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In his 1852 Providence, Rhode Island, marriage record,1 Lemuel Keyser "L. K." Preston (ca1828-ca1881) was reported born "Broome, L.C.," the son of Michael and Mary Preston.

I interpret the reference, "L. C." to mean Lower Canada, but I want to better identify the place, "Broome" in both geographic and jurisdictional terms in order to locate related historical articles, archives/libraries, historical societies, and maps, etc. Such materials might confirm that Lemuel was born there, or at least that his family had lived there and for about how long.

  • Wikipedia contains an article, "Brome County, Quebec," described as a "historical county of Quebec ... formed in 1855 from parts of Stanstead, Shefford and Missisquoi counties." [Emphasis added.]
  • An Internet site, geodata.us, reports "Broome, Ontario," is a "geographic township" in Ontario. From the map provided, this location appears not too far from Lake Superior.

The description in Wikipedia for "Brome County," is interesting because

  • IGI (submitted) records report baptisms at Shefford for two of Lemuel's older siblings, Caroline Preston (1819-1839) and Michael Merrill Preston (1821-after 1845). 2
  • A sketch about Lemuel's older brother Joseph William Preston (1826-1893) reports he (Joseph) was born at Standstead. 3

Help identifying "Broome, L.C." from both a geographic and jurisdictional perspective is much appreciated.

Update 2012-10-29 (Oct 29): Last night I located what is surely the entry for Michael and Mary (Merrill) Preston's family in the 1825 census of Lower Canada. The entry was recorded at Richelieu County, "Township of Broome."4 The town name was had been otherwise reported in the FamilySearch index as Shefford (that town census actually appears on the facing page).

I could browse to the record using these FamilySearch "waypoints":

  1. Location = Canada
  2. Historical Collection = Canada, Lower Canada Census, 1825
  3. Browse ... images > District = Richelieu (Not Quebec)
  4. Locality/Sub-district = Brome (Not Broome or Shefford)

Perhaps of note, the top of each page includes a reference to when a location was settled; these dates seem to refer to when the township (not country) was settled. The census reports Broome was settled in 1801.

I don't know yet whether Richelieu was part of Quebec in 1825 or not. Below is a partial clip of that census page (digital effects and emphasis added). The citation in the graphic below is mostly based on FamilySearch's recommendation, but I note that their citation refers to a mix of modern/ancient spellings, names and/or jurisdictions."

enter image description here

References:

  1. City of Providence (25 Dorrance Street, Providence, RI 02903) to GeneJ, information supplied telephonically by John Myers, Archivist, and Doyin Joseph, 21 November 2008; reports Preston-Easterbrook marriage 28 Aug 1852 by T. C. Cook, cites "Marriages performed in Providence," vol. 6 (1851-1870), pg 80; among other details, Lemuel K. Preston resides Boston; he is ae 24, born Broome, L. C. Indexed record as "Lemuel K. Preston"-"Josephine Easterbrook," in "Rhode Island Marriages, 1724-1916," database; FamilySearch.org.
  2. The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints (LDS), "International Genealogical Index," database, FamilySearch.org (http://www.familysearch.org : accessed, 20 Oct 2008), North America Region; entries for (a) Caroline Preston, born 10 Feb 1819, location unknown, bap. 14 Feb 1823 at Shefford, Shefford Co., Quebec, s/o Michael Preston and Mary Merrill; (b) Michael Merrill Preston, born 05 April 1821, location unknown, bap. 14 Feb 1823 at Shefford, Shefford Co., Quebec, s/o Michael Preston and Mary Merrill; both records submitted by unidentified LDS church member, n.d., batch 8010021.
  3. Ezra S. Stearns, The History of Plymouth, New Hampshire, vol. 2 (1906), pgs 552-3; digital images; supplied by Lucy Cusson Lahey (New Hampshire), 13 January 2007, email to compiler; entry for Joseph William Preston. Among other details, reports his birth 14 Nov 1826 at Stanstead, P. Q., son of Michael Preston and Mary Merrill Preston.
  4. "Canada, Lower Canada Census, 1825"; index and images, FamilySearch.org (accessed 29 Oct 2012), Michael Preston, Broome Township, Richelieu County, Lower Canada [indexed as “Shefford, Richelieu, Quebec, Canada”]; sheet 736 [stamped], page 23. (The town of Shefford appears on the facing page, 22.)
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  • It seems absurdly unlikely that there are two places where Broome, Sheffield and Stanstead are all located by each other. Unless you can find other places called Shiffield and Stanstead near some other place called Broome or Brome, it seems a done deal to me.
    – Lennart Regebro
    Oct 28, 2012 at 21:41
  • @LennartRegebro As you can tell, I'm really out of my element. According to Wikipedia, "Brome County" wasn't created until 1855, which is several years after the record of Lemuel's marriage at "Broome, L.C."
    – GeneJ
    Oct 29, 2012 at 0:20
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    There is also Broome, Bedford Co, Lower Canada which you might want to check out.
    – Andy Hatchett
    Oct 29, 2012 at 0:39
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    Bedford Co. seems to have existed from 1791 to 1829, when its parts were split between counties of Shefford, Missisquoi, and Rouville. Hence this Broome may well have been the Brome township which became part of Brome county.
    – RobertShaw
    Oct 29, 2012 at 6:37
  • There does seem a remarkable number and variety of county changes--merging, splitting; renaming. The History of Brome County ... (your link below), p. 31 reports that the "old counties of 1791" were changed by a March 1829 act. "...original County of Bedford [became] Rouville and Missisquoi." Also, "County of Richelieu [became] the four counties of Richelieu, St. Hyacinthe, Shefford and Stanstead." Same source, p. 36 says, "Brome County did not exist ... in 1832." Goes on to say that at that time, Brome (town) belonged to Shefford County. (Still reading.)
    – GeneJ
    Oct 29, 2012 at 22:53

1 Answer 1

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The notation "Broome, L.C." almost certainly refers to Brome Township in the Eastern Townships of modern Quebec. At the time of the birth the Eastern Townships would have been in Lower Canada, although in 1852 it would officially have been in Canada East (and later in Quebec); the terminology Lower Canada would have then still been in wide use.

Brome Township is a township that includes Brome Lake and the village of Brome. It is located around 45.2°N 72.567°W. Here is an 1881 map of the township. The township dates back to at least 1797 when its boundaries were documented, as noted on p.68 of Ernest Manly Taylor's History of Brome County, Quebec (Google Books version here). Page 131 of the same work tells us that before Brome County was formed in 1855, Brome Township was part of Shefford County.

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  • Nice work, Robert. You located "History of Brome ...," that I had been unable to locate. (Going to go review that now!)
    – GeneJ
    Oct 29, 2012 at 2:30

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