According to oral tradition, the first settler in the family, James Poole,  came from Liverpool, Lancashire, England. This may not be quiet correct as  James Poole was employed with John Slade & Co. at Battle Harbour in 1832 and  in all probability came to Labrador with this firm from Poole, England. He may  have first settled in Newfoundland and then moved to Labrador, as several of  his sons maintained homes in the Carbonear, Newfoundland, area and fished in  Labrador during the summer months. The family name may have been  spelled "Pole" at one time. The Anglican Church records (Battle Harbour  Parish) seem to support this claim. Entries up to the beginning of the  twentieth century spell the name as "Pole". After this point, the current  spelling, "Poole", begins to appear. "Pole", however, may simply be a  misspelling of the name by the clergy. At this point, it is unclear. Some  family members say that "Pole" was the name's original spelling, and this  spelling changed to its present form, "Poole", in 1895. No reasons were given  for the change.

James married a Newfoundland woman named Emma; her maiden name survives in  oral tradition as Butt. James and Emma settled in Labrador at Boat's Cove, now  known as Seal Bight, by the 1850s, since most, if not all, of their children  were born in either Seal Bight or nearby Spear Harbour.. James is shown living  at Seal Bight in the winter of 1863-64 on a survey done by the Anglican  Mission. The Moss diary of 1832 also makes numerous references to a James Pole.

James and Emma had ten known children: James (ca. 1851 - ?), Maria Anne (1852 -  ?), John (1853 - ?), Eliza (no dates), William (1855 - ), Amelia (1857 - ?),  Henry (1859 - 1916), Joseph (1861 - ?), Thomas (1864 - ca. 1944) and George  (1868 - ?). The Poole's living in Labrador today descend from two of these  children -- Joseph and Thomas. Both men married women from Newfoundland,  though Joseph's first wife, Elizabeth Chubbs, and Thomas's first wife,  Isabella Chubbs, both had connections to Labrador. The Chubbs family shared a  similar history to the Poole's in that both first lived in Newfoundland and  moved to Labrador in summer to fish (some stayed permanently).

The Poole family, as mentioned above, were traditionally associated with Seal  Bight, and later Murray's Harbour. Seal Bight was abandoned as a permanent  settlement in the mid-1900s. Today, Poole's descending from this family can be  found mostly in St. Lewis and parts of Newfoundland.

 

Sources for the Poole family background and family tree:

George Poole -- d. 1994
 Calvin Poole, Fox Harbour
 THEM DAYS Magazine & Archive, Happy Valley-Goose Bay 
 Anglican Church records, Parish of Battle Harbour, Mary's Harbour Provincial Archives of Newfoundland & Labrador, St. John's, Newfoundland Judy (Poole) Pye, Fox Harbour
 Betty (Poole) Bolger, Fox Harbour
 Curl family Bible, owned by Austin Curl, Carbonear, Newfoundland Cora (Poole) Clarke, Goulds, Newfoundland
 Initial work on the Poole family tree was done by Jason Curl, for the Labrador  Metis Nation.