Place:Campobello Island, Charlotte, New Brunswick, Canada

source: Family History Library Catalog

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

Campobello Island is a Canadian island located at the entrance to Passamaquoddy Bay, adjacent to the entrance to Cobscook Bay, and within the Bay of Fundy. The island is one of the Fundy Islands and is part of Charlotte County, New Brunswick. Campobello Island is also the name of a rural community which now comprises the entire Parish of Campobello.

On becoming part of New Brunswick in 1784, Campobello was considered to be in West Isles parish, but had separate local government from 1803.

Measuring 14 kilometres (8.7 mi) long and about 5 kilometres (3.1 mi) wide, it has an area of 39.6 square kilometres (15.3 sq mi). The island's permanent population in 2011 was 925.

History

the following text is based on an article in Wikipedia

The island was originally settled by the Passamaquoddy Nation, who called it "Ebaghuit".

French exploration

The first Europeans were reportedly from the French expedition of Pierre Dugua de Mons (Sieur de Mons) and Samuel de Champlain, who founded the short-lived nearby St. Croix Island settlement in 1604. France named the island Port aux Coquilles ("Shell Harbour"). Following the War of the Spanish Succession, under terms of the Treaty of Utrecht (1713), the island came under British control and was placed in the colony of Nova Scotia, having ceased to be included in the French colony of Acadia.

British settlement

In 1770, a grant of the island was made to Captain William Owen (1737–1778) of the Royal Navy, who renamed it Campobello. The island's name was derived from Britain's Governor of Nova Scotia, Lord William Campbell, by Italianizing/Hispanicizing his name Campbell (which is really of Scottish Gaelic origin), alluding to campo bello, which in Italian means "beautiful field" and in Spanish "beautiful country(side)". The creation of the colony of New Brunswick in 1784 saw the island transferred to the new jurisdiction, and by the end of the 18th century the small island had a thriving community and economy, partly aided by Loyalist refugees fleeing the American Revolutionary War. Smuggling was a major part of the island's prosperity after the Revolution, a custom to which local officials largely turned a blind eye. During the War of 1812 the Royal Navy seized coastal lands of Maine as far south as the Penobscot River but returned them following the war, except for offshore islands. In 1817 the U.S. relinquished its claim to the Fundy Isles (Campobello, Deer Island, and Grand Manan), and the British returned islands in Cobscook Bay including Moose Island but notably did not return Machias Seal Island. By the mid-19th century, Campobello Island had a population in excess of 1,000. In 1910, 1,230 people lived there.

Fenian raid

In 1866, a band of more than 700 members of the Fenian Brotherhood arrived at the Maine shore opposite the island with the intention of seizing Campobello from the British. British warships from Halifax, Nova Scotia were quickly on the scene and a military force dispersed the Fenians. This action served to reinforce the idea of protection for New Brunswick by joining with the British North American colonies of Nova Scotia, Canada East (Quebec), and Canada West (Ontario) in Confederation to form the Dominion of Canada a year later.

20th century tourism

Campobello has always relied heavily on fishing as the mainstay of the island economy; however, the Passamaquoddy Bay region's potential for tourism was discovered during the 1880s at about the same time as The Algonquin resort was built at nearby St. Andrews and the resort community of Bar Harbor was beginning to develop. Campobello Island became home to a similar, although much smaller and more exclusive, development following the acquisition of some island properties by several private American investors. A luxurious resort hotel was built and the island became a popular summer colony for wealthy Canadians and Americans (including the Delano Roosevelt family), many of whom built grand estates there.

Research Tips

• New Brunswick Provincial Archives. This is the introductory page. The tabs will lead you to more precise material.
• The FamilySearch wiki. This lists the availability of vital statistics indexes for New Brunswick.
• New Brunswick GenWeb. A round-up of a lot of genealogical information at the province, county and parish level. Lists of cemeteries and monumental inscriptions can be found here.
• The Provincial Archives website titled The Placenames of New Brunswick has maps of all of its parishes and descriptions of some communities within them. This site contains "cadastral" maps for each parish illustrating the grantee’s name for land granted by the province. These maps are cumulative, showing all grants regardless of date.
• Microfilm images of all Canadian censuses 1851-1911 are online at Library and Archives Canada, as well as at FamilySearch and Ancestry. The 1921 census appears to be available only at Ancestry.
• The CanGenealogy page for New Brunswick. An overview of available online sources with links written by Dave Obee.
• More possibilities can be found by googling "New Brunswick province family history" and investigating the results.
• The word "rencensement", found in Sources, is French for "census".