What's New - August 3, 2018
Changes in Web Sites
My primary web site www.danbuchananhistoryguy.com has been significantly upgraded, modernized and enhanced in light of the publishing of my second book "38 Hours to Montreal" in June 2018. One change in Treesbydan re this is the removal of the History section which has been added to my main site. We will see if other changes come later but that is all for now. My genealogy site will remain the same in form and function for the foreseeable future.
Genealaogy Stuff
The Bird Family of Brighton
The Bird/Dingman family reunion prompted some quick work to enhance the details for the Bird family that lived in Brighton from 1919. Primarily, that means Andrew Bird who operated a saw mill on No. 2 west of Brighton. Unfortunately, both Andrew and his mill met a disastrous end with a large fire in 1939 where Andrew died of a heart attack while fighting the blaze. I was able to find the newspaper report for this and fill in some info re Brighton at that time. But this is the tip of the iceburg, so to speak. Lots more info will flow from the reunion and that will be reflected here over time.
Engish Settlement History
In the context of the sad affair of the Brighton Masonic Temple closing, I found some fascinatng info re the history of families in the south end of Murray Township, around the English Settlement which was north of the original Canal Reserve along Dead Creek and along what is now called English Settlement Road. A lady named Margaret L. May compiled some extensive details about the early settler families, much of it based on her own family connections to many of them. I am just getting into the details of this but it has already helped me improve the details for this area. It is another example of the reality that you never know what you are going to find in collections of people and organizations - until you look! More to come on this at a later date.