Gerrard's Island is situated off the
coast of Nova Scotia about sixty miles east of Halifax. Located
between Pope’s Harbour and Spry Harbour, it has been the home of
the Gerrard family for over 200 years. While the legal name
is "Gerard" Island, it is more commonly referred to as
Gerrard's Island. The background for this website is an
aerial photo taken in 1935 of the Island.
The family patriarch, William
Gerrard, and his wife Ann Huxford settled on the island and raised
their family there in the late 1700's. The absolute date of their
arrival there is unknown. Later their children married and some
brought their spouses to live on the island as well. Those who
didn't actually live on the island mostly lived on the mainland at
Pope's Harbour. At its peak, there were about 60 people on the
island, most of whom were related in one way or another. At one
time there was even a school on the island.
looking across from
Dutchtown Point to Burris Gerard's homestead
In the frontier days of Nova Scotia,
the Island would have been a safe location to establish a
homestead. The early settlers of this part of Nova Scotia made
their living by fishing, farming, logging and later mining, and
their descendants more or less followed those occupations as well.
The island, of course, was the ideal location for fishing
families.
This website is dedicated to the
island and to the families that made their home their for so many
years, beginning with William and Ann Gerrard's family. The family
tended to marry frequently into certain other families of the
area, and over time, those same families keep returning into the
tapestry of the family tree. The major surnames other than Gerrard
are Glawson, Edwards, Abriel, Prest, Newcombe, Lawlor, Kew,
Murphy, Hubley, Shellnut, Siteman and many others.
Information for this site is a
collaborative effort of "Gerrard" cousins across Canada,
the US and even England and Wales. We communicate frequently on
genealogical issues, but most of us have yet to meet, having
discovered one another in the first place through the internet and
our family tree. Phil Gerrard, William's 4th great-grandson,
coined our "new" family motto: "Together We're
Stronger." We welcome any and all contributions to this
site, particularly corrections if there are any genealogical
errors.
We hope you enjoy this tour of
Gerrard's Island ~ the stories, photos, documents and family
trees.
