Messervy Stories

  As a child, I was not familiar with many of my Grammy Greig (Elizabeth Mary Messevey) family, but we all knew about her Uncle Bert.  An exotic figure who had travelled to the Far East several times, he was known as an importer of Japanese goods and also was renowned in the family stories as an early provider of electric Christmas tree lights. I recall that Grammy Greig proudly retold how friends and neighbours came to see the tree resplendent with its lights – quite different from the ones we see today, these lights were made up of little animals, cartoon figures  and such.                                                 Photo by Ken Benson. Sample of Messervey Lights.  Of course, more traditional lights also were made. The lights, still unique, were passed to my mother and for some years we were able to put a few on...

For some time,  Reuben Alfred Messervey  was on my list of “Still Researching”.  The son of John Messervey and Sarah Hoar, he appeared in Census records and his marriage to Fanny Bell in 1876 in Halifax, Nova Scotia was registered in the Nova Scotia vital records. However, on both his marriage record and in the 1871 Census, his place of birth is indicated as the United States, in fact, on the marriage registration it looks like “Winstead, Conn.”  All his siblings were born in Halifax, Nova Scotia after his parents permanently relocated from Sandy Point, Newfoundland.  However, with his father’s merchant trader background, it was not impossible that he was born in the US during a trading trip in 1853.  To date, I have found no record of Reuben’s birth despite the availability of many birth records in the US.  Perhaps John and Sarah did not want to record his birth in the US, but could not record it in Canada either.  I am still looking! ...