Showing 184 results

The Culps of Lunenburg are descended from Johan Jacob Kolb, who arrived in Nova Scotia with his parents in 1750 on the Ann. After surrenduring to the British in Louisbourg they were sent to Lunenburg in 1758. Kolb was married to Anna Maria Magdalena Schloer, with whom he had 12 children.

David and James Bayne Davison were brothers who came from Pictou, N.S. to Wallace, N.S. in 1837 to begin a shipbuilding business and operate a general store. The brothers built over 30 vessels and the store was in operation unitl the 1870s.

William Henry Dennis (1887-1954), newspaper publisher and senator, was born in 1887 in Stewiacke, Colchester County, Nova Scotia to Henry Parnell Dennis (d.1928) and Wilhelmina Dennis. He worked for his uncle Senator William Dennis (1856-1920), publisher of The Halifax Herald and The Evening Mail newspapers. After his uncle’s death, William H. became President and Managing Editor of The Halifax Herald Company Ltd. Later that year he began the International Fishermen’s Schooner Race. In 1932 he was appointed to the Senate of Canada. From 1936 to 1940 he was a Director with the Canadian Press Agency. He married Hilda Pauline Wood (1887-1970), daughter of E.A. Wood of Halifax, NS, in October 1914 and had two children: Pauline (1921-1993) and Graham. Graham William Dennis (1927-2011), newspaper publisher and philanthropist, succeeded his father as President after William H.’s death on January 18, 1954. Born August 17, 1927, Graham graduated from Montreal’s McGill University in 1949. He published The Chronicle-Herald and The Mail-Star newspapers for over 57 years. He was made a member of the Order of Canada in 1984. He married Ann on December 28, 1955 and had one daughter, Heather (b.1956- ). After Ann’s death from cancer, he married J. Gay Thompson in the late 1960s and had Sarah (b.1970- ) and William (1972-2002). Graham Dennis died in Halifax on December 1, 2011.

Joseph Frederick Wallet DesBarres (1721-1824), army officer, military engineer, surveyor, landowner, and colonial administrator, was born in Paris or Basel and was educated at the Royal Military Academy in England. Following his service with the British Army during the Louisbourg, Quebec, and Newfoundland campaigns, DesBarres surveyed the coasts of Nova Scotia from 1764 to 1773 and published the results of the survey in The Atlantic Neptune. While in Halifax in 1764, he met Mary Cannon (ca. 1751-1827), with whom he had six children: Amelia Louisa Matilda Lutterell (d. ca. 1856); John Frederick William "William" (d. 1800), had one son William Frederick (1800-1805) who became solicitor-general and puisine judge of the Supreme Court of Nova Scotia; Spry Ann (d. 1842); Martha Sophia "Sophia"; Mary (b.1784) and an unidentified daughter (d. 1783). While DesBarres was in England overseeing the publication of The Atlantic Neptune, he met Martha Williams and fathered eleven children by her, including: James Lutterell (1787-1831); Augustus Wallet (ca. 1793-1866); Dolben Windham; Joseph Frederick (d. 1817); Martha Frederica; Isabella Matilda (ca. 1786-1832); Clara; Louisa; and Grace Frederica. In 1784 DesBarres was appointed Lieutenant Governor of Cape Breton Island and subsequently became Governor of Prince Edward Island in 1804. He died at Halifax in 1824, predeceased by Martha Williams in 1821. From 1773 to 1794 Mary Cannon was appointed administrator of DesBarres' extensive land holdings. She lived at his estate, Castle Frederick, at Falmouth until her death in 1827.

La famille Doucet trace ses origines aux premièrs jours de la colonisation acadienne à la baie Sainte-Marie. Un des plus illustres fils de cette famille fut Pierre Doucet qui vint s'installer à la Pointe-à-Major en 1775.

The son of a farmer, George Duncan was born at Chester in 1827. In 1861, he purchased a Mahone Bay property (now 6 Edgewater Street) from Casper and Sarah Joudrey, who had inherited the land from the blacksmith John Mader. The following year, Duncan married Lucy Catherine Hayes, who was born at Lunenburg in 1837. Not long after, Duncan built a store and residence on the lot that he had acquired from the Joudreys. (This building still stands and now houses “The Teazer,” a well-known gift shop.) Over the course of the next few years, Duncan emerged as a prominent Mahone Bay merchant. In addition to running a general store, he was involved in the West Indies trade and served, for a time, as the town postmaster. George and Lucy Duncan had three children: Jane Dorothea “Dora” (born in 1865), Edith Helen (born in 1867), and John Henry (born in 1869). Following George’s death in 1871, Lucy Duncan remained active in the town as a business woman, acquiring rental properties and loaning money. Although the family retained possession of the former store property in Mahone Bay, they lived for many years in Blockhouse. Lucy’s brother, John Hayes, a Nova Scotian who had served in the United States Navy during the American Civil War, also lived with the family for several years. After Lucy Duncan’s death in 1915, her son, John, and her daughter Dora, lived on in the family home. John, who worked for many years as a postal clerk, died in 1951. His sister Dora died in 1959. The following year, the George Duncan property, held by the family for nearly one hundred years, was sold by Dora Duncan’s estate to the Merchant family.

John Easson (1715-1790), master artificer, was commissioned by the Board of Ordinance in London and sent to serve in Annapolis Royal in 1737. He received lands and a mill which he operated for grist and lumber. He also worked with Dyson and Company, merchants of Annapolis Royal, and later became a partner with the company. He married Avis Stewart, 27 January 1741, and they had four children. Their son David (1748-1790) married Elizabeth Fisher (ca. 1750-1841) and they had eight children.