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Elsie presented me with an especially daunting search. Thanks to an unusually large digital collection of
Maine birth, death and marriage records on the Internet, I was able to track down her granddaughter, who had been very
close to her. She knew nothing about the photo, nor was she aware that her grandmother had worked in a sardine cannery as
a child. When I emailed her the photo, she replied: "That's Nana!!! No mistaking that chubby, cherub little face."
Elsie M. Shaw was born in Eastport, Maine, on December 4, 1904,
to Arthur and Mary Shaw. Arthur was born in Maine about 1880, to Edward Shaw, a native of Canada, and Sarah Shaw, born in
Maine. Mary was born in Maine about 1873.
Mary had been married before, to John Carr, who worked in the
sardine canneries in Eastport. Mary and John had two children, Alice, born in 1891, and Leo, born in 1897. She and John were
apparently divorced shortly after 1900, and she soon married Arthur. She worked for an undetermined time in the Eastport sardine
canneries. Arthur also worked in the Seacoast Cannery in Eastport, where Elsie worked. Later, he moved his family to Calais,
Maine, where he worked as a carpenter.
Elsie married Frank O. Eary, in Maine, on October 27, 1923.
He was born in Maine, about 1899, to Walter and Wilda Eary. He served in the US Navy in 1918, and then lived for a while
with his parents in Calais. Elsie and Frank had two children, Franklin Arthur, born Aug 6, 1927; and Patricia, born July
27, 1928. Elsie and Frank divorced about 1929, and he remarried, to Mary E. Sullivan, in Augusta, Maine, on October 29, 1932.
Elsie moved to Portland, Maine, probably during her late teens,
and may have lived there with Frank until her divorce, after which she moved to Calais with her two young children, and lived
with her parents. Then she moved back to Portland, where she worked for many years in several department stores.
Patricia Eary married Herbert J. Bombard Jr, in Portland, on
April 23, 1946. He was born in Quincy, Massachusetts, on December 14, 1925, and was employed by the post office. Their daughter,
Pamela, was born in 1950. They were later divorced, and Patricia married Lester Engler of Portland. They had two children,
Peter and Paula. Then they moved to Arizona.
Elsie met Fred Neafsey in Maine, and they lived together as
a common-law marriage, she taking his name. After Fred died in the early 1960s, Elsie moved to California, where she was employed
as a caregiver. When her client died, she retired and moved to Arizona, near her family. She died in Scottsdale on Sept 15,
1994, less than four months before her 90th birthday.
Her daughter, Patricia Engler, died February 8, 2000, in Scottsdale.
Her son, Franklin, died in Douglas, Oregon, on February 28, 1992, and is buried in Roseburg National Cemetery, Roseburg, Oregon.
Elsie Shaw, Page Two (interview with granddaughter Pamela)
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