Trippin’ Around North America

It's a miracle, two days of sun!

October 4

First a little geography lesson, Nova Scotia is attached to New Brunswick by a small neck of land in the south of New Brunswick. Up north in Nova Scotia there is a very large Island called Cape Breton, which at one time was a separate British Colony. The two are joined by a causeway.

We headed up to Cape Breton to do the Cabot Trail, which is supposed to be a very scenic drive of about 300 K's in the northern end.

We stopped at a cute town called Braddeck, where Alexander Graham Bell, an American, had a very stately summer home and did some of his experiments with hyrdro foils and other innovative improvements to technology. Parks Canada has built a very nice museum honouring his contributions to the world. We spent considerable time in there.

Earlier in the trip, our son Craig had sent me a copy of an e-mail he had sent to a cousin of mine who was enquiring into the family tree on my mother's side. In it was the date and place of birth of my Grandfather, William Deagle. He was born at a place called Margaree, Nova Scotia. He was born a Daigle but the name was changed during WW1 because it sounded too German. My mother told us they were still called "dirty little Germans" during that war. My Mom was born in 1911.

While we had lunch in the parking lot of the museum before entering, I entered the place, Margaree, into our navigation toy, [Jane] and asked her to plot a trip to Margaree, wherever that was, so I could find it on a map. We were 30 minutes and 30 K's from Margaree!

Upon entering the museum, I asked two clerks there if either of them had heard of Margaree, they both laughed and giggled. They both lived in Margaree! I had a nice chat with one of them, asking if they knew any Deagles or Daigles. She didn't. About 20 minutes later she caught up with us in the museum with a phone book. She had phoned her Mom, who knew of a Deagle/Daigle who may know something of the family at the time. She also gave us a website of an organisation that has family information of the area of Margaree.

Tomorrow we intend to drive the Cabot Trail and we drive through Margaree Forks, Margaree Centre, East Margaree and Margaree Harbour. I will be looking for a large bronze life-sized statue of my great-grandfather in the square of Margaree Centre. Not likely, they were farmers or fishermen. The area in question is on the East Coast of Cape Breton, the body of water is the Gulf of St. Lawrence.

PS No pictures, we may be on dial-up.

posted by Doug and Fellette @ 7:10 PM