Everyone Has a History; Your Heritage and Why it’s Important

By: Laurie McKeown

Where do you come from? Why did your ancestors move and why did they choose that particular place to live? How and when did they get there?  So many questions but too few answers. In 1825, James Skelly of County Westmeath was offered a land grant in the Seigneurie of Lake of Two Mountains from Father Jackson of the Sulpician Order of Montreal. Like many of his fellow countrymen, Skelly and his family suffered from severe poverty at this time in Ireland. Deciding to stay put in his homeland, Skelly’s three sons accepted the land grant and left for a better life in Quebec. A few years earlier in 1823, William McManus left his Irish home in County Tipperary for Lower Canada. Crossing the Atlantic for these Irish immigrants was a hazardous trip, a potential tragedy waiting to happen every day during those long seven-weeks. The ship went as far as Quebec City and from there they had to find their own way west along the St. Lawrence River. Steamboat companies bound for Montreal loaded up their boats with as many as two hundred men, women and children and at the end of this week-long voyage, they disembarked in Lachine to avoid the rapids and continued the rest of the way on foot. But, their arduous journey wasn’t over yet. Both the Skelly brothers and McManus would now have to find room on another steamer or large river raft to continue their journey up the Ottawa river.

The day would be spent travelling on the water and at night they would sleep on the riverbanks. The Skelly brothers would disembark just past what is now Oka and make the long trek north on foot to St. Columban. McManus would have started his 30 km walk at St. Andrews, headed for the wooded vacant land behind the Argenteuil seigneurie, which would eventually become the town of Gore.  The terms of the land grants often stated that in the first year an acre had to be cleared and a log home built. A tremendous undertaking with only an axe. This was just the start of their new life in Canada. The decision to leave Ireland, leave family and friends must have been very difficult.  It is hard to imagine being in a foreign land with an unfamiliar landscape, an unforgiving climate and formidable wildlife. Like so many Irish that came here in the 19th century, this is a story that many of us share. Perhaps you have a similar ancestral story. Your family history, your family narrative, ‘your heritage.’

Historians look at the past from a scholarly perspective, studying numerous primary and secondary sources in order to piece together an historical narrative. There is no single interpretation, the past is viewed from many different angles and perspectives. The time period which the Skelly’s and McManus immigrated has been authenticated by historians as a historical period in which the political, environmental and economic climate caused many Irish to leave their homes. Family history brings more than just the historical knowledge, it fills in the small cracks of history and gives us a sense of belonging and identity. Knowing our history provides us with the information to understand where we came from. It is responsible for how we came to be, it's a part of who and what we are and may determine what we will become. Heritage is your history. Memories, traditions and values passed down through the generations are unique endowments of knowledge that are your legacy. Personal stories of our ancestors allow us to discover what life was like for them, their family and community. Understanding the past is often difficult when applying our modern day living to those who lived over 100 years before us. Family genealogy and genetic testing have become extremely popular in the last 20 years. Knowing your heritage helps to more fully understand yourself, and gives a sense of place, belonging and more importantly; identity. Genealogists armed with artifacts, diaries, deeds and photographs, help us understand what the ancestral families did and why.  Family history helps track the movement and actions of people which in turn help historians fill in the small bits within an historical moment. Why do we need to know the past? By learning the stories behind names and dates teaches us a personal history and explains how ordinary people lived within historical moments.

Heritage can be narratives, objects or sites that are personal to either an individual, family or community.  Identifying these confirms our sense of connection to our past. Tom Morton describes heritage as an inheritance, a past that is bequeathed to us and we feel obligated to preserve it for our future generations. The newly launched Canadian Irish Migration Preservation Network was created to research and promote Irish heritage in Canada and to create a dynamic network of groups and individuals with similar goals. The CIMPN is excited to share stories, projects, photos and music etc., of our Irish heritage and is interested in seeking out, recording and preserving these contributions for future generations. One of the CIMPN’s main objectives is the preservation and protection of Irish cemeteries and burial grounds. Cemeteries are living history books, primary sources of the life of a person, family or community from the past.  One of the main restoration projects at the moment is the St. Columban cemetery in the Mirabel region.   Through grants and fundraising the CIMPN hopes to repair existing headstones, chronicle and preserve the names and narratives of those that are buried there, locate the earliest grave and create an interactive map of the area. Hopefully this project will become a model for the restoration of other Irish cemeteries. Words connect us to our history, to our ancestors and our identity. We need to value our heritage and pass it on to future generations with a little bit of ourselves attached to it.

For further reading on the Skelly brothers and William McManus, please see their stories on their blog entries. We’d love to hear about your ancestral history.