Elsie E. MacDonald

Island story

Elsie E. MacDonald (1917–1935) is commemorated at Pioneer Cemetery memorial R4-010. Her original death certificate records her death on Pictou Island on 12 July 1935, aged 18, with a reported 1917 Island birth. It names her father as Duncan MacDonald and her mother’s maiden name as Lottie Bishop, whose birthplace is written as White Sands, PEI. John MacDonald of Pictou Island was the informant and is explicitly identified as her half-brother. Burial on Pictou Island is recorded for 14 July, without establishing an exact cemetery plot. These records establish her parent pair; Duncan’s first wife Jessie had died in 1910. The 1931 census age and the reported 1917 year are retained without inventing an exact birthday. Lottie’s reported birthplace differs from the Whitehead, Nova Scotia reading in the 1914 marriage entry.