An amateur writer’s life is not filled with bestsellers and financial success. We usually write in niche areas that satisfy personal interests and may be directed to a narrow audience. That, at least, is my own experience.

But, in December 2024, I was informed that The Descendants of John Grant and Mary Sabean had received one of four honorable mentions in the Writer’s Digest competition. There were almost 700 books entered in the nonfiction history and biography category – thus, a top-five placement for my family history book leaves me with a sense of extreme satisfaction.

Look for an announcement on the Writer’s Digest website in May or June 2025. The winners in each category will be featured in the Writer’s Digest Magazine during the same timeframe.

The judge wrote some complimentary text in his/her report; very few comments were negative. More importantly, on 3 February 2025, a delightful book review was posted on the competition website, open to authors and available for them to share on their websites, blogs, and social media. The judge/book reviewer remains anonymous – excerpts from the review (including some note-form text)  are copied below, with only slight and necessary editing:

“ … This book is exemplary in its structure, organization, and pacing. The structure of the chapters/parts aid[s] in a compelling organization of the story or information. The pacing is even throughout and matches the tone/genre of the book. Hats off to the author for taking so much researched material and organizing everything to an admirable point of keeping our interest and making it grow throughout the narrative. There is a lot of research here, and [the] author drums up more interest by saying ‘I didn’t find info on this’ and ‘Did they have just one child?’ Strangely and wonderfully, the honesty of the writer who has worked so hard on this project only makes us want to know more about the relatives and when they lived. Chapter themes like ‘Women in History’ and ‘Men in the Marine Life’ round up [a variety of similar] fascinating subjects. Well done.

This book has spelling, punctuation, and grammar corresponding with the region of the world from which the author hails (ex. British English or American English) or with where the book is set (including slang, vernacular, or dialect). These choices are intentional and implemented consistently throughout with few, if any, errors. Outstanding job with the edit, making sure that there are no errors [to] trip up the reader and disconnect them from the narrative even for a moment. We’re immersed in this material and don’t want to miss a thing.

This book is exemplary in production quality and cover design. The digital file allows for easy and accurate toggling between chapters and URLs (if any) are hyperlinked. The cover appears to be professionally designed and is compellingly related to the content/genre of the book. The cover offers a fabulous tone of the past, bringing the reader right into history with the faded hues of the map, showing us where we will be ‘dropped’. Our target is this one family, but their stories over time fan out. We see land, and land is such a big part of a family’s history. The author has covered many important details in a family’s story.

This book is exemplary in its choice of topic or theme of the story. It is unique but still has strong appeal for most readers in its intended genre … [and]  the book is well plotted. This book crosses from a genealogy report to a descriptive narrative, non-fiction study, and fascination. We follow the arms of this family tree to their dealings and challenges in different eras of history. The author set up so much presence for us to take up as we ride with them across the county, suffer losses, and celebrate births. With so many characters, the author only has room for a few summation points per person, but has put so many fascinating points of interest from their life stories that we gulp down their stories and hope to see more of them. Great work.

This book is exemplary in character appeal (or interest) and development. All main characters (including antagonists) are unique and fully fleshed out with compelling, layered motivations and traits. Secondary characters are unique and have a meaningful purpose. Character appeal for most names is a photograph and a few biographical notes on the family line, but the author has done well to make these notes stand out in realism. John and Mary have the longest appearance in the book, and from the consideration that he might have been illiterate, Mary perhaps being able to write her name. Among the many things that readers learn is that people might have made a mark for their name on a form, instead of a signature. The culture and history of our citizens grow throughout the book, and they grow with it. A [f]ascinating [story with] tons of much-appreciated research.

This book is exemplary in its voice and writing style. It has a unique voice, and the writing style is consistent throughout. The style and tone are also consistent with or will appeal to readers of the intended genre. The author writes with a warm appreciation for everyone in his family tree. It can be humbling to stand before the names of so many relatives, absorbing the weight of what they had to endure, how they carried on after the loss of a baby or a marine man lost at sea. The writing voice he uses is one of strength and warmth at the same time, appreciating everyone in his lineage and the opportunities of the land where they lived. It’s a thoroughly enjoyable writing style and voice, idyllic for capturing the enduring interest of the reader. Well done.”

I hope you can appreciate why I am “puffed up with pride”. 

If you are researching your Celtic roots in the British Isles two websites may interest you. One is a blog called Anglo-Celtic Connections by genealogist John Reid at https://www.anglocelticconnections.ca/. The author is a working genealogist who provides pointers to database updates and new tools at the major genealogy research sites, announcements about webinars taking place in Ontario (mainly), the United States, and sometimes in Europe (the British Isles), among others.

