Anna's Family

Last update 30 July, 2005

This is a fairly intense page of links, designed in part to provide source documents for genealogy to other family members. The vital records: birth, death and marriage; are mainly hyperlinks, to scans of primary sources from the General Registry Office and similar record providers. Just click on them to open a scan. You will have to have your own program to magnify them. The MS image reader with winXP will work. Name hyperlinks take you to other pages. I've made an effort to contain all the links for a family on one page, from marriage of parents.

I'm not sure when John and Maggie went to North America, but Jessie and the rest of the children migrated in 1905, aboard the Cunard Liner Umbria. Jessie listed them as being "in transit" to Canada, on her way to meet John at 25 Caroline St, Hamilton, Ontario, Canada. I haven't been able to find any records of them there.

I'm not entirely certain what happened afterwards. They apparently lived in Canada, then at least some moved to New York. Much of the following is anecdotal, since I don't have records. According to Aunt Mink, Jessie Glennie apparently died in 1924. She was not certain where. John McAnsh was living in Washington, DC when he died.

Maggie (Margaret Adair McAnsh) married Alex Thompson, and they lived in Edmonton, Alberta. They had several children, including Jessie, the only daughter, sons Christopher, and Andrew, and possibly other sons. Reports conflict and I am not certain.

Bill (William Gardner McAnsh) moved from Canada to New York, then to Atlanta, Georgia, where  he married Callie Jane Wheeler, a native of north Georgia, in 1916. They had 9 children, 5 sons and 4 daughters. My Aunt "Mink" was one of the daughters, born in 1924, the same year as my mother. Most of William's children continued to live in Georgia.

Aunt Mink remembered going up to Steubenville, Ohio at one point, to visit Anna and Carl. Catherine and Mink stayed for a bit, Catherine for a week, Mink for 2. My mother remembers going to Georgia at one point in the 1930s to visit her Uncle Bill. Mink remembers her Aunt Maggie and Uncle Alex coming to visit about 1936. At the age of 58 (1951), William took a holiday, going up to Montreal with Maggie and Alex. Cally was not feeling well, and decided to stay at home. During that trip, Maggie and Alex missed William at breakfast, and he was found to have died in his sleep of heart failure. William's wife Cally died in 1980 at the age of 83.

Aunt Mink only remembers meeting her Aunts Maggie, Anna, and Belle. In the case of Mary Ann, this is because of her early death. In the case of Aunt Kate (Catherine McAnsh), it was said she was the "black sheep" of the family. Aunt Mink knew nothing of her whereabouts, or how she attained this status. Anna was in Ocalla, Florida in 1917. Annie was apparently working as a waitress when she met Carl Summerville, whose parents lived in Ocalla. Anna died in 1962 in Ohio. Anna's story is elsewhere. The last time Mink can remember meeting any of Anna's family was in 1944, when she caught up with Hazel and her daughter Donna. The family seems to have been relatively close up until the mid 40s.

Belle (Isabella Raison McAnsh) also lived in Florida, in Daytona Beach. She died about 2001, at the age of 99 and a half. She married twice. Her first husband was Ben Collier, who died around 1970. She and Ben had good friends, the Joynes' of Miami. When Mrs Joynes also died, Belle married Mr Joynes, who died in 1985. In her later life, Belle lived in a retirement village, and got a lot of support from the child of Anna's oldest daughter, Donna. Donna was described as very caring.

Mary Ann got married to James Horace Adams in 1925 in Bremerton, Washington state. Mary had met James when James was in the service as a musician. She gave her address as Norfolk, and it made me wonder if she had been there at the same time as Anna, and whether other members of the family had been there, especially since John died in District of Colombia. I know mum ended up getting some property in Norfolk, after Carl died. Mary died childless a year after her marriage, in 1926, in San Pedro, CA. James remarried to his brother's wife's sister. Though his children all died in childhood, his brother's children were related by blood to both himself and to his wife, and they felt very close.

Mink married and moved to Tampa. Her husband was born in Oct 1917, and died on the 9th of May, four years ago. He spent the last 4 years of his life on oxygen, and went from being highly social, to fairly reclusive. Mink spent a lot of time tending him, since insurance would not cover care, and during that period could not get much rest. They were married for 54 years, and Mink said, "He looked after me for 50 years, I'll look after him for 4." Mink was born in 1924, like my mother, and also like her she had 6 children. The first two were sons, and were born in Japan, where her husband was serving with the military (the second son was born during the Korean conflict).

I'd like to thank my Aunt Mink (who is still alive and sharp as a tack) for much of this information. I'm also indebted to my cousin, Jeanie for some of this information. She is the neice of James Horace Adams.