Meeting Notice

The regular meeting of the SSGS will be held Monday, November 16th, in the Society room, Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic at 7:30 PM. The SSGS office is closed in December.

Inventory list of the Society

The Society is preparing an Inventory List of the research material available in the office. The list could enable researchers to organize their search vehicles or locate another avenue to search prior to the visit to the office. The list will be approximately 60 double sided sheets and will sell for $5.00 plus postage. If you would be interested, please contact the office.

Zellers - Club Z Number Changed to 840 345 301

Canadian members only - Please note that the SSGS Club Z number has changed to 840 345 301. If you do not plan to use your points, you may transfer them to the Society Card. We have copies of the transfer form at the office.

Bouquets to Volunteers

A special 'thank you' to the following volunteers who kept the Society office open daily from the first of September to October 16th: Sheila Chambers, Vivian Corkum, Ralph Getson

Janet Heisler-Zinck, Paul Jodrey, Murray Jodrie, Roger Mason, Gerald Morgan, Rosemary Rafuse, Mary Saul, Pat Smith, Barbara Spindler, Jeanne Trimper, and Ivan Wamboldt.

From January 1st to September 30th, 865 people signed in, to use the Society Office. This would indicate the importance of the volunteers and summer students.

Canada's First Railway Started 100 Years Ago

Bridgewater Bulletin, June 19, 1935

One hundred years ago this month construction was begun on the first part of the present Canadian National Railway System. This was the Champlain and St. Lawrence Railroad, a line from Laprairie, near Montreal, to St. Johns, sixteen miles distant on the storied Richelieu River. From St. Johns transportation to New York was effected by 'boat through the Richelieu to Lake Champlain and then along the Hudson River. This Canada's first enterprise in railway building, was in reality a portage railroad, the original purpose being to shorten the journey between Montreal and New York. It is of peculiar significance in studying the development of transportation on this northern part of the Continent to note that a great deal of it was international in character, there being much traffic to and from New York by the Richelieu River to Lake Champlain and thence via the Hudson.

Construction on Canada's first venture is railroad building commended in June, 1835, the road being opened for traffic a year later. Operation of this pioneer railroad went on for ten years, when it was decided to lengthen the route. Rails were extended to St. Lambert (just across the river from Montreal) in one direction and to Rouse"s Point, on Lake Champlain, in the other. In 1846-47 the Montreal and Lachine Line was begun and completed. Five years later the railway was extended as the Lake St. Louis and Province Line which ran from Caughnawaga, to Mooer's Junction, where it made connection with the American roads. This enlarged line, later known as the Montreal and New York Railroad, did not pay and was absorbed by the pioneer Champlain and St. Lawrence. In 1852 the pioneer was absorbed by the Grand Trunk Railway, which, in turn, was absorbed on January 30, 1923, by the Canadian National Railways.

The humble beginning of a century ago, with its 16 miles of track, has now grown into the great system which constitutes the Canadian National Railways of today, operating 24,000 miles of line, the largest railroad system on the American continent. From the pigmy wood-burning engine, the Dorchester, and a few carriage-like coaches, operating on a few miles of strap-iron track, has grown the tremendous extension of lines spread like a spider's web over the Dominion, the vast telegraph mileage, the chain of modern hotels in the principal cities of Canada, the express service covering the entire Dominion, and the fleet of passenger and freight vessels linking Canada with the West Indies and the Antipodes.

.... submitted by Mary Saul

Small Lives, Lived Well

The Archivist, by Dan Somers

In a commentary published following the death of Gianni Versace, Cox Newspapers, marvelled at the massive amount of media coverage accorded the passing of someone whose life and work so little affected our own. While acknowledging the unavoidable tragic nature of any such violent and needless death, he questioned whether most of us could express anything other than prurient interest in such events, and further wondered who will be there to document our own selves, our loved ones and all of the other 'little lives, well enough lived." For while relatively few of us will found business empires encircling the globe or delight and challenge millions through our brilliance, everyone who lives, through their choices, actions and relationships, makes history. And this history deserves, in small part, to be documented.

