Archibald Dodd was born sometime between 1740 and 1745 in the North of England. Although he came from a wealthy family, Dodd lost his inheritance, so he became a lawyer. In 1775, Dodd married a woman named Bridget – unhappily, it seems, as soon…

À la Baie Sainte-Marie, la construction ferroviaire commence en 1874 dans les villages forestiers, éloignés des côtes de la Baie, pour appuyer l’industrie forestière en plein essor. Ce moyen de transport transforme l’économie de la région puisqu’il…

Prior to the construction of good roads along the Eastern Shore of Nova Scotia, passenger and freight services were provided by sea. Sometimes this coastal service was subsidized by the government, at first for sailing “packets” and later for…

The St. Mary's Genealogy Research Centre at Sherbrooke Village is a relative newcomer to the Nova Scotia archival community. It was founded in 2011 by a dedicated group of local genealogists and historians in response to the need to provide a place…

While no other details or records about Rachel Barrett’s life are currently known, her carefully wrought stitches in her 1845 sampler serve as a testament to her existence and shed further light on the education of young Black Nova Scotians during…

Minudie is a fairly isolated area of Nova Scotia between the mouth of River Hebert and the Cumberland Basin. Originally occupied by the Mi’kmaq and later farmed by Acadians before the Deportation, the area became part of a grant made to Joseph…

In 1892, Will and Annie McDiarmid, returned home to Liscomb after several years living in the United States, during which time, they were introduced to Methodism. Until 1892, the Church of England was the only religious influence in the Liscomb…

Captain John Butler Wilson arrived in Sydney in 1785 and became the first captain of the Sydney Garrison. Soon thereafter, Captain Wilson met and married an Irish Catholic named Margaret Caverly. Unlike his wife, Captain Wilson was an Anglican. The…

In an isolated clearing in the forest, accessible only by rough logging roads from the TransCanada Highway or from Judique, is the small, white-painted church of St. Margaret of Scotland. Thirty Gaelic-speaking families from the Scottish Highlands…

In 1892, Jean-Jacques Stehelin come to Nova Scotia from France to explore the possibilities of establishing a business here. His father, Émile, knew some of the faculty at Collège Sainte-Anne at Church Point, so this is where his investigations…