Mary (MacDonald) Rankin

Island story

Mary MacDonald married John “Jack” Rankin at Pictou on 21 November 1910, according to Nova Scotia’s marriage register. The 1931 census index records Mary Rankin, age thirty-eight, in the Pictou Island population. Family photographs identify Mary repeatedly with the Rankin homestead and later family groups, including photographs from the 1950s. The family record places her within the farm household that included a general store and grain-storage building and preserves a multi-decade Island family history. Her exact parentage, birth and death dates have not yet been established. Vernon Leslie Rankin’s original marriage registration of 6 July 1944 independently names John A. Rankin and Mary M. MacDonald as his parents. The registration names Mary as Vernon’s mother. That registration gives her middle initial but does not spell out Munn or establish her wider MacDonald ancestry. Laura Catherine’s original delayed birth registration reports her birth on Pictou Island on 7 September 1911 and explicitly names John Alexander Rankin and Mary Munn MacDonald as her parents. Dolina Agnes’s delayed birth registration names the same parents in its account of a 1913 Island birth. Its main form and affidavit differ on 16/10 May, so the precise day remains qualified. The birth records name Mary and John as their parents; Laura’s and Dolina’s later married identities remain to be confirmed.