In my last post, I shared a video I created about the Charles Pinheiro/Lester Ince families of Halifax, Nova Scotia. After entering into contact with the Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia and the city of Halifax, I now have to make substantial edits to that video.
Why? Because Charles and Rose Pinheiro had another child I knew nothing about.
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| Camp Hill Cemetery, 1879 |
Their daughter's name is Grace Darling Pinheiro. She was 5 years, 3 months old when she died. She doesn't appear in the vital statistics records from the city of Halifax. She doesn't appear on any of the census records with her family. The only place I've been able to find her so far is in the burial records of Camp Hill Cemetery. Apart from the certainty that she was born and raised in Halifax city, I knew next to nothing about her.
Or did I?
Sometimes what you don't see is it's own clue!
Closer inspection of the birth and death registers of Nova Scotia reveals the problem. From 1877 to 1908, there was a lapse in birth and death registration in Nova Scotia. Halifax city deaths are the only exception, having kept their registers from 1890 to 1908.
I pulled out an index card and drew out the ranges. I had a feeling I could figure this out.
First, I drew out the window of conception for Grace's mother, Rose: beginning in 1882 with her marriage to about 1897. Then, I drew brackets around the time it was possible for Grace to have been born within that window of time, and not show up on the 1891 census. Two ranges of possible birth years emerged: 1882-1886, and 1891-1896. I didn't exclude 1886 as a birth year, even though that was the year her sister Ethel was born, in the event that they might have been twins.
Using her age at death, I created two possible death year ranges: 1886-1891, and 1896-1901. Because the death registers are intact for Halifax city from 1890 onward, and Grace is not recorded therein, we may logically presume that she did not die in or after 1890. The second range and the latter part of the first range therefore becomes unlikely. If she died no later than 1890, she could be be born no later than 1885. This eliminates the likelihood of her having been a twin sister to Ethel.
Calculating in the earliest possible birth for marital conception, Grace was likely born some time between 1883 and 1884, and died between 1888 and 1889. She was buried in a segregated part of Camp Hill Cemetery. Her parents, sister, and nephew would later join her in that same plot.
I've submitted the plot information to FindaGrave.com--Division 1, C-S plot 43--and still have hopes that the photo request will be answered. I confirmed with Halifax city that there is a grave stone.
It may not be in the best condition. It may not even be legible anymore. But knowing it was a tribute, purchased by Charles to honor and remember three generations of his family makes it incredibly special to me. That alone makes me eager to see it someday.