Since the September day in 1783 when my Loyalist ancestors landed in Nova Scotia, the family have grown and prospered. Today we drove from Amherst to Pugwash, passing through Oxford on our way. As we tooled along the rolling, windy roads towards the bay, I wondered which of my ancestors lived here, farmed here, built a home here, raised a family here. At every turn there was a sign with a related family name on it - Peers, Teed, Swallow, Thompson, and many more.
Ate lunch at the Chatterbox Restaurant right near the Bay in Pugwash and noticed the street signs here are all bilingual - English and Gaelic. Neat!
We stopped at our first cemetery - Wallace Community Cemetery. Thoughtful folks that they are, they have a table of contents posted at the front gate. It was easy to find the graves we were looking for, although many of the markers are almost worn flat by the sea breezes. Some of these people have been here since 1800. Next visit, we will take some paper and charcoal and see if we can't get decent rubbings from them. One of the graves was that of Caleb and Mary Peers. In November and December of 1860, they lost 6 of their children to diphtheria.
We stopped at the North Cumberland Historical Society, based in the old train station in Pugwash. While I could have spent hours there, I did purchase the local history books I wanted and am going back Friday to get a bunch of papers copies. One is the will of my great grandmother's first husband. He died at the age of 24 and left her with a small infant. The attached papers from her father attest that he will be responsible for them in the future. Shortly after, however, she married Charles Bragg and joined the clan.
We are in a lovely campground just off the TransCanada Highway in Amherst. It's close to shopping and all the places I want to go to do my research, so we're booked in here for the week. We are sitting on a very pretty little lake and surrounded by a quaint daisy garden.
Dani, you'll be sorry to hear that as we passed through Oxford, I saw that the Blueberry and Maple Centre is closed and the big blueberry is gone. Such a shame.
To be continued.........
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