Historical society secures rural New Brunswick burial site to preserve history - BERITAJA

A humanities nine has purchased onshore successful agrarian New Brunswick that’s location to the unmarked graves of Acadian and Mi’kmaw group making love backmost to the 1700s.

The crippled of onshore is about an acre successful size and is situated successful Cap Bimet, N.B., connected the shores of the Northumberland Strait.

For the president of the committee, it’s the fulfilment of a dream decades successful the making.

“This onshore is important because it’s our ancestors. They settled here,” said Stella Boudreau, the president of the Cap Bimet Historical Site Preservation Society.

Boudreau, 87, said she became willing successful the onshore successful 1983 erstwhile she discovered that her ain ancestors were buried there.

A retired Université de Moncton historiographer utilized parish records from the erstwhile chapel connected the tract to thief place the names.

“There’s 61 group that we know, we person that connected the registry. But there’s astatine slightest 40 young people, young children being buried, and the remainder is adults,” she said.

“I deliberation it was important to honour them, to really person this land.”

The nine raised $200,000 to acquisition the privately owned plot, on pinch contributions from the municipalities of Cap-Acadie and Shediac.

Boudreau, who grew up down the road, has made inquiries about purchasing the onshore successful the past but said the proprietor didn’t want to waste astatine the time.

“I was wondering if 1 time … I knew down heavy successful my bosom that we were going to get the onshore somehow,” she said.

Now, the committee will get to activity to cleanable up and revitalize the cemetery. They yet want to create a stepping way pinch plaques that explicate the history of the onshore and the families who lived successful the area.

“We person plans and we are going to person it cleaned, that’s the first measurement this summer. And past we are going to person personification to thief america pinch the concept,” Boudreau said.

As for really it feels to yet move connected pinch the project, she simply said, “It feels very good.”