Alice Mills and Hallett Beach

Sometimes, I really enjoy researching periphery families in the family tree. After all, you can only get so far with direct ancestors. Plus, the ancestors (and their descendants) on the periphery often provide you with clues to knock down a brick wall and go further back with your direct line.

Delving into the periphery families introduces you to newfound cousins who have their own stories to tell and old photographs to share. Likewise, you can share what you have with them. Win-win.

So, who are Alice Mills and Hallett Beach? Alice is an older sister of my grandad (Alan Mills). I didn’t know much about her other than the fact she lived in the Kentville area of Nova Scotia and eventually moved to Ontario. She died before I was born so I never met her. In fact, my mom had only met her Aunt Alice a few times (they had no car back in the day so no way to get to Kentville from Oyster Pond).

Alice Alexandra Mills was born on April 5, 1906 in Gays River, Colchester County, Nova Scotia, the second child of Thomas Mills and Arabella Mitchell. She was named after her paternal grandmother Alice from Liverpool, England. I suspect her middle name was given as a tribute to her uncle (Arabella’s brother) Alexander Mitchell, who died in an accident only a week before she was born.

Alice was just ten years old when her father was killed in the First World War. No doubt this would have had a big impact on her life. Not only did she lose her father, but as the oldest daughter she would have been burdened with the added responsibility of helping to raise her younger siblings – even though she was but a child herself.

Eventually, she married Hallett Beach, a farmer and lumberman, from South Alton, Nova Scotia. They raised six children: Maxine, Christina, Florence, Gertrude, Etta, and Leland. There was also a stillborn girl. Christina was the only one I met as she lived in Hamilton.

After Hallett died in 1961, Alice sold the family home in Nova Scotia and moved to Ontario, where she worked as a housekeeper. She died in 1972 in Barrie and is buried with her husband at Elm Grove Cemetery in Kings County, NS.

When I first got back into genealogy a couple years ago I made contact with Alice’s daughter-in-law (Leland’s wife) Helen. She has been a wealth of information and has shared pictures of the Beach family; she’s also helped me to identify photos I had of the family.

I have also connected with some of Alice and Hallett’s grandchildren – my second cousins. So, I’ve made a few new friends, too.

For anybody working on their family tree, I strongly recommend spending time on your grandparents’ (and great-grandparents’ and great-great-grandparents’….etc.) siblings. You’ll be surprised what you unlock and who you meet along the way.