Griese Mackenzie … is kind of an odd title.  But it goes back to a book I was reading.  Let me explain.

Now that I know where my MacKenzie (or McKenzie) great grandfather came from (Middle River, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia), I decided to look at another MacKenzie from the same town.  The Griese comes from a Reverend Griese who is a descendant of Neil McKenzie and visited Middle River in 2001.

I was reading this book on the history of Middle River and saw a few sentences on Neil McKenzie who went to Pennsylvania to find work but found a wife.  I am not sure if that was in addition to a job or instead of a job but it did get my attention.  He and his new wife moved back to Middle River where they had several children. Tragically, Neil died as the result of a farm accident.  Nancy had young children to raise and decide to move back to her family in Pennsylvania.  Some descendants visited Middle River about 16 years ago.

I figured Neil lived about the same time as my great grandfather but I had no idea how they were related. Since I knew a little about Neil and his wife and a little on a grandchild and 2 great-grandchildren, I might be able to fill-in the in-between generations and find a few more descendants and maybe even some evidence on earlier generations.

If you’ve read this far you are must be interested in genealogy or maybe this MacKenzie family.  In either case you probably want names, dates, and places so here it all is.  I’d like to hear from you if you think this MacKenzie family is interesting or may be related to you. I may be related but right now, I have no idea how.

Neil MacKenzie was probably born around 1860. He may have been born in Middle River or moved there at some point.  From there he went down to Clearfield County, Pennsylvania looking for work.  There he married Nancy Grant.  For what I can tell Nancy was from a Pennsylvania family but I wonder if her family also had some connection with Middle River.

As I said above, Neil and Nancy moved back to Middle River.  As far as I know they had seven children  : Charles Thomas Mackenzie (1886-1977), William Henry MacKenzie (1890-1978), Ella May MacKenzie (1893-1945), Jeanetta Belle MacKenzie (died young), Ava Elizabeth MacKenzie (1895-1991), Sarah Jane MacKenzie (died young) , and Maud I MacKenzie (1897-after 1910)

As far as I can tell from the records, all were born in Nova Scotia except Charles Thomas Mackenzie who was born in Karthaus, Clearfield County, Pennsylvania according to WW1 draft records.  While mentioning records I should add that sometimes the name is recorded as MacKenzie and other times as McKenzie.  Also in some cases I do have an exact date and other times I just approximate it based on records.

I do have a limited amount of information moving on the 5 children who survived to adulthood.

1               In the 1920 census, Charles was living with his mother Nancy McKenzie as well as her grandson Donald (born abt. 1914).  The simplest assumption is that Donald is son of Charles but that is not necessarily so.  Also in his WW1 draft card in 1917, he lists himself as single.

2 William Henry MacKenzie was born in Nyanza, Cape Breton Island, Nova Scotia, Canada and married Loretta Fay Rubly. They had 3 children (William Henry MacKenzie, Jr, Alex Francis MacKenzie, and Vickie Mackenzie).  They lived in NJ and Fredericksburg, VA.

3              Ella May MacKenzie married George Krollman.  They lived in Fredericksburg, VA and had 4 children (George Krollman Jr., Margaret Krollman, Fay Krollman. and Ann Krollman).

4              Ava Elizabeth MacKenzie married Richard Ross Smith.  As far as I know, they stayed in Pennsylvania.  In the 1940 census, they were in Patton Township, Allegheny County, Pennsylvania.

5              As to Maud, I have not found much yet.  She was with her mother in the 1910 census but not the 1920 census.  Since she would have been about 23 in 1920, She could well have married or just lived apart from her mother  but I’ve not come across the record yet.  Also she could have died.  Maybe I’ll get lucky and find something to indicate which happened.

So if anything about this M(a)cKenzie family sounds familiar to you, I’d be glad to hear from you.