Today I toured the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21. From 1928 to 1971, Pier 21 processed over 800,000 immigrants to Canada. The transition from exclusionary and whites only policies to a rating system based on what a potential immigrant to Canada can contribute is movingly told. And the process the new arrivals experienced is fascinating. All together, it is a system that serves Canada so much better than the US system seems to serve our needs. I do find the Oath of Citizenship a little odd.
That’s the “coming”. The “going” starts on George’s Island in Halifax harbor. This is where the British assembled Acadians in groups of several hundred prior to their removal in the Great Deportation. As a personal connection, I have Acadian ancestors on one side of the family, that got the boot, and I have British loyalist relatives that fled the US and moved into the newly available land in Nova Scotia.
In a different removal, the picture at the top is of the Camp Hill Cemetery, the new cemetery in town, opened in 1844. At right is the memorial for Alexander Keith, known to anyone who drinks beer Atlantic Canada.
And this is the Old Burying Ground. Opened in 1744 at the founding of Halifax, and closed in 1844. More than 12,000 men, women, and children interred here. Fewer than 1,200 markers.
The Sebastipol Monument is erected to honor two residents, not yet Canadian, killed in the Crimean War. Add that to the Boer monument in the Garden.
Missing from the perhaps already too numerous cemetery photos are those of my ancestors. Too late I realized that the Bancroft/Starratt branch of British loyalists are buried in and around Annapolis Royal, an area I drove through on Wednesday. I do have the opportunity to stop in and see a few Moreshead graves tomorrow. That would be from the Leeman/Moreshead line. TBD.
On a friends recommendation I went to Willy’s (open until 4AM) for poutine. And then next door for donair, checking off two local foods that are not fish. And a beer at Garrison brewery.
The Journey 