Thursday, January 1, 2015

2015 ~ The Year for My Canadian Ancestors



Because of the confluence of events occurring in 2015, I am devoting my blogposts this year to my Canadian ancestors in New Brunswick and Nova Scotia. These Canadian forebears all stem from my maternal line, a line that at times immigrated to the States, and, at other times, stayed "Down East." 

I have chosen five families from each province. Some lines I can confidently trace "across the pond," although that is not my goal this year. Some lines are more challenging and will require more in-depth research. Did I mention travel? More on that in a bit.


My Nova Scotia families are:

Archibald
Creelman
Fulton
Hamilton
MacKay


My New Brunswick families are:

Beck
Bleakney
Bustin
Smith
Steeves

As you may recognize, many of these families are of Irish (as in present-day Northern Ireland) descent, with a Scottish contingent (MacKay pronounced mack-eye), a Yorkshire immigrant, two Pennsylvania German immigrant families, and a Loyalist line. Be prepared for a wide variety of stories.

I am fortunate to have inherited my great grandmother's scrapbook of newspaper clippings. It is slowly disintegrating, so this project will discipline me to digitize all the birth, marriage and anniversary annoucements, as well as death notices and obituaries.

At present, my Canadian genealogy library is quite sparce, consisting of these few titles:

Brides, Philip and Joan (Smith) Brides, The Descendants of Nathaniel and Elizabeth Smith (Halifax, NS, Canada, 2000).

Stories of the Stewiacke Valley  (Nova Scotia : Colchester Historical Society, 1980.

Douglas, Althea, Finding your ancestors in New Brunswick (Toronto, ON, Canada, 2002).

Nathaniel Smith: A Stranger in a Strange Land. A publication of Tantramar Heritage Trust, 2000.

Dallison, Robert L. Hope restored: The American Revolution and the founding of New Brunswick (Frederiction : New Brunswick Military Heritage Project, 2003).

Campey, Lucille H. After the Hector: The Scottish Pioneers of Nova Scotia and Cape Breton, 1773-1852.  2nd ed. Toronto: Natural History Books, 2007.


Other online resources I will be utilizing are listed under the tab above entitled, Where I Dig - Research Tools, under the headings Canada, New Brunswick, and Nova Scotia.

And, last but certainly not least, I will be calling upon my wonderful friends who belong to the following Facebook Groups:

Albert County, New Brunswick Genealogy

Atlantic Canadian Genealogy

Genealogy of Colchester County, Nova Scotia

Kings County., New Brunswick Genealogy

NB Obits,Documents & Unknown Photo

New Brunswick Genealogy

Nova Scotia Genealogy

Nova Scotia Roots

Old Photos of New Brunswick Canada

Riverview and Albert County History in Pictures

Saint John, New Brunswick Genealogy

United Empire Loyalists Association (UELAC)


Westmorland County, New Brunswick Genealogy


I am very excited to begin this journey, all the more because it includes my third trip down east. For my 60th birthday in June 2015, I am giving myself the opportunity to visit the land of my Canadian cousins. No definite dates set yet, but I hope to take the ferry out of Portland, Maine, and drive back.

I invite anyone to make suggestions or offer advice along the way! Let's go way down east!



5 comments:

  1. Pam I have managed to acquire some Nova Scotia genealogy books with saved searches on eBay. Sometimes people sell a whole estate of books. Your explorations sound fascinating! Good luck!

    ReplyDelete
  2. One of your authors, Bob Dallison, participated in our July 2014 commemoration of the 200th anniversary of the capture of Eastport, Maine, by a British fleet (and in the Nova Scotia style kitchen party we had at my mother's afterwards). He was the director of Kings Landing for a decade some years back. He also gave wonderful bios of the two British officers buried at Eastport at a special ceremony at the cemetery and emceed the historical seminar. Another of his books deals with the Fenians, and we hope to have him back for a commemoration in 2016. Until his presentation at the commemoration, I would never have known that NB was extremely worried about its sovereignty upon the declaration of war in 1812. Terrific speaker and emcee, as well as author. We first met him in 2012 when he emceed the ceremony for Victoria Cross recipient Bill Metcalf, a Waite, Maine, native, buried at Eastport, and knew we wanted him to take part in the 2014 commemoration.

    ReplyDelete
  3. Oh, I should add that Nova Scotia Historical Review is a wonderful resource for me in my own NS genealogy - mainly because one of the writers, since deceased, was from the Hemlow (Umlach/Umlah) line: Joyce Hemlow. You can get these occasionally on eBay or on ABE. http://www.blupete.com/Library/History/NSHR.htm

    ReplyDelete