Canadian Friends Historical Association

Author: CFHA

  • Find us on Facebook!

    The CFHA is now on Facebook! We’ve set up a page you can follow to see new blog posts, articles, events, and news shared by the community.

    You can find us at https://www.facebook.com/Canadian-Friends-Historical-Association-100910118316978/

    Every blog post we publish here will automatically appear there.

    A special thanks to Sydney Harker for volunteering her time and helping us set this up.

    The page will not be monitored by the CFHA executive, so if you’d like our attention, please come to the blog to post comments, or send us emails from our contact page.

    Don’t forget that you need to register an account in order to post comments – which only takes a minute.

    We’d love to hear your thoughts on Facebook and other ways we can keep in touch. If you have suggestions, please post them in the comments below!

  • Researcher question: Do you know anything about the Lundy family?

    We’ve received a researcher question to be put to the expertise of the CFHA and its membership:

    Hello, I just discovered that my great, great grandfather, Enos Lundy III, was a Quaker, whose father, Enos Lundy II and grandfather, Enos Lundy I, immigrated to Canada from Pennsylvaia, USA, in 1805. They settled in York County in Whitchurch Township I believe.

    The house built by Enos Lundy (II I beieve) has been designated a heritage home by Aurora.

    Enos III was father to Sarah, who married John Cain. Their daughter, Fern, was my grandmother, who married Milton Palmateer. My mother, Irene, was their second child.

    I would like to learn more about my Quaker roots. I understand that there might be a book written about the Lundys?

    Any information would be greatly appreciated.

    Can you help our researcher out with some relevant resources or suggestions for places to find further information? Please use the comment field below (and register for an account to post comments, if you have not yet done so.)

  • A quick history lesson from NPR on how Quakers invented the price tag

     

    NPR’s Planet Money published this charming video about the history of charging fair prices to consumers:

    For most of human history, you had to haggle over prices before you could buy something. The Quakers were among the first people to commit to fixed prices — and they did it because they thought it was more fair. Turned out, it was also good business. This is the strange story of the long journey of that little piece of paper.

  • The CQHA 2020 Conference is Postponed

    We repost information from the following webpage:

    Dear CQHA friends,

     

    This is not the message we had hoped to share with you at this point in our planning for the CQHA 2020 conference. Our program committee had worked through proposals and acceptances and was justifiably proud of the program we had put together, based almost entirely in the quality of presentations and their convergence around aspects of Quaker history and culture. We were on the verge of sharing the completed program with presenters, and were planning to open registration by the end of March.

     

    Instead, and with true regret, we are writing to let you know that we have decided to cancel the CQHA 2020 conference scheduled in June at Earlham College. In its place, we are beginning to make plans for a short virtual symposium this coming Fall and a rescheduled gathering at Earlham in June, 2021. 

     

    In recent weeks we have watched the situation surrounding the global spread of the COVID-19 virus with concern, but also with the hope that we might still be able to hold our conference as planned. Emerging guidance in Europe and North America to curtail both travel and conferences for at least the next eight weeks makes that look increasingly impossible. After careful deliberation, and since it is not our wish to heighten uncertainty in uncertain times, we have taken this decision now rather than wait any longer.

    Since CQHA meets every other year, 2021 would have been our year off. We hope that all those accepted for 2020 will be willing and able to present their work at a June 2021 conference at Earlham (specific dates to be determined). We will keep you apprised as new plans for a Fall 2020 online symposium and rescheduled conference next June take shape.

    We deeply appreciate the community that has formed around this conference and we look forward to gathering next year.

    With best wishes to all,

     

    Robynne Rogers Healey

    Convenor, CQHA

     

    John Anderies

    Susan Garfinkel

    Program Co-Chairs

     

    Jenny Freed
    Local Arrangements Coordinator

    https://library.guilford.edu/c.php?g=111690&p=7357286

  • Are you subscribed to the Adolphustown-Fredericksburgh Heritage Society newsletter?

    The Adolphustown-Fredericksburgh Heritage Society has been around since 1989, chronicling the history of one of Ontario’s oldest United Empire Loyalist settler communities. Adolphustown is of particular interest to Quaker historians as the site of the first Preparative Meeting in Upper (or lower) Canada, started in 1798.

    Membership in the AFHS costs only $5 for a lifetime, and comes with it a subscription to the members-only newsletter, which has wonderful articles about Adolphustown & Fredericksburgh history.

    In the April 2020 edition, you will find articles about the Haight farm, the Spencer Burial Ground, early schools, a summer camp in the area, and a collection of historical news clippings of interest.

    Their website is also full of great historical materials and publications, including a call-out for contributions of local photographs. You can find more information about the AFHS and how to become a member on their website:

    http://www.sfredheritage.on.ca/

     

  • Help transcribe ships’ logs from the Nantucket Historical Association

    The Nantucket Historical Association is asking for volunteer help to transcribe handwritten documents. Their collection currently available for transcribing includes ships’ logs and particularly eleven logs written by women, likely captains’ wives.

    The Nantucket area is of particular interest to Canadian Quaker enthusiasts as their whaling and fishing fleets had many connections with Barrington and Dartmouth, NS, which are home to some of the earliest Quaker settlers.

