New Brunswick 20th Century Migration Patterns - International Institute

Changing Migrations Patterns
Genealogists should be aware that in the decades around the turn of the twentieth century, this change in geographic perception influences migration patterns. Travel from the Maritimes changed—taking the train, not a boat—meant different destinations. For those who remained at home, the railway encouraged a shift of population from rural to urban settings and occupations.

Not everyone married the “Girl next door”, but when you have a marriage between people from Dorchester and St. Martins or Sackville and Newcastle, or Moncton and Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island, or Moncton and Boston, you have to ask how they meet? Did they frequently ride the same trains? Did they visit or find work near relatives living in the other place? Compare the date of an event to the available transportation, this may offer some answers.

Paved Roads
Before World War II, only the main roads in New Brunswick were paved, and they were not all that great. Most back roads were still gravel. The Trans-Canada Highway Act of 1949 started to change things even in the Maritimes. The Highway was opened in July 1962, following the St. John River route from Québec to Fredericton, then crossing over to Moncton and the Nova Scotia border. It made it even easier to cross the province without stopping. The Confederation Bridge to Prince Edward Island was opened to traffic in 1997.

Air Transportation
Flying makes it quicker still to get from A to B, though long waits at both A and B may make the time it takes as long as ever. By 1930, Moncton had a small airport and a flying club, and young adventurers buzzed their friends’ cottages and occasionally landed in some farmer’s pasture. Trans Canada Airlines (now Air Canada) started commercial scheduled service around 1937 and by 1940 had built a new airport at Moncton. The first TCA schedule flight to Montréal was in February, 1940.

Automobiles, airplanes and causeway-bridges have changed our perceptions of distances but remember that while it is a long drive around the end of the Bay of Fundy to get from St. Martins (Quaco) New Brunswick to Windsor, Nova Scotia it was a short trip by schooner across the bay. To us, water is a barrier to our ancestors, water was the superhighway.

Minerals &amp; Mining
Geology is related to geography, so this may be the best place to tuck in some information on jobs your ancestors may have had in mining and quarrying. The first coal exported from North America came from the Minto fields in the Grand Lake region, see Webster, Historical Guide to New Brunswick, “Coal Mining.” The seam was still being worked in 1954 with a yearly production of about 650,000 tons, 90 per cent being used by railways and industry within the province.

Granite was quarried around St. George and north of the Bay of Fundy; building stone (brownstone) was quarried around Dorchester and shipped to New York and Boston until the end of reciprocity. Plaster Rock, Grindstone Island in Shepody Bay and Grindstone Cape extending into Chaleur Bay are self-explanatory. Gypsum was mined in the Hillsborough district.

New Brunswick was not among the major mining provinces until in the 1950s an important discovery of zinc-lead-silver and copper-bearing sulphides was made near Bathurst, in northern New Brunswick. The development of this ore body brought a new industry to supplement the pulp and paper mills that had grown up when second or third growth pulp wood replaced the original old growth pine that had made New Brunswick Britain’s Timber Colony.

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