VISIT

            I had a pleasant visit with one of my brothers today. It doesn't take long before the topic of conversation changes to family history or local history. 

           My three brothers still live and farm where we were born so they've lived in one location for  long time. 

           Many , many changes have taken place. The local district was about 4 by four miles. When the original homesteaders arrived early in the last century there were approximately 23 families. So there were 23 farmsteads and families. 

         Today there are 2 farmsteads in that area where at one time there were 23 farmsteads so we have much to talk about. My nephews live on the 2 farmsteads that are occupied. We're all interested in who lived there. 

        Local histories have been written but that does not cover all the people who lived in the area. So off we go trying to make some connections and sense of what we know. 

      One wonders about the people who lived there. Where did they come from? Most people in the area came from Ontario. Hw long did they stay in the area? What made them leave? A walk through the cemetery brings up more questions. Some families lost one member and then moved on . The grave has been left and the memories are gone. 

     Now we may not discover much new information. We did think about going over some of the old farmyards with a metal detector!

   It made for a pleasant visit. 

         

I Found My Archive

       A former student of mine (who reads this blog) has a long history of involvement with city archives. He started volunteering in the small archive dept. while he was in high school. So you can guess that his university degree was in history and he made his specialty local history.

      When his degree was finished he came back to his home town and guess what? He set up the archives dept in this town. He has been the city archivist since about 1976. What an archivist! He has set up a system that collects, catalogues and stores a wide variety of city material. Minutes from many local organizations are sent to the archives and kept. I taught at the same school for 28 years and had 24 or 25 school yearbooks. At this stage in my life I wanted to get rid of some of my treasures and I decided that I was finished with the yearbooks.. I didn't want to recycle my yearbooks so I asked the archivist if he could use them. Yes , he certainly would like them so off my yearbooks went to the archivist. 

     Now this guy is not just an archivist but an avid interest in local history. In fact, his interest is so keen that he has written books on our city's local history.  The local history books sell like hotcakes. He has  a weekly newspaper column on some aspect of our history.

    Now in the process of scanning photos I've found my  archives. Many photos remind me of events from many years ago in my life. I found photos to remind me of hiking and backpacking. There were many photos taken at school and somebody very carefully gave me any photos I happened to be in. There are many photos of those goofy   dress up days. Many candid shots were taken of me in the classroom or staffroom.

    I found very ancient photos of my childhood. I found things on my young adult life although those happened to be sporadic. And then the most precious photos were those of my kids when they were growing up. Today I got to the high school graduation photos.

    So I've found my archive and I wish they were as well organized as if our city archivist had cared for them.

This is something I was really good at!