My grandmother Mona Wortman was descended from a German named George Wortman. He was born in the Rhine area of Germany about 1700. He emigrated to the small community of Schuylkill(near Philadelphia) in 1749. He became interested in the British offer of free land to families to settle in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia on land owned by French exiles. They became known as the New England Planters who settled along the Saint John River, the Petitcodiac and the Tantramar Marsh.

In 1763 George Wortman and 8 other families chartered a vessel and moved to Westmorland Co. at Hall's Creek on the Petitcodiac River. The others were Steeves, Lutz, Smith, Ritchie, Summers, Trites, Jones and Copple families. This was the beginning of what later became Moncton. George got a grant of 1700 acres which he proceeded to farm and also resell portions to fellow Germans.

George and his wife Moriah had a family of five boys - Jacob, Martin, John Dimoc, Albert and James. Our lineage descends from John Dimoc Wortman born in 1777 in Moncton, N.B. He married Hannah Steeves in 1805 and they had a number of children including Isiah Wortman born 1814. Isiah married Jane Chapman and produced a large family including my great grandfather James Chapman Wortman who was born 1849.

James Chapman Wortman met and married Mary Jane Lockhart of Lakeville in 1872. They lived in a lovely home at 1 Mountain Road, Moncton. James held a good job with the Intercolonial Railway and Mary raised a large family of children(13 survived) my grandmother Mona. My grandmother Mona Louise was born in 1891, married at the age of 25 and a widow by the age of 32 years old. She had grown up in a large family and so she was expected to help with the chores along with her schooling. She was a loving and caring person who did not deserve the hardship of becoming a widow at such a young age. She raised my Dad to the age of sixteen before she remarried.