I've got questions. Have you got answers?

For a project with a wide area of focus like this, there are many, many open questions. As I come across issues that I am unlikely to solve by myself and are important for one reason or another, I will add them here. If you can help answer one or more of these questions, please contact me by clicking my name in the footer of the page below.

The list is short right now because in the past I did not make note of questions as they arose. Now that I have somewhere to record them, I expect the list to grow quickly.

How do the "orphans" connect to the family?

I keep a list of people with the surname Bezanson who are probably descendants of Jean George Bezanson that I have not been able to connect to known descendants. I call them "orphans". Please review the list, which is on a separate page, to see if you can help.

Orphans

Who were the parents of Catherine Stewart who married Ebenezer Bezanson?

According to Bezansons from Nova Scotia (p. 43), Catherine Stewart (1822-1903) was born in Scotland in 1821 and married Ebenezer Bezanson (1829-1912) on 25 November 1850 at Lochaber, Nova Scotia. According to the Canadian census of 1901, she was born 30 November 1822 in Scotland. I have not found primary sources for either her marriage or her birth. Several couples have been proposed as her parents, but I have not seen any evidence to support those couples other than Scottish census extracts that show a Catherine Stewart of the appropriate age. It seems likely that Catherine Stewart (or perhaps Stuart) is a common Scottish name, and so there may be many women in the census of the appropriate age.

It would help to have a primary source for the marriage of Catherine and Ebenezer because they often include parent's names.

When did George Bezanson die?

George Bezanson (1781-?) probably died after 7 June 1821 when his last child, Sarah Ann Bezanson (1821-1887) was born. It's possible he died after she was conceived, but before she was born. For all I know, he could have outlived her.

Sarah Ann Bezanson is my closest Bezanson connection, and I am missing some of the basic facts about her father's life.

What happened to the wife and children of Simon George Holley immediately after he died?

Simon George Holley (c1855-1882) died at 27 years old in 1882 leaving hiw widow Annie Bezanson (1857-?) with a handful of young children. According to NSARM Marriage Registrations, "Minnie Holly" married Robert Davidson in 1884, and Annie Bezanson was evidently also known as Minnie or Minnie Ann according to Bezansons from Nova Scotia (p. 40, 97). In the 1891 Canadian census, I found an Ann Davidson married to Robert Davidson in Isaacs Harbour, Nova Scotia, but I am not certain that is the same person. As far as I can tell, none of the Holley children are in the household, and some would still be young enough in 1891 that they would naturally be with their mother. I have been unable to find any of those children elsewhere in the 1891 census. The Holley children reappear in later years, some in Isaac's Harbour, some elsewhere.

There are some other questions about Annie Bezanson, too. Bezansons from Nova Scotia says she married three times, first to James Mitchell, next to Simon George Holley, and lastly to Robert Davidson. Based on the Marriage Registrations, it's not clear to me that all three marriages are for the same woman. I recorded the wife of James Mitchell as a separate person, Minnie Ann Bezanson. If she is indeed a different woman, I do not know where she fits in the tree.