Southwest Nova Scotia (09-05-18)

We came away from Cape Breton with a much better picture of my family history- especially regarding the King family, which has been my primary focus.  We have new leads to follow and have already started. We stopped in the Guysborough area of Nova Scotia and although we didn’t learn much here, it was very cool for me to realize that my 5th great grandfather moved to this area from Virginia, in 1784.

We were headed to Halifax, again, to look for land deeds, but we took the long way there.  With temperatures hovering at 30 degrees ( that's Celsius) we opted for one more beach day. One of the perks to traveling in a truck camper is that we can check out from one campground, stop at the beach with the camper, hang out, make our own lunch, take a shower, and then go to the next campground. And that’s exactly what we did.

Once in Halifax, we hit the Archives as soon as they opened, and found the records we were looking for. We had suspected that my 5th great grandfather came to Nova Scotia with 4 children, not just the 3 we knew about, and the land deed records showed that Amelia Cook, daughter of George King, sold land at the same time as her sister, Rebecca King Langley.

That was a key piece of information for me, and the only thing we were looking for, so we met with Neil and Susan again for dinner, this time down at the Halifax waterfront.

Labor Day weekend is one of those weekends that its not always a good idea to wait till the last minute for campground reservations.  Paul and I had looked ahead and had to decide where we wanted to go. We could have done the Cabot trail again, on Cape Breton, but decided we didn’t need to do it again.

We debated heading back to the States, but there was a section of Nova Scotia that we hadn’t really explored, and we decided that it could be “now or never” so we booked places along the south western section of Nova Scotia.

Shelburne

  We bypassed the quaint, but well known towns of Liverpool and Lunenburg because we had visited them before and settled near the seacoast town of Shelburne.

This is a cute little town, with a few nice restaurants and a long history of Dory making.

I have seen Dories before, in fact, Gloucester MA has dory races every year. Anyway, although I had seen dories , I didn’t know much about them. Shelburne was known for their Dories, and at one time there were 7 dory builders in town. Now there is one museum, and they build about two per year.So here is what we learned:

A Dory is a shallow bottom boat, usually about 12-15 feet long. The shorter boats can be manned by one person and the longer boats require two people at the oars.

Dories have many purposes- fishing, transport, etc

They were cheap, and considered to be disposable, so if a dory sprung a leak, it was tossed overboard.

They were painted “Dory Buff Yellow” which was, at the time, the color most visible in a fog. New ones are sometimes painted in neon colors.  Back in the day, when they were used for fishing, two members of the same family were not allowed to go out on the same dory- the fatality rate was pretty high in the dory fishing world.

Kejimkujik

Trying to get back into the hiking routine, as much as possible, we stayed in provincial parks, as well as Kejimkujik National Park.

There are two sections to Kejimkujik- one deep in the woods, and another along the seashore.

We hiked them both. Paul’s favorite trail was probably the Gold Miner Trail- an interpretive hike that showcased the gold mining history of the area.

We noticed these weird contraptions all over the park, and finally chatted with a volunteer to find out what they are. The Blanding Turtle is endangered, and they love to lay their eggs in this particular area, only at night, and each year they return to the same spot. There is a group of volunteers that stay here and cover the eggs once they are laid, protecting them from predators. Once they hatch, each turtle is marked with a unique code ( they notch the shell) and released.









As we were hiking back to our campsite one day, I got a kick out of this sign that showed our speed. I was pretty impressed with our walking pace until I remembered it’s in kilometers per hour, not miles. Still, it was funny.

Digby

Our final stop in Nova Scotia was Digby.  They are known for their scallops so of course we searched for a restaurant on the water where we could enjoy a glass of wine and some seafood.

Nearby Annapolis Royal has a cute downtown area and also Historical botanical gardens.  We meandered around the gardens for a bit, and bought some amazingly delicious orange vinegar from their gift store.

Cape Breton, Nova Scotia (08-28-18)

Well, I am kind of getting ahead of myself a bit. Before we went to Cape Breton, we spent 5 days in Halifax.  Halifax is the largest city in this area of Canada, and is where the historical records are kept for the province.  We spent 4 days combing through records.

We came up for air long enough to meet up with our friends Neil and Susan.  They live here, and we met them on our first visit here.  It was Neil that convinced us to go to Newfoundland back in 2013.

