By Ruby M. Cusack
 

Plaid skirts, angora sweaters and saddle shoes were the fashion of the day, when I headed off to Teachers’ College in Fredericton. For many of us, it was our first time away from home. We were all strangers herded together into classes in sequence of the alphabet.

The most frequently asked question was, “Where are you from?”

I knew where the cities and towns were in New Brunswick but the location of such places as Pokemouche, Red Bank, Robinsonville, Maple Ridge, Kilburn, Stickney and Coal Creek were unknown to me.

The people of days gone by were very proud of the little village they called home but sometimes the task of establishing ‘home turf’ of ancestors becomes very difficult as place names changed with time and local usage or they were absorbed by nearby larger communities and the older names gradually ceased to be used and are no longer recorded on current maps.

The 275-page publication, “Community Place Names in New Brunswick, Canada” by Robert Fellows provides researchers with an alphabetical listing of communities established since the province was created in 1784. Listed are over 4,300 cities, towns, villages, settlements, localities, Indian reserves, railway points, stations, landings, urban and suburban communities. In adition to data on communities there is also information on 15 counties and 155 civil parishes. Facts are provided on the creation of the settlements and the dates the post office was in operation as well as the location to nearby population centres.

Ruby M. Cusack is a genealogy buff living in Saint John. Send your queries to her at: 47 Jean St., Saint John, N.B., Canada, E2J 1J8. Or E-mail her at rmcusack@nbnet.nb.ca.  Include your name and mailing address for the benefit of those who do not have access to E-mail. Please put Family Surname followed by the word 'Query' in the subject line. That is Smith & Jones - Query.