De Grau: To many, the name De Grau has a rather odd origin. De Grau is believed to have come from a French phrase De Grau! which, when translated into English mean "we are finished".

Typically, the end of the fishing season (i.e., the end of the summer) the migratory fishermen would pack up and head back to their homes, in many case back in France. Rather than leave when finished, at some point the fishermen started to overwinter in the area, and the settlement took on this rather strange name.

On the BFN website, two other possibilities of the settlement's place name are raised: "It may, however, be named for Petit Degrau, an Acadian community in Cape Breton, or Cap De Grau, a French fishing station at Quirpon".

Today the major "town" on the cape is Cape St. George-Petite Jardin-Grand Jardin-De Grau- Marches Point-Loretto (Pop. 2016: 853).

Obviously, just looking at the name, the town is an amalgamation of a number of smaller communities. Formed in 1969 the boundaries of the community extend from Loretto, approximately midway along the south shore of the peninsula to the town that has the same name of the cape, Cape St. George, which according to ENL writers is called locally as le bout du monde or "the end of the world".

In terms of settlers, ENL sources state that "all the settlements which form the incorporated community have common antecedents in French-speaking founders, many of whom were reputedly Breton or St. Pierre deserters from the French seasonal fishery based a L'Isle Rouge who chose to settle year-round on the Port au Port Peninsula".

It is believed that "these "deserters" intermarried with Acadian francophones from Cape Breton who had come to live in southwestern Newfoundland, particularly in St. George's Bay and Port au Port, in the late 1700s and early 1800s".

According to information on the BEN website, Mi'kmaq were in the area long before the French arrived (and before them Beothuk):Ktaqmkuk Lnu'k/Mi'kmaq have always had a prominent presence in St. George's Bay (Nujio'qoniik) and on Payun Aqq Payunji'j (the Port au Port Peninsula).

Many of our Lnu'k/Mi'kmaq ancestors came from around Pitu'pa'q (Bras d'Or Lakes) in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick.... The Mi'kmaq in Western Newfoundland shared the land with our Beothuk brothers and sisters since time immemorial.

Our oral history tells us that there was friendship, intermarrying, mingling of the peoples and a great mutual respect for each other.

It is true that the Beothuk retreated inland, up the Exploits river with the arrival of the European settlers who deprived them of their coastal food sources.

The apathetic settlers soon spread their plagues across the land. These factors led to the demise of the culture of the Beothuk people. Only the blood remains as it runs through the veins of the local Mi'kmaq people.

Used with permission from "Uncovering the Origin of 1001 Unique Place Names in Newfoundland and Labrador" 2021 Jennifer Leigh Hill

Address of this page: http://nl.ruralroutes.com/DeGrau