A Brief History of Lunenburg County, Nova Scotia
In the years around 1750, King George II of England, whose father George I, had just come from his home in Hannover, wanted to protect his North American colonies against other colonizing powers: mostly France. In order to do that, he decided to settle his colonies with citizens of his other country – Germany. He employed agents to go throughout western Germany to recruit settlers. One, John Dick, spent a lot ot effort in Hessen and nearby states. His vessels are well recorded in the Settlers’ Museum in Mahone Bay, and include the Ann, that took young Johann Friederich Weil, and his friend Andreas Jung from KleinLinden (Linnes) to Halifax in September, 1750. Soon after arrival in Halifax, they and their co-passengers moved to Lunenburg, some 100 kilometers to the south west.
Through the next few years, many hundreds of settlers came, so that there was a truly German colony established on the South coast of Nova Scotia. In fact, as late as 1811, it was conjectured by historians that the English language would not survive in Nova Scotia. It did, but so did the German language, in many strange ways. By the late 19th Century, young people were not allowed to learn the older language. By the early 20th Century, it was decided that they people were Dutch (deutsch) so as not to be considered related to the enemy of the First World War. It finally died out about 1900, although I was able to collect some German songs and sayings as late as 1945.