Looking for Alice

John Johnson, Alice and Margaret Russell
James Johnson
1935

Alice was a bit of a wonder to me for some time now.  Well, actually  less than a year ago I came across the death certificate for a cousin; William Dingle Watters¹ that stated his wife to be a Alice Russell. Keep in mind, I am just finding out about the Watters family branch, so I didn't know much about William or the rest of his family.  But, now I have conflicting information, for I thought William was married to Margaret Howard, of which I had information about.  So, the solving mystery of Alice had to be discovered and adding to the tree.

First a little about Alice. She is the twin daughter of Calder Russell and Margaret Kingan.  The Russells are from Scotland prior to relocating to Nova Scotia in the 1800's because of all the available mines and the lure of a better life.  Alice and her twin Margaret were born in the mining town of Drummond Mines now called Westville in Jan 1909.   The photograph is of the twins at the age of 26 and two men are brothers; John and James Johnson which was taken in 1935 at  Upper Stewiacke, Nova Scotia.  In 1933, Alice marries a Athol Stewart of Trenton, Nova Scotia. Then something happens to Athol, which I know not, for Alice remarries my cousin William Watters in 1939.  To the best of my knowledge to date, Alice had no children from either marriage.

In searching for more information about Alice, I've discovered a few records about her birth and made contact with Alice's first cousin Myrtle².   The first document is Alice's birth certificate in which I found Calder's employment of great interest; a Stableman.  Also, the comment of Twin was very important latter in adding Margaret's passing to Alice's ancestry tree.  The second document is my discover was a sign declaration by John (brother) to Alice's birth and middle name; Savage.
I find these bits and piece very interesting, along with being very important in piecing family information back together some 80 or more latter.  Not to mention thousand of miles of separation and lack of initial family information in the first place.

With all this information in hand, I still didn't know what happened to Alice after William's death.  Somewhere along the line I found a tidbit of information that Alice may had died in the Winnipeg, but that turn out false.  Then, just this past week I came across an old post on one of the many genealogy forums which had some information about Alice.  The presented information wasn't much, but it was enough for me to try the associated email.  The post was dated 2007, so what is the possibility that the email was still be used.  I sent an email to the address and less than an hour, Myrtle replied.   Through our conversations, Myrtle confirmed that Alice passed away in Westville and is resting in the same plot with William; Brookside Cemetery, New Glasgow, Nova Scotia, though the marker doesn't have Alice's passing³.  The headstone marking her passing is to be found in the Auburn Cemetery Westville, NS.

Watters
Alice S Russell
Jan 1909- Dec 1967
Wife of
William D Watters

1  William Dingle Watters parents were James L Watters and Margaret McNulty.  I mention this because there are more than one William Dingle Watters in the family tree.
2   Myrtle supplied the pictures of the four siblings, the headstone for Alice.
3  Myrtle will be, if not already, be adding Alice's passing to the Watters headstone in the Brookside Cemetery.

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Loco Wiper



page 1

 This is a display of a railroad employment record for William Dingle Watters.  William lived his life in the Stellarton and Westville area of Nova Scotia.  The record contain the wages, the layoffs, the merits and demerits that Watters experienced while with the Cape Breton and Nova Scotia Railway, CBNS.  Now, I would like to draw your attention to the top right of page #1 of the record.  Notice the wages!  Can you image working for such a way.  Oh, Yes you can click the image to enlargen.

Also found on this record was valuable genealogy data, pretaining to his birth date, the name of second wife; Alice and the reason of his death.

page 2

Take a moment to read down through the second page of the record, where you will find some interesting entries such as; falsify a report, damaging an engine, and valuable assistance giving on righting an engine.

On the final page of the record we learn that William held many positions with the railroad, from Loco Wiper which is a starting position with the duties of wiping down the engine, to Enginmeer.  On the page we  find that William died of a heart attack in 1954. William worked for the Cape Breton and Central Nova Scotia Railway, CBNS, most of his short life.





page 3



William is a second cousin through Elizabeth A Watters Reynolds.

William Dingle Watters

4 Oct 1894

Westville, Nova Scotia

13 Jan 1954

Stellarton, Nova Scotia