About the Curator
Darius Simmons is the founder and lead curator of the Living Line Archives, a research initiative dedicated to restoring the true record of Native and mixed-heritage families across Mi’kma’ki from the earliest settlement periods to the present day. His work uncovers erased identities, misclassified families, and district-anchored bloodlines that survived despite more than two centuries of administrative rewriting.
Simmons’ research focuses on reconstructing surname-based continuity across the Mi’kma’ki districts of Kespukwitk, K’jipuktuk, and Chedabucto, with particular focus on Native-linked families who were later relabeled under colonial categories such as “coloured,” “Black,” and “refugee.” His analysis tracks deep, multi-district lineages including Simmons, Cain, Smith, Willis, Clayton, Downey, Beals, Roberts, and others who maintained land presence long before—and long after—19th-century reclassification.
The Living Line operates on two core principles:
• land first, labels second
• continuity over category
Through district briefs, misclassification indexes, lineage charts, and archival reconstruction, Simmons provides descendants and researchers with tools to understand how Native families in the Preston–Falmouth–Cornwallis corridor were absorbed into later categories that did not reflect their origins. His method blends land-use continuity, surname clustering, tax rolls, road lists, church seating plans, oral memory, and cross-district comparative evidence.
Beyond archival recovery, Simmons acts as a community voice and narrative restorer—bringing visibility to families who were present for generations, relocated on paper, or overwritten entirely. His mission is clear and uncompromising:
To rebuild the historical record for the families who were always here, never ceded, and never correctly named.
He curates the Living Line Archives from Mi’kma’ki, working inside the very districts his bloodlines originate from.
The Master Ledger (1760–1900)
The Master Ledger is a structured record of families, districts, designations, and sources.
“The Living Line: Restored Records of the Original Families of Mi’kma’ki, 1760–1900.”
Download (coming soon):
Ethnocide Model PDF (First Edition)
Status: In development.
Ledger Preview (Selected Entries)
This working table shows how families are read through districts and descriptors.
| Surname | District Anchor(s) | Earliest Appearance | Original Descriptor(s) | Later Descriptor(s) | Notes | Status |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Simmons | Kespukwitk, K’jipuktuk, Chedabucto | Pre-1817 mixed-Native settlements | “Indian”, “Native” | “Coloured”, “Black” | Classic label-drift; strong land continuity. | Active Case File |
| Cain | Kespukwitk | 1780s–1820s tax/road lists | “Indian” margin notes | “Coloured”, “Black” | Township “paid/refused” check required. | High-Priority Review |
| Downey | K’jipuktuk, Chedabucto | Early 1800s mixed zones | Implicit Native presence | “Black community” labels | District rebranding pattern. | Active Review |
| Clayton | K’jipuktuk | 19th c. church seating lists | Mixed descriptors | “African” list consolidation | Pending cross-check. | Preliminary |
| Roberts | Kespukwitk | Early 19th c. farm rolls | Occasional “Indian” notes | “Rural Black” mapping | Burial ground check pending. | Under Evaluation |
| Beals | K’jipuktuk corridors | 19th c. settlement lists | Ambiguous descriptors | Modern African lists | No historical audit performed. | Under Evaluation |
Full ledger coming in PDF edition with citations and archival call numbers.
Surname Lines (1760–2025)
One-page surname charts will be added as archives are verified.
-
Simmons Line
Working chart tracing Simmons across Mi’kma’ki.
-
Future Lines
Clayton, Cain, Roberts, Beals, and related corridor families.
More charts soon.
Record Manipulation Methods (1817–1901)
How colonial offices shifted Native families into “coloured” and “Black” categories.
Officials used predictable methods to reclassify mixed-Native households: label swaps, split households, district rebranding, selective archival survival, and census re-indexing.
1. Label Swaps
“Indian/Native” → “Coloured/Black.”
2. Household Splitting
Older heads = “Indian”; younger = “Coloured.”
3. Geographic Reassignment
Rebranding a district rebranded its people.
4. Selective Survival
Local ledgers lost; simplified summaries kept.
5. Census Reindexing
Native notes folded into African lists.
These patterns are evidence trails, not assumptions.
Evidence Patterns (Case Indicators)
How surnames enter the Index.
A surname becomes a case file when multiple indicators align:
1. District Anchor + Early Presence
2. Label Drift
3. Split Households
4. Non-Census Native Anchors
5. Land-Use Continuity
6. Modern Lists Without Audit
Three or more indicators = case file.
Land Memory Map – District Anchors
The Living Line reads surnames inside Mi’kma’ki districts first, not inside later “Black community” and refugee-era labels.
This is a stylized district diagram, not a survey map. It shows how the Living Line Index reads Kespukwitk, K’jipuktuk, and Chedabucto as anchors for surname cases and land memory.
