In the fall of 2009, I completed a story of another Eastport girl who worked in the canneries, and sent it to the Quoddy Tides, the weekly newspaper serving Eastport. Reporter Susan Esposito contributed a fine article about it, and then asked me if there was anything she could do to help me with my research on other photos. So I told her about Anna.

Within days, I received this email from her:

"I just got off the phone with Mrs. Paul Lowe, the former Nanette Gallant. She said Nan De Gallant was her aunt, and that she was named after her. She says she doesn't know a whole lot about her, but she'd be happy to talk with you."

Edited interview with Nanette Lowe (NL), niece of Anna (Nan) J. Gallant. Interview conducted by Joe Manning (JM) on January 15, 2010.

JM: What did you think of the picture?

NL: She was my father's sister, and she looks a lot like Daddy's family. She was called Nan, and she wanted my father to name a child Nanette if he had a girl, so when I came along, that's what I was named. So I was named after her.

JM: They were living in Lubec in 1910, according to the census.

NL: That's probably around the time that Charles, my grandfather, was killed. He was working there on some kind of construction project, and he was hit by something that fell. I believe his death certificate said, ‘meningitis from accident.' My father was only three months old when his father died.

JM: And Anna would have been only seven or eight years old. Did she get married?

NL: I don't know. I never knew her.

JM: When did she die?

NL: I don't know that either.

JM: Did you know Jessie, your grandmother?

NL: No. She had passed away by the time I was born. I was born in 1934.

JM: Have you lived in Eastport all of your life?

NL: All except 20 years, when I lived in Portland (Maine).

JM: What did your father do for a living?

NL: When he was very young, he quit school to help the family financially. He used to run a horse and buggy out to the railroad station and pick up people with their luggage. He would take them to the hotels here. After that, he worked in the (sardine) factories. When he grew up, he worked at the Eastport Hospital as a bookkeeper, took the x-rays, and did the laundry.

JM: Did he graduate from high school?

NL: He got a GED in Portland.

JM: What about the other children, the brothers and sisters of Anna and your father? What did they do when they grew up?

NL: Uncle Bill was a career serviceman in the Army. Uncle Alfred was also in the service, but he died in the flu epidemic about 1918. Aunt Monica lived in Massachusetts most of her life, and I have no idea what she did. Dad used to tell stories about Aunt Katherine. She was always complaining that she was sick. She used to say, ‘Oh, get the priest. I am going to die.' She would send Daddy for the priest. Finally the priest said, ‘Go home, Tom dear. She's going to outlive all of us.' I believe she died in her 90s.

Aunt Mary was a housewife, and her husband worked at the fish factories. Aunt Peg (Margaret) lived in Massachusetts and worked in a candy factory for many years. Uncle Ozzie was sort of the free spirit of the family. He was very independent. He was in the Navy. When he got out of the Navy, he went to Canada and joined one of the military branches up there and was never heard from again.

JM: What do you think about the fact that Lewis Hine said Nan was ‘already a spoiled child?'

NL: Spoiled possibly, but more likely, she was not thrilled with the work she had to do. The ladies in Daddy's family, as I was told, were all very strong-willed and stubborn. I can attest to that, because I am pretty stubborn myself.

So I searched Ancestry.com for all males named Sears who were born in Maine in either 1920 or 1921. I came up with only one possibility, the Connecticut death record for Maurice Sears, who was born in Maine on May 26, 1920, and died in Stafford (CT) on September 3, 1985. He lived in Enfield (CT), which is about a 30-minute drive from my home.

I called Helen Archer, the town clerk in Eastport, and asked her to look for birth records for any children born about 1920 whose last name was Sears. She didn't find any, but she did find one boy born in 1920 whose mother was listed at Anna J. Gallant. But due to Maine laws regarding the birth records of children born out of wedlock, she was unable to disclose the boy's name. It turned out I didn't need it. I called the town clerk's office in Enfield, and they confirmed that Maurice's death certificate listed his parents as Anna Gallant and Carroll Sears. I also searched NewspaperArchive.com for articles mentioning Maurice and Anna, and came up with several stunning discoveries.