robert (March 31, 1920).

No exact date of death has been uncovered for Louise, or her second husband, Thomas. She is last seen in Providence's 1931 city directory, while Thomas is found in East Providence in 1944. Regardless of when either passed, it is interesting to not that their son Bob was raised not by the couple, but rather by sister Ella, and her husband, Kenneth Warren, in Fitchburg, Massachusetts.

The AncestryDNA results are in...

This morning, I opened up my e-mail inbox and was pleased to see an e-mail from Ancestry.com: "Your AncestryDNA results are in!"

I write this as I begin to explore the results and data, and have not previewed the information. This posting is sort of a real-time cursory exploration. I will take a deep dive after this is published, with no idea how soon I'll be coming up for air in the process. There's a good chance I become entirely immersed in the information and data.

I was not exactly surprised by the first thing I saw, which is my "DNA Story," which provides an "ethnicity estimate." According to AncestryDNA, I am 81% Irish/Scottish/Welsh, 7% British, with "low confidence" results showing 6% Eastern European, 3% Scandinavian, 2% from the Iberian Peninsula, and less than 1% Central Asian. More specifically, the results suggest County Kerry, Ireland to be first among specific regions where my family might have lived. This is not news as I've long-known the Moriarty family to have originated in County Kerry, more specifically the village of Alohart.

Within the "Ethnicity Estimate" is that ancestors, in the first half of the 18th century, were among the "Lonely Settlers in New France" that were the Saint Lawrence River French Settlers. This, presumably, has its origins in my maternal lines that include my maternal grandmother's family having roots in that part of Canada.

After the cursory look at the "Ethnicity Estimate," I turned to the DNA matches, of which there are apparently 362 people who are listed as 4th cousins or closer.

In viewing the matches, I come across my half-brother Jeff, who has previously done the AncestryDNA test. They mark him down as "Close Family" with "extremely high" confidence in the match. They're correct there.

It offers one first cousin, a Sullivan that I do not currently know. There are a number of Sullivans within my family tree, so this makes sense. There's a second cousin with the surname Greene, who appears to be related on my mother's side as my brother Jeff is listed as a shared match with Ms. Greene.

There are 13 third cousins matched, including my late cousin Barb Jones. Each of these matches are listed as "extremely high" confidence level matches, by AncestryDNA. There seems to be a slight edge in matches on my paternal side over my maternal side here, but not by much.

The balance of the matches are fourth cousins, more than 300 of them. Certainly this will take a good deal of time to go through all of them.

Time to get to work...

Finding my fourth great-grandparents on the Drake line

It wasn't long ago that the genealogical information for my maternal great-grandmother's family line was identified as erroneous. There had been a number of red flags, and a clean slate was presented to rework this line. At last update on the Drake family line, I had tracked down my second great-grandfather, George R. Drake. I didn't know much other than he came from Nova Scotia, Canada.

Since then, there has been some modest progress.

George was born in Halifax, the capital of Nova Scotia, in September 1861. He was a child when the family immigrated to the United States at some point between 1867-1871, according to conflicting information in U.S. Census data. The family had settled in Boston, Massachusetts, and 22-year-old George married a local woman, Elizabeth Lawson, the daughter of a Thomas & Elizabeth (Dowler) Lawson. Like George, Elizabeth appears to have been born in September 1861. She would pass way at some point before 1930, while George dies at some point after the 1930 Census was taken.

According to primary sources, George held a number of jobs over his life: a mason in 1885, a sawyer in 1890, a freight handler in 1899, a day laborer in 1900, an armorer at a gun factory in 1903 and 1910, and finally an operator in a woolen mill in 1920.

George was born in Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada, and later resided in and married in Boston, before moving to Worcester, Massachusetts, at some point in the 1890s, and for the remaining 40 or so years of his life.

George and Elizabeth had at least six children together: Arthur Drake (1885-1976), John Head Drake (born 1890), Frank Drake (born 1897), Fred S. Drake (1899-1993), Charles O. Drake (born 1903), and my great-grandmother Sarah E. Drake (1894-1965).

Through U.S. Census reports, marriage records, and various other vital records and primary sources, it became clear that George was one of at least six children bore to John Head Drake and Elisabeth Ann Gould. John was born 10 January 1822 in Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, Canada; months before the births of historical figures like Harriet Tubman, Ulysses S. Grant, and Rutherford B. Hayes. At the age of 5, John was baptized in Prince Edward Island on 22 January 1827.

Elisabeth, 14 years John's junior, was born 13 May 1836 in Lisbon, a town in southeastern Maine. Her father was a man named Charles H. Gould of Maine, and a woman whose first name appears to be Bertha, or some close derivative thereof. According to Massachusetts marriage records, John and Elisabeth were married on 20 September 1853 in Beverly, a city on the Commonwealth's "North Shore."

Massachusetts marriage records showing John Head Drake and Elisabeth Ann Gould's wedding in 1853.

Though the couple is married in Massachusetts, records indicate that the first four of their six known children are born Canada, with the two youngest later born in Massachusetts. The 1880 U.S. Census shows the Drake family residing in Boston, apparently at 27 Newman. There is no clarification of the street extension, which leaves us currently speculating as to where specifically the family resided. There is no Newman Street, Newman Road, or Newman Avenue in Boston itself, though there is a Newman Place; which is essentially a parking lot for the Newman School, a private high school in the Back Bay.

John passed away on 12 December 1883 at home as a result of pneumonia. By 1900, Elisabeth appeared to have moved in with her daughter Mary, now married to a John D. Walker in Worcester, Massachusetts. By 1910, Elisabeth is no longer living with the Walkers, instead residing at 61 Prospect Street in Worcester with her sons Arthur and Francis, as a well as an apparent grandson named Roland Lund. On 13 May 1916, apparently now residing at 65 Pilgrim Avenue in Worcester, Elisabeth passed away as the result of acute bronchitis with arterio sclerosis as a contributing factor.

Continuing the drive back through time and the Drake line, we reach a point where further research is needed. According to Massachusetts marriage and death records, it appears that John's parents were a Francis and Sarah (Head) Drake. Francis and Sarah are my fourth great-grandparents.

Further primary source documentation is necessary to substantiate the family trees assembled by other individuals. Currently, the extent of information beyond Francis and Sarah's names is that Francis was born in England, according to John's death records. This does not necessarily mean Francis was born in England itself, as this designation also may refer to English-controlled Canada.