Surname Index
Case files with district + descriptor analysis.
Simmons
Districts: Kespukwitk, K’jipuktuk, Chedabucto
Earliest: Pre-1817
Description: Classic Native → Coloured → Black drift.
Status: Active Case File
Cain
Districts: Kespukwitk
Earliest: 1780s–1820s
Description: “Indian” ledger notes buried in later abstracts.
Status: High-Priority Review
Downey
Districts: K’jipuktuk, Chedabucto
Earliest: Early 1800s
Description: District rebranding erased Native indicators.
Status: Active Review
Maternal Line: Lake Loon Root Settlement (K’jipuktuk)
Simmons · Smith · Cain · Willis — the Lake Loon corridor.
The maternal line of the Living Line — through the Simmons, Smith, Cain, and Willis families — is historically linked to the Lake Loon and Cherry Brook region of K’jipuktuk (Halifax District). This area served as a long-standing mixed-Indigenous settlement, where Native families and their kin maintained land presence, kinship networks, and cultural continuity long before the arrival of refugees from the War of 1812 and the Jamaican Maroon era.
Later census labels grouped everyone under broad racial terms like “coloured” or “Black,” but the families rooted around Lake Loon carried a distinct identity tied to the land, water routes, and local settlement patterns of K’jipuktuk. Much of this lineage traveled through oral memory — hair texture, surnames, location patterns, and family alliances — even as official colonial records tried to flatten all distinctions.
For the Living Line, this maternal corridor is the anchor: a continuous Native-linked presence in Mi’kma’ki that predates refugee-era arrivals and survives the erasure of Indigenous identity in government classifications. Lake Loon functions here as both a geographic site and a proof of continuity — a reminder that the families now coded as “Black” in archives did not simply appear with later migrations, but were already present, grounded, and connected to this land.
Future updates will add a dedicated Lake Loon–Cherry Brook surname tree, with district maps, burial grounds, and cross-referenced ledgers.
Why Our Families Were Renamed (1760–1900)
How Native-rooted families became recorded as “coloured,” “Black,” and “refugee” — even when they were already here.
The families documented in the Living Line Archives — Simmons, Smith, Cain, Willis, Beals, Downey — were not recent arrivals from refugee waves, migrations, or foreign homelands. They were Native-rooted families already living inside Mi’kma’ki before the British, before the refugee influx, and before the racial classifications of the 1800s.
But beginning in the early 19th century, colonial administrators created new categories to manage population counts, land control, and labour sorting. These new labels did not describe who people truly were — they served an administrative purpose. Native families in mixed settlements were reclassified systematically into “coloured,” “Black,” “settled negro,” “refugee,” and other broad categories that grouped unrelated communities together for convenience.
1. District Rebranding
When a district was renamed or reorganized, the people inside it were also renamed. Native-mixed settlements in Kespukwitk, K’jipuktuk, and Chedabucto were folded into new racial categories even though families had been there long before.
2. Native Descriptors Removed from Records
Early township books, road lists, and ledgers often included terms like “Indian,” “Native,” or “mixed.” By the late 1800s, these descriptors were intentionally replaced with racial terminology that matched the new administrative system. The bloodline didn’t change — the paperwork did.
3. Refugee Consolidation Era
When refugees from the War of 1812 and other migrations were settled in Nova Scotia, officials grouped the long-standing Native families together with the new arrivals for simplicity. This created the false idea that all families in places like Preston, Lake Loon, or Guysborough were refugee-descended, even though many had been in Mi’kma’ki long before the refugee period.
4. Labour Category Assignment
Colonizers used racial labels to decide who could work, where they lived, and what land they could hold. Native families in mixed zones were placed into the “coloured” and “Black” categories because these were easier to control under British law than acknowledging long-standing Indigenous presence.
5. Census Re-Indexing (1871–1901)
When national censuses standardized race categories, older Native-linked notes were erased, overwritten, or ignored. Families whose parents or grandparents were recorded as “Indian” in earlier local documents were now coded as “Black,” “coloured,” or “mulatto,” regardless of ancestry.
This process was not cultural blending or intermarriage — it was administrative renaming. The labels changed. The families did not.
The Living Line Position
The surname lines in this archive represent continuous Native-rooted presence across Kespukwitk, K’jipuktuk, and Chedabucto. They were later reclassified, absorbed, or renamed into refugee-era and racial categories that did not reflect their true origins.
The Living Line restores these families to their correct historical position: people of the land whose identities were administratively overwritten, not erased by ancestry.
Submit Your Surname for Index v2
If your family suspects misclassification.
Send your surname for consideration in the next update.
Submit by EmailThe Living Line Foundation
The long-term plan is a registered foundation preserving Mi’kma’ki family records.
Status: In planning.
Contact & Contributions
Email (coming soon): info@livingline.ca
This archive is built for descendants first.