Place:Sheldrake Island, Northumberland, New Brunswick, Canada

Sheldrake Island (l'Île aux Becs-Scies) is known for being the site of New Brunswick's first lazaretto. It is located only 8 miles from Chatham, on the Miramichi River.

The lazaretto was established in 1844, on the site of a cholera[2] quarantine station from 1832. 44 lepers were landed in July 19,[3] 1844, the majority being Acadians,[1] from the Tracadie-Neguac area.

The island also contained housing for typhus patients, but the lepers objected to this. The arrival of a ship from Ireland with many typhus and smallpox patients forced them to be moved to Middle Island.[4]

Dr. Alexander Key, Secretary to the Board of Health for Northumberland and Gloucester, was the official in charge. The buildings were filthy with vermin. Soon the lepers lost faith in Dr. Key's remedies and began escaping. By December 18, there were only 20 left.[1]

The board recommended punishment and locking them up. The escaped lepers were hunted down and brought back in handcuffs. The lazaretto was soon surrounded by a spiked palisade 12 ft high.[5]

The inmates burned the buildings in October 1845. The quarantine station was reopened after 1847.[5]

The remaining inmates were moved to a new lazaretto in Tracadie in 1849.[5]

A temporary quarantine station was ordered to be erected on the island in March 1848. Disagreements over the matter meant that the buildings were not moved from Middle Island until April 3. A brawl erupted on the island between representatives of the Board of Health and Justices of the Peace over the matter. As a result, the buildings stayed on the ice until the order was cancelled and the buildings were moved back.[6]

The island is mostly uninhabited, except for an historic lighthouse, known as Sheldrake Island Front Range Light.[7]

A leper's cemetery is on the island, containing 15 graves.

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".