Coveduck - Coveyduck Coveyduc, Families

  Coveyduc - Mesher Connection In Labrador 

27th July 2002
COVEYDUC-MESHER FAMILY LABRADOR 1882 (July 25.2002)

Here is another article I found taken from Selena COVEYDUC'S Bible The full story and photos can be found on my Genealogy site on the MESHER page. Selena is the daughter of John COVEDUCK born in 1825. Documents I have found lead me to believe that John COVEDUCK'S father and my great great grandfather James COVEDUCK'S father were brothers. John & Francis Fanny (Wells) COVEDUCK photos can be viewed in the photo album on my Genealogy Site. They were donated by Daphne Jones who lives in Labrador. Daphne and I have been corresponding for the past two years ....William (Bill) Coveduck

MY MOTHER'S ACCOUNT OF HER FAMILY by MARION THARP

My father married Selina Coveyduc, or Coveydeux, of Salmon Cove, Conception Bay Newfoundland. She had come to the Labrador coast as a cook for a Newfoundland man at Cape North, Labrador in the summer of 1881. She remained In Labrador all winter to work in the home of my grandfather, Robert Mesher. Grandfather's son Reuben had been adopted at seven months by Grandfather's sister, Esther, and her husband, William Goodenough, they being childless.

On June 17, 1882, my mother, Selina Coveyduc married Reuben Mesher. The following March 19, 1882 their first child, William Goodenough Mesher was born. On Sept. 13, 1884 I put In an appearance, Frances Esther. almost two years later, on Sept. 6, 1886, came Robert John, named for his two grandfathers. On December 9, 1888 Samuel, James was born, named for Mother's brother, James and Father's brother, Samuel, Samuel was born on an unusually cold Sunday morning. Aunt Rosie Pardy, Father's aunt by marriage, brought Samuel into the world, a perfect Coveyduc. Next came baby Stanley, who lived only one month. A big, fat, ten-pound baby girl was next, born on Oct. 04. 1893 in Sandwich Bay, off Long- stretch in Father's schooner 'Royal Arch'. She was named Lily Mae Jane. Next came Stanley Edward, on Sept. 30, 1895, named for the baby who died and for Father's brother Edward on Sept. 30, 1895. The family was delighted when on March 11, 1898 a tiny girl was born. This delicate little flower was named Ellza for Grand-mother Mesher and Myrtle, a favourite name. She lived two months and is buried in the Paradise River Point graveyard. Eldred Evan came to the family on March 16, 1901, another Coveyduc. I had spent the years 1900-1903 in Lunenburg, N.S. and never saw my blue-eyed baby brother until he was almost two years old. Mother was then expecting Karl Rupert Chesley, who came on Sept. 21, 1903, a real Mesher. Mother had not been strong after Karl's birth, but she became pregnant again and in December, 1905, the last child came, a tiny, fragile, little Coveyduc, Douglas DeWitt. Mother nearly died, but with excellent care she recovered. The little baby, always a little skeleton, clung to life and grew to be four years old, but too weak to overcome a case of scarlet fever, he died after withering away for ten days.

Mother had another brother, mentioned in another account, he uas Victor Grenfell Mesher, born Oct. 1, 1899 and died in 1808, I have been able to get some information from Mother's diaries. She kept a diary for thirty-one years. Grandmother Selina had a huge, old, family Bible when I stayed with her and Uncle Stanley in 1928. I had very little to read that winter, although the school did send us books saved from the fire*. I used to read the old Bible. Some of Mother's diary for 1955 reads: