But when we reviewed John Shackford's probate records, this week we found Benjamin B Shackford's Petition for Administration filed on September 29, 1866 which includes his statement that his father, John Shackford died intestate (without a will) on August 12, 1866. This source is most likely much more accurate than the above mentioned books as it was signed within six weeks of John's death and was filed in a court. The document is filed in the midst of other probate records for John Shackford dated September 23, 1869 which may have led the previous researchers to assume that John died in 1869.
Once we found this new source with a death date of August 12, 1866, we took another look at Kenneth Willey's wonderful book Vital Records from the Eastport Sentinel of Eastport, Maine 1818-1900 which we own and had previously reviewed for information about SHACKFORDs.
On page 222, we found a reference which states that there was a newspaper article which also stated that a John Shackford of Eastport died on 12 August 1866 at age 84.
In our earlier review of this book, we'd written a note in pencil in the book stating : Which John Shackford is this?
While updating our pencil note to say "John Shackford b. 1781/2, we happened to notice that there is another reference to the same John Shackford on the same page! A newspaper published two weeks later states that Captain John Shackford died in Eastport on 12 August 1866 and mentions that an obituary was published in the Eastport Sentinel!!!!
Wow!!! Because we sent back and read this page a second time we've learned that that an Obituary of this John Shackford exists!!!! If we hadn't looked back at page 222 of Wiley's book a second time we would not have learned about this obituary!
We added a TO DO to our growing list of future research - to find a copy of the August 29, 1866 issue of the Eastport Sentinel so we can read Captain John Shackford's obituary. We know he was captain of the Boundary but hope the obituary lists names of some of other ships. Another project for our future trip to New England to learn more about SHACKFORDs Family History!!!
REFERENCES:
The Essex Institute Historical Collections Vol XLVI-1910 (Salem, Mass: The Essex Institute, 1910), page 137; digital images, Google eBooks (books.google.com : accessed 9 January 2014
Kilby William Henry, Eastport and Passamaquoddy: A Collection of Historical and Background Sketches (Eastport, Maine: Edward E Shead & Company, 1888), p. 447; digital images, Google eBooks (http://books.google.com : accessed 14 June 2014
Washington, Maine, , John Shackford; "Maine, Washington County Courthouse Records, 1795-1950," digital images, FamilySearch (FamiilySearch.org: accessed 12 June 2014); Probate Records, Probate records, 1869-1872, v. 24 pt. 1, page 68-69 , image 71-73
Wiley Kenneth L., editor, Vital Records from the Eastport Sentinel of Eastport, Maine 1818-1900: Note: Cover and title page of my hard copy edition are misspelled as "Eastport Sentinal" (Camen, Maine: Picton, Press, 1996), page 222