By Chris Lewis | Vol. 12 No. 23 (November 14, 2019)
Those looking to learn more about the history and names of Calvert’s past might want to take a look through Kevin Reddigan’s newest book.
Reddigan grew up in Calvert, and can trace a lot of his own family’s history to the community. Although he now lives in Conception Bay South, the author retains a great fondness for what was once called Caplin Bay.
It was in the 1980s when Reddigan first began to sate his curiosity and research the history of Calvert. He began researching simply out of a yen to know more about his family history, specifically things about his grandmother on his mother’s side, who he did not know much about.
Kevin Reddigan, author of ‘Courageous Souls,’ has compiled his notes and research on Calvert’s history into a book. Chris Lewis photo
“I knew who my grandfather was, but I never really knew my grandmother,” said Reddigan, noting his mom never really mentioned much about her. “My wife asked me about it one day, and although I knew she was an O’Brien in Caplin Bay, I didn’t know her first name. So, that’s where I started. I went to find out her first name, and it just snowballed from there – I discovered that my great grandfather was born there, and the family came out of Witless Bay. It just kept going and going from there. As you go along, you start to find out all this interesting information, like who certain relatives were married to, where they come from, and things like that.”
After spending years with his nose between the pages of various documents made available through resources including those at The Rooms, Reddigan found himself with a plethora of information that stretched far beyond his own family genealogy.
The decision to compile all the information into a book was not something Reddgan originally set out to do. That idea came from his friend and fellow author Chris Morry, who Reddigan said would call him up on the phone when he found himself questioning or pondering something that may relate to the history of Calvert or surrounding areas.
“He said to me, ‘You know, you should write a book about this,’ and, well, that’s what I ended up doing,” Reddigan said.
Reddigan posted his research online, but feared there would come a day, when he is long gone, when his website would get taken down after the domain expired, as has happened to a number of people he got to know over the years. So, writing it into a book proved a better long term solution.
“The website is still there, but it’s a little outdated since I’ve been working on the book for the last few years,” Reddigan admitted.
The writing took Reddigan approximately two years, excluding the countless hours he had spent on the research in the ‘80s.
The end result is ‘Courageous Souls,’ a 327-page paperback that was published on September 26.
The first three chapters detail the early history of Calvert, known then as Caplin Bay, up to and including the year 1800.
“That would be right back to the maps made by the Portuguese, who named the community at the time,” said Reddigan. “There’s a few names of settlers that were there, but for the most part, settlement was fairly transient. The longest living people was a family of Pollards, who were there for four, maybe five decades.”
Later in the book, the Calvert native goes on to identify the community’s early Irish and English settlers, as well as when and where their homes were established. Although some information regarding some of Calvert’s longstanding families is scarce and hard to come by, Reddigan said, ‘Courageous Souls’ aims to provide something of a timeline to help further understanding of Calvert and Caplin Bay up to the 1921 Newfoundland Census.
Reddigan said he considers himself an author and genealogist rather than a writer, but is pleased to see people picking up the book, with sales averaging one book per day.
“It’s an informative book and is meant to be more of a reference book than anything else,” said Reddigan. “I tried to get as many references into the notes and references page because someone might be reading through this and find themselves wanting to know more, or wanting to know where I got all of this information.”
Reddigan’s book is available at local bookstores as well as online at Amazon.
