Friday, June 4, 2010

Family Bible of Charles W. & Harriet E. "Hattie" (French) Moholland, Eastport, Maine


Family Bible of Charles W. and Hattie E. (French) Moholland of Eastport, Maine. The Bible is a rather small one, about 7-1/4" x 5", in fair to poor shape. It contains a presentation page and 4 pages of family records.

The surname of the presenter on the presentation page is hard to make out, but I believe the name is J. E. Bruce. The date of 1790 must be an error; it was far more likely to be 1890.


Because of this date discrepancy, and the fact that Andrew is described as "brother", I wonder if much or all of the information in the Bible was written some years later and perhaps by one of the Moholland children, rather than by Charles or Hattie themselves. 

This time lag might account for minor discrepancies in dates that I find between what is in the Bible and what I found in online sources. Of course, it's also possible that the Bible is correct, and the online sources are in error, or a combination of the two.

Though the Marriages page seems to contain a duplicate entry, I was happy to note that the first entry indicated that the marriage of Charles W. Moholland and Hattie E. French took place in Eastport, Maine. The second entry had further clues: Charles was living in Eastport at the time of the marriage, and Hattie was living in St. George, New Brunswick, Canada. An online source gave Hattie's residence as the Back Bay area of St. George.


Children of Charles W. & Hattie E. (French) Moholland:
  • Martha V. born Eastport 17 Feb 1881 
  • Fremont born 11 Aug 1882 
  • Dora J. born 25 Feb 1883 
  • Chester Mariner W. born 21 Mar 1884 
  • Andrew M. born 19 Sep 1889 

At the end of the list of children, there's the name Charles W. Moholland, with no date of birth. I assume this was just a reiteration of the children's father's name and not the name of the 6th child, but it's possible that there was a 6th child named for his father, Charles W. Moholland.

As stated before, the handwriting is not clear in some places, and the information may have been entered some years after the fact. Some online sources give different, though close, dates. I'm taking things with a grain of salt. Another complication in research is the various forms that the name Moholland can take: Mulholland, Maholland, etc.

As you can see, there is information provided for John and Lena Moholland and their children. Although I haven't yet been able to determine this definitely, I feel that John was the brother of Charles W. Moholland, and that they were the sons of John Moholland and Eliza Sears. The 1880 Census indicates that John Sr. was born about 1800 in Maine; Eliza Sears was born 28 Aug 1826 in Eastport, Maine, according to a birth certificate image I found online.

The deaths page lists deaths for Andrew M.; Sarah Jane French; Lena M., the wife of John Moholland; Charles W. Moholland; and Thomas French.


Note: see reader's comment ruling out the Sarah Jane Leavitt in the paragraph below because their ages don't match up.

Online I found a Thomas French who married Sarah Jane Leavitt, daughter of Ebenezer and Eleanor "Ellen" (Lee) Leavitt. It's very possible that Thomas was Hattie's brother, but I need to do a bit more research. The fact that I had tapped into some of the New Brunswick and Loyalist research of Arnie Krause was encouraging.

If you have any insights, corrections or additions, please leave a comment or contact me directly.

2 comments:

  1. Unforunately the "Sarah Jane French" mentioned here does not match up to be Mrs. Thomas French (Sarah Jane Leavitt). She was born 22 February 1871 and the bible states she was 59. Sarah and Thomas French had a son, John Marshall French, born 24 July 1894. I am in the midst of researching the Leavitt families in Charlotte County, those from David and Elisha "the settlers".

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  2. Thanks for pointing this out! As you go along in your research, if you happen upon something pertinent to this Bible, please share with us. Thanks! Is this the same Leavitt family that included Samuel Deane Leavitt, mayor and businessman of Eastport? I'm also researching an S. D. Leavitt, born abt 1826 in New Hampshire, who moved west to Grass Valley, California - can find nothing on him for sure, wish I had his full name, have CDV.

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