Once we had gathered all the information we could in Halifax, we left for Cape Breton. Cape Breton is an island, connected to the mainland by a causeway.

Its not a huge island, so we decided to stay at Battery Provincial Park for our entire stay. It is centrally located enough that we could reach all the places we needed to be.

It’s about 30 minutes from Port Hastings, where my father’s paternal grandparents were from, about 40 minutes from Isle Madame, where my dad’s maternal grandparents were from, and about 25 minutes from where my maternal grandmother grew up.

We really loved this park. With no reservations, we had to move sites a few times, and mostly didn’t have electric hook up, but that’s easy to do in the camper, and the park was very well kept and had great views.

As added bonuses, there were very few bugs, so we could have campfires, and there is a pair of resident bald eagles that we watched a few times.

I think we spent a total of 4 or 5 full days at the Port Hastings Historical Society. That is the area that the Kings were from, and when I said what family name I was interested in, they handed me a folder with a ton of information! I didn’t have time to digest it all so I took pictures and have been going through the information as I can.






One thing that makes it harder, is internet access. Although I have my full data allotment, Paul has nothing, so we have to share.  And Google maps is a data hog. Many public places have Wi-Fi, which helps some but it is still a challenge.

We took one full day and drove the island of Isle Madame, home to many many Samson and Boudreau families-I am related to most of the people on the island, in some way or other. We spent a few hours in the library there, and one of the guys working  there set up his computer and let me copy a “communal” family tree that was put together during a genealogy summit a few years ago.

Once we had that, we drove around the island checking out the towns and seashore. Samson Cove was very pretty.

My great grandfather Thomas Boudreau was born here on the island, in Boudreauville- there are many small towns on Cape Breton that are named for the family that lived there. I love sea glass, and it was actually really cool to find some on a beach near the town.










There are people who I correspond with who are researching the same families- so we are related in some way- and we share what information we find. I have also reached out to a few people on Ancestry DNA, sometimes to share info, sometimes just to say hi.

Leo King and I have been sharing information for a year or so now and he set me up to meet his brother Charlie, who lives on Cape Breton. Charlie and I are 2nd cousins once removed. It was very strange meeting a relative named Charlie King- that was my dad’s name.

Charlie was awesome and showed us all around, pointing out where the old settlements had been. Most were gone and the families moved on- often just down the road it seems. One challenge in doing research here is that the names of the towns have changed since the time period I am researching. My great grandfather was born in Caribou Cove- its now Port Malcolm. My great great grandfather lived in Plaster Cove- now Port Hawkesbury, and my great great great grandfather lived in Ship Harbour- now Port Hastings.  At least I feel like I have the lay of the land better now!



I got a response to a message I sent on Ancestry to a 2nd cousin who lives in Nova Scotia. The reply said “hi- I am the guy whose computer  you used the other day in the library- we are cousins??” Too funny!


The nearby town of Johnstown is where my grandmother Josephine Johnston grew up. While Isle Madame is the French/Acadian area of Cape Breton, Johnstown/Red Islands  is the Scottish area of the island.

Many of the signs are in Gaelic as well as English, including some stop signs. I have been fascinated with the differences we have found in the food and the accents on the Island. Many of the people of Isle Madame speak with a French-ish accent, and the people of Johnstown favor a Scottish one.

I remembered that the last time we were here, we missed the annual Milling Frolic by just a few days so I asked around and found out we would indeed be here for it this year!

It’s the oldest running milling frolic in Nova Scotia- 87 Years . In days gone by, people got together to “kneed “ wool cloth to shrink it. Nowadays it’s a social event, where they mill the cloth while singing in Gaelic.

They open the Sacred Heart church community center for the party. We were amazed to see hundreds of people show up for this event .

There is food served, a room where Bingo was being played, and a place for kids to do artwork.

Before all the “real singers” showed up they asked people to fill in the seats, so I got to sit while everyone else sang in Gaelic. Once the Gaelic singing was done they had a dance that lasted till 1 am. Or so we hear. We left at 10:30.

After about 10 days on the island, we were both ready to move on.

