A Visit to Pier 21

We recently traveled to Halifax, Nova Scotia and visited Pier 21 - Canada"s Immigration Museum.
Between 1928 and 1971 1.5 million immigrants - war brides, displaced people, evacuee children and Canadian military personnel who passed through Pier 21 , among them my father in law on his first visit to Canada in the early 50's.
For those that consider visiting pier 21, I would highly suggest the guided tour. It is very informative and it takes you through all the stages that the immigrants to Canada would have gone through. Don't forget to take in the movie - it is very well done and it portrays all the different immigrant groups that came through this immigration port. If You have ancestors or family members that came to Canada via Pier 21 you might want to do some research at the Scotiabank Research Centre. Additional information on topics of migration, nautical history, waves of immigration to Canada, ethnic groups and genealogy can be found. Now a thriving and growing collection, the centre first opened with a handful of donated books and a few stories, artefacts and pictures. Since 1999 we have been collecting books, immigration and WWII stories, photographs, immigration-related documentation, ship memorabilia and oral history interviews. The Passport (which needs to be stamped at different stations in the museum) is a great activity for the kids. Just make sure that they take part in the tour and watch the movie first. That way they will not just be focused on getting the stamps.To me the giftshop was somewhat disappointing. I was hoping to find some genealogy charts, genealogy books, and family history kits for kids to encourage the next generation to find out about their history and their ancestors. It was just another Maritime gift shop - which included books about Anne of Green Gables and Anne memorabilia (which is really great - I love the books - but here on Prince Edward Island we certainly get enough of that already
But all in all Pier 21 was well worth the visit. Click HERE to visit their website.