Sunbury, Canada, cemeteries

Question

A wild shot here (you won’t believe what auto-spell did with “shot” when I mistyped it - glad I edited this before sending!).

I’m looking for a burial place or record of death for [[https://www.wikitree.com/wiki/Underwood-3146]]. I see that F-A-G does not have much to offer. And of course, I don’t know for sure that Henry was buried where he had land in 1802 (Sunbury). Is there an alternative source for cemeteries there?

Also, since Henry was at one time a Quaker, would it be an assumption to say that he might not be buried in an Anglican cemetery? 

This dude just eludes me.

Answer 1

My usual places to look didn't turn up anything. I don't see much in the way of cemetery transcriptions in Sunbury County. I looked in BillionGraves.com and they don't have any Underwoods in NB.  The NB Archives online doesn't have anything that far back for burials. You might try posting a query on the NBGS.ca website. Those get published in the quarterly journal. Its free so why not. Not sure why the group in the Capitol area doesn't have much online. The Miramichi are has been quite active in getting info available. Also, no one has used him as a UEL, that group doesn't have anything, either.

I'll poke around some more when I have some more time.

Comments

Thanks for looking, Doug. You’ve already been a big help with Henry (and his brother, Benjamin).

I don’t know much about early settlement in New Brunswick. I do know that several of my pioneer ancestors were buried on their farms, unmarked, and subsequently the place was lost to memory. I wonder if the same was true in early NB. If so, maybe Henry’s grace was also lost to memory.

Another, and much later, project would be to hunt down Benjamin’s descendants.

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Depending on how isolated, may were indeed buried in family plots. Many of those are lost to history. I was luck in that the communities that formed where my NB ancestors settled created cemeteries early and they have been transcribed (at least the ones that were still readable -- wooden markers overlooking the Atlantic get kind of hard to read over time (same timeframe you are looking in).

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Doug, have any of those wooden markers been replaced with something more permanent?

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Some have been replaced. Unfortunately, one of them was replaced with a granite marker that has wrong information on it. They promoted one of my Rev War soldiers from Private to Captain. At least they got that it was the Black Watch and the dates are probably correct. That captaincy is now on just about every Ancestry tree of this family out there and when I suggest it is wrong, the gravestone (erected in the 1950s I believe) is used as proof. That his military records says otherwise is irrelevent. People like their myths.

When they replaced his, they didn't replace his wife's. In 2000 it was still a very deteriorated wooden marker. When I go back there in 2020 I'll have to check with some of my relatives to see what an be done (she was my 3 greats grandmother). Her mother's was replaced as well but she is pretty well known in NB.

Answer 2

Pip,

Just to complicate things, I have found there are two Loyalist Sgt. Henry Underwoods - yours was a Sgt in the North Carolina Volunteers, the second was a Sgt. in the King's Orange Rangers. At the end of the war, the NCV Sgt was a released POW in New York, the KOR Sgt was doing garrison duty at Chester and Lunenburg, Nova Scotia. I am not 100% sure, but I think it is possible both men received grants of land in what is now New Brunswick - one in Sunbury County, the other in Queens County. Could you email me when you get a chance, and maybe we can sort these out.

Comments

Good catch Andrew! The NB land grant index at https://archives.gnb.ca/ shows that the Queens County Henry Underwood's land grants were all associated with David Fanning, so that would mean he was from North Carolina. The Sunbury County grant was earlier, and it could be the same man, but you're right it could be the NY Underwood.  It would be interesting perhaps to figure out if the other men on that grant fought together, or if it was a mixed list.  

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Laurie,

That is my guess also, but we are going to need to be careful that we have not combined source data from two different persons with the same name, similar age, and close geographic location.
If it helps, here are more details on the Sunbury grant: Henry Underwood (200 acres) included in grant of land at Sunbury County (then Nova Scotia, now New Brunswick), 8 Jul 1784: https://archives.novascotia.ca/land-papers/archives/?ID=342&Doc=draft&Page=201101680

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Ok, what I've done is to temporarily relegate all the information to a Research Notes section until this can sorted out. I agree with Laurie that the association with Fanning is a strong indicator that my Henry is the one.

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Thank you for your insights on this, Laurie. See my response to Andrew.