Tracking down the family (08-19-13)

Adding Newfoundland into our itinerary meant taking something out of our itinerary, but I wasn’t willing to give up my search for family.  I have been researching my genealogy on and off for the last year or so and I had really been looking forward to spending time in Cape Breton.  This post is more for my benefit than anyone else’s, so I apologize in advance for the boringness of it.  Feel free to click to another page.
So, I became interested in my family history while in Salt Lake City, sitting around while Paul researched his family.  At the LDS (Latter Day Saints) research center, I typed  my paternal grandmother’s name into the computer, just for fun.  I was totally surprised to find out that she had a step-father. No one had ever mentioned that in the family.  Ever.  Her dad died when he was young, and her mom remarried.  That sparked my interest, and something my mom had always said to me added to the flame.  She said my heritage is “Scottish, Irish, English, and French (Canadian).  But I didn’t know exactly how each branch got back to it’s original country.  So I started looking. Actually, she first said I was “American” and even went to school to argue with teachers when they said that wasn’t an acceptable answer.

Sacred Heart Church, Johnstown

I was immediately surprised to learn that not only did my maternal grandmother come from Cape Breton, Nova Scotia, but the families of my paternal grandmother and grandfather also came from there, in an area about 60 miles away.

   

Sacred Heart cemetery

I loosely decided to trace each branch back to its country of origin.  After doing a lot of work online, actually being in the towns where these people lived their lives was pretty exciting to me.

Geographically we arrived at Johnstown first.  Johnstown, Nova Scotia is named for the Johnston family, who settled in the area after arriving from Scotland, and my maternal grandmother's maiden name  was Johnston.

Isabella Johnston's grave

We found the old church and cemetery where my great grandmother is buried ,and I approached everyone I met to get more information.  Unfortunately, Johnstown isn’t really a town anymore.

  Whatever stores and buildings were originally here are no longer in existence, and it mostly consists of cottages and small homes. The church parish center had an old map on the wall of what the town used to look like.

Colleen Johnston

   Luckily one of my aunts told me where to look for family cottages, and we found Hay Cove, and Colleen Johnston and her family.

Hay Cove

  We spent the afternoon comparing notes on family history.  This land has been in the Johnston family for 250 years.










This is an aerial photo of the Hay Cove area in Johnstown.

Arichat

   Our next stop was on Isle Madame.  This was moving from my mom’s family to my dad’s. We started in the town of Arichat, which I continually run across in my research.  I was very happy to just see this very small village, and drive around. 

At least two branches of my family are from this island and they happen to be the two most common surnames in the area- Samson and Boudreau. It’s tough to find fellow Boudreau family members in a town called Boudreauville! 









Everyone thinks you are a cousin! About a month or so ago, my research collided with the research of a fellow Samson family member.  It turns out, he has all the documentation for the Samson name going back to 16th century France.  With one click of the mouse, my work with that branch of the family was done.  He had also helped me find Boudreau family members. Thanks, Charles Samson!!

Samson family cottages in Samson Cove

Paul and I spent an entire day on Isle Madame- an island settled mostly by Acadians (I didn’t even know I was Acadian till I started this research). Petit de Grat is a smaller island in the area. Two, possibly three, of my great grandparents are from Petit de Grat. 

Everyone we spoke to tried to help, but we were there on a weekend, which made things trickier. For one thing, the library was closed, but Ann Marie, the woman working at the visitor center, made numerous phone calls to potential family members for me, and gave me several connections to follow up on.  We were towing the trailer at this point, and several people told us where we could drop it for the day so we could drive around without it. 



At one point I stopped to take a picture of a beautiful harbor and a man approached, asking if he could help.  I was a little confused, but he said “well, you have a huge truck, and this is a small community.  I’ve seen you at least 4 times today”.  Turns out he’s a Samson, and probably a relative of some type.

Notre Dame De L'Assomption, Arichat

Notre Dame De L'Assomption

We visited the church where my family has worshiped for generations, and took pictures of the gravestones in the old cemetery, so I can research them later, but finally we had to move on.

St. Francis De Sales, Lower River

The next stop was the Port Hawkesbury/Lower River area of Cape Breton, only about 40 miles away.  Here is my biggest puzzle.  I know that my maternal grandmother is Scottish, my maternal grandfather is Irish, and my paternal grandmother is French.  That means my paternal grandfather, Raymond King, must be English.  But I have had a very difficult time finding any records.  The French used to keep one copy of a record at the church, and send at least one to France, so there were multiple copies.  That’s great because so many churches and other buildings burned down that many records were just lost. Apparently the English didn’t follow that habit, and records are hard to come by.






