Robert Hanes (1831 - 1883)

My relationship: Me > Norma Haynes (mother) > Thomas N. Haynes > Robert Hanes (my great grandfather)

Robert Hanes was born on July 20, 1831 in Douglas Township, Hants County, Nova Scotia. He was one of thirteen children of John Hanes and Christiana Lahey (married at St. Paul's Anglican Church in Rawdon, Hants County on January 5, 1816).
Robert married Annie Vessie McNeil on December 4, 1860 at Kennetcook, Hants County, and had nine children.

Annie Vessie McNeil

In the 1871 Nova Scotia census, Robert and Annie are living in the Shubenacadie district of Hants County. At this time they had six children, all living, and they were living with Robert's parents John and Christiana. Robert is listed as a farmer and lumberman and could not read or write. He was said to be very strong, having at one time lifted a ship's anchor.

Sometime after their last child Lavinia (Millie) was born in 1876, the family moved to Boston. Robert is listed in the Boston City directories in 1880, 1882 and 1883. However, the family is not enumerated in the Boston 1880 census.

In the Massachusetts Death Records it states that Robert Hanes (laborer) died on August 7, 1883 at 53 1/2 Kendall Street, Boston of dysentery. A daughter, Lucy Alice, had died 14 days earlier of dysentery as well at age 11. Robert was buried in the Forest Hills Cemetery in Jamaica Plain. I have visited the cemetery and checked their records. There is no headstone at his burial location.

[The story is that at some point the family changed the spelling of their last name to Haynes, because they did not like the pronunciation of the name in Nova Scotia as Hines. However, all Boston records of Robert 1880 - 1883 have his name spelled as Hanes. The death record of his daughter Lucy in 1883 is also spelled Hanes. Therefore, it is likely that the name spelling was changed after Robert's death by Annie, as all records of Annie and their children from 1900 on are spelled Haynes].