By MICHAEL F. DWYER
This exploration of the Pelkeys begins with identifying a mystery photo. The Pittsford Historical Society took several years to digitize the glass plate negatives of village photographer Mary Randall Allen (1878–1968). They organized an exhibition of her images at the Vermont Historical Society last year. Mary left many of her plates with only partial identification. A charming group of four youngsters was labeled only as Pelkey children. How could we go about identifying them? From the rug on the floor, we know it was taken around 1903 in Mary’s home. All in their Sunday best, the boy, at center, wears a Sacred Heart ribbon and is the oldest, say ten or eleven years old. One sister to his left is about a year or two younger. The girl on his right is about six, and the little girl about two. Looking through Pittsford’s 1910 census: only one Pelkey family fits the profile, that of George Pelkey (1867–1949) and his wife Eliza Baker. Their children depicted here are Darwin Pelkey (1891–1961), Edna (Pelkey) Deyo (1893–1975), Winifred (Pelkey) Mosher (1898–1919), and the baby, Mildred (Pelkey) Fredette (1901–1972). I speculated Winifred’s early death could have been attributed to the influenza epidemic. She died, however, from complications during her first pregnancy.
Locating the gravestone of George and Eliza Pelkey in Pittsford’s Evergreen Cemetery adds another layer of poignancy to their story. Three of their children died in infancy: Anthony and Mabel from pneumonia, and Harold from spinal meningitis. The photograph of the four surviving children must have been very dear to the parents. Darwin’s ribbon on his jacket suggests to me the occasion was his First Holy Communion, likely at St. Alphonsus Church. Why then were not his parents and infant siblings buried in a Catholic Cemetery? Their mother, Eliza Baker, was a Baptist at the time of her marriage, and her funeral was officiated by a Methodist minister. George remained Catholic. While not converting to Catholicism, Eliza undoubtedly acquiesced in raising their children as Catholics. Going back two generations, Eliza’s original name was Bélanger. Her grandparents, Francis and Eliza Baker are buried in St. Alphonsus Cemetery. [See Lost Names #30: Rivers and Baker]
Before delving into the Pelkey migration from Québec, there was one more mystery to solve concerning David Pelkey, a cousin of the Pittsford branch of the family. Born in Hubbardton, Vermont, in 1839 [no birth or baptismal record], his parents were allegedly Joseph Pelkey and Julia Little who wed in Monkton, Vermont, on May 28, 1836. She was born as Julie Petit [literal translation of “little”] on November 6, 1818 in Yamaska, Québec, daughter of Gabriel Petit and Marie Fontaine. Her father, Gabriel, having adopted his American surname, Little, headed a household of nine in the 1840 census for Addison, Vermont. Thereafter, to the consternation of his descendants, he disappears from history.
David Pelkey’s family moved to Cheshire County, New Hampshire in the late 1840s. On August 19, 1861, he enlisted to serve in Company L of the 3rd New Hampshire Regiment. He was wounded at Fort Wagner, South Carolina, on July 18, 1863 and, after hospitalization, mustered out in 1865. In censuses from 1850 through 1880, he was listed as David H. Pelkey, yet in 1890, after suffering from various disabilities including a stroke, he applied for a Civil War pension under the name David H. Goodrich. In the 1900 and 1910 censuses, he was now listed as David H. Goodrich. Indeed, his children, through an act of the New Hampshire Legislature, legally changed their name to Goodrich. Why, I wondered? Combing through the 74 pages of David H. Goodrich’s Civil War pension, I found a partial answer in the depositions of Hubbard and Lona Goodenough [Lona was the sister of David’s wife, Hannah]: “We also know the reason for changing the name was the fact he was raised under the name of Pelkey but never liked it as it was given him by his stepfather who brought him up and changed back to his own father’s name when he became his own master.” An explanation, yes, but it raises more questions than it answers.
Following a different migration path than most of our other Québec families to Vermont, the immigrant ancestor of the Pittsford Pelkeys and their New Hampshire cousins was Alexander Pelkey (1782–1881) who was born in St. Roch-des-Aulnaies, Québec, eight-four miles northwest of Québec City, on October 28, 1782. He was baptized as Alexandre Pelletier. The surname denotes a furrier, i.e. who traps and sells pelts. Alexandre’s ancestor Jean Baptiste Pelletier dit le Gobloteur came from Normandy to Canada in the 1640s. Gobloteur means one who likes to drink, and by extension to laugh and to sing.
Alexander’s son, Julius Pelkey married in Rutland on October 1, 1837, Matilda Billings. [Her original surname, Bélisle dit LeVasseur, see Lost Names #11] They would have twelve children, seven of whom predeceased their parents. By the early 1850s, Julius and Matilda settled permanently in Pittsford. He farmed 17 acres on Plains Road, and by 1870 acquired an estate worth $1200.
Two of Julius and Matilda’s children married their first cousins: William to Olive Pelkey [sister of David Goodrich] and Maude to Joseph Pelkey. Marriages of some of their other children connect to families we have already studied. Adelaide Pelkey married Alexander Bean, and Julius Jr. married Ida Poro. Adelaide’s early death is inscribed on her parents’ monument in St. Alphonsus Cemetery.
With the proliferation of the Pelkey families in our area, most of the descendants have a hard time keeping track of who is related to whom because of recurring first names among generations and individuals best known by their nicknames.
This picture, taken in 1956, donated by Margo Masterson to the Pittsford Historical Society, will resonate with many in the community. At center: Joseph Pelkey (1890–1964), son of Julius Pelkey, Jr. and Ida Poro, with three of his grandchildren: Harold Lloyd Pelkey (1943–1996), Bernard “Tink” Pelkey (1955–2020), on his grandfather’s lap, and Betty (Pelkey) Bertrand (1946–2011).
