Ships’ passenger lists available on Net

When the ship Ann & Mary coming from Cork, Ireland, landed in 1834 in the city of Saint John, New Brunswick, there was a passel of Sullivans on board – among them Pat, Jonathan, John, Peter, Mary, Catherine, Ann, Frances and even a Eugene O’Sullivan.

How do we know this? Look it up for yourself on the handful of ship’s passenger lists on the Web through the Saint John Branch of the New Brunswick Genealogical Society at www.nbgssj.ca

Mike Gleason of Bangor, a connoisseur of all things Canadian, sends me news of NBGS activities, so now I’ve started perusing the Web site myself.

Other ships’ lists in the 1833-1834 era include the Betsy Heron from Belfast, the brig Zeph[y]r from Ballyshannon, the barque Alchymist from Falmouth in England, the brig Ambassador from Londonderry, the Independence from Kinsale, the brig Ugoni from Belfast, and the William from Kinsale.

Also offered on this Web site are American Civil War veterans in Atlantic Canada, and a listing of cemeteries found over the years in Generations, the quarterly of NBGS.

The next meeting of the Saint John Branch will be held at 7:30 p.m. Wednesday, April 28, in the Lion’s Den at Loch Lomond Villa, Loch Lomond Road, Saint John, New Brunswick. The program will feature four speakers on early maps of Saint John.

Membership is $25 a year, sent to Saint John Branch, NBGS, PO Box 2423, 125 Rothesay Ave., Saint John, NB E2L 3V9.

It’s not to early to start planning to attend the June 25-July 4 events scheduled to mark the settlement of St. Croix Island 400 years ago.

Activities will include a flotilla of U.S. and Canadian ships June 26-27.

A coordinating committee has been working on the anniversary for nearly five years.

Some 70 French explorers led by Sieur de Monts and Samuel de Champlain settled St. Croix briefly.

For a schedule of activities, visit www.stecroix2004.org.

There are many ways to search out vital records and where they can be found in Maine.

I suggest starting with URSUS, the database that covers all University of Maine libraries, as well as Bangor Public and Maine State libraries.

Go to http://130.111.64.3, click on Subject and enter “registers of births.” You will come up with no fewer than 796 entries that include not only births but marriages, deaths and cemetery inscriptions.

Not a bad starting place.

The Hancock County Genealogical Society will meet at 2:30 p.m. Saturday, April 17, at Ellsworth Public Library.

I will be speaking on census records and on resources at Bangor Public and University of Maine libraries. Hope to see you there.

The Aroostook County Genealogical Society will meet at 6:30 p.m. tomorrow, April 13, in the Caribou Room at Caribou Public Library.

The topic will be a tour of the Family History Center at the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. The meeting will start at the library, then move to the church, where participants will have the chance to do a little research.

To donate material to the ACGS, write PO Box 142, Caribou 04736-0142.

3257. WEBBER-WORSTER. Seeking information on Clara Webber Worster, b. 1884, probably in Jackson Brook. She was wife of Albert L. Worster, they were residing in Kossuth in 1880 census. Children: Seward, Anna, Rachel, Sarah, Allen, Clara, Abbie, Alfred B. There is strong evidence to show that Clara Webber was daughter of Edmond or Edmund Webber and Elizabeth (Walker). 1850 census for T9 Range 3 page 1 shows Clara Webber, age 6, and Elizabeth, 8, enumerated with Seth Walker, who is enumerated just before Edmund Walker, age 30, with children William, Stephen (age 8?) and Edmond, 10. The age of this Clara agrees with that of Clara Webber who md. Alfred L. Worster and who is enumerated in later censuses. Hopefully, the death record of Clara Webber Worster would list her parents’ names and birthplaces. Her son, Alfred B., known as Barney, gives her residence as Topsfield on his marriage record in 1901. Clara’s mother may be of Indian origin if oral tradition that there is Indian ancestry in the Worster line is accurate. Clara also had a son, Pitt Harold Worster, b. 1889 in Kossuth. Phyllis Bruneau Damborg, 716 Horseback Road, Anson 04911; telephone 696-8061; dambo@prexar.com.