Thinking About My Grandmother, Edith Rae Giberson Crabtree

embeddable family tree updated live from WikiTree

I've been thinking a lot about my grandmother, Edith Rae, since starting this family history project. I never got to meet her, as my parents moved from Maine to California when I was three months old, and Edith died two years later in Houlton, Maine, where she is buried.

She was the fourth child born to her parents, and she had three older brothers, Randolph, Hanford, and Stanley Giberson. According to a letter from my Aunt Alma in 1973, [Edith's] father was William Giberson, who left the family before my mother was born and she never knew where he went. My mother's mother [Martha Grant Giberson] died when [Edith] was 8 years old, so she was an orphan.

It was sad enough to think of little Edith and her brothers as orphans, but then I found that they were apparently sent out to different households. This comes from Wiley Waugh's book, John Giberson, Loyalist (Bristol, New Brunswick: Books of Waugh, rev. ed. Dec. 1999). Mr. Waugh notes that the entire family was found in the 1881 census in the Parish of Gordon, Victoria County, New Brunswick. He did not find William or Martha after 1881 but located the boys listed as servants in different households in the 1891 census, and didn't find a record of Edith after 1881 until her marriage in 1899.

I remember reading an account by one of Edith's daughters saying that her mother worked as a housekeeper in various places until her marriage. I will document the source as soon as I locate it.

After Edith's marriage to David, they lived in New Brunswick and Maine. Edith gave birth to 13 children starting in 1900 with Alma, and ending in 1928 with David Jewett, Jr.

I hope to be able to add more memories of Edith from various sources.

A Little About My Grandfather, and a Surprise From Uncle Murray

embeddable family tree updated live from WikiTree

My grandfather was born in Greenfield, New Brunswick, Canada, one of 13 children. He and my grandmother (who was born in Lower Perth, New Brunswick) also had 13 children--you can see most of that family (there was one more to be born) in the header photo at the top of this blog. His siblings and their children are all listed below.

I never got to meet my grandfather, as my family had moved out to California from Maine shortly after my birth. When my mother and I went by train to visit the family in Maine (probably around 1947?), for some reason we didn't see see my grandfather. I know that my grandmother Edith had died by then, but my grandfather David was still living at that point. Perhaps he was up in New Brunswick and it was too far for us to journey.

I did, however, meet my Uncle Murray Victory (then married to Aunt Gladys, who later married a Hudgins) on his farm. Because Uncle Murray was the first person I had ever met who could take his teeth out I decided that he must be my grandfather. He further endeared himself to me by sending a stream of milk directly into my mouth as I watched him milk a cow. That was a big surprise to a San Francisco city girl!

Here are David's siblings and his children. All names are clickable for more information.


David Jewett Crabb (name legally changed to Crabtree in 1910)

Born 20 Jun 1875
Died 17 Apr 1954

Brother of Sarah Ermina Crabb, Gertrude Crabb, John Franklin Crabb, Aaron Clifford Crabb, Henry Allen Crabb, Adelia Mae Crabb, Elizabeth G. Crabb, Charles William Crabb, Talmage Dewitt Crabb, Wesley Dawson Crabb, Anna Thursa Crabb and Everett E. Crabb

Husband of Edith Rae Giberson (1880-1946)

Father of Alma Adelia McLellan, Clifford Alden Crabtree, Beecher Henry Crabtree, Jesse Howard Crabtree, Hope McLeod, Bess Lelia York, Elva Myrtle Rodriguez, Anna Avis Middleton, Sadie Norma Ariel, Gladys Laversa Hudgins, Lois Carol Stockson, Muriel Evelyn Blakely and David Jewett Crabtree