I have published a book – Tayside Memories: The Story of a Lanark County Lad Currently available at Tayside Memories: The Story of a Lanark County Lad  Living at a distance has its challenges for this project. The book is currently only available online. Last week I fulfilled a ‘bucket list’ wish. I was able to assemble and send for publication my father’s memories of his life at Tayside Farm, my childhood home. I began...

Timeline of History of Education in our part of Ontario 1807 Upper Canada Grammar School Act provided the first public funds for secondary schools for the establishment of a ‘Public’ school in each of the eight Districts of Upper Canada. These schools later  became known as ‘Grammar Schools’. 1815 Emigration assistance offered by Lord Bathurst permitted a school teacher to accompany each group of families desiring to...

The School Section The original Glen Tay (Manion) Public School, SS#3 Bathurst Township, Lanark County was located on concession 2 Lot 19. It was conveniently located along the third concession road that led from Perth to Christie Lake. It was located to the east of Dewitt’s Corners and west of the hamlet of Manion, later considered part of the village of Glen Tay. The School Section seems to have stretched along the third line of...

I’ve been focusing on some personal memories for a class assignment the past few weeks and I am now trying to put together some information on the Glen Tay public school otherwise known as SS#3 Bathurst Township, Lanark County, Ontario. Here is what I know at this time and I am asking for help to definitely name the people in the photos and for additional photos and stories of this school. The school was originally known as Manion School...

While taking a break from recording my personal story – I was documenting a difficult time in my life – I decided to tackle one of my long-time genealogy brick walls once again. Elizabeth Gilmour, my 4th great grandmother’s parents had been found but beyond that I knew nothing about her or her family line. I stumbled upon some fun stuff! I find some anomalies in the following document, it is still a work in progress. I am...

The Challenge Prior to our four years of travel we downsized and parted with many of the larger items in our house. There was enough trauma associated with that exercise that most of the smaller treasures associated with our lives to that point were packed and put in storage. In 2014 we emptied our eastern storage locker and again parted with many items. The problem is we still have too much stuff! The other day I made the mistake of choosing...

This material was gathered for a presentation to the Celtic SIG of the Alberta Family Histories Society in February 2018 and is based on research into my Palatine family roots. The story of the Palatines includes a mix of international conflict, religious unrest, politics and climatology. The following is a gathering of edited excerpts from articles found on the web that help tell their story. (sources are in the endnotes).   Diane Miller...

When I began this series of articles focused on newspaper clippings from the six months around the time of my birth, I didn’t appreciate how much insight I would gain into the challenges faced by my parents during this period and the environment that helped to shape the person I would become. I did not anticipate how much would be revealed in the pages of the Perth Courier, a local newspaper, and as a result, these posts are long. Dip...

“History Leading up to the Reformed Presbyterian Church in Perth”, Perth Courier, Thursday, November 18th, 1965; By Rev. Robert More, Jr., Pastor of the Almonte R.P.C. “I see no warrant in Scripture for using these hymns.” so spoke elder John Holliday in the First Presbyterian Church on Dec. 22, 1827. With this the first outspoken tendency toward the Reformed Presbyterian or Covenanter Church was seen in and around Perth. Since the...

Fifty years ago, my husband and I were married in St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church in Perth Ontario. On 29 July 2017, this congregation marked the 200th anniversary of the first Presbyterian church service in the community. I believe it was about 1992 that my father, J.R. Ernest Miller, assembled a memorial history of the Perth Presbyterian churches “175 Years of Presbyterian Worship”. I dip into his work to share the...