LOCATION:

Birch Cove is on the Bedford highway just eight kilometers north west of Halifax.

WHAT'S IN A NAME?

One of the first English-speaking settlers was William Donaldson, who named his estate Birch Cove after the birch trees that hung over the cove.

HISTORY:

Used by the Mi'kmaq as a summer camping ground until the 1920's, there are also traces of an early Acadian village on the cove. A gravesite, uncovered in 1890, was first thought to be a Mi'kmaq burial site or perhaps the graves of some of the French soldiers who had died aboard the Duc D'Anville's French fleet. However, thirty graves were dug up and scientific analysis proved they were actually Acadian soldiers.

GENEALOGY:

Others who settled the community around 1835 included families by the names of Goff, Ryan, Maxwell, Doyle, Quigley, Beckwith, Hopewell and Strickland. By 1930, those living around the cove included the Gifford, Cosgrove, Holmes and Brewster families.

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