Studying the history of 'little lives,' frequently those of our predecessor, is an exercise in reverence and respect that needs no validation. It restores dignity to individuals who usually led unheralded lives of quiet accomplishment and then generally passed on to little fanfare, leaving only weathered inscriptions and fading memories as testimony to the fact that they ever were at all.

Restoring humanity to mere names is the challenge we face when attempting to fully comprehend either present or the past. Revealing the humanity of those who lived years, decades or centuries before ourselves can be estranged from our forebears by time and the even accelerating rate of change.

Census reports, for instance, reveal not only the names and ages of those in a household, but also details, such as occupations, education levels, ethnic origins and religious affiliations, all of which serve to paint a vivid picture of every day existence a century ago or more. Records of land transactions or notations regarding address can lead us to actual sites which can readily evoke images of whether-beaten men wrestling one-furrow plows or squealing children playing stick ball in the street.

Examine any passenger list and one cannot help but be struck by the courage of young couples, perhaps with babies and aging parents in tow, as they set forth into the unknown, often to struggle with a strange language, unfamiliar customs or hostile climate and landscape.

And while few of us will be fortunate enough to discover accounts in which the threads of our ancestral and national history are so clearly interwoven, we must take care not to overlook the wisp-like strands of detail which, through barely visible, combine to document a life once lived. If we succeed in knowing, understanding and respecting those who have long since disappeared from this earth, just maybe we will learn to value and respect that person sitting next to us on the bus.

..... submitted by Ralph Getson.

Memories of Bridgewater NS

Continued from the last Newsletter..

(Memories written by Stewart Leary born February 1869)

....The first time I went to Bridgewater unaccompanied by an other person was when I went to get some wallpaper. Mother ran short of two rolls of paper so she sent me and my boyhood pal, Willie Clevercy, uptown to get them. Of course, I was delighted to go especially as it gave me a half day out of school. The paper had been bought at Levi Oxner's at the corner store under Starratt's Hotel. Mr. Oxner, an active and vocal party-man was called 'Jumbo', by his political opponents, because of his size. He called his place of business the Jumbo House in the store erected by him and Mr. Doyle. Jennie Oxner was his adopted daughter who became the wife of Senator Duff. Bill Moseley made his home with Mr. Oxner; he was also his chief clerk.

Andrew Gow was the first agent of the Merchants Bank which is now the Royal Bank. He had his office in Logan's store on the water side of Main Street later occupied by Porter, the druggist. Mr. Gow was a very enterprising man and greatly interested in shipping. He had a share in a vessel that my father was building at the time of his untimely and tragic death. He was on his way with his family to visit his brother-in-law, Henry Cook, when the horse tripped going down a hill throwing him out and striking his head on the road bed causing instant death.

Mr. Porter, besides his drug business, kept school books. He was a unique character, witty and resourceful.

On the east side of the river where the railroad station now stands there was a grove of pine trees, which was favourite lounging place.

Captain Cashon's daughter Jennie was his clerk for a long time. Arthur Hebb, who later became a doctor, was also his clerk for awhile. Snow Henderson from Liverpool was his clerk most of the time while I was in Bridgewater. I have pleasant memories of the friendship that existed between us. Once when on a vacation I went to see him at his place of business and he died not long afterward. I often think of him.

Heritage Day Event-1999

Request suggestions for the Heritage Day Event to be held the third weekend in February. The December deadline for SSGS to submit the program to the Federation of Nova Scotian Heritage is fast approaching.

Book Review

Zwischen Eis und Ewigkeit (Between Ice and Eternity)

by T. M. Punch, CG(c)

This book has photography in it that is truly marvellous, and the text is very interesting. The author thanks several parties in Lunenburg for help - Ralph & Heather Getson, Marjorie & Ernst Achenbach, Sherman Zwicker, Fisheries Museum of the Atlantic, and the German Canadian Cultural Association of Lunenburg County.

