Call to the Dance!

Chestico Days DancersSince 1984, the Chestico Museum has been involved with the Chestico Days Dancing Festival.  The 27th edition of this event will be held in beautiful Port Hood, Cape Breton Island on Saturday, July 31, 2010 at 1:00 pm. 

The Chestico Days Organizing Committee is currently searching for dancers to participate in this festival.  If you have performed in the past, we would love to have you back and if you have never graced our stage, we will be more than happy to welcome you to it!

Step dancers, square dancers, cloggers – all are welcome.  If you will be in Port Hood on July 31st, please consider sharing your talent with us.  The Chestico Days Dancing Festival Information Letter contain more details as well as a short form you can complete to let us know you are coming.

We look forward to seeing you in Port Hood for Chestico Days.  Remember, you are never too old or too young to dance!

Sports Photos Wanted

The Chestico Museum would like to add to our inventory of Port Hood sports photos.  We are particularly interested in images of the Port Hood Royals ball team of the 1960s and Port Hood hockey players who played with the Strait Pirates during this same period.  However, photos of different sports and different eras are also very much appreciated!

If you believe you have photos that would be of interest to us, please let us know.

We look forward to hearing from you!

Duncan Gillis – Port Hood Olympic Athlete

Duncan Gillis

Today (February 12, 2010) the eyes of the world will turn to Vancouver, British Columbia for the XXI Olympic Winter Games.  Tonight will be the Opening Ceremony with the highlight being the Parade of Nations,  during which the athletes will march into BC Place.

As the host country, Canada will enter the stadium last.  Speed skater Clara Hughes is the athlete who has been honoured by being selected the Canadian flag bearer. She will lead our delegation of athletes in the ceremony.

Tonight, as Clara proudly leads the Canadian contingent, the thoughts of many in Port Hood will turn to a native son, Duncan Gillis.  Duncan was selected as Canada’s first flag bearer at the 1912 Summer Olympic Games which were held in Stockholm, Sweden.  He would go on to win a silver medal in the Hammer Throw at the Games.

For more information on Duncan,  read the article written for The Cape Bretoner website.

2010: Year of the British Home Child

The federal government has declared 2010 to be the Year of the British Home Child.  Between the years 1869 and 1930, an estimated 100,000 children were sent to Canada from Great Britain.  They were orphans or children whose families were unable to care for them.  The belief was that the children would find a better life in Canada.  However, the reality was many were used as a form of cheap labour.  The majority of the boys ended up working on farms and the girls in domestic service.  In many cases, the children found themselves in abusive situations.

Today, 12% of Canada’s population is descended from these British Home Children.  That translates into nearly four million people or one in every eight Canadians.  Of the 100,000 children who came to Canada, less than 10,000 are still alive.

A year dedicated to British Home Children gives us an opportunity to reflect upon the lives of these men and women.  Most rose above early adversity and went on to raise families and become productive members of society.  Many enlisted in the armed forces and served in World War I or World War II.  The very least we can do is remember the courage and perseverance of these children.

The Chestico Museum would like to highlight the lives of home children who came to Port Hood.  We are currently aware of four – John Guest, William Dowse, Frederick Smallwood (who later adopted the surname Leadbetter) and Eddie Parker.  If you have information and/or photographs pertaining to these individuals or if you know of other home children we have missed, please contact the museum.

Spinney – Smith – Keating Families

Some research has been done regarding a family connection between Captain David Smith of Port Hood and a certain HANNAH SMITH (1750 – ?) who married a SAMUEL SPINNEY (1717 – 1784) at Granville, Nova Scotia.

It has been recorded in some family histories on the internet that Hannah Smith was born in Port Hood in 1750.  This is incorrect.  There are no early records of any Smiths in Port Hood before 1786 when the Loyalists settled here.  Captain David Smith had a younger half-sister, Hannah (b. 1750), the daughter of Gamaliel and Mary Cobb Sellew of Truro, Cape Cod, Massachusetts.  According to one record she married Oliver Bowley at Cape Cod and died at Provincetown, Massachusetts in 1813.

One family history states that Hannah Smith Spinney had a daughter Elizabeth (1769 – 1872) who married Redmond Keating and settled at Guysborough in the 1780’s with Loyalist settlers there.  Elizabeth’s daughter Elinor Keating married Peter Smyth (no relation to Captain David Smith) – a prominent merchant in Port Hood.  Elizabeth (Spinney) Keating died at Port Hood in 1872 at the home of her son-in-law Peter Smyth.

There seems to be a lot of confusion about the Smith / Smyth connection and the link to the Spinneys and Keatings in Nova Scotia.

Can anyone provide any records to make the link?  The Port Hood Smiths are well covered in Perley W. Smith’s book The Smiths of Cape Breton (1967).

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