Mining For Pioneers
If
your ancestors were miners, you might be interested in the vein of
research that has obsessed John Ashton for the past three years.
The
amateur historian had unearthed a long-abandoned village in the
hinterlands of central Nova Scotia settled by French immigrants in the
1870s.
The mystery now is, where did the nine or more families go after they
left the short-lived settlement they called Raymond-ville, a place no
name you won’t find on the maps of today.
“There
were only two families left there after 1881 – the Bonnets and the
Oudins,” says Ashton, a graphic designer of Bridgeville.
So what
became of the others: Hommé, Floret, Segretain, Durand, Mazzee and
Passieux families?
Did any
of them moved on to other Atlantic Canadian mining towns?
The
genealogy bug and the history bug are closely related, says Ashton,
who has no blood connection to the French miners, but feels a kinship
through the discoveries he is making.
Ashton’s
first inkling of the settlement was an obscure notation on an 1879
county atlas near the convergence of the county boarders of Pictou,
Colchester, Halifax and Guysborough, near present-day Trafalgar.
“The
day I stumbled across the foundation of a 25 x 30-foot log cabin there
and then discovered a dug well nearby,” is recalled by Ashton as one
of the biggest thrills of the research so far. Alone in the
forest, accompanied only by his dog, Ashton let out a whoop of joy.
Later
he discovered other artifacts, like a spoon, an old photo, an ax head,
an iron skillet, a horseshoe and a broken bottle he pieced back
together.
“I
can’t describe the feeling,” he says of the unfolding of an
historical settlement where children played and adults struggled to
eke out and existence.
Only
one tombstone remains in a fenced-in cemetery area. “There’s
supposed to be six individuals buried there.”
“I am
bitten by the history-bug now, I may never stop,” he laughs at the
notion that his project may have a concluding point.
Ashton
hopes to bring Raymond-ville to the attention of a wider circle
perhaps with some sort of recognition at the Acadian Congrés in 2004.
He
also hopes to find lots of descendants of these families. One
Hommé descendant from Pennsylvania has already surfaced and visited
Pictou County this summer.