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Does anyone know if Wesleyan Methodist church records for Saint John, New Brunswick are available for the period of approximately 1832 - 1869? And if so, how would they be searched?  Who to contact, etc.?

I'm looking for information on William Irving/Irvine family (1st wife Jane and children Sarah and James).  Government records for this time period were lost in the Great Fire (1877).  So I was thinking maybe church records survived.  Both children were born I think in 1835 and hopefully baptised then.  Maybe William married Jane a few years before 1835 and there might be church a church record of that marriage.  Mother and both children died in 1867/1869 and William remarried (Anna Seely) in 1867 for which we do have the church marriage record.  At the time we did not realize there was a first marriage so didn't look for any church records for that earlier marriage.  William (and we believe daughter Sarah) is buried in the Wesleyan Methodist Burial Ground in Saint John.

Now I don't even know who to contact to search the church records, if they exist.  Suggestions?

Thanks

Thanks to the staff at the Ipswich library, I now have a copy of the Obit from the local Ipswich newspaper for Linnell Foster.  That obit confirms he was my grandfather (correct birth date, birth location, and parents).

We still need to determine if he divorced my grandmother and remarried Mary E Kinsman.

Jim

The Ipswich library website includes an index of Obits.  Consulting that data neither Linnell Foster or Mary Kinsman are listed.  This tells me they did not die in Ispwich.  I presume they lived outside that town.

Jim

EDIT: Linnell is listed in the index of Obits for Ipswich (I missed it first time around) - Jim

Linnell Foster (1871-1961) was my maternal Grandfather.  I have census records up thru 1920.  He lived in Massachusetts.  Sometime between 1920 and 1030 he abandoned his wife and children (1930 census does not include him with the family).

We stumbled on a grave marker (thanks to Find-A-Grave) that lists a person with the right name and dates at a cemetery in Ipswich, but with a person identified as his wife (Mary E. Kinsman).

http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gr&GSln=Foster&GSfn=Linnell&GSiman=1&GScid=91075&GRid=44791626& is the link to grave marker.

I have searched SSDI and other potential sources and have been unable to locate any information about either of the persons on the grave marker; specifically Linnell (post 1920).  I suspect, if the Linnell on the grave marker is my grandfather, there was no divorce or second marriage by law.

Any, and all, help is welcome.

Thanks, Jim

Thanks Sharon. 

This is great info - much appreciated.

Jim