The book is on the pricey side, but it is a beautiful printing job and the photos and reproductions are really well done. It certainly belongs in the Lunenburg Library system and also the local high school.

A German Context - If, however, you can make your way in German with the help of a dictionary there is a recent book which will greatly interest you. I refer to Wolfgang Knabe's beautifully illustrated and well-researched book, Zwischen Eis und Ewigkeit (Between Ice and Eternity). It offers 240 pages, 140 pictures, mainly in colour, and its theme is the early presence of Germans in Canada's Labrador and in Nova Scotia.

In 1995 Professor Knabe led an expedition on the vessel "Mercator" to retrace some of those sea lanes and landfalls. This book was both a cause for and an outcome of the voyage. There are thus contemporary and historical aspects to the project.

Chapters 6 through 9 (103 pages) tell the story of the Foreign Protestants at Halifax, and in Lunenburg area, as well as the spreading out of German families across mainland Nova Scotia. Dr. Knabe also reveals much about a forgotten chapter in the story, the settlement on the Mira in Cape Breton, where for just a few years in the 1750's existed the Village des Allemands, a dependency of the French at Louisbourg. In autumn 1758, over fifty Germans were brought by the victorious British from Louisburg to Lunenburg.

The book sells for DM 75, (about $65 Canadian), and may be ordered from Oertel & Sporer, Box 1642, D 72706 Reutlingen, Germany.

Cemetery Name Changes

If you know of a name change or name of Old Cemetery in Lunenburg Co. please contact the office.

A recent visitor was looking for the Cove Marsh Cemetery, where their Hebb ancestor was buried, recorded in the Hebb Genealogy, printed in 1975. The cemetery was located at the back of the Miller Peace Park, next to the Dayspring Cemetery. Unfortunate many cemeteries, in the area, do not have signage marking, the present day names, creating difficulties for visitors.

Churches Discontinued

Another request for members. If you are aware of a church that has been closed and/or demolished in Lunenburg Co., please advise the SSGS. The Society would like to record the nams, location and include a picture, if available.

RESEARCH

-The SSGS is purchasing:

the index of 1891 Census of Canada: District of Alberta

which includes approximately 17,000 individuals, names, age, sex and birthplaces. The areas included are: 1881 Census of Alberta, Saskatchewan, Assiniboia West, Assiniboia East.

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-The New Loyalist Index, Volume III

Including Cape Cod & Islands, Massachusetts, New Hampshire, New Jersey & New York Loyalists.

by Paul J. Bunnell, F.A.C.G., UE

Phone 1-800-398-7709

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-British Isles Family History Bookmarks Diskette

A researcher's aid has 3,200 website address in the British Isles, North America, Australia and New Zealand. The diskette is offered to Societies in minimum quantities of 20 diskettes at a cost of $8.00 per diskette. If there are enough people interested, an order will be placed.

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-Ships & Seafarers of Atlantic Canada

A CD-ROM with 340,000 names issued by Memorial University, St. John's, NF. It is the by-product of six years of research by professional historians. The major database is a compilation of information taken from official ship registry certificates from 10 Atlantic Canadian ports some more than 200 years old: Miramichi (1828-1914); Richibucto (1880-1914); Sydney (1820-1914), Pictou (1840-1914; Windsor (1849-1914); Yarmouth (1840-1914), Charlottetown (1787-1914) and St. John's (1820-1936).

A second database compiles information taken from crew agreements for ships registered in Saint John, NB; Yarmouth, Windsor and Halifax (1863-1914). Price $63.19 taxes and shipping included. For further information (709) 737-8424 or write Maritime History Archive, Secretary Eileen Wade,

Memorial University of Nfld

ST JOHN'S NF A1C 5S7

E-mail: dustycat@uh.ultranet.com