Thursday, 4:30 PM
Genealogists and bagpipers look in Copley Square for Nova Scotian roots
By Andrew Ryan, Globe Staff
First it was Boston Brahmin. Then Boston Irish. And then Boston Italian.
But has anyone heard of Boston Nova Scotian?
A contingent from the country to the north is hoping to change that this weekend with bagpipers, rope-making demonstrations, and genealogists who took a 12-hour bus ride down from the Nova Scotia Public Archives. The program, today and Saturday under a tent in Copley Square, is part of an effort to highlight the age-old link between New England and Nova Scotia.
"There's a very deep connection," Paul Maxner, a senior archivist, said in a telephone interview. "The highway back then was the waterway. Going back and forth to Boston was very natural."
Before interstates and automobiles, young men and women set out on the Atlantic Ocean to find their fortunes. Sailing from Halifax or Yarmouth, it was a straight shot to Boston.
"Families would send sons or daughters to work in factories and they would find love" and not return home, Maxner said.
At times, the migration moved in both directions. When the British forced French Acadian settlers out of Nova Scotia in the 1760s, it was predominantly New Englanders who moved north and took their place. (The Acadians headed south with their Cajun culture and settled in what is now Louisiana.)
This weekend, Maxner and other genealogists will be armed with online databases that includes more than a century of marriage and death records as they try to help people trace their roots.
"In the 1700s and 1800s, Boston and Nova Scotia were very close," Maxner said. "I don't think that people are aware of it."
