Ryeland Family Tree

The Genealogy of the Ryeland and connected Families

Beaubassin, Cumberland, New Brunswick, Canada

Notes:
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Beaubassin - January 14th 2008



The Tantramar Marshes are on the southern part of the Isthmus of Chignecto, which joins Nova Scotia to New Brunswick and the Canadian mainland.



The marshes penetrate inland from the Bay of Fundy for 10 kilometers. Acadians, who called the region Beaubassin, built dikes in the early 1700s to stop the tidal influx of salt water, creating rich agricultural land on the deep sedimentary soils.



The name Tantramar is derived from the Acadian French "Tintamarre", meaning 'din' or 'racket', a reference to the noisy flocks of birds which feed there. The marshes are an important stopover for migrating waterfowl such as semi-palmated Sandpipers and Canada Geese. Today the marshes are the site of two bird sanctuaries.



In the past, the Tantramar Marshes were called the "World's Largest Hayfield". The hay was shipped for commercial sale along the Eastern Seaboard and Europe as late as the 1930s. As a salt marsh, with its rich, sticky, red mud and soil, the hay grown there is high in iodine. In a world where food additives were not yet being used, iodine-rich hay made the Tantramar a valuable source for healthy, high quality fodder.



A few historic hay barns still dot the landscape. In the 1930's there were over 400 post-and-beam hay barns scattered across the marsh. Today there are less than 30.



The following rivers drain from and around the marshes:



* Aulac River

* LaPlanche River

* Missaguash River

* Tantramar River

Latitude: 46.174419, Longitude: -64.31085