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SHOEMAKER’S LEDGER, ROSE BAY AND RIVER PORT, LUNENBURG COUNTY, NOVA SCOTIA 1897 ~ 1918
This is an account book kept by a local shoemaker living in
or near the communities of Cross Roads (now called Rose Bay) and Ritsey's Cove (now called River Port) Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia. There are no identifying notations
to tell me who the shoemaker was, so I had to research the
names in the book. I found them all living in Cross Roads
and Ritsey's Cove so I assume the shoemaker lived nearby.
The entries I read date from 1897 to 1918. There may be
some earlier or later - they are not in date order.
It's really a fascinating book as it names children too -
the shoemaker noted who he made the shoes for, and their
cost, putting everyone under the father's name. Sometimes
he added a note as to who the father was - if it was a name
shared by more than one man, he would put "xx son of yy" as
the head of the house. So he might put James Jones son of
Levi and then list all of the work he did for James Jones
and family.
This shoemaker also sold prescription glasses and other
items so it's really interesting to read. He describes
shoes and boots being made, being repaired and so on. As a
small example, under the name Daniel Himmelman he has the
date Feb. 10th 1897 and the notation "pair boots
Albert" and the cost $1.75. So we know that
Daniel's son Albert had boots made in Feb. 1897. That is so
cool! He writes up what he did and for who, line by line,
then adds the total due. It seems many of the villagers
kept running accounts with the Shoemaker, some for over a
year before paying! When the items are paid for, he writes
a large PAID in script over the entire set of transactions.
But the good news is that the transactions are perfectly
readable.
There are 211 pages and each page of this shoemakers ledger
is 17x41 cm. His spellng is pretty bad but it's not hard to
figure what the names really are. Some villagers have many
pages devoted to them! Leonard Oxner for example has a page
starting in 1911 and ending 1914 with a final notation
"Paid Jan 17, 1916" I really enjoyed reading what the
shoemaker did, and what he charged! In 1914 he repaired
Leonard' s harness for .30! In December 1911 he charged
Alex Smith .10 for "putting on skates" for Arthur (the day
after Christmas, I think we all know what Arthur got for
Christmas that year!). Arthur must have been quite an
active young lad, because he is listed several times
between July 3, 1911 and Dec. 26 as having shoes patched,
shoes repaired, shoes soled and heeled, shoes patched and
the skates put on.
Here are just a few of the surnames I spotted in
this shoemaker's book. There are more!
BACKMAN
, CAMERON
, CONRAD
, DONIVAN
, GARRET
, GARREDT
, HEEKMAN
, HIMMELMAN
, HIRTLE
, KNOCK
, LOHNES
, LEEK
, MOSHER
, MOSMAN
, NORMAN
, NOW
, OXNER
, PEATOR
, RITCEY
, RYSER
, MORRIS
, RONKEY
, RISSER
, SMITH
, WITNERS
, WHINTERS
, WENTZEL
, ZINCK
, ZINK
I am pleased to announce that I am slowly scanning all of these wonderful Ledger Books. Each book will be published as a downloadable PDF file on AncestorsAtRest website so that genealogists and historians can access them freely. Please be patient as I work towards bringing them all online.
Go to the
Index to List of available Ledger Books
Meantime if you wish to help with the expense of my purchasing these invaluable one-of-a-kind Ledger Books please consider contributing. No amount is too small. The books are very expensive and I want to bring as many online for researchers to access for free. I hate to think of these wonderful books, chock full of our ancestors' names, disappearing!
If you would like to help, just use the PayPal button below. Choose from $5.00, $10.00, $15.00, $20.00 or $25.00 to go towards the costs of purchasing more ledger books.
Go back to the
Index to List of Ledger Books
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Find your ancestors in death records. Search free genealogy death records such as coffin plates, death cards, funeral cards, wills, church records, family bibles, cenotaphs and tombstone inscriptions on AncestorsAtRest.com Find links to other genealogy death records like cemeteries, vital stats, and obituaries.
Death Finds a Way: A Janie Riley Mystery by Lorine McGinnis Schulze
