52 Ancestors 2020 #22 - Uncertain Times

Uncertain Times

You're not certain you did the right thing. You made a near-herculean to leave hearth and home, kith and kin, pulling up stakes and setting out across the wide ocean to settle in the Promised Land of Prince Edward Island, only to have a series of setbacks there. You and the group you traveled with may starve to death. You can't go home--it's too late for that. Then the offer is made--move AGAIN, but to the mainland.

Prince Edward Island in late June

Nothing is certain, and it wasn't certain they could 'make' it on the mainland either. Yet my husbands' 5th gr grandparents (on his father's side) moved on (once again). Pulling up and moving from the island to the mainland where they finally settled. Pictou, Nova Scotia had fishing, but it also offered more game hunting.

Pictou, Nova Scotia in late June

Charles Blackie & Janet Herrise

My husband’s 5th great grandfather and grandmother, Charles Blackie and Jannet Herries immigrated from Galloway, Scotland first to Prince Edward Island (Canada) on the ship the Lovely Nellie arriving 23 August 1774.

(Their daughter married another immigrant son, Charles McGee, whose parents are described elsewhere).

Charles Blackie
B 1737 Location:  Kirkcudbright, Scotland
Christened:28 December 1737 at Colvend and Southwick, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland
D 11 Oct 1807 Greenhill, Pictou, Nova Scotia, Canada

and 

Janet Herrise/ Herries

B 1737 Buittle, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland

Christened 27 March 1737 Buittle, Kirkcudbrightshire, Scotland

D 11 October 1807 West River, Pictou, Nova Scotia, Canada

Buried Oct 1807 Durham, Pictou, Nova Scotia, Canada

Their daughter: Margaret Blackie 

B Pictou, Pictou, Nova Scotia, Canada

D 19 March 1867 Merigomish, Pictou, Nova Scotia, Canada

Margaret Blackie married Charles McGee (Son of Barnabas McGee & Nancy Carroll) 

Charles McGee

B 24 November 1778 Merigomish, Pictou, Nova Scotia

D 28 September 1876

Charles Blackie – immigrant 

Charles Blackie (or Blaikie), and his wife Janet were members of a group called “Pioneers of Pictou, Nova Scotia [Canada]. 

They were the final wave of three groups who came from Scotland. 

The initial plan was to settle in Prince Edward Island. 

However this effort was abandoned after several failed attempts. A large group of families then decided to move from Prince Edward Island to Pictou, Nova Scotia. 

In the spring of 1775, they all moved from Prince Edward Island to Pictou, Nova Scotia, all 13 families and 1 single man: all except one settled permanently in Pictou County.

Seven of the immigrants settled at West River: Anthony McLellan, William Clark, David Stewart, William Smith, Joseph Richards, John McLean and Charles Blackie. (Four settled on the Middle River, two others went to the East River. And one remained in Pictou before moving later.)

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Sources: 

Pictonians at Home and Abroad The Pioneers of Pictou (under the subtitle: South of Scotland People, https://www.electricscotland.com/history/canada/pictou/pictou1.htm )

A History of the County of Pictou, Nova Scotia. Montreal: Dawson Brothers, 1877, pp. 449-465. Reprinted by Pictou Advocate, Pictou [Nova Scotia], 1916, pp. 281-293.