Category: C

Two sizable islands are formed west and east of the Westmeath Peninsula when the mighty Ottawa River is split into channels. The most westerly Isle-aux-Allumettes (Allumette Island) in the Pontiac Regional County Municipality, Quebec, is located just to the east of much smaller Morrison Island.  The one to the east – downstream –  is Grand-Calumet or Calumet Island. READ MORE

Scottish “immigrant ancestors” Peter Comrie Sr. (1789-1856) m Jane Millar (1791-1885) and lived in Comrie, Scotland, UK. They, with their grown children and extended family, came as a “Kinship Network” to the New World about 1811-12, then settling in Carleton Place, Bathurst District circa 1827, Jane Millar Comrie would be very long-lived. 1885 Jane Millar READ MORE

In 1851 “immigrant ancestor” George Cotnam (1828-1895) of County Cavan, Ireland m. Catherine “Katie” Lee (1825-1897) in Quebec City. Stories of land, up the Ottawa River Valley, coming available for settlers to homestead were rife amongst the new arrivals. In Quebec City and Montreal the government land agents were busy dealing with incoming shiploads of READ MORE

If you come to the Village of Westmeath today, you’ll notice that there is a thriving General Store at the Main and Gore Line corner. Standing right beside the store is a pretty white house with a front porch. That white house has borne witness to succeeding generations of travellers. It started as a “Stopping READ MORE

Great tragedy is always close by, as is shown by this tale of a family of Swedish “Immigrant Ancestors”.  Lars Carlsson Smed (1839-1916) was born in  in Björkefalla, Jämshög, Blekinge, Sweden. He married Elna  Jönsdotter (1839 – 1873) and the couple had 4 children: August; Hanna; Julle; and Elof Smed.  The great tragedy centres on a despondent wife READ MORE

Cholera, diphtheria, tuberculosis, thyroid –  all are diseases that in colonial times were huge killers and little could be done to aid the sufferers. One such victim was a Westmeath Township entrepreneur named Hiram Chamberlain, who while on a 1854 business trip to Quebec City, contracted cholera and never made it back home to his family. Hiram’s READ MORE

Alexander Carnegie was born in Antrim County, Ireland in 1784. When he boarded the ship to cross the North Atlantic, he knew he was going on an adventure of a lifetime – little realizing that he would live to 90 years of age and see the development of a new nation. With Alexander Carnegie (1784 – 1874)  on that READ MORE

Two large islands sit in the stream of the Ottawa River; the one upstream of Westmeath Township is Allumette Island and the one downstream is Calumet Island. Both Islands are in Pontiac County, Quebec. Settlers on both these islands made frequent use of boats in summer and ice roads in winter to socialize, attend church services or buy READ MORE

Three Collins brothers were the “immigrant ancestors” for this entry; (I) Thomas Collins (1818-1897), (II) John Collins (1823- 1879) and (III) William Collins (1830-1890). They came out from Ireland around 1840. They with their wives and older children joined thousands of others immigrating to the New World to escape the famine and economic hardships of READ MORE

The assimilation of incoming ancestor immigrants, into the frontier society of Westmeath Township,  resulted in some name changes and some conversions of faith. This was done to be accepted and to participate more fully in the community.  The French surname Condé was but one example. “The Anglicization of the name Beaupré to Beauprie was a READ MORE