Nova Scotia/PEI Livingstone Research

[Livingstone_PEI]

Hi All

Sorry about the quality of the last attachment. I believe this one is better.

Barry

[Kyle MacLea]

Hmmm. The quality is great, but mine doesn't want to display fully, especially the important parts at the bottom/side! How to fix it......?

Kyle=

[Livingstone_PEI]

Hi Kyle

Yeh I'm afraid that is all I have for now. They have the complete collection at the registry office, and I wish they would do what Nova Scotia did and put the entire set online. There are a few more parts of the map I would like to get too. I'll go back sometime and get the surrounding area. There is some real interesting information on these maps and the archives do not have copies of these. John Livingston's property is in the top left hand corner. Interestingly my Judson home was on the property of crown grant I believe Howard Wood. Just to the right of the grant for John Livingston. So as you can see the apple doesn't fall far from the tree. My grandfather Judson bought it after his return from the first world war. Until I started doing my research in the last year, I didn't know my great great grandfather's farm was so close. I remember Colin's farm as a place as kids we used to pick blueberries, and that is all I knew about it. It was owned by his grandson at the time.

Hey Kyle.....took a closer look at your wedding pictures in the last couple of days. You would fit right in with the looks of our family members. Gotta love that receding hairline too, apparently that is a Livingstone/McLea trait. My sons teased me and now I can see hints of it on them too.

Barry

[Kyle MacLea]

Hey Kyle.....took a closer look at your wedding pictures in the last couple of days. You would fit right in with the looks of our family members. Gotta love that receding hairline too, apparently that is a Livingstone/McLea trait. My sons teased me and now I can see hints of it on them too.

I like to refer to it as the "MacLea hairline." My father and (late) grandfather are but more-advanced stages of the same.
Definitely starting to become more obvious. Since my wedding, the piece in front is starting to give up the ghost.

What comes around goes around!

Kyle=

[Canadian Livingstone]

Hi Barry,

Look forward to seeing the Ledger document. Congratulations. I dont know that my eyesight is better than yours but I will take a look at it. I am curious what it contains. I must admit I have struggled with alot of hard to read archival documents in my time. I am particulary interested in the document which records Colin making a first payment in 1865 and figuring out if there is not an original deed then some other document in the 1860's that records Colin's actual purchase date and other information. Im very excited about how things are going with for your research.

regards,

Donald

[Livingstone_PEI]

Hi Donald

Yes I did have somewhat of a dry spell, but the ledger documents offer a whole different area of research now and I will have to search for other ledger documents. These douments are not indexed, so I need to go from the crown land grant map to find the document number. I'm soon coming up to my long break on the third of December, so I should have more time to research. The winter months are coming upon us and I feel I have enough information to start formally compiling a family history, so I am excited considering when I started this research I had aenough information to put on the back of a postage stamp, and now I'm working my way towards a book lol. I'm hoping from the results of this, circulated within my extended family, the interest will grow in the research I am doing, and I will get some helpers along the way.

Barry

[Canadian Livingstone]

Hi Barry,

You deserve praise for your perseverence. Others might have long ago abandoned the quest for your lost ancestor Colin Livingston. I never gave up hope. I had a hunch that the information you seeked was there just in some sort of disorganized state in PEI where it was not easy to find.

Glad to hear you are going to write a family history. I am sorry that some of the info I provided you was somewhat speculative, but I would qualify that by saying more accurately, speculative based on the existing family information uncovered. No where is it written that your ancestor Colin is a brother of Alexander of Whycocomagh and John Jr. of Mull RIver but all the information that I have seen on these neighbouring family in this area of Inverness County, Cape Breton tells me that it is so. YOur ancestor Colin of Kings County, PEI would have been completely unknown to us in the context of being a former Whycocomagh, Cape Breton resident had it not been for you locating the obituary of Colin Livingstone. There is to my mind virtually no doubt that Colin lived in Whycocomagh given that you and Dr. St. Clair located not one but two obituaries stating that Colin was from Whycocomagh Inverness County, Cape Breton. Obituary I know from personal experience are written by a close family member or someone who has received information from a close family member and they to seem very clear and specific about the small village in Cape Breton where Colin came from. It is indeed unfortunate that there are not more records such as the 1871 Census proving your ancestor Colin lived at Whycocomagh but seeing as he died about 4 years or so before the 1871 Census are only option is the accept the information from the obituary and hope some other record comes is uncovered someday. To my way of thinking the obituary is just as valid proof of your ancestor having lived at Whycocomagh as the 1871 Census.

The Maclea Livingstone DNA Project would appreciate if you could convince one of your Livingston cousins to do the DNA project. My Cousin kindly volunteered and if the price is an issue you could consider sponsoring him or going 50 50 as it not that costly and to me well worth the investment in terms of the nature of this most interesting project and what we ultimately will learn about our Maclea and Livingstone origins. When the late Rob Livingston our first North American Clan Commissoner first approached me about DNA Testing I was not informed about genealogical DNA research and not fully aware of the potential. Since my interest has grown.

regards,

Donald

[Canadian Livingstone]

Hi Barry,

Lot 55 was owned from late 1700's to 1810 by three absentee Quebec Land holders apparently: Francis McKay surveyor of the woods, Samuel McKay of Montreal, Hugh Finlay Postmaster of Quebec. Later it seems according to an 1838 PEI list Lot 55 is occupied by over 300 people many of them small freeholders, but whether small lots in the FOrest Hill area where your ancestor farm were available and were occupied before the 1860's I still dont know as yet. In any event this info sort of suggested small freehold lots were available before 1855. It will be curious to see whether Colin acquired his lot from the government or from a small freeholder who owned the lot previous before the 1860's.

regards,

Donald

[Livingstone_PEI]

Hi Donald

Here is the Township Ledger for Colin's property.

Barry

[Canadian Livingstone]

Hi Barry,

Ok that is a ledger entry recording a purchase of land in the Dundas P.O. area of Crown Land in the November of 1865 by Colin Livingston. Is that November 13th or November 15th 1865? If that is the case then there was no previous owner or absentee lord holding on the property and it was land apparently held by the Crown and sold to your ancestor in 1865. He would be the first owner of this land not granted but purchased from Government of PEI I would assume and paid for by your ancestor Colin Livingston. To bad there is no formal deed as it might have given his address at Whycocomagh, Cape Breton but then again he might have been residing in PEi when he purchased the land. In any event it says Crown land and it is clear that he paid for it and that was Crown land recently opened up for settlement I would assume by the PEI Government. Does that make sense? You could check with the land registry expert but I think this is a record of a crown land purchase and that Colin is the first person to own this lot, the original landowner. You could find out eventually from a local historian if that makes sense with the history of the area.
It says Dundas P.O . Maybe there was no town of Forest Hill at that time and your ancestors farm was within the area of Dundas P.O. I dont know I think the local historians in the area might be able explain that one better than me. This is great that you found a land document. I had a second sense that either the Land Registry office or the archives might be able dig something up somewhere for you. I know you were getting frustrated that there was very little out there.

regards,

Donald