My paternal family history contains several regional histories that meet in New Brunswick. The most recent generations are rooted in Saint John, Chatham and Miramichi, Allandale, Dumfries, Red Bank, and other New Brunswick communities.
The Simmons line
My working tree reaches John Thomas Simmons, born on 24 November 1810 and buried in York County, New Brunswick, in 1882. A WikiTree profile appears to describe the same man, though it places his birth in Saint Andrews while another record points toward Oak Bay. Both are in Charlotte County.
The open question
Is the John Thomas Simmons born in Charlotte County in 1810 the same man who later lived in Dumfries, York County, and which record can name his parents? None as far as I can tell.
- 1810
- John Thomas Simmons, birth reported in Charlotte County
- 1882
- Death recorded in York County on 16 December
- Unknown
- Parents and earlier household
Current leads include parish registers, land petitions, probate files, and the WikiTree profile for John Thomas Simmons.
A possible Seaman connection
A second mystery is the apparent genetic connection to the Seaman line. That may point to a Simmons-Seaman relationship somewhere in this branch, though I do not yet know whether that reflects a surname change, a maternal line, an adoption, or another family connection.
The family appears rooted in York County by the nineteenth century. The line may eventually lead to older English, Loyalist, American, or New Brunswick settler origins.
The Frasers
The Simmons family connects to the Frasers through Elizabeth Fraser, born in 1825 in Dumfries, York County. Her parents were Thomas Fraser and Susannah Thompson. Thomas was born in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, in 1796 and died in New Brunswick in 1874. Susannah was also born in Scotland, around 1790, and died in New Brunswick in 1873. This branch places the family in the Scottish migration world of early New Brunswick.
The Adams line
Jennie Adams, born in Dumfries in 1859, married George Frederick Simmons and became part of the Allandale and Barony world of York County. Her father, Andrew Samuel Adams, appears connected to an Irish migration story, possibly arriving as a child in Saint John from Coleraine during the 1830s.
That possibility points toward the large movement of Irish and Ulster families into New Brunswick during the nineteenth century. Some arrived before the famine years. Some passed through Saint John and moved inland into farm communities. The Presbyterian context around Jennie Adams Simmons fits that world: rural church, kin networks, small settlements, and families that became deeply local after one or two generations.
The Esteys of Red Bank
The Estey side shifts the geography east and north, toward Red Bank and the Miramichi. Joan Mary Estey, my paternal grandmother, was born in Chatham in 1930. Her father was Osborne William Estey, born in Red Bank in 1898. His parents were Robert Estey and Catherine Hubbard, both tied to Red Bank and Northumberland County.
This looks like an older New Brunswick settler branch, with the Estey and Hubbard families established in the Red Bank area by the nineteenth century. The Estey line may have deeper New England roots, while Margaret Walsh may supply an Irish connection. Both possibilities need more proof.
Deredin and Dérédain
Joan Estey’s mother, Mary Eva Deredin, opens another route. Mary Eva was born in Chatham in 1897 and died in Saint John in 1998. Her father appears in records under several spellings: Dérédain, Deredain, Deredin, Deridin, and others produced by uncertain indexing. The family gravestone uses Dérédain and identifies Alfred Joseph Dérédain as born in France in 1872. Deredin seems to have become the dominant spelling in New Brunswick records and family usage.
The Acadian line
Mary Eva Deredin’s maternal line through Mary Catherine Richard carries the densest historical record. Catherine was born in Tignish, Prince Edward Island, in 1876 and died in Chatham in 1938. Her parents were Lazare Richard and Monique Martin. From there the tree moves into a tightly connected Acadian network: Martin, Buote, Gaudet, Pitre, Poirier, Bourg, Blanchard, Belliveau, and related families.
This line reaches into the world disrupted by the Deportation. Families in the branch are associated with Port-Royal, Beaubassin, Chignecto, Île Saint-Jean, Rustico, Tignish, Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, France, and New Brunswick. Port-Royal and Beaubassin belong to the older Acadian world before British consolidation. Île Saint-Jean, now Prince Edward Island, became a refuge and then another site of deportation. Rustico and Tignish became part of the post-Deportation rebuilding of Acadian life on Prince Edward Island.
Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon and France appear because exile led to several destinations. Families were scattered, returned, moved again, married within surviving Catholic networks, and rebuilt communities in the Gulf region.
People such as Paul Gaudet, Marie Bourg, Barthélémy Martin, Joseph Poirier, and their descendants lived in or near the generation of upheaval. Some were born in Acadia before the Deportation. Some died in France, Saint-Pierre-et-Miquelon, Prince Edward Island, or New Brunswick. Their children and grandchildren appear later in Rustico, Tignish, and Chatham. By the time Mary Catherine Richard married into the Deredin family, the older Acadian story had become part of an ordinary New Brunswick Catholic family history.
Family-tree claims remain provisional unless the text says otherwise.