Paul and I hit the ground running in the Port Hawkesbury area.  We visited several small museums, asked about churches, graveyards and other small museums, and in general tried to follow every lead we got.  Once again we were thwarted because the local library was closed for its yearly maintenance.  At least 4 people told me I need to contact Lester Morgan- his family is related to the King family and he has done a ton of research.  One person gave me his number.  I called him.  He didn’t return the call.  Another person gave me his email address.  A third person said that Lester is in the states on vacation so he won’t get any messages.  Well darn. We had to put Lester on hold while we visited more museums, churches and graveyards.  We had no luck finding any new information, which was pretty discouraging.  Then I got a huge surprise. The day after we left, Lester arrived back home and responded to my email. He said he has lots of information on the King family, and boy, does he.  It turns out he and I are related.  My great grandfather, who moved to Boston, had a brother who stayed in Nova Scotia.  Lester and I have been emailing back and forth but I’ve had such poor Wi-Fi, I’ll really be better off waiting until we get back to the states.
All through this 3 day marathon, I have been amazed at how willing people have been to help.  One girl who was working at a museum made a dozen phone calls for me.  She found a potential family member who said “send them on over”. 

She even printed out a map for us so we wouldn't get lost,and we were able to sit down and talk to Noni Hureau ( her great grandfather was my great grandmother’s brother) for an hour, gathering information.  Turns out Noni lived in the Boston area for many years before returning to Cape Breton to retire.  I now have several leads to follow on that branch of the family, plus, I have the phone numbers of several people in the area, if I need more help in the future.




The last three days have been quite the marathon, and I am mentally drained. On the plus side, I learned a lot, and got to see the places where my  family has lived for over 200 years.

The Fortress of Louisbourg (08-17-13)

 

Constructed in the early 1700s by the French to protect the fisheries on Cape Breton, the fortress of Louisbourg was designed to protect the town from an attack by sea, because the surrounding land was so swampy, they reasoned that no one would spend the time necessary to drag weapons across the marsh.  Well, they were wrong.

  When England went to war with France in the 1700s, that’s exactly what the English did.  The one thousand French troops stationed at the fort were no match for the thousands of British troops and the small fleet of British ships that accompanied them. England easily took over the fort, and once it was captured, shipped the townspeople back to France.  When peace reigned once more, Louisbourg was given back to the French as part of the treaty.and many of the townspeople returned from France. The peace didn’t last as long as they would have liked, unfortunately, but this time, when war broke out, the French thought they were better prepared for an English invasion.  They now had several thousand troops  at the fort, and a few warships in the harbor.  Unfortunately, this time, the English arrived with more than 10,000 troops and 30 warships.  Again, Louisbourg was taken by the English.

This time the English weren’t taking any chances that the fort would fall into the hands of the French again, so they burned it to the ground.

More modern times:

The fact that no one occupied this area after the mid 1700s made it unique from an archeological standpoint. Archeologists could be pretty sure that whatever they dug up came from that time period, or perhaps from a slightly earlier period.  In the 1900s, the fort became a national historic site, and over the course of many years, the physical fort was reconstructed. Original blueprints were used, as well as the original foundation
placements.

“Trade:  I do not know why a low idea has been attached to this word; it is to the trades that we owe all things necessary for life”- Denis Diderot, French philosopher

Finding tradesmen and companies who could build the buildings, and supply things such as authentic windows was a difficult task that took many years to accomplish. The end result is a replica of a fort that looks like it’s an original fort that has been well preserved.

They even managed to find authentic 18th century lawn mowers.  These sheep are still used to “mow” lawns, and are moved around each afternoon so they can mow whichever lawn needs it the most ( we did see some evidence of modern lawnmowers though)

During the day there are several programs that take place to demonstrate various parts of life back in the mid 1700s.  From dancing to weapon shooting, you can see it all.  This demonstration taught us how townspeople would be punished for minor, and sometimes major, transgressions.  Humiliation was the key.





