This page provides access to a collection of family trees for Calvert (Caplin Bay), Newfoundland. The information gathered came from various church registers, civil documents, on-line genealogy sites, family records, living recollections of residents, and family/ community lore passed down through the generations. Lack of relevant records made it very difficult to establish possible kinship, so I may have used the process of elimination where no other method was feasible. The main effort has been to identify family structures present before Caplin Bay became Calvert, i.e. 1922. Towards that end, the Newfoundland 1921 Census - Caplin Bay has been used as the starting point to launch research backwards towards the earlier years of settlement. This settlement took place primarily from the late 1700s to the mid-1800s. Most of our ancestors emigrated from the south-eastern counties of Ireland. However, some are known or believed to be from the south-western counties of England.

At present, this family tree database, powered by a web-based program, contains approximately 6700 individuals. A link for each family name provides access to the founding male family ancestor known to have settled at Caplin Bay. However, once you have accessed the database, researchers are free to search for any other individuals. The database, optioned to protect the privacy of living individuals, hides detailed information concerning these individuals. For this reason, it may appear that there were details omitted for some living descendants named in the family trees. On the other side of the privacy issue, if details of living individuals are inadvertently shown, please contact me, and I will immediately suppress that information.

Like most family trees, many are far from complete. The loss or absence of church registers and government vital statistics records, especially before 1870, makes it very difficult to verify family structures. However, looking on the bright side, Ferryland District is blessed with many secondary documents, some surviving from the late 1700s. I am hopeful that the publication of the family trees presented here may bring to light more details that individuals are holding privately. Not all of the database information is up to date at this time. However, records are being added, reviewed, and updated as time permits. Also, I am evaluating new database features, which, if deemed worthwhile, may be introduced in later updates.

References to Newfoundland

Although we are now citizens of the Canadian province of Newfoundland and Labrador, references to our homeland have changed quite a few times since it was discovered by John Cabot in 1497. Based on my interpretation of various historical documents, down through the centuries, we have been recorded to as:

1497 - 1583 - New Founde Lande - (English territory of)
1583 - 1783 - Newfoundland - (English colony of)
1783 - 1824 - Newfoundland - (British North America)
1825 - 1907 - Newfoundland - (British Crown colony of)
1907 - 1949 - Newfoundland - (Dominion of)
1949 - 2001 - Newfoundland, Canada - (Province of)
2001 - now - Newfoundland and Labrador, Canada - (Province of)

Flag of Newfoundland and Labrador

Because of the complexity of trying to associate each and every recorded event with our full homeland name within its appropriate era, and to conform to restrictions imposed by the database software, the reference to our homeland may sometimes be recorded just as Newfoundland.