- Bargain Brides Before online dating websites like Tinder or Match.com, how did our lonely ancestors find love? They placed advertisements in Matrimonial Journals, in newspapers and sometimes even wrote away to officials in far away places looking for bargain brides. Matrimonial Journals Published in Toronto, the Anglo-American Matrimonial Journal took advertisements from lonely men and women looking for […]
- The Mysterious Christmas Card from the Isle of Wight Tucked away in Tyler Jacques’ family memorabilia was a yellowed Christmas card from the Isle of Wight dated 1932. The card was from Mr and Mrs H L Williams and had an embossed address of 75 Church Street, Ryde, Isle of Wight in the bottom left-hand corner but no one in the family knew who […]
- Crowds Flock to Sunnyside Beach in 1922 Crowds flocked to Sunnyside Beach in 1922 when the new park opened, lured by the modern new bathing pavilion and the miles of parklands, boardwalks and beaches near Humber Bay. The newly formed Toronto Harbour Commission reclaimed land by dredging the bottom of Lake Ontario and placing over 3 million cubic yards of fill along the […]
- Hurricane Hazel They said it might rain; they said it might be windy; but they never really thought that Hurricane Hazel would hit Toronto. Protection of the Alleghenies On Friday, 15 October, 1954, Torontonians were feeling the effects of Hurricane Hazel which had just hit land in the Carolinas as more than one inch of rain fell […]
- Murder or Accident? The charred and headless body of David Scollie was found in the ruins of a fire that took place on 23 February 1894 on a dark and stormy night. His head was never found. Was it murder or accident? In February of 1894, Scollie was living a solitary life in the township of Otonabee, six miles […]
- Great Fire of 1922 In Northern Ontario, the unusually hot and dry conditions that had prevailed throughout the summer of 1922 continued unabated into the autumn. Concerned about the approaching ‘burning’ season, local fire rangers asked for their contracts to be extended beyond mid-September, but the government denied their request and the rangers left the Temiskaming area on September […]
- Waifs and Strays Winner of Rogue or Angel? Contest Congratulations to reader Heather Milnes, winner of The Social Historian’s Rogue or Angel? Contest for the story of her grandmother, Evelyn Harris who came to Canada as one of the British Home Children in 1907 at the age of eleven. Torn from her home in London, separated from her mother […]
- Bond Family Chronicles Chapter Two The London chapter of the Bond family chronicles takes us back another generation to Laura’s parents, William and Jessie Bond who married despite the difference in their ages and stayed together until death they did part despite the tragedy in their story. The Royal Artillery life was a hard one, and especially so for the few wives […]
- Bond Family Chronicles Chapter One Hardship, adversity and heartbreak can often serve as glue that binds families together. Such was the case with the ancestors of Laura Alice Bond. But after generations of struggle and strife in England, the Bond family immigrated to Canada in search of better times. At the turn of the twentieth century, in the bustling city […]
- The Women Went to Work While there is no doubt in my mind that our earliest female ancestors worked, and worked very hard, their choices for paid employment were few. Young women of the working class mostly went into service, working as domestic servants or farm servants. Widowed women with a family to support, might have taken in laundry, worked at dressmaking, hat making or […]