No, not that Horatio Nelson.
My Nova Scotia great grandfather, Elias Nelson (1854-1946) had an older brother, Horatio, who according to the 1871 census was born about 1848, making him six years older than Elias. I've no doubt that my 2nd great grandparents Charles Nelson (1812-1892) and Sarah Anne Forbes (1819-1889) had other children, but we know only of these two sons.
When the 1861 census was collected in Nova Scotia, only the names of household heads were recorded, with just the number of males and females and the total number of people in each household. The 1871 census is the only record we have of Horatio, who appears as a 23 year old.
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| 1871 Census, Truro, Nova Scotia |
At some point after 1871, family lore is that Horatio "ran away from home and was never heard from again". There may have been an incident where he got into some sort of trouble, and that sent the sheriff to his parents' farmhouse. Family lore is that Horatio's father, Charles, put his axe in the middle of the door step and said something along the lines of the first person who crossed the doorstep would have to deal with him. These words and the axe were apparently enough to send the sheriff on his way. Soon afterwards, Horatio disappeared.
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| Horatio Nelson, Salmon River, Nova Scotia |
Did he ever write to his parents or brother to let them know where he was? We don't know. If he did, they took that secret with them to their graves. Did he go out west where so many Nova Scotia men went in the late 19th century? Or did he go to the US, where so many Nova Scotians went? He probably changed his name. After all, in the 19th century, how many Nelson parents named a son Horatio in honour of Lord Nelson and his victory at the Battle of Trafalgar in 1805? There were many Horatio Nelsons, trust me. I've done a lot of research over the years, trying to find out what happened to my great uncle Horatio.
Through AncestryDNA, I recently connected with a 2nd cousin, who is a granddaughter of the only brother of my grandmother, Alice Elizabeth Nelson.
My new cousin shared the tintype picture you see here of Horatio, in which he looks like a young man -- perhaps anywhere from 17.
He was a very good looking young man, wasn't he?
Update: After writing this, I received a partial Nelson family history book compiled in the 1980s/1990s. I say partial because it covers primarily the descendants of the sons of Alexander Nelson, and of those, only those who remained in Colchester, Nova Scotia. The entry in that book for Horatio is brief. But note the word “giant”. I don’t imagine Horatio was a true giant, the stuff of fairy tales or fantasies like the Game of Thrones books or epic series. No, he was probably a tall man, over six feet. Perhaps 6’5”? Who knows. It must have been very hard for a tall man like Horatio to just disappear.
The never ending story continues....
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