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Cemetery Mallory Huntsville Township Polk County Minnesota USA The Ties That Bind |
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To view or print .pdf
files on this site you will need BACKGROUND Nisbet Cemetery is a private cemetery located in the SE 1/4 of the SE 1/4 of Section 24, Huntsville Township, near Mallory, and not far from Fisher (formerly Fisher's Landing), in Polk County, Minnesota. It was named after David Nisbet, who died in 1877, and on whose land the cemetery was formally established in 1885. Some of the area's earliest settlers and their families are buried here. A striking note is that many of these families arrived (beginning about 1877-1878) from a relatively small area centered around Lanark County, Ontario, Canada; most of them being the children and grandchildren of some of the original settlers to that area of Canada. A brief report in the Perth Courier, from March 4, 1881 provides an early glimpse of this migration:
Over the course of the next 15 years, the number of settlers from Canada was considerably increased as many of the Minnesota settlers returned to Canada to marry, and brought their wives and relations back to the Red River Valley. I visited Nisbet Cemetery for the first time in the summer of 2003, after discovering that a good number of my own ancestors and their families were buried here. As I walked through the cemetery, I was amazed to see how many names I recognized from my researches in Lanark County where my ancestors first settled (in Bathurst and N. Sherbrooke Townships after immigrating from Ireland and Scotland). Bain, Brownlee, Bryson, Buchanan, Cameron, Casmey, Chalmers, Clint, Coulter, Cumming, Davidson, Dickson/Dixon, Kelly, Lindsey, Ferguson, Fleming, Fletcher, Geddes, Gilmour, Gunness (Gunnis), Hannah, Hunt, Lee, Love, McDonald (McDonal), McDougall, McKinnon, McVeety, Morrison, Morrow, Nevills, Nisbet, Playfair, Roberton, Rutherford, Shanks, Skiffington, Stewart, Welsh, White, and probably others. These are all families that bind the two areas. The families intermarried, and interestingly, many of the children of these settlers then packed up their families and moved on in similar fashion to new homesteads in Manitoba and Saskatchewan, where they formed additional community relationships; and then moved on again. This website was created for those researching the families and family members who created the links in this chain of communities. It is particularly intended to serve as a complement to the work being done in Lanark County to provide family researchers with access to genealogical resources--cemetery transcriptions and photographs being an important part. I have included resource links below, and will occasionally add more. In particular you are encouraged to visit the Lanark County GenWeb site, including the Cemeteries section. It is my particular hope that viewers of these pages, wherever they may be, will find something here to encourage their interest in preserving family histories. The underpinnings for this project are two publications: (1) Nisbet Cemetery 1885-1999, a booklet prepared for the Nisbet Cemetery Association in 1999; and (2) Minnesota Cemeteries, Polk County: Volume 9, published in 1988 by the Red River Valley Genealogical Society. The second volume was based on a 1985 version of the Nisbet Cemetery Association booklet; and prior to publication, volunteers walked the cemetery and made some additions and corrections. Compiled from the cemetery sexton's records, the above publications listed the block & lot number, name (often including women's maiden names), birth and death years, and place of birth (when known) for each burial. These two publications have been invaluable references to many genealogists and family historians, myself included. Given the block and lot numbers, and using the following description of the cemetery layout, particular family relationships may become clearer:
A few explanations about these web pages-- When preparing the original cemetery booklet from the sexton's records, birth years often had to be calculated based solely on a death year, and reported age at death; which genealogists know will inevitably lead to some birth years being off by one. Over the course of this project I've made changes to the original list to reflect dates given on grave markers. As grave markers are often placed or replaced years after the death of family members, researchers would always be wise to confirm these dates through family, church, county, state/province, or other records. If a photograph shows only year dates, but the listing shows a more complete date, or a different date, the complete date comes from my own research records. Women's maiden names continue to be listed in parentheses, and I have added additional maiden names from my own records. If the maiden name is hyphenated, the second name reflects a previous marriage. Researchers should find the maiden names list helpful in quickly identifying married women. I have also added some missing place-of-birth information. In the tables in these pages, a link in the Block/Lot column, or Surname column will take you to a photo of the family's, or individual's, monument. A link in the Given Names column will take you to the individual's grave marker, or close-up of a monument inscription. Occasionally you will find pictures with odd colors. These were digitally "enhanced" to make the inscriptions readable. Use the back button to return to the list from viewing a photograph. If a name is italicized, there is, or was, no marker for the grave at the time of my last visit (June 2006). Obituaries
and/or other biographical
information, and some photographs, are slowly being added. Click on
the I have tried to be mindful of family privacy issues in preparing these pages. In a number of instances I've removed names and birth dates of known living individuals from the listing and grave marker photos. I will also attempt to avoid references to living individuals unless specifically permitted when deciding which obituaries and biographies to include. If you have additions, corrections, or comments, please feel free to contact me. I live in Hawaii, so I won't be able to help you with on-site research, but the links below have been helpful in my own work. As usual with genealogical research, I would caution you to always confirm secondary sources if you can. Until recently, the closest doctors and hospitals to this area were in Grand Forks, North Dakota; so if you don't find the vital records you're looking for (births/deaths) in Minnesota, it would be a good idea to look in North Dakota. Jo Lynn Gunness Helpful Research Links (in no special order): Lanark County Genealogical Society Lanark
County GenWeb site, and particularly his Lanark
County - Cemeteries. Bytown
or Bust: Migration and Settlement in the Ottawa, Canada area in the 1800's
Emigrants from Ontario, Canada to North Dakota, Minnesota and Manitoba Minnesota GenWeb Project - Polk County, MN Minnesota
Historical Society North
Dakota Department of Health, Public Death Index These
pages last revised
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next to names for these
links. Use the back button to return to the list.