Discover the places behind the names: coastal settlements, inland farms, and the households that connected them.

St. Margaret’s was a parish of many communities. Families moved between neighbouring settlements, children married across community lines, and changing school addresses sometimes gave an old home a new place name. Understanding those places helps us read the cemetery records and follow the family trees.

Jenny McQuaid identifies thirteen communities within the parish by 1840. This guide follows her historical geography, rather than treating those names as fixed modern municipal boundaries.

A parish taking shape

McQuaid describes Scottish settlement around Naufrage before the parish was established, while also documenting disagreements about the earliest household names and dates. Settlers built a small log chapel at Bear River shore in 1803 under Father Angus Bernard MacEachern’s direction; a larger church followed in 1816. During the 1830s, communities west of Hollow River joined St. Peter’s Bay Parish, while St. Margaret’s expanded inland. Chapter 1, pp.6,10,12.

The thirteen communities

Lot 42

Hollow River

The westernmost community in McQuaid’s parish coverage. Early use of Hollow River and neighbouring Fox River addresses overlapped; a name alone may not locate a household precisely.

McQuaid: 12–13; Ch.2 p.22; map p.14.

Lot 42

Big Cape

An early coastal settlement also associated with the later Monticello address. McQuaid identifies Alex MacKinnon as settling here between 1798 and 1802; that does not establish the arrival date of every neighbouring family.

McQuaid: 9; Ch.2 p.22; map p.14.

Inland parish

Selkirk

One of the inland communities added as settlement expanded southward. Armadale was its school name, but McQuaid retains Selkirk as the community address.

McQuaid: 12–13; map p.16.

Lot 43

Cow River

At the western side of the early Naufrage district, near the Cow River Bridge area. Household records here help connect the coastal settlements with later family movements.

McQuaid: 7–8,12; map p.15.

Inland parish

Hermitage

An inland community that developed during the parish’s southward expansion, generally with the second generation of the original north shore settlers.

McQuaid: 12; map p.15.

Naufrage

The early Scottish settlement centred on the harbour and pond. Sources disagree about some founding names and the precise settlement chronology. Later school addresses distinguish Naufrage/Monticello and Naufrage/St. Margaret’s.

McQuaid: 6–9,12–13; maps pp.15,17.

Lot 44

Old Bear River

The original coastal Bear River community, now called St. Margaret’s, between Bear River Line Road on the west and Hay River/Clearspring on the east. It must be distinguished from present-day Bear River.

McQuaid: 9,12; map p.17.

Lot 44

Hay River

A coastal community associated with the later St. Margaret’s and Clearspring school addresses. McQuaid describes members of Donald and Sarah MacDonald’s family moving here from the Naufrage/Cow River area.

McQuaid: 8–9,12–13; maps pp.17–18.

Lot 44

Crooked River

An original coastal community whose name was sometimes displaced by a school-district address. McQuaid’s map associates it with Clearspring.

McQuaid: 9,12–13; map p.18.

Lot 45

Black Bush

An eastern coastal settlement identified as Black Bush (Hermanville) in the map section. Its families form part of the parish’s wider network across Lots 42–45.

McQuaid: 9,12; map p.19.

Big Pond

One of the eastern communities. Several MacPhee householders shared names or initials, making property and identity matching especially uncertain. Rock Barra school addresses should not be read automatically as residence in Rock Barra itself.

McQuaid: 9,12–13; map p.19.

Little River

An eastern community covered alongside Black Bush and Big Pond. McQuaid retains Little River rather than adding the Rock Barra school name, to avoid confusing the community with Rock Barra outside the parish.

McQuaid: 9,12–13; map p.19.

Inland parish

North Bear River Line Road

The northern portion of the inland Bear River area included in St. Margaret’s Parish. Its settlers included descendants of north shore families, people from elsewhere on the Island, and a cluster of Irish families.

McQuaid: 12; map p.15.

What did “head of household” mean?

In this book, a household is a useful way to follow a family or group of residents through a particular home or farm. The named head is the person used to identify that household in the source. It does not establish that the person was the earliest ancestor, the founder of a family, or the legal owner of the land.

The source and date matter. An early roster in Chapter 2 names people renting farms during 1817–1821. For the book’s general arrangement, McQuaid follows the order of properties in Meacham’s 1880 atlas, which names householders living on those properties. A later head on the same farm is not necessarily a child of an earlier head. A household may also contain relatives whose surnames differ. Chapter 1, p.13; Chapter 2, p.22.

Why an address can change without a move

School districts established in the 1840s crossed older community boundaries. People from eastern Naufrage, old Bear River and part of Hay River could use St. Margaret’s as their address. McQuaid therefore combines some community and school names. These address changes are clues to investigate, rather than evidence by themselves that a family moved. Chapter 1, p.13.

In her later corrections, McQuaid further explains that the Monticello school district expanded in the early 1900s to include additional Naufrage households. She also distinguishes Roderick McIntosh’s landholdings from his uncertain place of residence. Author’s corrections to printed pp.76 and 86.

Reading the archive carefully

We distinguish a family relationship from residence in the same household and from succession on a property. Spelling variants, neighbouring farms and shared names can suggest useful connections, but each connection needs its own evidence. McQuaid notes that some property locations, particularly among similarly named Big Pond families, remain educated reconstructions.

Source: Jenny (O’Hanley) McQuaid, Genealogy of St. Margaret’s Parish (2022), Chapter 1, printed pp.6–13 and maps pp.14–19; Chapter 2, printed p.22. Descriptions are paraphrased from the supplied scans. This is a historical guide, not a modern boundary survey.