Why
does it always seem to be a John Tufts that gets confusing for researchers? I
am still unsure of the ancestry of John Tuffts/Tufts of Ireland in 1723 who shipwrecked on Sable
Island in 1737. I am
hopeful more people in the McMillan line have tested DNA and compare with our
other Tufts lines or contact me if they have tested. There should be some other
Ulster Scot family names in these lines as well.
Now I am stuck on Reverend Joshua Tufts’ son John Tufts of
Halifax, Nova Scotia and New Brunswick and his son George. Maybe someone can
look at it and straighten them out or has new records to be discovered to prove
these guys. John Tufts born in
Litchfield, New Hampshire in 1743 went to Fort
Cumberland, Nova Scotia with the family, was a ship’s Captain and had a
family in Halifax, Nova Scotia and Saint
Andrews, New Brunswick, Canada. His full story is told in Chapter 5.
John Tufts story is
debated among researchers but I think he grew up in Halifax and was either at
sea in 1767 when his parents died or charged with the care of his younger
siblings there. At some point he married and the family moved to Saint Andrews,
New Brunswick. The only marriage record found for him is from Boston, MA (John TUFFS to Mary Ready). Some records and genealogies state he died in
Westbrook, Maine and there is a record of a John Tufts there, but It seems
unlikely.
The question about George Tufts is that some
researchers have placed him as a son of John
(1743) and some as a son of his son John
born in 1775 who also married a Mary (Daley?) (Some online trees have Mary
Ready and Mary Daley confused as few records can be found of either.) I use Tufts Kinsmen by Herbert Adams and Tufts
Kinsmen Association as my first reference and quote them here with credit to
their great work. I have found the
following records on line for George:
1827
marriage record, New Brunswick
1851
Census of Canada
1865 US
Census Acton MA
1870 US
Census Acton, MA
1873
Death Record Acton, MA
There
are some other miscellaneous records for his family but none show the details
of which John and Mary were his parents. Perhaps someone with a DNA result on
ancestry can find some family members that match these:
GEORGE TUFTS, (1800-1873) New Brunswick, died in
Acton, MA, (Massachusetts vital records)Married
RUTH DOLLIVER (1803-1883) They had 1) John, 2) George, 3) William, 4) Catherine,
5) Sarah M., 6) Sarah A., 7) Henrietta. 8) Mary L, 9) Caroline M., 10) Robert
J., 11) Amelia A., 12) Adeline D. Tufts. The first 2 or 3 children were born in
Saint Stephens NB then the family records are in Calais Maine.
John Tufts 1828
married Amelia Katteau in Boston and
had Erena, Georgianna (2), remarried Mary Barney. (Erena married and had a
daughter Florence?)
George Tufts (1830)
Married Julia Coombs of Rochester
NH?
William Tufts (1831) no
info
Catherine Tufts (1832)
married John Burns and had a family
in Calais, Maine and moved to Massachusetts.
Sarah Ann Tufts (1835)
married Gilbert Thornton Webber and
had 4 children, passing in Chelsea, MA
Henrietta Tufts (1839)
married Martin (Van) Buren Moore
moved to MA and had a family. She remarried Bishop(?).
Caroline Matilda Tufts (1841) married
George Clark moved to MA and had 5
children
Robert Joseph Tufts (1843)
Married first
Lucy Jane Hinckley and
had 1) Ruth, 2) John T, 3) Mary, 4) Rollins D. (?) He enlisted in the Navy in
June 1861 and is listed at the Naval Hospital in Philadelphia in 1862. Some
trees on line list his service in the Civil War but I believe these are for a
Robert Tufts of Hingham. Lucy is with the Hinckley family in the 1880 census in
Norfolk, MA (including 3-year-old John Thomas Tufts) and she died in 1882 in
Ashland (
findagrave link). It’s unclear whether they divorced. He remarried
Sarah (Latham) James in Ontario and passed in
Vancouver, Canada if
Kinsmen is correct.
So, If anyone has any information on these John Tufts families, please pass it along. I am writing the full chapter of Joshua's later children and will include everything I have as of now. Contact
