The Families and Population of Cape La Hune

Over the 200 years or so of its existence as a working fishery settlement, Cape La Hune, was dominated numerically by four families, the Pink's, the Barter's the Bagg's/Baggs' (the founding family) and the Dominie's/Domenie's/Dominey's/Domeny's.

I would love to hear from descendants of these or any of the other Cape La Hune Families. Here's the list of families I have found to date...

A full list of the individuals is available on the Cape La Hune Names page of the blog. From there you can view and update the Familysearch record and family tree of each person in the list and create new records for any individuals who are not already listed.

The first recorded birth at Cape La Hune was that of Sarah Bagg in 1784 and the last recorded death there was of John Ricketts in 1964. The last Bagg to die there, was James, great, great grandson of the settlement's founder, Hugh. James died in 1962.

The charts below provide an indication of the population trends and events over the settlement's existence between 1780 and 1970. The data was sourced from the Familysearch website and has been subject to some assumptions to cater for missing data and the nature of the existing data. These assumptions will inevitably be incorrect in some cases and in any case cannot account for all missing data. As far as I can ascertain, the data on Familysearch has been entered by family members and friends. It is therefore inevitably incomplete, but it nevertheless provides a remarkably rich source of information about the families of Cape La Hune and I am most grateful to everyone who has contributed data about their families to the website.

I would encourage anyone who has additional information about their ancestors to add it to the website and to let me know via the Contacts page or the Comments. I will then ensure that the data in my final account to be published in 2026 is brought up to date.

Taken together, the charts above paint a picture from their differing perspectives, of the rise and fall of a community that grew slowly from its founding in the late 18th Century, then entered a period of rapid growth from the middle of the 19th Century to its maximum size in the early 20th Century (a population of about 250), followed by a period of rapid decline, until its final and complete demise in the mid 20th Century. 

Particularly noteworthy is the correlation between population increase and the increase in marriages and births, indicating that the population increase was largely organic rather than the result of immigration. Also quite startling is the fall off in the number of christenings compared to the number of births. Was this an indication of a decline in the importance of religion or did it become increasingly difficult to find a priest/vicar to perform the ceremony? If anyone has any insights into this please do get in touch.

Newfoundlanders reading this, will be well aware that the decline of Cape La Hune was closely linked to the collapse of the Cod Fishery and the ensuing Government resettlement programmes. I am compiling some insight into what the lives of these remarkable people must have been like over the 200 years of the settlement's existence and will tell the story as best I can in my account to be published in 2026. If anyone can tell me the story of their ancestors from Cape La Hune, please do get in touch via the Contacts Page.

Please do get in touch via the Contacts Page if you have any further information or have any questions about Cape La Hune families. Perhaps you have an ancestor who lived in Cape La Hune. If so please do let me know!