I have just returned from two weeks in Canada visiting family. My tour began in Niagara and ended in Montreal with a one day stop-over in Toronto. The big occasion driving the trip was the celebration of my grandmother's 80th birthday. My grandmother, Joan Elliott (née Cooper) was born in Niagara on the Lake in 1929. Through her ancestors, my lineage in Canada goes back 9 generations. My ancestors on that side came from Scotland in the 1770s and were among the very first European settlers in Niagara.
One of my ancestors, and the very first person buried at Stamford Presbyterian cemetary (Church depicted above) is Janet Mulwain McMicking. She died in 1785. I tried to find her gravestone but the engravings were too far eroded. I know, however, that she is buried in one of the plots closest to the Church, southside.
In 1997, my grandmother wrote a book for her children and grandchildren called, "The Quilt". It is a beautiful and touching family history that works in an amazing collection of material -anecdotes, old family photos, notes from family bibles, war-time letters, excerpts from farm ledgers, family trees, and popular rhymes from old schoolbooks, among other things. I reread the book from cover to cover on my trip. What a gift... I am so grateful that she took the time to put the book together. It's such a wonderful thing to have. It made me wonder a lot about my heritage on my father's side of the family and so while I was in Niagara I took the opportunity to sit down with my other grandmother, Lois McCabe and go through old family albums with her. I learned so much about my family on this last journey home. It was really a meaningful trip.
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