As I have been
working on the third chapter of Nova Scotia Tufts I came across this story
about Gershom Tufts Great-Granddaughter from his son Francis and his son Samuel
of Dartmouth or Halifax NS. It’s unclear what possessed Ellen to move from Nova
Scotia to British Columbia but she made a wonderful life there and left many
descendents.
MARY ELLA (Ellen) TUFTS
(1836-1923)
married THOMAS FREDERICK ARGYLE (1839-1919) of
Birmingham England.
These pioneers in
early Victoria, British Columbia lived and worked on the small island called
Race Rocks where they were lighthouse keepers. They had 6 of their nine
children there and many of their stories are available for research. They lost
a son to the sea. They also say Thomas found a treasure as he used to pay for supplies
in gold coins. Please read the full story below. I also have some news stories I can send to interested readers.
Image of engineers from their site
One item the
articles and references here need correcting on is their continued statements
that Ellen’s family were loyalists expelled from Boston. Gershom Tufts moved to
Nova Scotia well prior to the war and Loyalist expulsions. One reference even
claims the Tufts came to America on the Mayflower. Ellen's ancestry clearly traces back to Peter
Tufts of Charlestown Massachusetts in 1638, our common immigrant ancestor.
Their family details will be chronicled in Nova Scotia Tufts families’ chapter
3.Perhaps it fit better to describe her as such, given Thomas' status with the Royal Engineers.
I have not
chronicled their family descendents here. A quick search on ancestry.com
reveals many trees with full families of many children. They could be living in
the area today. Please feel free to leave details of their descendents in the
comments section or links to family sites. Some of these images are from ancestry.com trees.
In the publication
Canadian Frontier: Annual 1977
Edited by Gordon
Thomas Stewart, Brian Antonson
Published by Antonson Publishing,
1977 a great story about this family is told by writer George Inglis:
click on the images for a larger image to read the article.
Thomas is
recognized on the Royal Engineers page was well:
Thomas Argyle and Ellen Tufts were my sixth great I grandparents on my mother's side.
ReplyDelete