Place:Bay du Vin, Northumberland, New Brunswick, Canada

source: Family History Library Catalog

the text in this section is based on an article in Wikipedia

Bay du Vin is a small but picturesque unincorporated community located on the south shore of Miramichi Bay, 24 km east of the former town of Chatham (now a part of Miramichi), New Brunswick, Canada. It is suggested that its name comes from a corruption of the French "Baie de Vents" meaning "Bay of Winds" rather than the widely supposed "Bay of Wine" in the literal translation.

The community is reputed to be the oldest European settlement in Northumberland County, New Brunswick, having been established by French settlers from St. Malo, France in 1672. They established their community along the south shore of Miramichi Bay, just east of Gardiners Point. With some of the deepest water along Miramichi Bay, Bay du Vin was one of the most important early settlements in the region. Eventually there were close to fifteen buildings and a chapel, later destroyed by English settlers.

English destroyed the village during the Gulf of St. Lawrence Campaign (1758) before crossing the bay to do the same to Burnt Church. The area was later settled by the Irish and English.

The area is known to be rich in smelts, oyster beds, Atlantic salmon and cranberries. It is a very pretty area with the Willistons being one of the more noted family names. A well known lumberman, Luther Williston, once had a stone colonial house located there. Bay du Vin also has great sand bars that are perfect for clam digging.

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".
• Local written history online.