The weather the day we went was beautiful. Not too hot and not too cold and the sun was shining.  We were assured over and over again that that is not typical weather.  Usually it's foggy and/or rainy and cold. Yay for us!   We elected not to bring a lunch, so at noon time we headed for one of the few restaurants on site.  The one we chose serves a "poor man's lunch".  They gave us each one large spoon, no knife or fork, and one very large napkin.  We both ordered soup and meat with vegetables.  It actually was quite good. We were seated at a common table with other people, which we always enjoy.  The server had a little difficulty with the portable "witchcraft" machine that we had to slide our credit card through, but eventually it worked.

Sydney Mines, Nova Scotia (08-16-13)

Sydney is one of the larger towns on Cape Breton, so we started our stay there by restocking the refrigerator with some produce.  We have to be a little careful  what we buy now because in two weeks we’ll be crossing the border back into the states, and won’t be able to bring any meat or produce with us. The U.S. is even more strict than Canada about what you can bring, so I’d just rather have NO produce than have to guess what I can bring and what I can’t (apparently it changes regularly).
Once we were stocked up again, it was off to the Sydney Mines. Coal mining was one of the two major industries on Cape Breton- the other one being fishing.  With the fish population decimated and all of the mines closed, Cape Breton has  had to re-invent itself in order to survive.

Back in the 1960s, the Sydney Mine Museum was created, before all the mines were closed, and while the local knowledge of the history was still extensive.  Our visit was two pronged- the museum above ground, and the tour of the mine below ground.

   We’ve been to a coal mine before, and that first visit had a real impact on both Paul and I. We quickly came to understand just how difficult and dangerous a life of coal mining is. This tour added even more to our knowledge and understanding.
I have very few pictures of our day because I made a rookie mistake and forgot to put the memory card in my camera!




The tour below was conducted by Wish, an older man who actually worked in the mines before they closed.  The mine we were touring was never actually “mined”.  It was dug solely to be part of the museum. We still had to crouch down for most of the tour though!






He described a typical day in the life of a miner.  These mines were partly under the ocean, and the deeper the water above, the deeper the mine needed to be so it wouldn’t collapse.  It ended up being 2900 feet below sea level, and the trip the miners took just to get to work each day was not a barrel of fun.  They rode in carts, with no protection from the elements, and no light once they were underground, until they reached the end.  Then they had their personal light to work by. 


When the mining company opened, they needed lots of workers for the mines, but the population here wasn’t big enough, so they brought people over from Scotland and Ireland. The work is so dangerous, they were afraid the workers wouldn’t stay once they figured it out, so as they did in Pennsylvania, here the company set it up so that immediately upon arriving, the miners would be indebted to the company, essentially forcing them to stay, whether they wanted to or not.  The miners had to buy their own supplies, from the company, and lived in housing that they rented, from the company.  By controlling the price of supplies and housing, the company was able to ensure that the miners were always in debt. Years later, the miners figured out that if they pulled their sons out of school and sent them to work in the mines as well, they could pay down their debt and start to get ahead, so that’s what they did. The company countered their action- to shore up their control  they closed the mines for periods of time, then offered the miners credit at the store, forcing them to  build up their debt again.


In addition, part of the lease agreement on the house stated that at least one male from the household had to work in the mine.  If the husband died or was injured and couldn’t work, the son (if there was one) would have to take his place- even if he was only 8-9 years old.  If there was no one to send, the family had a matter of days to vacate the house.

The actually mining was grueling work. They would drill holes into the “face” of the mine- the furthest point of the tunnel, blast it to smithereens, then start digging out the coal, once it was in smaller pieces.  The closer you worked to the Face, the more money you made, and the more dangerous your job was.

The coal was brought part of the way to the surface by Pit Ponies. In the early days, these horses lived their entire working lives underground.  Years later, when the unions came into play, and the miners actually got vacation time, the horses would also get two weeks off, and spent it in a pasture above ground. Once the two weeks were up, back down they would go, until  next year.

The museum above ground was really good as well.  I enjoyed the explanation of fossils. Fossils are made of the remains of prehistoric plants or animals, buried and preserved over time.   In order for a fossil to form, there must be a way for the plant to be preserved- usually it’s because the plant landed in water.

Over thousands of years, the mud and sediment around the plant turn to rock, and when the plant finally does decay, it leaves an empty pocket in the rock. Eventually minerals filter through the rock, fill in the space, and turn into a rock shaped like the plant.  Voila!