Trip to Parrsboro, NS

I took a last minute trip up to Nova Scotia on November 18, 19, 20, 21 with my Prius for a MacAloney Family gathering.  My most distant family left Scotland and landed for a few years in Northern Ireland before heading to Nova Scotia around 1800.  100 years later my great grandfather and family migrated to Massachusetts.  There were about 10 other Mc/MacAloney families that also landed in Nova Scotia over the years but with no available records in Norther Ireland the various families have assumed their relationship to be common.

Graeme MacAloney, currently of Victoria BC, Canada has set about an effort to use genetic testing to try to pull the families together.  His family history is similar to mine in that his family migrated back to Scotland in the 1800's.  Although we have know of each other since the 1990's we have never met, but he was headed to NS for business and agreed to present to the MacAloney's still in Parrsboro, NS, where the MacAloney's landed when they first immigrated his information about the MacAloney family and its tie to Scotland and the Cameron Clan.

Since I had seen he had his male Y-Chromosome tested for the 111 markers and was encouraging other MacAloney lines to also do it I did the test in October and my results came in just before my trip there and we matched on 109 markers and were only off by one on the other 2.  This degree of difference is acceptable based on what we estimate as a 200+ years ago we had a common relative.

Anyway, I drove about 650 miles to the land of my relatives on Friday with the gathering planned on Sunday.  With a population of less than 1500 it isn't a big town. I arrived late afternoon after loosing an hour as it is in the Atlantic Time Zone.

I arrived for the annual Parrsboro Christmas Tree Lighting Ceremony on the town common just down from the bed and breakfast I was staying in.

I joined in the celebration and was given a hot chocolate and cookie from a wonderful group of people.  I seemed to fit right in, and not just because it is the one place in the world I don't have to spell my name.

Parrsboro and the surrounding area is very New England like and accents are nearly the same as mine other than the random local saying "aboot" for about.  Heck they get the Boston TV stations and it is like home watching local television.

Parrsboro is known for a few things one being the largest recorded tide of over 50' as they are at the top of the Bay of Fundy,  My visit brought me to NS just after the November King Tide that was related to the moon and sun orientation so I saw tides in the 46' range.

Above the red hew is the other thing that Parrsboro is noted for and that is blueberries.

Brent

macaloney@hotmail.com