in search of the name of parents of a donald fraser

[jasondf]

Hi all,

this is probably like hunting for a needle in a haystack.

Trying to search my fathers side of the family but I can only get as far back as -- and I would love to be able to get the names of the parents for.......
1-  my 3x great grandfather - Donald Fraser
2 - born around 1802 to 1804
3- born in Scotland (will have to ask my dad think he knows what area - and will update this later)
but might be inverness shire
4- moved to Canada I believe in 1820
5- first arrived i believe in Nova Scotia and then around 1822/23 moved to New Brunswick (bartibog).
6 - was a school teacher
7 - died i think in 1868, in Chatham N.B.
8 - was married to Annabelle Christine (or maybe the Christine name is first) MacDonald (her father is Alexander MacDonald -- owner of a farmhouse - https://www.highlandsociety.com/macdonald-farm/)
9 - one of his sons, my 2x great grandfather is Colin Fraser, all approx --born 1829 and died in 1897


I don't have much hope that anyone knows the names to Donald's parents but hey you never know!

cheers!!

[Josephine]

Hi, jasondf:

Welcome to Rootschat!

Do you have any documentation on Donald Fraser that might show his father's name or even his place of birth, e.g. marriage record, death/burial record, obit, family Bible, etc?

I know early records are scarce in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, Canada.

Did he have any children? You might be able to take a guess, based on the names of his children (in order of birth), if he and his wife followed a traditional Scottish naming pattern, but it would be helpful only as a possible pointer (because not everyone followed it and you might be missing some children's names).

A long shot would be to see if he was named in the wills of any family members back in Scotland but that would take a lot of credits on ScotlandsPeople.

Regards,
Josephine

[Josephine]

This page lists a date of death of 22 June 1868 and a transcript of an obit that says he was born in Inverness:
https://johnsonfamily.talldude.net/donald-fraser-3151

Regards,
Josephine

[jasondf]

Yup I have that Johnson site bookmarked.  Lol...havent seen a link on it to where I can contact them but haven't checked the site in a while.

Also looked at nb archives site ... nothing shows the names of his parents.  Father has a photo copy of some doc..i forget what it is now ... that shows the birthdate but it's hard to read which is why I put the range down.

Someone on ancestry.ca has him on it ... but not sure if she is correct .. has a different place for where he was born in Scotland....i tried to ask her for info but I got the impression she didn't really want to give out much in regards to sources for info.  Her entries looked way to interesting to be true I think...lol...

[josey]

Welcome from me too  . You are very wise to be cautious about the unproven research of others!!

When you get access to the document with date of birth on, why don't you scan it & put an image on the rootschat 'Deciphering & Recognition' Board? Lots of people here good at reading old handwriting.

Josey

[Josephine]

Here are a few more suggestions.

The site I linked to copied the obit from Daniel F Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics, which are hosted on the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (PANB) website: http://archives.gnb.ca/Search/NewspaperVitalStats/?culture=en-CA

The text of the obit should be here (his surname was spelled Frazer):
http://archives.gnb.ca/Search/NewspaperVitalStats/Details.aspx?culture=en-CA&guid=a9e7f355-7bb5-4396-9963-66c6b3ad4c56&r=1&ni=107398

So the question is: was this his obit? If yes, then he was born in Inverness-shire.

The obit says he received a school license in 1823. The PANB website has an Index to Petitions for Teachers' Licences & Payment 1812-1882 (RS655) here:
http://archives.gnb.ca/Search/RS655/?culture=en-CA

This is what the site says about the petitions:
"This series comprises petitions, certifications and copies of licenses. The extant records in this series are records of action when teachers asking for government licenses submitted petitions between 1812 and 1882. These documents contain biographical data such as names, country of birth, education, teaching experience, church affiliation and samples of handwriting. Local school trustees and clergymen attached certificates verifying the petitioner's teaching ability and his/her moral and religious character."

If you do a search on Donald Fraser, you'll get several hits for Northumberland County. You'd have to write to the PANB to request copies. Perhaps you might get lucky and find some useful information.

You could contact the The Miramichi Branch of The New Brunswick Genealogical Society and ask about sources of info: http://www.nbgsmiramichi.org/index.htm . Perhaps they might have biographies or other indexes that might name your Donald Fraser and might provide clues.

According to this website, it appears that your Donald Fraser was listed twice in the 1851 census; have you seen both entries?

https://www.nbscottishhistory.ca/data-sources/1851-1861-census
"Donald Fraser was counted in both Glenelg and Newcastle, Northumberland County in 1851. Being a teacher, Fraser was recorded both at home and where he was keeping school."

It might be worthwhile to write to any libraries in the areas, just in case he was mentioned in any local histories.

Regards,
Josephine

[jasondf]

Thank you for all that searching!

[Josephine]

You're welcome. Please let us know if you are able to find any more details, in case someone else might know where to go from there.

Regards,
Josephine