Do you ever feel like you “know” an ancestral family even though you’ve never met any of them (including a few whose lifespans overlap your own)?

I think I’ve always felt that way about the Tarbox family even though I’ve never met anyone with the Tarbox surname and it is lost in my direct line with my 2X great grandmother, Nellie F. Tarbox Adams.

My grandfather’s cousin Charles, who was just a few months older than my mom, and who I knew, was a grandson of Nellie. He had few memories of her as she died when he was only four years old.

However, Nellie was much loved and Charles’s mother, Pearl Adams Chadwick was Nellie’s daughter. Charles told me how she was called Nammie, shared the old family photos with me and told me who most of the people were – Nammie’s siblings, nieces and nephews. Maybe that’s why I feel like I knew them myself.

Charles kept in touch with some of the descendants, but I have not. I’d love to find them now so today I’m sharing the little I’ve been able to discover about them in modern day records.

Nellie Tarbox Adams had one surviving sister and three brothers who reached adulthood. One sister and one brother had died in childhood.

Elizabeth Tarbox was the only child of George and Mary (Scripture) Tarbox to have been born in Massachusetts. George and Mary were living in Newburyport when Lizzie was born on 19 July 1851.

I have one photo of Lizzie:

Lizzie Tarbox Vickery

Lizzie married Charles S. Vickery on 24 September 1871 in Calais, Washington, Maine. Charles was a stone mason who served in Companies I & G, 1st Maine Cavalry during the Civil War. His military record described him as 5’6″, with hazel eyes and black hair.

He was born on 2 March 1847 in Washington County, Maine and probably in Calais, as his family lived there in 1850.

Charles most likely worked with/for Lizzie’s father, George Rogers Tarbox, as George owned a granite quarry in Red Beach, which today is part of the city of Calais. Charles died at the young age of 53 years, due to silicosis, a progressive, disabling and often fatal lung disease, which came from breathing the stone dust in the quarry.

Lizzie never remarried and died in Calais on 27 May 1928.

Charles and Lizzie had five children:

1. Mary E. (Elizabeth?), born May 1872; died 10 February 1909, Calais, Washington, Maine. She married Vernon Margrove Wentworth, 1 January 1895, Calais, Washington, Maine. Vernon was born 5 March 1871, Maine; died 3 November 1922 and is buried at Calais Cemetery with Mary and son Lloyd. Cousin Charles told me that my great grandparents, Charles and Annie Adams, were so fond of Vernon Wentworth that they gave the same name to my grandfather, who became Vernon Tarbox Adams.
2. Charles Stiles, born 22 March 1875; died 25 February 1936, Greenfield, Franklin, Massachusetts. He married Emma J. Brackett, 30 June 1897, Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts. She was born 1874; died 1929. They are both buried in Green River Cemetery, Greenfield, Franklin, Massachusetts.
3. George T., born 22 February 1876, Calais, Washington, Maine; died 19 February 1912, Asheville, Buncombe, North Carolina. He was unmarried and had no children as far as I’ve been able to determine.
4. Elizabeth, aka Lizzie, born 19 September 1878, Calais, Washington, Maine; died 5 June 1956, Camden, Knox, Maine. She married Henry D. Evans, 19 August 1914, Augusta, Kennebec Maine.
5. Jeannette Peel, born c1882, Calais, Washington, Maine; died after 1940. She married Lee Berry, 18 September 1906, Calais, Washington, Maine.

There are few descendants in the next generation.

Vernon and May Wentworth had three children, all born in Calais:

1. Nola Lina, born 4 July 1895; died November 1978, Wilton, Hillsborough, New Hampshire. She never married. Nola was an English teacher who taught at Malden High School, Malden, Massachusetts in 1927. She was in Leominster in 1929. She attended Wheaton College in Wheaton, Illinois. Nola visited England at least once, as she appears on the passenger list of the SS. Baltic, arriving in New York from Liverpool on 29 August 1932.
2. Lloyd V., born 24 August 1896; died 1917; buried Calais Cemetery with his mother. He never married and had no children.
3. Lester R., born 30 October 1901; died after 1940 when he lived in Westchester County, New York; married Eva L. before 1940. Lester had no known children.

Therefore, there are no descendants of Charles and Lizzie Vickery through Mary.

Charles S. and Emma J. (Brackett) Vickery had four children:

1. Vivian Hazel, born 22 April 1898, Calais, Washington, Maine; died after 1940, when she lived in Newburgh, Orange, New York with her two children; married Murdoch Roy Mackay. He was born c1899, Massachusetts; died 1976. Roy and Vivian apparently separated. They had one son, Donald Gordon Mackay, and one daughter, Gene Elinor Mackay, both of whom married, but had no children.
2. Roger Brackett, born 9 July 1900, Calais, Washington, Maine; died 1964; married Frances Coleman, 1930. They lived in Springfield, Hampden, Massachusetts in 1940. They had no known children. Roger served in the Marines in World War II.
3. Charles Edward, born 31 July 1905, Greenfield, Franklin, Massachusetts; died 1982; married Eva Adelaide Holt, 18 May 1926, Rensselaer County, New York. She was born 1905; died 1992. Both are buried at Greenvale Cemetery, Greenfield, Hillsborough, New Hampshire. They had two daughters and four sons.
4. Merle Winthrop, born 11 November 1907, Greenfield, Franklin, Massachusetts; died 4 January 1974, North Adams, Massachusetts; married Bernice Irene Adams. She was born 16 September 1906, Brattleboro, Windham, Vermont; died 27 April 1982, Clarksburg, Berkshire, Massachusetts. They had two daughters.

Elizabeth, or Lizzie, Vickery married Henry D. Evans and had one daughter:

1. Hester Elizabeth Evans, born 19 October 1920; died 21 June 1999, Kinston, Lenoir, North Carolina. She married John Dow, who died in 1979. They had two sons and two daughters.

Jeannette Peel Vickery married Lee Berry. In 1940, they lived in Brookline, Norfolk, Massachusetts, which is the last record in which they appear. They had two sons and two daughters:

1. Elizabeth Mary, born 9 November 1907, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts
2. Paul Lloyd, born 13 September 1909, Boston, Suffolk, Massachusetts; died 29 August 1982, Houston, Harris, Texas. He was a widower when he died and it is not known if he had any children.
3. Horace A., born c1912, Massachusetts; died after 1940; married Elnora or Nora, between 1930-1940. He was an inspector engineer who lived in San Francisco in 1935 and New York, New York in 1940. He is found on Boston crew lists in 1935. Elnora was born c1912, Oregon and lived in Portland, Oregon in 1935. They had no children in 1940.
4. Cora Louise, 21 June 1913, Malden, Middlesex, Massachusetts; died September 1975; married Charles Edgar Thayer, 4 November 1944, Rindge, Cheshire, New Hampshire. He was born 25 September 1913, Keene, Cheshire, New Hampshire; died 13 February 1988, Pinellas, Florida. It is unknown whether they had any children.

Of all the descendants of Charles S. Vickery and Elizabeth Tarbox, only Charles Edward Vickery, Merle Winthrop Vickery and Hester Elizabeth (Evans) Dow had documented children. It is possible that Jeannette Peel (Vickery) Berry had grandchildren, as I haven’t been able to trace her children in modern records.

If you are a Vickery-Tarbox cousin, please leave a comment. In the meantime, I am hot on the trail of Charles Edward’s and Merle Winthrop’s descendants. 🙂