The History So Far...The John Gilbertson, Jr. Family

We aren't necessarily sure exactly when John Gilbertson, Jr. was born. The censuses that were mentioned in the last post put his approximate birthday somewhere around 1849 to 1850 in England. On his death certificate, however, his birthday is listed as 26 February 1852. It's very possible, of course, that the date on the death certificate is a little off, especially since his birthday on the 1900 US Census (when he was still alive to be asked what his birthday was) is recorded as being February 1848. All but two of the records that we have that list his birthplace (including the marriage records of his children) list his birthplace as Carlisle, England. This seems highly likely considering we tentatively have found his younger sister Mary being baptized in Carlisle in 1851.

What we do know for certain is that he came to the United States between 1871 (when he appears on the Scottish Census) and 25 April 1873 when he files a declaration of intent to marry Abigail Florence Perkins at Rockland, Knox, Maine. One would assume that he arrived soon enough before then to at least meet his wife. We know that the two of them were married on 30 April 1873 in Rockland. We know that they then moved south to South Thomaston, where their first child, a girl, died 2 November 1873. Since John Gilbertson was known to be a granite hewer, it is assumed that he moved to where the jobs were located. His daughter Annie records on her marriage record that she was born on Dix Island where there was a mining operation. In 1880 he is shown as living with his family in St. George, Maine, where granite mining was an industry. Finally sometime before 1887 he moves his family to Barre, Vermont, which is word-famous for its granite. There he spent the rest of his life working until he died there on 4 Dec 1906 of a "cerebral hemorrhage."

Abigail Florence Perkins, who went by Abbie, was the daughter of Joseph Wardwell Perkins and Emma Jones. She was born on 25 Dec 1849 in Maine, according to her death certificate. It has been difficult to pinpoint where in Maine, but most of the information seems to point towards somewhere in Waldo county. After her husband died, she continued to take care of the family. She has four family members living with her in 1910 (David, Hannah, Hannah's husband, and a nephew), and in 1920 she has her grandson John Edward Hall living with her. She died 8 Aug 1925 of liver cancer.

John and Abbie had eight children together, seven of which lived to adulthood. The children, who will be individually covered in later postings, are: an unnamed daughter (died 2 Nov 1873 in South Thomaston, Maine), William John (born 14 Oct 1874 in South Thomaston), Mary E. (born about 1877 in Thomaston, Maine), Annie Florence (born Oct 1878 on Dix Island, Maine), Georgia E. (born Nov 1881 in Maine), Joseph Wardwell (born Jan 1884 in Belfast, Maine), David McKnight (born 5 Jul 1887 in Barre, Vermont), and Hannah Phebe (born Sep 1891 in Barre).