Book of Pictures

I wanted to pass along the name of another book about the Hamilton area, since I have to return it to the library today.  I can't summarize it because there is just too much in it!  It is full of old pictures of the area.  If you have family from that are you should check it out. Although it didn't have my family in there, maybe it has yours?



Hamilton - Panorama of our past 
A pictorial History of the Hamilton-Wentworth Region
The head-of the-lake Historical Society

A Town Called Hamilton 1814-1840

I want to find out some basic history of different areas of where my family lived so it will help me to find our more things about them.  I'll start for now with the Hamilton, Ontario area because I live here, and it should be easier to find things out.
I am going to start with a book I have been reading.

Hamilton - A Peoples History - Bill Freeman.  

I will go through each chapter, and just pull out some interesting facts to me, and what might be relavent to my family.  If you want to get all the details I encourage you too see if you can find it at your library, or you can purchase it.

First Chapter:  The Head of the Lake Beginnings to 1814

Second Chapter - 

A Town Called Hamilton 

1814-1840

• 1816 - March 22 - Hamilton became a community - named after George Hamilton (Modern day streets are named after his relatives - John, James, Hunter, Catharine)
• Courthouse and Jail brought people from all over (From the District of Gore - which includedWentworth, Halton, Brant, Haldimand counties and Puslinch Township) - This is how Hamilton initially began to grown
• Education was very important to the settlers.  1817 - there were 5 schools in Barton Township for 800 students
• 1832-1835 - Dundurn Castle built by Sir Alland MacNab and Robert Charles Wetherall

 See image at FlickR here

• 1832 - Cholera epidemic.  There was panic in the community, especially because of the immigrants coming on ships into the ports.  Even prisioners were released to avoid the epidemic.  There were lots of dead.
• 1830's - political conflict between Dundas and Hamilton, along with all of Upper Canada.
• Population then started to increase due to British immigration, and by 1835 the population of just Hamilton was 2,600.

The Head of the Lake - From Beginnings -1814

I want to find out some basic history of different areas of where my family lived so it will help me to find our more things about them.  I'll start for now with the Hamilton, Ontario area because I live here, and it should be easier to find things out.
I am going to start with a book I have been reading.

Hamilton - A Peoples History - Bill Freeman.  

I will go through each chapter, and just pull out some interesting facts to me, and what might be relavent to my family.  If you want to get all the details I encourage you too see if you can find it at your library, or you can purchase it.


First Chapter:

The Head of The Lake

From beginnings - 1814

• The first inhabitants of the "head of the lake", which is the western end of Lake Ontario was the native people about 6000 years ago.  
• 1638 - 1640 - The population decreases because of the small pox epidemic which was brought over by the Europeans
• 1650 - war that severely affected the native poupulation
• 1700 - The French had control of the area
• 1759 - British dominated after the Battle of the Plains of Abraham
• 1775-1783 - American war of Independence; 60,000 loyalists came to modern day Canada. About 10,000 of these went to upper Canada, and 2000 of those to the Niagara Peninsula (which included the Head of the Lake)
• 1787-1788 - "Hungry Years" because of a drought.  Most didn't use money but a barter system.
• 1791 - Barton and Saltfleet Townships were surveyed by Augustus Jones
• Most in this area were farmers.  Mos were given 200 acres and given clothes for 3 years, and basic tools.
• Most were members of the Church of England (Anglican), but Methodist became more popular in the rural areas.
• 1812 - Population of Upper Canada was about 77,000, 20,00 of these were loyalists, the rest were American settlers who were looking for cheap land (** This may be why my ancestors moved from the states to the area?**)
• 1812-1814 - War of 1812 (Battle of Stoney Creek - June 1813)

See image on FlickR here

Book Recap - Wentworth Bygones No. 11

Today I ventured to my local library.  My main reason for being there was story time for my little girl, but also on my agenda was to start in my search of Hamilton History books.  I found out that I need to go to another one that has the large collection for all the microfilms and other genealogical specific resources.  I'll have to do  that someday when I can be "baby free", so for today, for various reasons I only came home with one book.


From this book, I have discovered a historical society, who have produced several publications.  Their website is here
 
This book has no information about my family, but I thought maybe I would do a slight Recap about what is in it. It is basically a few little stories that were presented at "The Head-of-the-Lake" historical society meetings.  It was interesting reading about what this area was like back in the mid-late 1800's!

Wentworth Bygones

From the Papers and Records of 

The Head-of-the-Lake 

Historical Society, 

Hamilton Ontario.

No.11, 1975

The Following are the titles of the excerpts from their meetings told in this book:

The Journal of a Scottish Farm Pupil in Ancaster

1881-1883
by Eleanor S.D. Farmer

(an address to the Society on April 19, 1974)

The Reverend Thomas Geoghegan

1848-1906

By Katharine Greenfield

(an address to the Society on Feb 9, 1974)

From the Mayor's Chair: Then and Now
by Mayor Victor K. Copps
(The Bailey Memorial Lecture)
(an Address to the Society on Oct 12, 1973)

The Story of William Sampson
First Recot of Grimsby, 1817-1822
by The Rev. Canon E.A. Brooks
(An Address to the Society on Jan 11, 1974)

The Railways of Hamilton
by Andrew Merrilees
(An Address to the Society on March 8, 1974)


A History of St. Patrick's Roman Catholic Church, Hamilton
By J.T.L. Fletcher
(An Address to the Society on February 14, 1975)

Early American and Canadian Glass
by Miss Lottie M Jones U.E.
(An Address to the Society on Nove 9, 1973)



Baptismal Records of the Church of the Ascension (Anglican) Hamilton, 1851-53 
These records are listed at the back of the book...Unless I find out otherwise that I'm not allowed to post them, I will post my scanned photos here.  Maybe they will help someone out in the future?  By clicking on them it should open into a larger window to make viewing possible.


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If you happen to catch me when I still have the book, I will gladly through it for any surnames you might be researching in the are.  Just leave a comment below.