New Brunswick Biographies

Canada New Brunswick

Biographical Dictionaries
You find them in books like A Cyclopaedia of Canadian Biography being Chiefly Men of the Times (1888) or Prominent People of the Maritime Provinces. By 1922 when this was published, women, though not yet legally ‘persons’, were allotted some twenty entries. As well, the annual editions of The Canadian Who’s Who and its variants, can be a useful source because they usually give the place of birth, names of parents and often earlier lineage, as well as marriage, wife, children and education, offering leads to professional and college directories.

“But my ancestors were farmers, they won’t be there.” Don’t be so sure. You would be surprised at how many Canadian farm families of modest means produced at least one noted clergyman or educator, politician or military man. The prominent same name may be granddad’s second cousin, but such books offer good clues as to where in the province a family name can be found. Someone who makes Who’s Who about 1950 was probably born around 1900, and his parents before 1875. An entry in the 1888 Cyclopaedia might take you back to 1800 or earlier.

Provincial Archives of New Brunswick (PANB) Website
Remember those searchable databases the PANB has developed:


 * Guide to Biographies This includes two editions of Prominent People of the Maritime Provinces … (1922 and 1938), Dictionary of Mirimichi Biography, and a variety of other sources at the PANB.


 * Index to Hutchinson Directories :1865-1866


 * 1867-1868


 * Index to Lovell Directory 1871

And always check Guide to Family Histories, that is where I found the lead to Oshkosh, and so to Lemuel and Xenophon Cleveland.

Most regions, alas, do not have W. D. Hamilton’s Dictionary of Mirimichi Biography, which contains 1,110 sketches of “men and women born before 1900 who played a part in public life on the Mirimichi”. Each biographical sketch contains family data and anecdotes, with source notes for each sketch. The names are in the searchable database (above), but that only gives the reference number of the books. For actual facts, you have to find the books themselves. Try to convince your library to buy a copy.