Gibbs Henry Gesner (1799-07-12 – 1861×71) and Mary Eliza Hill (1803-11-05 – ⊥ 1890-07-17) were my great-great-great-grandparents, being the parents of Emily Frances Huntington. They were both born in Cornwallis, Nova Scotia, but later moved to Sydney, in Cape Breton.

Gibbs was the son of Henry Gesner and Sarah Pineo. Eliza was the daughter of James Hill (1773-08-27 – 1829-10), son of William and Rebecca Hill; and Phebe Cossitt (1781-12-30 – 1863-04)

Names

The unusual first name Gibbs is likely derived from a last name. It may be the maiden name of Stephen West’s wife Margery, Gibbs’s matrimaternal great-grandmother. Whatever the provenance, the name recurs in this family. For example, Gibbs has a maternal uncle named Gibbs Pineo.

Eliza’s name is recorded in a few ways, sometimes Mary Eliza, sometimes Elizabeth, sometimes Eliza, sometimes Mary E. I have never found plain Mary. Eliza seems to be her most usual self-reported name, so that is how I refer to her here.

Records

The 1838 census of Nova Scotia shows a household headed by Gibbs and Elizabeth Gesner, with a boy and two girls under 6.^ref The 1861 census shows a household headed by Gibbs H. Gesner with 3 males and 4 females, but with no information about age; this is probably the same person.

The 1871 census shows Eliza Gesner, widowed, living with a servant Effy White in Mira Bay.

Eliza was buried at St. George’s in Sydney on 1890-07-17, aged 86.^ref Many sources have her date death as 1889-01-11, which seems to originate in the Cossitt genealogy book^ref, but this must be wrong since she wouldn’t be buried more than a year and half after she died.

Family

Gibbs and Eliza married 1834-09-13 in Sydney. These are their children, according to a mix of primary and secondary sources:

• Henry James (1835-07-11 – 1867-01-20)^ref, no indication of a marriage.
• Maria Elizabeth (1837-03-19 – ⊥ 1908-11-22)^ref ref, married Joseph William Hill.
• Emily Frances (1838-05-01 – 1906-04-08), my great-great-grandmother.
• Albert George (* 1840-03-16), no further record.
• Charlotte Anne Margaret (1842-07-11 – 1851).
• Mary Elizabeth Gertrude (1845-04-27 – 1916-08-10)^ref, married William James Croll, moved to Boston, Massachusetts. Other sources have the birth year as 1844, but multiple censuses say April 1845 or imply 1845, so I’m going with that.
• Richard Thomas (1848-09-05 – 1851).

The first three at least tally with the 1838 record above.

Emily’s self-reported age or birthdate varies between 1837 and 1838. However, the recorded birth of her older sister Maria rules out the former, and, even if it were wrong, the timeline would be very tight to fit the two older siblings in in any way.

DNA

The Pineo X segment goes through Gibbs’s mother Sarah Pineo. As such, I have many DNA matches descended from this couple.

So far, I have only found one match that traces through Gibbs’s father.

There seems to be no information about the Gesner haplogroup.

I have a handful of matches that go through Eliza.

Ancestry

… of Gibbs

… of Eliza

See

• The Gesner Family in America, page 10, which shows Gibbs.