One “gem” found in Mr. Reid’s blog today is a reference to the Irish Family History Centre (IFHC), Dublin. The IFHC hosts a variety of free and paid services. You will find blogs, podcasts, an informative magazine (https://www.irishfamilyhistorycentre.com/product/irish-lives-remembered-issue-61/), and a portal to research services. The current magazine has at least two articles of interest to me: 1) “Gaels Who Sail: The Irish in the Caribbean, Pacific and Antarctic” and 2) “Unlocking Secrets with DNA: My Unexpected Result.” The first article adds to my general knowledge of the Age of Sail during which many of my Grant cousins and extended family sailed from Nova Scotia and New Brunswick as sailors, mariners, and master mariners. The second article speaks to my own happy DNA surprise, mentioned in my book’s last chapter (seek and you will find).

Why mention an Irish genealogy website? My mother Mary Frances Grant (1930 – 2022), was born Mary Frances Bennett, the daughter of William Bennett (1884 – 1966) of Halifax, Nova Scotia, and Alice Ramsay (1897 – 1981), of Clementsport, Nova Scotia. My 2nd great-grandfather was Arthur John Bennett, born about 1798 in Davidstown, County Wexford, and died in August 1872 at Halifax, Nova Scotia. Arthur Bennett was a carpenter who emigrated to Halifax sometime after his marriage in 1825 to Mary Kelly (died 1875 in Halifax). Arthur and Mary arrived in Halifax when the city was undergoing a period of growth. The call must have gone out to carpenters and other tradesmen, some of whom came from Ireland to ply their skills in Nova Scotia. Thus my interest in the IFHC.

If you have found my web address you will not need to use the attached link to access my book (unless you prefer to purchase it through Amazon.com or Amazon.ca.) The Bookmad Magazine website will introduce you to other books in various fiction and non-fiction categories. It is worth reviewing from time to time.

My intent is to post at least two items each month. The first few items or articles will summarize the research material I’m collecting online to support future writing projects. Today, I want to introduce you to an outstanding resource called canadiana.ca. The site is packed with books, journals, newspaper, government texts of all kinds, and letters from settlers to their families in the “Old Country” wherever that might have been. The returns using search terms like “Irish immigrants” “Irish immigration (or emigration)” “Irish in Nova Scotia” are enormous, in one case reaching 1978 pages with ten items per page. Not all are useful, as one might guess. But, if the search engine prioritizes the most significant texts, then it should be easy to pick out several useful resources. I vary my note taking between MS Word and a fountain pen (really!). In this case, I stopped writing when I reached eight looseleaf pages.

The earlies sources are from 1820 “America and the British Colonies: an Abstract of all the Most Useful Information” by William Kingdom, published in London. A second text was published in 1822 in Dublin, called “The Emigrants’ Guide to the Canadas” by William Watson. Twenty years later, Thomas Rolph published in London “Comparative Advantages Between the United States and Canada, for British Settlers.” There are many useful Guides – I intend to examine each one based on a timeline from earliest to latest and note the changes, perhaps culminating in a study of immigration to Canada by William George Smith, published in Toronto in 1920 and titled “A Study in Canadian Immigration.”

Canadiana.ca contains pre-Confederation documents by the various British government commissions established to monitor out-migration from Great Britain. Some of the documents I have skimmed provide information about ports of departure, number of registered emigrants, sickness and death reports, length of the crossing and port of arrival. If you are a family researcher you will already know that passenger lists were scanty during the nineteenth century. Yet, the statistical information will be useful to provide context to your research.

I used a basic key word search for this project. Canadiana also allows for a boolean search for those of you who have more experience with that feature. You can limit search results with a date range, a language feature (English preferred? but also French, Spanish, Russian, among others), and the ability to select newspapers, journals, letters, or monographs, for example.

May you have success in your research. Don’t forget to share new information about your discoveries with family and friends! This is genealogy, family history, social history, contextual history …

Allen

This blog is associated with my author website www.georgeallengrant.com. If you read the page “About the Author” you will see that I am an “active septuagenarian”. I’m in my mid-seventies and entering a more precarious stage of life in terms of social, mental, and physical health. Of course, my posts will seldom be about those issues. They will share my thoughts about genealogy, family history, and the Grant families of southwestern Nova Scotia. Extend that range to New England and you will have an idea of the geographical extent of my research playground. Imagine the year 1755, ominous for my Acadian ancestors, memorable as the year my 5th great-grandfather (John Grant) was born in Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia, and historically opaque concerning the involvement of my 6th great-grandfather (David Grant) in the deportation of the Acadians.

