This evening is my second book launch of A Garden in the Wilderness at First+Metropolitan United Church chapel. There I will assert with confidence that John and Susan Dean are my great-great-great-great-grandparents.
But last night I was talking on the phone to my second cousin in Florida, Monty Williamson, upon whose genealogical research my confident assertion is based. He asked me, “By the way, were you able to confirm that the Ship Harbour Deans and the Musquodoboit Deans are connected? I only conjectured that they are.”
It is good to have a resident genealogist who knows where to look for these things! My husband David Bray sprang into action. The first thing he found was that the Charles Dean who was postmaster at Dean Settlement was not the same Charles Dean who was the postmaster at Ship Harbour, as I had assumed. They held those positions concurrently. So I was not descended from “King” Charles, son of John Dean, Junior as I asserted in the prologue to my book.
The next thing he found was more positive information. The postmaster at Ship Harbour was Charles Morrison Dean, son of James Dean and Elizabeth Henry. James was John & Susan’s oldest son. I was especially happy since Elizabeth Henry makes a cameo appearance in my novel as Susie’s not-so-best friend.
And the best news of all: I don’t have to lie in church!
#DeanSettlement #NovaScotia #AGardenintheWilderness #ShipHarbour #MontyWilliamson #FirstMetropolitanUnitedChurch