Children of Rachel Smith and Manley Steadman-Where Were They 1891?

[sarah.negus84]

I am trying to find information on the children of Rachel SMITH(1847-1919)and Manley STEADMAN of New Brunswick:Everett Curry(b.1876-),Berdetta G.(1878-) and poss. Gertrude(1881-). I believe Gertrude may be:

https://www.findagrave.com/memorial/85797343/gertrude-thompson

I believe I also have marriage information from Familysearch for Gertrude as well;her parents are listed as Manley and Rachel but I need to make sure that this is the correct individual.

(Side note:I believe Manley is the same Manley C. Steadman who was put on trial for bigamy;Rachel remarried about 1882 to my g-g-grandfather,John NEGUS and had three children with him,one of which was my g-grandfather.)

In 1881 Rachel,Everett(5) and Berdetta(3) were living in the home of Rachel's parents in Salisbury;if Gertrude was also her child,she was likely born after the census was taken. It would also suggest that Manley left Rachel while she was still pregnant.

(upon reading:the Steadman trial took place in 1879;Provincial Archives website has details on the case. In Daniel F. Johnson's New Brunswick Newspaper Vital Statistics,there is only one Manley Steadman listed. Hmm..)

By 1891 Rachel had remarried to John and were living (poss.River Glade) with their children,Harriet (7) and Garfield (5) (their youngest daughter,Mabel,died 1887 only a year old).Everett and Berdetta,as well as the potential Gertrude,are not listed in the census,despite Everett,as the oldest,only being about fifteen at this point.

Everett later resided in the States,but I am mainly wondering what happened to them in those early years. Did they just take up residence with Manley after he and Rachel ended their marriage?Could they have lived with another family while their mother made a new one?(Or maybe Manley was not the one on trial and merely died?)

Long story short,I am seeking information on what happened to the two (three?) children of Rachel and Manley,what actually happened to Manley and the whereabouts of Berdetta.

(I also apologize for the convoluted way I wrote this.)

[amondg]

The marriage of Gertrude S Stedman 23 to John G Thompson  21 on 13 April 1904 says she was born in River Glade N. B. of Manley J Stedman and Rachel N Smith.
You can't get any closer than that.

ADDED her Vermont death record 9 July 1968 gives a date of birth as 3 December 1881 River Glade Canada with Manley and Rachel as her parents

Her brother Everett also in Massachusetts. ADDED in 1900, later New Hampshire and Conn.

It seems as though after the grandparents died they were sent to live (hopefully with relatives) in Massachusetts. The 1890 census of USA is missing so you may never know unless we can find border crossing events from Canada to USA.

[sarah.negus84]

The marriage of Gertrude S Stedman 23 to John G Thompson  21 on 13 April 1904 says she was born in River Glade N. B. of Manley J Stedman and Rachel N Smith.
You can't get any closer than that.

ADDED her Vermont death record 9 July 1968 gives a date of birth as 3 December 1881 River Glade Canada with Manley and Rachel as her parents

Her brother Everett also in Massachusetts. ADDED in 1900, later New Hampshire and Conn.

It seems as though after the grandparents died they were sent to live (hopefully with relatives) in Massachusetts. The 1890 census of USA is missing so you may never know unless we can find border crossing events from Canada to USA.

If I recall correctly,Rachel's father Benjamin died in 1898 and her mother Mary Jane died ten years later;Mary (or "Polley" as she also went by) was living with the widowed Rachel in the 1901 census(John had been killed in a mill accident three years prior,meaning that Rachel had lost both her husband and father in the same year). So I suppose that even though they were still alive at that time,they may not have been able to help care for the children as well as their own children still helping out around the home.

[oldohiohome]

You didn't say if you know when Everett died. While looking for his immigration I found this, just in case:
--------
Connecticut Deaths

EVERETTE STEADMAN 1947-10-13 BRIDGEPORT

https://www.ctatatelibrarydata.org/death-records/

----------
Everette Curry Steadman
Birth    unknown
Death    13 Oct 1947
Connecticut, USA
Burial    Lakeview Cemetery
Bridgeport, Fairfield County, Connecticut, USA
Memorial ID    184945291

included on findagrave:

An employee of the Raybestos company died suddenly Monday in his home 925 East Main St. He is survived by his wife Mary, two daughters Mrs. Doris Brewer and Mrs. Karoline Jordan both of Bridgeport and three grandchildren.

-----------
I haven't found Everett's arrival in the US yet. The information on his censuses for his arrival is all over the place, 1891, 1899, 1901. When he registered for the US WWI Draft in 1918, in Manchester NH, he had filed a Declaration of Intention to become a citizen. He was not a citizen in 1920 (Manchester NH) but was by 1930 in Bridgeport, Connecticut.

I was hoping his naturalization papers were online, but I haven't found them yet. They would be the most reliable source for his arrival in the US.

His sister Gertrude married in 1904. If her husband was a US citizen she would have become a citizen when marrying, if I recall right. If he was not and was later naturalized, I don't know how that affected Gertrude. She might have Nat. papers somewhere.

I haven't looked for her or Berdetta yet.

[oldohiohome]

Everett is in the 1900 Wakefield Mass. City Directory, but not in 1898 or 1902. There were no Stedmans at all in 1898 or 1902 in Wakefield.

Gertrude was living at 936 Main Street, Woburn, Mass, when she married. But the marriage was at a church on Thurston Avenue, Wilmington. The Wilmington Methodist Church is currently at the corner of Thurston Ave and Main St., Wilmington.

I didn't find Gertrude in the 1900 or 1902 Wilmington directory.

All three cities are very close together, if they went to relatives, as amondg suggested, it was probably in this area. Why did Gertrude marry in Wilmington is the question? Was that her first church when she came to the US, and/or where her relatives were?

No sign of Everett in 1891 in Westmoreland, NB.
No sign of Berdetta anywhere, even searching for just the first name and her parents' names, in case she married.

[oldohiohome]

If you know Rachel's siblings and who her sisters married you might look for them in the Wakefield-Wilmington Mass area in 1900. That would be Middlesex County, the eastern part of it. Or maybe Essex County. If they went to Boston to be with family, I don't think they would have come back out to Wakefield, Woburn, etc, but maybe so for work in the mills. I'd look in NE Mass and SE New Hampshire first.

Unbelievably, I didn't find any good candidates for Smith families, born in NB and living in Middlesex County, MA in 1900.

[bbart]

I'm not sure if there is any info on the following link that might help:
http://johnlisle.us/genealogy/getperson.php?personID=I25710&tree=stedman_main

It appears they couldn't track Berditta either.  Maybe with all the scandal, she went by her middle name?