Not sure where to begin on your search for roots? Well, if you
made it this far you must be on the right track!
After you finish searching here in this Parish, I would suggest you visit the Charlotte County Site. There you will find a variety of data (newspaper birth announcements, NB natives who died in other places, that just doesn't fit within one Parish. You will find a listing of area newspapers, libraries, Charlotte County Archive holdings, also known as historical societies, parish history, New Brunswick history and other villages & settlements within the County. You can also find places to stay if you plan to visit the county. There is also a bibliography of published works on New Brunswick and Charlotte County Genealogy, as well as a "lookups" listing. Lookups are people who have kindly volunteered to "LOOKUP" in books they own, genealogy information. So don't limit yourself to to this Parish, or Charlotte County in attempting to trace your roots. Check the other parishes here in the County, as well as surrounding counties and parishes.
There are usually a variety of ways to spell a surname. Yes maybe YOUR surname is spelt one way, but census takers wrote what "they heard", so sometimes there may be a variety of ways to spell your surname. ie. SPRAGG, SPRAGUE For instance in the 1881 census, one taker wrote under religion "Cathelick". To learn the different variations on your surname you can check out the "SOUNDEX" listing.
Back in the late 1700s, and even through the 1800s, there was no established religion in these parts. Word spread fast when a "religious man" was in the area and people flocked from far and wide to be married, or to have their children christened. Religious beliefs were put aside to have a child christened.
Since Charlotte County is on the border with the United States (Maine) realized that area residents went back and forth freely from one country to the other and many of your ancestors were born, died or got married "ovah the rivah". Vital records in Calais, Maine contain numerous Charlotte County residents.
Finally your search may lead to Nova Scotia, as lands in this area were originally part of that Province in the 1700's. RootsWeb's Guide to Tracing your Family Tree in short easy lessons is sure to help! They'll even guide you to overseas research in countries that do not speak English.
If you plan to post Queries to various Boards, Lists and Forums on the Internet, I would like to suggest that you get an email address at one of the larger free services... Yahoo, Hotmail, Google (GMail), Bigfoot.com , Netscape and iName.com. and use it for ALL your genealogy work.. This is important when doing genealogy because a few years down the road, someone may "find" you, only to hit a brick wall again when they try to send you a message!
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