My relationship: Me > Norma Haynes (mother) > Thomas N. Haynes (grandfather) > Annie Vessie McNeil (my great grandmother) > Matthew McNeil (My great great grandfather)
Matthew McNeil was the son of John McNeil (or McNeal) and Elizabeth McLearn (or McLennan). He was born in the Douglas Township of Hants County, Nova Scotia on 7 November 1795. He married Hannah Lutches Blois (daughter of early settlers Abraham Blois and Sarah Margaret Kilcup) on 8 December 1823 in Douglas Township. They had six children: John (1824 - 1885), Lydia Jane (1826 - 1902), Lavina (1829 - 1905), Hugh (1830 - 1910), Twins Olive (1832 - ) and Oliver (1832 - 1911), and Annie Vessie McNeil (1836 - 1913) who was my great grandmother.
Hannah died at the young age of 32 (when Annie was almost 2 years old) and was buried in the Gore at the Blois family cemetery. After Hannah died in 1838, the family was broken up and Matthew moved away. I presume Annie stayed in Hants County, probably brought up by relatives, as she married Robert Hanes on December 4, 1860 in Kennetcook, Hants County.
Matthew married again (Bertha, born in New Brunswick) and lived the rest of his life in Clements, Annapolis County and Bear River, Digby County, Nova Scotia and was buried there. He had two children with Bertha: Margaret (1859 - 1947) and Willie (1861 - ). There is no record of Matthew in the 1881 Canada census, or of Bertha or son Willie.
Matthew's occupation was listed as a shoemaker in the 1871 census and in the marriage record of his daughter, Margaret McNeil, who married James Winchester on July 9, 1878 in Hillsburgh, Digby County.
