Place: St. James the Apostle Anglican Church, 12 Harvey Street, Perth Ontario
Time: 1:30-3:30 pm
Program at 2 pm
Please wear a mask to protect others.
Cost of book is $30 cash or cheque to Lanark County Genealogical Society
Street parking on Harvey Street or at the Court House
Noreen writes of her adventures vacationing in the 1940s at Richards’ Castle, Snow Road and her time as the “Pigtail Princess”.
A great promoter of the Lanark County Maple Syrup industry, Noreen has a series of stories for children starring Sammy Sap Man and his forest friends. As well she has written about life from the perspective of her little chihuahua Ruffy.
This is a lovely collection of stories from a time that many remember and look back on fondly from a lady who says she is not a writer, but a storyteller. Fortunately, this storyteller has written down her memories.
Writer, Noreen Tyers grew up in the 1940s in the Eastview section of Ottawa. She has authored many stories related to that time from her truly clear memories of situations and how she experienced life at that time. In her early adulthood, when her children were small, the family moved to a century farm in Lanark Township. This resulted in new adventures to write about as she learned to live in the country.
The price is $30 each, and shipping charges are extra. Order your copy in advance of the upcoming Book launch and come to the Launch for a signature by Author!
Brent Eades, created the first version of what is now the Almonte.com site back in 1995, a time when few people had home Internet. One of the most popular parts of the site – going back over 20 years now – has been the ‘historic photo archive’. Now numbering over 700 these photos of Almonte and the area start in the mid 19th century and were collected over years by Michael Dunn. They make up a visual history that few towns our size can boast, and I find them endlessly fascinating.
The Millstone is a community newspaper for the Municipality of Mississippi Mills
https://millstonenews.com The Millstone is a volunteer-run newspaper for the Mississippi Mills area. Publisher: Edith Cody-Rice; Proprietors: Edith Cody-Rice, Brent Eades shares a number of genealogy and history research resources.
Shared by the Millstone News, 2022, for genealogists and historians alike.
When many of us older folk went to school, we began to learn cursive writing in Grade 3. Every day we learned a newly written letter of the alphabet and then we practiced combinations of letters to improve this skill. The teacher wrote many assignments on the blackboard and we knew how to read cursive writing and copy our notes into our scribblers. The local fairs had printing and writing competitions for the best handwriting of a poem.
Those who attended teacher’s college in the 1950s were expected to complete assignments in large printing, small printing and in cursive writing for our English master. We had to obtain 5/5 for three weeks in a row or continue to practice until our instructor was satisfied.
The sentence that was used was:
“The quick brown fox jumps over the lazy dog.” See sample
I never received more than 4/5 for my cursive writing as my instructor did not like the way I wrote – “br”.
This sentence contains all the letters of the alphabet and for cursive writing it contains some of the more difficult joining combinations such as “qu”, “br”, “ox” , “ov” and “zy”.
As a teacher, I had to learn to write on the blackboard and make sure our lines of writing were straight across the board. We often spent many hours lining all our blackboards with straight lines done with white pencil crayons.
A scientific study reported in “Frontiers in Psychology (Dec. 2020) looked at brain scans of young adults and 12-year-olds and found that cursive writing and drawing used brain areas that ”provide the brain with optimal conditions for learning”. This was not found when the subjects were typing. Other research studies have shown that cursive writing stimulates the brain. It encourages left to right movement, helps build neural pathways and increases mental effectiveness. This skill development aids the left to right progression needed for reading and fine motor skills. These are all important skills for children to learn. (New American Cursive, Iris Hatfield, 2007-2011, Memoria Press)
I taught my grandchildren to do cursive writing. When the company that my granddaughter was working for discovered her beautiful cursive writing, they paid her to sign and address over 300 Christmas cards. Both grandchildren have the ability to read old documents in cursive writing.
We have copies of several letters that were exchanged between John Gemmill (1774 – 1847) and Ann Weir (1781-1848) who settled on Lot 13, Concession 8, Lanark Township, Lanark County. These letters are dated from 1822 to 1832.
