Nelson, who was my great great grandfather, was the youngest child of William and Mary Robertshaw. He was born in 1852 in Ontario, Canada. At the time of his marriage in Orillia, Ontario to Linnie Raby (b. 1858 in Geddington, England) in 1875, he was a lumberman. He was listed as a carpenter as early as 1891 according to the Port Huron, Michigan directory of that year.
Nelson and Linnie had nine children together.
Sometime between 1904 and 1910, Nelson and Linnie moved from Port Huron to Detroit, eventually moving in with their daughter, Maud, and her husband, Joseph Monterosso.
Nelson died at Eloise Hospital in Detroit of heart failure in 1937, with his wife following him in death two years later.
Both are buried in Grand Lawn Cemetery in Detroit.

Some bits about Nelson from his grandson, Bud Monterosso:
*Nelson never wore a watch - he could tell time just by looking at the sun.
*He never wore green on St. Patrick’s Day. He always wore orange as he did not like St. Patrick’s Day.
*Nelson’s mother, Mary, taught him how to make a type of SALVE, known as the ‘Golden Ointment,’ a type of healing medicine to be applied to burns or wounds, or for soothing skin irritations. Nelson would boil the bark from trees, as well as other ingredients, in an old, large cauldron for hours. He said his mother got the recipe from Indians.
*Nelson had a crow named Pete. He would call his bird by yelling, ”Caw Pete! Caw Pete!”
*During his retirement, Nelson would spend much of his time at his ice house playing cards with anyone who would play, and selling ice. He loved to play Rummy.
*Nelson had a theory for predicting the weather: Take a pint of whiskey and shave camper ice into it. Shake it and as long as the ice settled at the bottom, the weather would be clear. If it made the whiskey cloudy that was a guarantee that it was going to rain.
*Nelson could eat corn on the cob without any teeth!