John McKay Blaikie was born in Stewiacke, Nova Scotia on 10 August 1837, the son of Harris and M.A. (Doherty) Blaikie. He was twice married. His first wife was Adelaide McLellan, daughter of David and Margaret (Durning) McLellan. His second marriage was to the widow of Captain Alfred Gould, Malinda Gould, on 23 April 1898. She was the daughter of R.N.B. and Jane (Faulkner) McLellan and she died on 4 October 1920. He first held a position in G. W. McLellan’s store, Great Village, Nova Scotia, and went into partnership with McLellan’s son Archibald Woodbury McLellan. McLellan and Blaikie each built a brigantine in 1864 and between 1873 and 1882 they built seven brigs and ships together, the largest being the Sovereign at 1250 tons. By 1885, Blaikie was an independent shipbuilder and owner and built the ship John M. Blaikie, one of the first four-masted vessels built in Canada. He died on 27 June 1929 at Great Village, Nova Scotia.

Ernest Allison Bell, son of Charles and Jennie (nee Ray) Bell, was born on 27 October 1883 at Halifax, N.S. On 26 February 1933, he married Mrs. Nita Irish (Rathbun) Brett (widow), and they had one child, Mary Allison Bell. From 1907-1908 he was a clerk at the National Drug and Chemical Company of Canada and, in 1909, he became a travelling sales agent for his father's company, Maritime Dental Supply Co. After his father's death in 1936, he became president of the company. Bell was strongly involved with the Royal Nova Scotia Yacht Squadron. Bell died in 1968.

William Henry Harris was born in 1805 at Pictou, Nova Scotia, the son of John Harris. He married Anne Arnison and the couple had 2 children; George S. (1838-1885) and Thomas Arnison (1849-1869). In 1856 William was appointed coroner in Pictou County, and a year later was appointed High Sheriff, following the retirement of his father. In 1874 he was appointed by the Provincial Government to be Presiding Officer for the first Municipal election for the new Town of Pictou. In August 1882 Harris began publishing The Pictou News. However by December of 1882 Harris became ill and had to transfer his business to Charles MacDonald and W.D. Taunton. Harris died at Pictou 1 August 1883 and his wife Anne died in 1889.

John Hart was born in 1876 in Guysborough, N.S., the son of Joseph and Mary Hart. He operated a restaurant at Guysborough for a short time before he became a partner with his father, who was a Port Hood, N.S. store owner. Hart sold the Port Hood store in 1928 to Dan and Angus MacDonald.

Alexander was the grandson of Alex "the Scotchman". Alexander was a businessman in the town of Antigonish, N.S., and married Margaret MacGregor of Antigonish County. They had one son.

Alex the Scotchman was a farmer and post master at Glen Alpine, Antigonish County.

John D. MacDonald, the son of John Duncan and Isabel (MacLaren), was born in 1870 at Pictou, N.S. John (senior) was appointed Inspector of Fences and Timekeeper for the Railway Office in 1890. John D. MacDonald (junior) was a general book and job printer. In 1893 he founded and was appointed editor of the Pictou Advocate. He stayed in that position until he became the registrar of deeds for Pictou County in January 1917. He was also secretary-treasurer of the Pictou-North Colchester Exhibition and grand master of the Grand Lodge. He married Eliza Kitchen and they had two daughters, Marjorie and Lillian, and one son, J. Henry. MacDonald died at Halifax 17 October 1936.

Maud MacDonald was the daughter of Lewis MacDonald and Charlotte Everett and resided in Digby County, Nova Scotia.

John Bonsall Porter was born in Glendale, Ohio on 1 October 1861. He received his engineering degree and Ph.D. from Columbia University in 1882 and 1884 respectively. After twelve years of professional work, in 1896 he was appointed Macdonald Professor of Mining and Metallurgy at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, a position he held until his retirement in 1927. In that position he gained international recognition as an expert on mining and authored a number of influential reports, including Coal Mines of Cape Breton and the six volume Coals of Canada. Porter married Ethel Harding circa 1888. They had one child, Elizabeth. Dr. Porter first visited Guysborough, Nova Scotia in 1898. In 1900 he purchased an old farm there and used it as a summer residence. Following his retirement, Dr. Porter travelled extensively, visiting Europe, Bermuda, Jamaica, Nassau and Central America and wintering in La Jolla, California. He was an talented photographer and became a keen amateur filmmaker as film making technology became more accessible in the late 1920s. His film subjects were his home, his family and his travels. John Bonsall Porter died on 16 April 1944 in Montreal, Quebec.

Mary Etta Macdonald was born 24 December 1890 in Durham, N.S. She attended Pictou Academy and the Saskatchewan Normal School and received a diploma in Household Economics from Acadia Ladies Seminary in 1924. She was a teacher in Saskatchewan, Massachusetts, and Nova Scotia, author of several published articles, short plays, and poems, and a vocalist. Marietta married B.C. Silver in 1929.