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Killed on the job

The town of Little Bay is planning a memorial plaque to honour those who lost their lives working Little Bay Mines. I’ve been asked to find the men killed there in the 19th century. I have two deaths that are proving difficult to name. I’m missing th ...

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Loader

Spelling variants found: Loader, Loder, Lowder, Loather, Loathers, Louther, LouthersMy first reference to the Loader family in Little Bay appears on the 1882 electoral list for the region. It has recently been suggested that voters had to have lived ...

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The Cantwell suicides

Fair warning; this is a macabre and melancholy story.John Cantwell (1804-1889) was from Ballyhesan, County Waterford in Ireland. He moved to Newfoundland in 1824 when he was 20 years old. He settled and raised a family in Tizzard’s Harbour. There he ...

siemon parsons

Drummond

The case of William Drummond is a curious one.On the morning of June 12th 1882 a punt with sail was observed adrift off of Little Bay Islands. Two boys set out to investigate. They found no one onboard but the boat appeared to have recently held two ...

Mary (Sinnott) Foran and daughters Katherine, Polly and Bess

Sinnott

The Sinnotts came to Little Bay from Placentia to work as miners. They were Catholic. Peter was born in 1850 and David was born in 1851. The first record of the name associated with Little Bay is from July of 1880 when Little Bay’s mine manager, Adol ...

albert colbourne

Colbourne

The history of the Colbourne family and the history of Little Bay are intertwined. When the Colbourne family arrived in Newfoundland they set up shop in Twillingate but many relocated to Wild Bight (known now as Beachside). It began in the 1850s. The ...

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Conway

If you have images of sources for the Conway family of Little Bay please contribute. 1879 -  Conway, Thomas - born (1921 census) 1883 -  Conway, James vs The Queen for the indecent assault on Rebecca Swires widow of Ken Oake (Supreme Cou ...

Little Bay Mines

Little Bay Mine (1878-1903)

I’ve decided to explore the history of the Little Bay mine itself in this piece. However, I didn’t want to tell it from the perspective of the owners or managers and instead opted to focus on the experience of the mine from the point of view of the m ...

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Dr. Louis Joseph

I should warn you that this starts with a grave. It’s only fitting, it’s a tragic story after all. There is a modest cemetery in The Bight where I’d walk, reading the names on the aging gravestones. That’s all they were to me then, just names. This ...