I’ll be using this blog to interact with you about The Descendants of John Grant and Mary Sabean, expanding on some of the topics in the book and posting about some of the ideas and themes that occur to me as I continue my research. This is a great place for you to get to know me, and I’m looking forward to getting to know you, too. What did you think of The Descendants of John Grant and Mary Sabean? What questions do you have for me?

I have prepared a tentative list of projects to develop over the next few years. The following summaries will give you a general idea of what I will write about.

My Direct Family Line.

1.  An Illustrated History of the Family of David and Susanna Grant. In this document, already in outline form, I will present the direct line of descent from David and Susanna to my father’s generation; by “illustrated” I mean maps, homes, crops, draft animals, and farm equipment. Those men and their spouses were farmers, adhered to the Baptist faith, and were often woodsmen, sometimes soldiers, but never sailors.
2.  Religion in the Life of the Grant Family. This family of subsistence farmers and their families became part of the “wave” of Baptist churchgoers in Annapolis and Digby counties, Nova Scotia. During the time of John Grant and Mary Sabean, they were intimately connected to the rooting of the Baptist Church in Digby County.
3. The Burial Locations of the Grants of Southwestern Nova Scotia. Boring, you say! An example of what I will profile here can be seen on FaceBook. Look at the Riverside Baptist Cemetery in Weymouth, Nova Scotia. Before I became entangled in the completion, editing, publishing, and marketing of my book, I wrote summaries of family members who are resting in this cemetery. For those of us with Grant family connections, this is the home cemetery of the family in Nova Scotia. For the cemeteries in Port Lorne, Nictaux, South Williamston, Paradise, and Bridgetown, I will outline their histories, family burials and biographical sketches, and current status (open or closed). When time permits, I would like to examine some of the cemeteries where distant cousins are buried in New England.
4. My Military Heritage: Sketches of the military activities of the last four generations of my family.
5. The Letters of Patrick Nowlan. An Irish immigrant from County Wexford, Patrick Nowland married my 5th grand-aunt, Susan Grant, the oldest daughter of John Grant and Mary Sabean. My interest in grand-uncle Patrick is to study the papers contained in the Library and Archives Canada Nowlan fonds, a series of letters written to and received from his family in Ireland. Basic research, social history, delving in archives!

Other Grants of Southwestern Nova Scotia.

1. The Life and Legacy of Alexander and Sarah Grant. My intent with this project is to fill in some of the gaps in the history of this family. Alexander Grant was a Scottish soldier, farmer, and Loyalist – killed early in the Revolutionary War. Sarah Grant endured several years on Long Island, then removed to Annapolis Royal for a brief time. Although she died of exposure while en route to Saint John, New Brunswick to submit a claim for losses incurred, the Crown granted land near Weymouth, NS to her heirs. And there is more …
2. The Loyalist Grants of Port Roseway (Shelburne), NS. They were part of a large group of Loyalists who settled around the promising harbour of Shelburne. The promise was unfulfilled. The Grants were among the many who moved on to less isolated areas of the Province and even returned to New England.
3. The African Grants of Shelburne County. These families appear briefly in census returns in the late 1800s. I will explore their origins and history in southwestern Nova Scotia.
4. The Grants of Granville Ferry. While doing research for my book, I came across a family of Grants who seem to have lived in British Columbia before going to Annapolis County. They were involved in shipping fruit from the small port of Annapolis Royal, built a warehouse near the single pier in town, and contributed to a railway spur line to the pier.
5.  The Grant Families of Yarmouth, Yarmouth County. I have some relatives who moved from Weymouth to Yarmouth, a once-vibrant shipping centre during the Age of Sail. There are probably two other Grant families who settled in the town and surrounding area. I will explore their antecedents and history in the town.
6.  Who was Mrs. Penuel Grant, Loyalist of Annapolis Royal? A “small” research project.

I will try not to stray from this project list. These eleven topics will keep me engaged for a number of years – count on it! As I research and learn, I will share this new knowledge with you. At the same time, I will share aspects of my genealogy experience, including research and educational sites, interesting Facebook groups and family history sites, and my successes and failures.

Stay with me! Stand fast! Allen

Welcome. My name is George Allen Grant, M.A., author of The Descendants of John Grant and Mary Sabean . I’m so happy to have you as a visitor to my blog about The Descendants of John Grant and Mary Sabean. This project is very special to me, and I hope to share some of that excitement with you here.

I’ll be using this blog to interact with you about The Descendants of John Grant and Mary Sabean, expanding on some of the topics in it and posting on some of the ideas related to my book. This is a great place for you to get to know me, and I’m looking forward to getting to know you, too. What did you think of The Descendants of John Grant and Mary Sabean What questions do you have for me? How do you relate to my book?

I’ll be returning here frequently with new posts and responses to feedback from you. Until next time, tell me a little bit about yourself.