A fantastically fascinating thing about living where we live is the rich concentration of family history in the relatively small area which makes up our new community.
I say relatively small, because the local area encompasses Bridgewater to the LaHave Islands, a distance of approximately 30km from one to the other.
Long before the Hahns came along, Oikles (don't you just love that name?!) and Zwickers and Zincks and Reinhardts and Richards and Oakleys and Corkums and Balkoms and Publicovers and Whynots and Himmelmans and Pentzes were setting up shop along the banks of the LaHave River and spreading their genealogical wings, giving their names to roads, beaches, townships, buildings and institutions (not to mention requiring very few varying headings in the phone directory!). As their names reveal, a lot of the original immigrants came out from Germany, although a sizeable number hailed from Ireland and England, and other parts of mother Europe.
A stroll through the numerous local graveyards reveals a lot about their triumphs and struggles to establish themselves in a new land, far away from the nearest city (Halifax, which is now an hour's drive, would have taken considerably longer back in the day). The rich multicultural mix of family names is fascinating and says a lot about the willingness of people to start afresh and create one single culture together in their new adopted land.
Naturally, being so near the Atlantic, many of them were either of farming or fishing bent. Life could be and often was short, especially for the children. Plenty of graves are dedicated to some very little ones - ivory, tender, sombre, time-caressed stones marking the bitter shortness of life's travail.
Nowadays, these same families dominate practically everything in the area. They've intermarried and inter-intermarried so often over time that virtually everyone is related or connected somehow. The same names pop up in Halifax, Mahone Bay and places around and in between, following the trail of family members who branched out and moved on over time.
Living amongst homes built by settlers and still inhabited by their descendants (whose names have sometimes changed as they intermarried) gives our area such a settled, time-proven feeling. Although we're only a mere snippet of its story, it's comforting to think of the bedrock of history behind us and to know that our home was loved by so many people, most of whom were in all likelihood linked somehow by history and blood.
By Christy
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