Date: [unknown] [unknown]
Location: Prince Edward Island, Canada

Draft proposal for categorizing current and historic locations on Prince Edward Island.

Contents 1 Background 1.1 First People Period 1.2 Acadian Period 1.3 English Period 1.3.1 Counties 1.3.2 Parishes 1.3.3 Lots 1.3.4 Royalties 1.3.5 First People's Reserves 1.3.6 Local Places 1.4 Modern Period 2 Proposal 2.1 Notes/Questions

Background

Locations in Prince Edward Island fall into four distinct time periods: First Peoples, Acadian, English and Modern. This follows from the work done on Prince Edward Island First Families. Information on modern names comes from the official Prince Edward Island Place Finder and Wikipedia. Early census data comes from extractions done for the Island Register. The Report concerning Canadian archives for the year 1905, Volume 2 contains information as well.

First People Period

This can be left until later and should be handled in a Sub-Category (Prince Edward Island, Historic Places or Prince Edward Island, First Peoples Locations). Coordination with the First Peoples Canada Project will occur.

Acadian Period

The French claimed the area that is now Prince Edward Island in 1604. The first French settlers arrived in 1719 and called the island "Île Saint-Jean." The Acadian place names that follow are derived from the French censuses that were taken in the early 18th Century. Acadian place names (corrections, etc. wanted):

• Anse au Compte Saint-Pierre
• Anse au Matelost
• Anse au Sanglier
• Anse de la Boullotierre
• Anse du Nord-Ouest
• Anse à Pinet
• Bedec
• Etang des Berges
• Grande Anse
• Grande Ascension
• Havre aux Sauvages
• Havre la Fortune
• Havre à la l'Anguille
• La Traverse
• Malpec
• Pointe Prime
• Pointe au Boulleau
• Pointe de L'Est
• Port St. Pierre
• Porte La Joye
• Riviere du Porte la Joye
• Rivière au Crapaud
• Rivière des Blonds
• Rivière du Moulin-à-Scie
• Rivière du Nord
• Rivière du Nord-Est
• Rivière du Ouest
• Rivière du Peugiguit
• St. Pierre du Nord
• Tracadie
• Trois Riviers

Coordination with the Acadian Project will be done.

English Period

English place names add some complexity. When the English took control of the Island of Saint John in 1763 they divided the island into Lots which were awarded to proprietors. Some English settlements such as Charlottetown were named quite early while others were known by lot numbers for quite a long time. Many place names were taken from the original Acadian names. The island was divided into administrative and other areas.

Counties

Prince Edward Island was divided into three counties - Kings, Queens and Prince. County boundaries do not appear to have been changed since creation.

Parishes

Prince Edward Island does have a location category type of parish. For the purposes of WIkiTree, there isn't really a good use for them. They are used in some more modern census records but appear to have been largely ignored.

Lots

The island was divided into Lots which went to proprietors and later subdivided for other settlers, sometimes sold/granted and other times they were leaseholds. Lots are retained as place names due to their use into modern times. As recently as 1901, a census might only indicate which Lot someone lived in. Land records and wills, especially in 18th and 19th Centuries, also frequently mention a Lot number and no other locality name. The Land Issue, or the means to buy out the proprietors, was major part of the discussions on Prince Edward Island joining the Confederation. Lots do not appear to cross county lines.

Royalties

Three Royalties were created, one for each county. They were intended to be the county shire town and were outside of any Lot.

First People's Reserves

There are four Reserves. These are not considered part of any county or lot.

Local Places

Areas which acquired a name whether as an established town or just a recognized community. Local places may cross Lot boundaries

Modern Period

After Confederation, place names started to become more common. In 1925, a lot of informal place names became officially recognized. The 1921 census used place names when possible with all place names being defined in terms of their location within a lot. More recently, locations have started to be combined into Regional Municipalities (RM). Modern names are kept in the spreadsheet mentioned in the Research Notes section. Also see Research Notes for beginning discussion of RMs relative to the Region category guidelines.

Proposal

Image 1

We propose that the Prince Edward Island Locations be reorganized to have three distinct tree structures. The first is the traditional County, Lot, Local Place hierarchy starting directly under Prince Edward Island. The second is to have a sub-category Prince Edward Island Places that contains all Lots and current Local Places. The third is to have a sub-category Prince Edward Island Historic Places that contains the historic names of Local Places. Image 1 shows the basic structure. Solid lines show subcategories The red dashed line represents the previous/next navigation mechanism implemented by the Category Information Box mechanism. The "Category:Prince Edward Island" will be a top-level category and should not have profiles placed in it. All Categories will use the [[[Template:CategoryInfoBox_Location|Category Information Box]]] in order to have consistent navigation.

Location will follow the following (incomplete) outline:

• Prince Edward Island
  • Queens County, Prince Edward Island
  • Kings County, Prince Edward Island
    • Lot 38
    • ...
  • Prince County, Prince Edward Island
    • Lot 1
    • Lot 2
    • Lot 3
    • ...
    • Lot 25
      • Bedeque and Area, Prince Edward Island
    • Lot 26
    • ...
  • Prince Edward Island Places
    • Unknown Place, Prince Edward Island
    • Bedeque and Area, Prince Edward Island
    • ...
    • Lot 1
    • Lot 2
    • Lot 3
    • ...
    • Lot 25
    • Lot 26
    • ...
  • Prince Edward Island Historic Places
    • Bedeque, Prince Edward Isand
    • Central Bedeque
    • (other historic places)

Naming convention will follow that in Nova Scotia and other similar places and follow the theme: Location, Prince Edward Island. A catch-all category of "Unknown Place, Prince Edward island" will be used for profiles that should be categorized in Prince Edward Island but a specific location is not known.

The counties and lots will all be created and linked appropriately. The current locations that would have profiles in them would be created as would the historic locations that became the current locations. Other locations would be created as needed. The CategoryInfoBox mechanism will provide navigation across historic names of places.

Prior to the British occupation of Prince Edward Island, it was part of Acadie (New France). That part of the Island's history is managed by the Acadian Project. We will work with the Acadian Project to integrate the timelines.

Prince Edward Island lies in traditional Mi'kmaq territory. The Mi'kmaq people refer to the island as Epekwitk. There are two First Nations on PEI: L'nui Mnikuk (Lennox Island First Nation); and Abegweit First Nation (on three reserves: Morell, Rocky Point and Scotchfort). WikiTree profiles for First Nations ancestors living off reserve can be categorized using the geographic category appropriate to the time period(s) in which they lived. You may also wish to use the [Category:Mi'kmaq First Nations Category] for the Mi'kmaq people. We will work with the First Peoples Canada Project to integrate the timelines.

Other non-location information or historical information will also use sub-categories to contain them. This should help to keep the top level category manageable. Profiles should not be added to the top level. The three Royalties would also be at the top level along with the Counties.

The PEI sub-project reserves the right to recategorize profiles placed at the top level.

Notes/Questions

Worksheet for Place Names (this is a work in progress). Current names are on the left. Regional Municipalities are then broken down into the original place names. RMs could be treated similar to other place names if desired with the contained communities still at top level but having the RM as Name changes are noted moving backward in time as you move right in the table. Still need to add places for Charlottetown and add names going back further in time. Names in blue are from the Acadian era census. Names in green are Reservations.

Do we care about the Royalties as anything other than a historical place?

Need to address more historical locations. How should Acadian locations be handled? This can wait until later and probably should be handled by the Acadian project.

Need input from Cemetery Project to see what best works for them or if this will cause problems.