    You can find ships’ logs and other materials to transcribe here: https://fromthepage.com/nharl/

    Setting up an account and getting started is easy.

    If you’d like to look through the NHA’s collection for materials of interest, start here: https://nha.org/research/

    And if you’d like to see if historical Nova Scotian and New Brunswicker Friends are relevant to your inquiries, read this great article from Sandra Fuller in the Canadian Quaker History Journal about the 1787 census:

    Census of Quaker Families in Nova Scotia and New Brunswick, 1787 (PDF)

  • Help answer this question: do you know anything about Aaron Tool?

    We recently received the following genealogy question via our contact form:

    A Quaker – Aaron Tool – came from Bucks County, PA, to York County, Ontario. I’ve seen note of him in Yonge St minutes but if there is anything more you can tell me, it would be greatly appreciated. I’ve been to the Friends cemetery in North Toronto and took pictures of the headstones but some were unreadable.

    Do you have any information about an Aaron Tool (or Toole)? Can you help our researcher out with some relevant resources or suggestions for places to find further information?

     

  • The Record Book of Joseph Edwards, Niagara, 1812-1813

    Recently the American National Archives and Records Administration posted this interesting tidbit on their blog:

    Some Americans in Canada: The Record Book of Joseph Edwards, Niagara, Upper Canada, April 1812-January 1813

    If you don’t follow NARA, you may have missed this interesting document – a record book of Joseph Edwards, the Justice of the Peace in Niagara. It includes a hefty list of Americans forced to either depart Upper Canada or swear allegiance to the province. You may recognize a few last names in the blog post: Dorland, Height (Haight?), Lloyd – there is even a Samuel Moore!

    (Perhaps those of you with extensive knowledge on the topic can speculate in the comments whether this is the Samuel Moore, who at that time had just moved to Upper Canada from Nova Scotia and held several properties.)

    A number of the people listed are from Pennsylvania and New York, and taking a look may lead you down some helpful new research paths. While some of these names may be Quakers, there is also a section especially noting members of the Methodist Episcopal Church, which may help those of you working on religious history more broadly.

    The record book in question has been digitized and can be found here:

    https://catalog.archives.gov/id/158587783

    Happy reading!

  • New transcription: Pelham Monthly Meeting Women, 1828-1860 (O-5-1)

    We’ve updated our transcriptions page with a new upload: Pelham Monthly Meeting’s Women’s book from 1828-1860.

    You can also see the PDF here: http://cfha.info/PelhamO-5-1.pdf

    Thanks as always to our wonderful volunteer transcribers!

    Our team is always happy to accept new volunteers. If you find yourself with free time while sitting at home, consider joining us to transcribe digitized meeting books. The only skills required are patience and the ability to read handwriting. The experience is enriching and educational – you may find interesting stories, ancestors, mention of places you know, and a heartfelt connection to the past. If you think you’d like to try your hand at transcribing, please get in touch!

    Whereas a number of friends having Identified themselves with those who have seceded from the Principle of friends, and emb[r]aced the doctrin of Elias Hicks, and not allowing friends the privalage of holding meeting in the meeting hous, therefore after solid consideration friends have removed to the house of Robert Spencer to hold our Monthly meeting there

    The Clerk going with the seceders have deprived friends of the use of the Books and minutes, which neceseated friends to transact their business without them

    This meeting therefore appoints Elizabeth Hill Clerk for one year and Mary M. Taylor to assist her

    This meeting appoints Elizabeth Hill and Jane King to visit Hannah Husband the former Clerk and demand the minutes and other property belonging to the meeting as this meetings just right, and report to next monthly meeting agreeably to the directions of the yearly meeting in the subject and the Clerk is to furnish the committee with a copy of this minutes signed by the Clerk

  • Friends Historical Library of Swarthmore College supports CFHA transcriptions

    We are pleased to be advised that Friends Historical Library at Swarthmore College will make images of men’s and women’s minute books from Muncy Monthly Meeting in Pennsylvania. Muncy Meeting (formerly Catawissa Monthly Meeting) was the source meeting of many Quaker migrants who relocated in Upper Canada at the beginning of the 19th century.

    Once the images are transcribed, the information will be of particular interest to descendants of Quakers who established the Uxbridge, Ontario Monthly Meeting. Members of the Catawissa Monthly Meeting found themselves unwelcome in their community in the years following the American Revolution. In the early 1800s, the Catawissa Quakers of Muncy Meeting moved in a group to present day Uxbridge.

    We would like to express our appreciation to Friends Historical Library for their continuing support of CFHA transcription work. Transcriptions of various minute books and documents related to Nine Partners Monthly Meeting and its associated meeting Ferrisburgh Preparative Meeting previously provided by Friends Historical Library have been transcribed and are posted on the CFHA website.

    Watch this space for news about transcription of the Muncy minute books.

    As always, we want to acknowledge and express our appreciation for the work of our wonderful volunteer transcribers who so productively generate text-searchable versions of these minute books. If you are interested in joining our transcription team and getting up close and personal with Quaker minute books, get in touch!