No longer forgotten

Barbara Cooke Meredith, who currently lives in Alberta, says, “I developed a sense of history through osmosis because of this town and its history.” She remembers cannons on the street corners, for example, the shipbuilding industry wharves and even the smell that emanated from a sail and rope shop. “You absorbed all of that as a kid and of course you have to be interested in that as a kid.”

She was also aware of writing through one of Queens Co.’s most famous citizens, author Thomas H. Raddall. “You could see Raddall walking out on the street and knew he was thinking about his next line or two. You were aware of writing in school because of his presence here.”

The book is part of a relatively new genre, non-fiction narrative. Meredith says, “It involves historical facts put together with fictitious people telling the story. The idea is to make it more interesting and I especially hope young people will read it. I really want people to see it as a folk story, but a factual one.”

She says she wrote the book because she is descended from Foreign Protestants and, “It was the first item on my bucket list.” She laughs. “I have a few more but that’s the first one.”

Her next book will cover the other side of her family, the Loyalists. Foreign Protestants is available in Liverpool at Snug Harbour Books, Queens County Museum, Rossignol Cultural Centre and Sherman Hines Museum of Photography.

The back of the book reads: “They began to arrive in 1750, ship by ship, as the British signed them up to settle Nova Scotia. Georg Frolig was one of these emigrants, and he tells his story in Barbara Meredith’s historical novel, Forgotten Settlers. You travel along with Georg as he leaves Rotterdam, crosses the Atlantic and bonds with the other emigrants on the ship. Trekking up the stump-laden road (now Duke Street), we see the settlement through the eyes of Georg and his companions. The settlers remained in Halifax, some for as long as three years, prior to leaving for Lunenburg.”

She says it is an adventure borne of European immigrants via the high seas to Nova Scotia, adding it is a “must-read” for anyone researching their Maritime family history as most will likely descend from at least one of these settlers.

Meredith has spent the past 40 years as a genealogical researcher, adding she felt she had to write the story because, although a minority, the Foreign Protestants are an essential part of what Nova Scotia is today and because “I don’t want people to forget them.” She says, for example, these impoverished people essentially built Halifax. The story is also written from the perspective of a Foreign Protestant, not, as usually happens, a person of British descent. “It was a chance to start a new life and have their own land. I think having their own land was the key for many of them from what I learned. They were strong, good workers - hardy souls and just about every other person has a Foreign Protestant relative.”

Meredith is proud of the result. “There’s something about creating a story that is a true story, that you are related to in some way. You hope they (readers) will like it but it’s a self-fulfillment thing and it gives you a great sense of accomplishment, even if no one read its, plus your family loves it.”