A community’s name can preserve the memory of a working life. Hermanville, formerly Black Bush, remembers Herman MacDonald, a farmer and merchant.

Jenny (O’Hanley) McQuaid’s parish genealogy describes a man whose enterprises included a farm, hotel, general store, post office and lobster factory. These businesses connected household needs with agriculture, the fishery and communication.

McQuaid associates the name Hermanville with him but leaves unanswered whose idea the change was. That distinction allows the naming tradition to be remembered without inventing a ceremony or a precise renaming date.

The Island Register lists Herman MacDonald as 1821–1913 under St. Margaret’s church cemetery. Dates and identity should be compared with the underlying records before this summary is joined to a particular family tree.

Sources

The Island Register: Burial Sites of Interesting People, St. Margaret’s

Jenny (O’Hanley) McQuaid, Genealogy of St. Margaret’s Parish, chapter 13, printed page 164, as cited in the supplied parish article.