From the Vaults: Silly 18th Century Names

Reading today's Hollywood gossip sites and magazines, I often find myself groaning at the, ermmm...unique? names that celebrities pick out for their children. Apple, Sunday, Ocean, Blanket (really MJ?), Audio...the list could go on and on. I had always thought that this was a fairly modern phenomenon. My recent forays into the land records at Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, however, suggests that this trend for creative names has a VERY long history.

Take, for example, Mr. B. Goold, who lived in Hants County Nova Scotia in 1784. He petitioned the government to give a grant of land to his daughter, Gratiana Wilhemina Heneretta Zephalinda Sophia Goold (Nova Scotia Archives and Records Managemt, RG 20 "A" Vol. 4). What a mouthful! The poor clerk who had to repeatedly write out this name on the land documents appears to have agreed with me, often shortening the name to G.W.H.Z.S. Goold. I don't blame him.

Silly name #2 comes from the County of Sunbury, in modern day New Brunswick. Beamsley Glazier, a Lieutenant Colonel, was granted 1000 acres of prime real estate (Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, RG 20 "A" Vol. 4). Beamsley! I love it

The final example of historic Nova Scotia silly names comes to us from the Dill family, also of Hants County. Brothers John, David, and...Mungo Dill, received a hefty chunk of land along the road to Windsor (Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, RG 20 "A" Vol. 3A).

Of course, not every 18th century parent was so creative. After reading about many Williams, Johns, James', and Edwards, coming across these names always gives me a bit of a chuckle. Who knows, today's celebrities may be taking their baby-naming cues from a long history of unique and creative Nova Scotian parents!

Greetings from the Nova Scotia Archives

I love history! The project that I am currently working on at Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management, therefore, has me pretty excited. As part of a larger initiative to make archival records widely available for viewing on the internet, I have been scanning, editing and entering data on some of the earliest land documents in Nova Scotia. These documents contain some fascinating stories and tidbits of the personal lives of Nova Scotians from as early as the 1760's. I am always tempted to do more reading than scanning!

This project is also proving to be a great opportunity for me to learn some new computer programs and brush up on some technology related skills. I am getting comfortable with some basic picture editing in Photoshop, as well as data entry and database management in Microsoft Access. I have also learned a lot about creating digital images; choosing a resolution, merging multiple images into one, and preparing images for display on the web.

Below is one of the images I have created as part of this project (Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management Land Papers Series "A", Vol. 1 - Wheelock, Abel).




Enjoy the snow everyone!

Jessie @ NSARM

Challenge #5 Entry - Keegan Moser

I've always been fairly interested in history, genealogy and related subjects, so this weeks challenge was quickly used to once again partnered with and draw attention to our community historical society. Basically, we began by posting signs around Moser River announcing that one afternoon we would be having a barbecue and prize draws at the local museum and genealogy center. Then, once people were aware, we moved over to the museum for one afternoon and fired up the barbecue. We saw many people over the course of the afternoon, some of whom even brought old photographs and documents to contribute to the museum. I've scanned some of them, they'll be attached below.

Some of the older community members were particularly excited , and were happy to have a chance to discuss people, places and artifacts.

Some of the community youth were more drawn by the promise of a barbecued lunch, but once they actually came in to the museum, some of them were just as enthused as any of the adults.

And some of the donated pictures (these are only a few, there are many more):

In the end, I feel that we were quite successful in drawing more attention and interest to the Moser River and Area Historical Society.

Beaver Bank Community Centre Fire

Here are a few pictures of the sadly departed Beaver Bank Community Centre, September 2009, courtesy of Dan's Facebook.

The CAP site was behind this wall.

The Main door of the Centre - To the right front is the Volunteer Policing Office I used to also work at. Behind that, on right, was the CAP site
There was a second computer site on the top floor where I taught a lot of one-on-one lessons.
Day after, still smoldering


The night of the fire.

1861 meets 2010

Adjacent to the Waverley C@P site is an old church that has been turned into a local museum. This building has been in the community since the 1800’s and is an important symbol of the Village’s rich history. At this point the museum runs off of the time and efforts of local volunteers and has been using mostly traditional ways of receiving funding. These methods (like donations, yard sales etc) worked in the past but the expenses have been going up and they decided it was time to try something new.

This year they decided to try hosting a yard sale once again by taking in donations and having a sale at the museum. In efforts to raise more money for the museum, myself and the museum volunteers decided to sell the more valuable items online via. Kijiji. I consider this my success story of the week because of the mix of new technology and history. It was nice to see the volunteers who are seniors will little computer experience willing to try something new in effort to preserve history.