Here’s a sample of a letter John sent to his wife, who was still in Scotland, giving her instructions as to what to bring and telling her to get signed up with an immigration society.
Our family also has several original letters written to James S. Paterson (1793-1866) and his wife Mary Dumbreck Morrison (1794 – 1879) who emigrated from Scotland to Ramsay Township, Lanark County in 1821. Some of the letters were sent from Scotland and others originated from other places in Canada.
Note: Copies of these Gemmill letters and their transcriptions have been donated to the Middleville Museum. Copies of the Paterson letters and their transcriptions will soon be donated to the North Lanark Museum.
Will individuals of the next generation be able to transcript these old documents or will they have to hire someone else to do this work?
This is the newest book undertaken by Lanark County Genealogical Society.
Volume I Pakenham, Ramsay, Beckwith and Montague
Volume II Bathurst, Dalhousie Darling, Drummond, Lanark, Lavant, North Burges, North Elmsley, North Sherbrooke, South Sherbrooke.
Each volume has sets of maps applicable to the townships in that book. The maps are ones that have landowner names applied as well as one modern map with all the Lots and Concessions marked. These are designed to aid in finding where your ancestors lived.
The second component of each book is farm histories of various farms in each township as submitted by both members and by non-members of Lanark County Genealogical Society. Some farms are still active. Some are not. Some still have descendants of the early settlers on them. Others do not. While most of our ancestors did general farming, many farmers now specialize in dairy cattle, beef cattle, field crops, sheep, horses, etc. Along with these, we feature a lama and alpaca farm, a farm where sheep are milked. Some farms have become subdivisions. Many have more than one family living on the original lot.
Where possible we have identified the rural address of many of the farms to help people in situating where a particular Lot and Concession actually is. Many of the articles tell a brief history of the families who lived there in the early days. It has been particularly heartening to encounter several young couples taking on the challenge of farming at this time. We wish them nothing but success because our future depends on it.
“Lanark County Routes” is the latest publication designed to assist people in researching their ancestors in Lanark County. Find out how to pre-order the two-volume set or either title separately.
Max Sutherland had no ancestors in Darling Township, but that did not deter his interest in the place he adopted as his second home. Max devoted many years of his life chronicling the history and the families of this place. He was also not adverse to trying to literally dig up where the pioneers were buried, climbing fences, crawling through brush, over rock piles with his shovel, along with friends to try to find where the old families buried their loved ones before there were organized cemeteries.
The research and publication of this book were undertaken by Lanark County Genealogical Society. It is a celebration of the lives of over 80 people from Lanark County who made a difference. They were ordinary people who achieved extraordinary accomplishments. Some of them were people whose foresight built their community here in the County. Others left as opportunities presented themselves and went out to make their mark upon the world. This book has involved many authors and thousands of hours of research with references being carefully noted.
Lanark County Genealogical Society Announces their New Book “Seasons in the Wind: Tales of Lanark County”
This 300-page hardcover book is a compilation of stories from early residents of Lanark County, histories of various places in the County, as well as tales of the past.
On February 2nd, 2019 local author Ron Shaw will present his research on two black families who lived in Perth between 1858 and 1926; the Gilberts and the Jacksons.
Ron is from Perth Ontario. He studied journalism at Algonquin College and worked for newspapers, radio and television prior to his 35 year career with non-governmental relief and development organizations in Africa, Asia, Eastern Europe and the Middle East.
Start Time 1:30 pm
Location, Beckwith Township Administration Complex
1702 9th Line Beckwith @ Black’s Corners Ontario
Event Organizers: Lanark County Genealogical Society
We were recently contacted by the young author of a new online guide for those wanted to get started in researching their family tree. Rachel, an American contributor from Hobby Help, alerted us to her Ultimate Beginner’s Guide to Genealogy, and we’re delighted to add it to our Genealogy Research Links page.
Rachel shared with us that she “got the bug a few years ago and along with the excitement itself of finding new relatives one of her missions is to give back and spread the word to beginners”. She is based in New York, and although she hasn’t yet found any Canadian connections in her family history, she keeps searching!
