Cape John is a spit of land that rises out of the Northumberland Straight on the north shore of Nova Scotia. In the 1700s, when Nova Scotia was referred to as New Scotland, the estuary that fed the river inland from Cape John was called Deception River.

The earliest european settlers to this land and sea were from England and Scotland. Henry Heighton was among the first, and he fathered 11 children. Among them was Margaret Heighton, born in 1791.

Margaret met Colin MacIver, and after they  married, they moved to Washabuck Cape Breton  on the western shores of the island inland sea, Bra d’or Lakes.

Several generations later, my grandfather Little Jimmy MacIver was born and then my mother Margaret MacIver in 1921 and then me in 1958.

When I moved to Deception River in the mid 1960’s, no one there knew that I was a 5th generation relative. I don’t know if it would have made a difference. However, I suspect it would have meant something to my mother, who felt isolated and alone.

Most of the defendants of Henry Heighton stayed and raised families on that north shore spit of land, and of all the surnames there, Heighton is at or near the most common.

I felt a connection to some of them and didn’t know why. I tried for a while to connect and failed before addictions filled the voids of silent disclusion.

It is funny to me and ironic to find out that during my years there in Cape John and Deception River, searching elsewhere for family that I was surrounded by family and didn’t know. I’ve been saying for a long time that you could fill libraries with what I don’t know it.

I was talking to an old friend from there Peter Macdonald and discussing the ironies of not knowing my heritage, Peter said,

“You were right where you should have been all along.”