Following Nova Scotian Maritime Migration through DNA and Records

I have known since I was very young that my father’s ancestors were from Nova Scotia. Though my father was born in the Boston area in the 1940s, his father was born in Nova Scotia in 1910, as were all four of his grandparents. It was no surprise, then, to see several of the new “Nova Scotia” ancestral journeys—some of the 106 new Central & Atlantic Canada ancestral journeys—show up in my family’s AncestryDNA results.

In my family’s case, the newly released journeys even make it possible to distinguish my paternal grandfather’s heritage from my paternal grandmother’s. 

• My grandfather, born in East Pubnico, Yarmouth County, is the source of my family’s "South Shore & Yarmouth & Digby" journey. 

• My grandmother’s parents—descendants of the Foreign Protestants of Lunenburg and Scottish settlers on the central coast—are the source of our family's “West Central Nova Scotia” journey. 

If I hadn’t already known these details, these new DNA results could have been a valuable hint for my family research.

New AncestryDNA Central & Atlantic Canada Journeys Can Spark Family History Discoveries

While the U.S. is known as an immigrant melting pot, immigration from its closest neighbor—Canada—is often overlooked as part of that story. In New England, just as an example, it is estimated that about 25% of residents have Canadian ancestors. Many more in the states bordering the Great Lakes have ancestors who immigrated from Ontario. The latest AncestryDNA release of 106 new Central & Atlantic Canada ancestral journeys could make it easier for you to start your search for traces of your family in historical records. The ancestral journeys feature and access to billions of historical records* available on Ancestry can jumpstart your research.

Using DNA Results to Focus Your Search through U.S. and Canadian Historical Records 

My own family’s particular journey begins in the small, predominantly Acadian fishing community of East Pubnico in Yarmouth County, decades before my grandfather’s birth in 1910. My grandfather, Burnley Goodwin, was the son of a mariner who himself was born in East Pubnico in 1884. My great-grandfather’s records were findable in the Nova Scotia birth records, available through Ancestry. If I hadn’t already known about my family’s history in Nova Scotia, my DNA results and ancestral journeys could have helped direct me to these records. 

My great-grandfather, in turn, was the son of a mariner born there in 1844. That man, my grandfather’s grandfather, Stillman Goodwin, spent his life sailing back and forth between Nova Scotia and New England. The earliest evidence of this back and forth is his petition for naturalization in the U.S. in 1888, which I found in the Massachusetts, U.S, State and. Federal naturalization records. In the petition, he claimed his first entry into the U.S. was on 1 March 1860 in Beverly, Massachusetts, when he was just 16 years old. His occupation: fisherman.

Though Stillman naturalized in Boston, he did not permanently move there. He married in Cape Sable Island, Nova Scotia, in 1866, and appears on every decennial census in Nova Scotia thereafter. His wife and children remained in East Pubnico, his hometown, and he eventually died there in 1915. 

Despite these details, he represented on his naturalization petition in 1888 that he had continuously resided within the United States since his arrival in 1860. This may have been a bit of a fib, but given his occupation as a mariner, it was not entirely untrue. In fact, New England fishing ports had long been connected to Maritime Canada through the Georges Bank fishery. While East Pubnico was Stillman’s home base, he may have traveled frequently to New England and may have even been employed on American fishing fleets at various times.

Stillman’s son Stillman Jr., my grandfather’s father, was set to follow in his father’s footsteps as a South Shore-based fisherman with U.S. citizenship. Eventually, though, he registered with the U.S. federal government for the World War I draft as a resident of Provincetown, MA. On his draft card, he also notes he is an employee of S. Sklaroff Co—a Philadelphia-based “smoked fish establishment” that operated out of Provincetown—and makes a note of his height, and hair and eye color.

Among my father’s maternal ancestors, a parallel history precipitated their ultimate decision to leave home behind. For many, the U.S. provided better and more stable job prospects as the logging, shipbuilding, and local farming industries in Nova Scotia waned towards the end of the 19th century with increasing industrialization. My father’s new “West Central Nova Scotia” ancestral journey, for example, reflects his connection to maternal ancestors who were not 20th-century migrant fishermen, but who came to Massachusetts a generation earlier as the farming communities they originated in became unsustainable. His mother’s ancestors primarily originated in Lunenburg, Nova Scotia (where the numeral 7 pin appears on the journey map), right in the middle of the geographic region indicated by the journey.

Uncover Your Family’s Story on Ancestry with New Ancestral Journeys and Historical Records

While traditional records show exactly where my grandfather was born—Pubnico Head, Yarmouth County, Nova Scotia—the DNA analysis reveals something bigger: the broader networks of kinship and community that shaped his life and migration. The connections to specific regions in Nova Scotia reflect the reality that migration wasn't random—it followed established pathways of family, friendship, and economic opportunity. The thousands of DNA matches who share these journeys with my father are evidence of exactly that.

The ancestral journeys feature, paired with hundreds of record collections available on Ancestry, could lead to exciting discoveries about your family’s story. 

If you’ve already taken an AncestryDNA test, check your results page for the updates. If you haven’t yet taken an AncestryDNA test, doing so may help you to learn more about your ancestral origins.

And if you’d like expert help identifying the likely origins of a specific branch of your family tree, contact AncestryProGenealogists.

*Access to some features and resources requires an Ancestry membership.