Readers Respond

Karen L. Pogoloff, Newport News, Virginia: My maternal grandfather, Richard Arthur Foote, was born in Kings County, Nova Scotia, in 1900. Although I visited several times as a child, I didn’t learn about the deep roots of my Nova Scotian ancestors until I began my genealogical research in 2012. The vast majority were New England Planters who first arrived in the mid-1760s from Connecticut, Massachusetts, and Rhode Island. These ancestors were the descendants of nine Mayflower passengers. I was surprised to learn that Nova Scotia is only second to Massachusetts in the number of Mayflower descendants.

Debbie Balsam, Warsaw, Virginia: My husband worked in Canada for two years putting in the accounting system for the government of the Northwest Territories. My father worked in Canada for over a year helping to put in the Toronto subway system.

Karen Wood, Middletown, Delaware: After my maternal grandmother, Flora Scott Weit, died in Providence, Rhode Island, I realized that I didn’t know where to look for her extended family. Then I remembered how often Grandmother would say she went Down East to visit her cousin Vera—but I didn’t know Vera’s surname. To me, "Down East" was Maine, but I recalled Grandmother’s mother came from Canada East. I posted to the old Rootsweb board for Canada East and asked if anyone knew of a Flora Scott who would visit a Vera every summer “Down East.” I was astounded when someone almost immediately wrote back to say her grandmother was Vera Shaw and she remembered my grandmother and great-grandmother often coming to Prince Edward Island. In 2000, I met the rest of the family and found that my family had been on PEI since the late 1700s.

Diane Blakely Saulnier, Fruita, Colorado: My ancestor William Blakely went from Northern Ireland to Charleston, South Carolina, with his family about 1756 and settled in Laurens County, S.C. His son, James Chambers Blakely, was a Loyalist. After the Revolution, James and his family were escorted out of South Carolina and resettled in Musquodoboit, Nova Scotia. The family flourished there, but in 1875 my grandfather came to Northborough, Massachusetts.

Sherry Bigalow, Shelburne, Vermont: I have two great-great grandmothers with Canadian connections. Sarah Hoy, was born in 1844 in Napierville, Quebec, to parents who emigrated from Ireland. She later moved to Port Henry, New York. Agnes Bettes was born in 1847 in Percy, Ontario, to parents from the Cherry Valley, New York, area. After her mother died, she went to Cherry Valley to live with relatives. My daughter brought the process full circle. She moved from Vermont to Montreal to go to college, married a Canadian, and now is a dual citizen living in Montreal with a baby son born in Montreal.