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1838-1876 (Creation)
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Biographical history
The O’Brien family were Nova Scotia mariners, beginning with Captain John O’Brien (b. 1789) and Mary Margaret Thomas (b. 1791), who had four children: Joseph (1813-1882); William Harrison (b. 1822); John Russell; and Hannah (d. 184-).
William and John sailed with their father before establishing families of their own. William settled in England, marrying a widow with one daughter; they had another daughter together. Poor health forced him to leave the sea and become a shoemaker. John Russell settled in Boston, Massachusetts, where he married Mary Caroline and had five children, two of whom died in infancy.
Joseph O’Brien became a master mariner and married Janet Russell, who was born in 1816 in Wallace, Nova Scotia. Joseph became captain of the Janet, which was lost on Rio de la Plata, Argentina, in January 1868. The insurance payout allowed Joseph to buy 32 shares of a new barque, the Eliza Oulton, built by John Oulton in Pugwash, Nova Scotia. Joseph and Janet had three sons and two daughters: John Russell (b. 1841); Thomas (b. 1845); Alexander (b. 1852); Margaret (b. 1844); and Primrose (b. 1854). All three sons became master mariners before their father Joseph O’Brien died in 1882.
John O’Brien was married in 1868 to Susan Elizabeth Morris, the great-granddaughter of the Honourable Charles Morris of Halifax, first Surveyor General of Nova Scotia. Together they had one child, Elizabeth Olga, who born in 1869 on the Eliza Oulton while in the Russian harbour of Poti on the Black Sea. John O’Brien died of yellow fever six months later on the Island of St. Thomas in the West Indies, and Susan returned home to Wallace, Nova Scotia, to raise Elizabeth with the help of her parents.
Following John’s death, Thomas O’Brien became master of the Eliza Oulton, and the youngest brother, Alexander, sailed as a mate. Thomas married Maggie, with whom he had three children, and lived in Pictou, Nova Scotia, while continuing to sail for a living. Alexander married and eventually settled with his family in California.
Margaret O’Brien accompanied her brother, John, and her Uncle William on a two-year voyage, after which she worked as a milliner, married David MacLean and moved to Stellarton, Nova Scotia, where husband established a medical practice. Margaret was widowed shortly after the birth of their only child in 1876.
The youngest O'Brien child, Primrose ("Sis”), married Nathaniel Purdy and moved to Waltham, Massachusetts.
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Arrangement was imposed by the archivist. The fonds is organized into three series:
Correspondence
Vessel Papers
Business Records
The Correspondence series is further divided into sub-series based on the name of the family member.
Language of material
- English