William C. Wonders
Published: 2002
Total Pages: 378
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The chronicle of the Bell family is one which will be familiar to thousands of other Canadians whose ancestors were part of a massive immigration from the British Isles to Ontario in the early 19th century. Originally the Bells were one of the troublesome "riding clans" of the Scottish borders. (Another Bell group originated as an offshoot form Clan MacMillan in western Argyllshire) Many moved or were moved to Ireland in the early 17th century "Plantation" of Ulster, where their descendants remain to the present, as Ulster Scots. By the early 19th century severe economic depression, land pressures, and increased friction with the native Irish were widespread. It lead to a major emigration of Ulster Scots to North America, and particularly to Upper Canada. Their imprint on the character of Ontario persists to the present. After describing the nature and character of the countryside and of the Bells generally in the Scottish Borders and in Ulster, the author follows his maternal ancestors as they experience the hardships of emigration in 1832 ("the cholera year") and deal with the demands of pioneering in a new country. Originally they settled just southwest of Peterborough, but subsequently were attracted northwards when the Haliburton Highlands were opened for settlement. There the Canadian Shield provided severely limited prospects for farming and the family relocated to north Simcoe County. When the Canadian Northwest was opened for settlement in the late 19th century, several family members moved to what became today's Prairie Provinces. Those that remained in Ontario abandoned farming in the early 20th Century in favour of city life in a rapidly growing Toronto. Today's descendants are widely dispersed across central and western Canada and in the western United States. The author draws on a wide spectrum of material - official records, contemporary newspapers and published accounts, family records, letters and interviews to provide a vivid backdrop for the lives of his Bell family over time. Material and information has been collected by him over twenty-five years, in Scotland, Ireland , Canada, and the Unites States. Reaction from Readers "There are several reasons to buy and read this book...if you would like to be inspired by the methodlology of a trained academic researcher and writer, this is a book for you...[This] is a work that speaks to us directly and immediately from the times and circumstances under consideration. Len Chester - Families Magazine, May 2004 "A valuable addition to the Ontario pioneering literature" Dr. J.D. Wood, Professor of Geography, York University, Toronto "We do wish to congratulate you again for your outstanding book...It isimpossible to imagine the tremendous amount of research that you did. We find the amount ofdetailed history throughout so fascinating as well as the social and geographic studyof communities..." Mr. & Mrs. Millburn Jones, genealogists, of Peterborough, Ontario "The definitive chronicle of the Bell family migration...meticulously authored by ... a professor of international renown..." Denis Bell - Canadian Representative of the Bell Family Association/Clan Bell Association "...will be a most helpful reference aid for those searching Bell ancesors. You are to be congratulated on such an impressive piece." Fintan Mullan - Executive Director, Ulster Historical Foundation I just finished your book and felt at the end that your family history was virtually our family history. This is a wonderful study that I would call "middle history"... somewhere between global history and individual history (biography). Congratulations. What a tremendous amount of research you have done! I hope that this book becomes well known because, undoubtedly, it will save others a good deal of time in their family research. A really strong point of the work is the well-reconstructed social and physical back
