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Selected Islander
William Edward “Spike” MacDonald
June 1907?–14 Nov 1999 — birth-year/age conflict retained
Read full biography →Sources & research
Island story
William Edward “Spike” MacDonald was born on Pictou Island in June 1907 according to the family history’s 1911 census account; a 1997 celebration of his 90th birthday supports that year, although his 1999 obituary gives his age as 93 and the one-year discrepancy remains unresolved. The 1931 Pictou Island census manuscript records Eddie MacDonald, age twenty-four, living on the Island and working as a benchman for Fred Magee Co. Spike spent most of his life on Pictou Island, farming and fishing, and local history records his winter-mail work from 1939 to 1951. On 31 July 1958 he married Thelma Florence Ferguson at Pictou; MacCallum records both as Pictou Island residents. He died on 14 November 1999 at Aberdeen Hospital in New Glasgow after moving that spring from Pictou Island to Shiretown Nursing Home. His obituary identifies his parents as Duncan and Jessie P. (MacDonald) MacDonald and records his burial at Seaview Cemetery, Pictou. PIHS history remembers Spike as the Island’s last iceboat operator and iceboat postmaster, linking his life directly to winter travel and mail across the Northumberland Strait.
Cemeteries
No linked memorial is recorded here.
Places and dated associations
- Pictou Island Biographical association; consult sources for dates and extent.
- west end working/fishing context Biographical association; consult sources for dates and extent.
- Northumberland Strait winter-mail route Biographical association; consult sources for dates and extent.
- Fred Magee Co. work context Biographical association; consult sources for dates and extent.
- Pictou Biographical association; consult sources for dates and extent.
- New Glasgow Biographical association; consult sources for dates and extent.
Photographs with documented connections
No photograph with an explicit connection is available in the public catalogue. A family surname alone is not an identification.
Linked historical events
No event is explicitly linked to this individual. Explore the Island Timeline.
Sources and evidence
- MacCallum Chapter 17 pp.244–245, directly inspected page images; reproduced 1999 obituary; MacCallum’s 1911 census citation; 1931 Pictou Island manuscript P1 L42 / Unit 5; Catherine Anne (MacDonald) MacMillan obituary; PIHS Historic Sites / Living by the Strait iceboat records
Family relationship sources appear in the text alternative below. Missing evidence is not a negative finding.
Incomplete names and identity candidates
Name and accepted-alias matches appear before initials-only possibilities. Within each group, records with no known date conflict and an accepted connection to the selected relative appear first. This is an evidence ordering, not a probability. Compare generation, known relatives, census units, memorials and dated sources in each record. No suggestion changes a family relationship.
Contribute evidence or a correction →Census households · 1911
195 enumerated residents in 37 original census family units. These are source households, not inferred genealogical branches or street addresses. Cancelled entries are excluded; source spellings and recorded ages are retained.
A person-to-household crosswalk has not been accepted here for this selection. Browse the source units independently below.
Other census years remain in the existing research records pending equivalent public field and identity review.
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