After finding out about my family's roots in early Ontario, I revisited Upper Canada Village with my father. It was fun to see but the village didn't seem as big as it had when I was younger. By then I had discovered other living museums as well, so it didn't seem quite as much of a wonder.
Many of the other living museums I visited were also in Ontario. While Upper Canada Village depicted a place in what is now Ontario in the 1860s, the other outdoor museums covered a range of historic years. At Fanshawe Pioneer Village, visitors could walk into the primitive cabins of first settlers, where, we were told, the occupants slept sitting up so they wouldn't choke on the smoke of the fire keeping the cold at bay. Early schoolrooms showed battered desks, well-worn chairs, aged slates and primitive blackboards. I was especially interested in the framed houses including the large one with its Victorian sitting rooms and well stocked kitchen. Upstairs there was even an early Singer sewing machine, much like the treadle one that my mum used to have. I can remember getting her machine up to a speed high enough to drive a needle through one of my fingernails.
Some of my ancestors also lived for a time in Owen Sound. There, the Grey Roots Museum and Archives is a great resource. Many hours were spent in the archives trawling for family info. I found some which included photographs of my maternal grandmother as a child with her parents and some of her siblings. The museum part of the enterprise also had historic houses covering a few different eras but the thing that really caught my eye was the gravity fed gas pump. Old technology can be fascinating.
I love those marvelous photos that accompany each post. It makes me think to add more photos in my own blogs.
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