Tracing their roots
American family finds connection to early Pictou County settlement
A search for family history on the Internet has led a Texas family to Pictou County.
Charles Kohlhaas paid a visit to the Museum of Industry Friday with his wife Judy and daughter Julia to meet with local historian and author John Ashton.
“I did a Google search on my Raillard relatives and it lead to me to (John Ashton’s) book,” he said.
Ashton published a book in 2004 called Searching for Raymondville, which contains details about a French settlement in the Trafalgar area in the late 19th century.
When he heard the Kohlhaas family was coming this way, he offered to be their tour guide in the area.
Ashton researched the French settlement of Raymondville after noticing something unusual on the Pictou County Atlas.
“I saw a group of French names and wondered what
they were doing amongst the MacDonalds, Frasers and all of the other Scots names in Pictou County,” said Ashton.
He asked local residents what they knew and later toured Raymondville where he found the foundations of five log cabins, field stones and a small graveyard.
Ashton told Kohlhaas that his great grandfather Joseph Raillard didn’t have an easy life when he moved from France in 1873.
He said the settlers were lured to Pictou County with dreams of working in the coal mines and earning triple the pay they were making in France.
“They came here and then in 1876 the Americans slapped a tariff on coal,” he said. “Coal production in Pictou County ceased.”
He said soon afterwards many families left the area to work in coal mines in the United States.
“I have always wondered how they arrived in North America,” said Kohlhaas, adding that his great grandfather later moved to Kansas for work.