Writing as Catriona McCuaig, Carol continues to have her fiction published in Britain. Her Cwmbran trilogy is published in hardcover by Robert Hale Ltd. These books are:
Windsong released in November 2007
Sand Against the Wind, April 2008
Reap the Whirlwind, October 2008
Books can be purchased through the Amazon website, or obtained from your library.

Research is continuing on another regional history project, Leinster to Lanark. This deals with early settlers who came to Lanark and Renfrew Counties early in the nineteenth century from the Irish Counties of Carlow, Kilkenny, Wexford, and Wicklow. She would be delighted to hear from anyone whose ancestors may have been among that group.
Email: juniper2@nrtco.net

Reviews.

These reviews of Carol McCuaig's books were first reprinted here by kind permission of the copyright holder, Ryan Taylor, genealogical librarian of the Allen County Public Library at Fort Wayne, Indiana, who recently passed away. Born at Oshawa Ontario, Ryan held degrees from Carleton University and the University of Ottawa. Author, columnist, lecturer and broadcaster, he made a splendid contribution to the genealogy community after becoming interested in genealogical research in 1964. He will be greatly missed.

Review of The Kerry Chain: The Limerick Link
By Ryan Taylor

Renfrew County on the Ontario side of the Ottawa River is sparsely populated and off the beaten path, but genealogically it is one of the luckiest places in the province.

Carol Bennett McCuaig specializes in family history resources. Her many publications include genealogies of pioneer families in individual townships in Renfrew and studies of Welsh and Irish immigrants.

Her new book, The Kerry Chain, the Limerick Link ($25) traces families from these two Irish counties who settled in Renfrew. Many had earlier lived in Lanark and Carleton, counties to the south which were heavily Irish in origin.

As McCuaig points out, this is a good example of 'chain migration', where one immigrant from an area leads the way for others. Even more follow. Experienced researchers looking for the place of origin of their ancestors in North America often look to their neighbours' birthplace for a hint.

The earliest settlers came in 1825, with large groups during the 1840s famine and even later. McCuaig lists the families, with places of origin, settlement farms in Renfrew, dates of birth and marriage. One of her purposes in starting this project was to see if there were blood or marriage relationships among the families, so she explores these interesting connections as well.

She takes many of the families even farther afield, to the United States and Australia, documenting many of her facts using published resources from many places. The result is that she has found long-lost cousins from the same families. In one case, she says, "It was delightful to be able to correspond with other [family members] in Australia and Ireland, quite amazing when you consider that their ancestors parted company more than 150 years ago."

Not all the Irish settlers were Roman Catholics. There were a number of Protestants who were part of this chain. They were mostly Palatines, Irish Germans who had fled religious persecution in the 18th century and been offered land by the English king.

As usual with tales of pioneer settlers in any region, there are stories of horrific poverty, illness and hard work, but also those showing the establishment of roots which have led to branches throughout North America.

McCuaig had earlier published a similar book on Peter Robinson's Settlers (1987), Irish assisted immigrants, many of whom settled in Peterborough County, but some in Renfrew. Some of the families listed in The Kerry Chain, the Limerick Link will also appear in The McCabe List (Ontario Genealogical Society, 1991, revised edition 2002), which contains places of origin in Ireland also.
© Ryan Taylor 2003.

Review of Invisible Women
By Ryan Taylor.

Is the work of pioneer farm women invisible? Carol Bennett thinks so. Bennett is the author of several books of eastern Ontario history. She co-owns a small publishing house in Renfrew whose books are respected throughout the country. She decided to bring the Invisible Women of pioneer days into the limelight.

Her book on the history of women in rural Ontario begins with arrival in the backwoods and the creation of a new home there. She looks at the course of a woman's domestic life, and then moves outward to education, religion, medicine, all areas in which a woman might be concerned without treading too much into a man's world. Finally she goes to the forbidden land of politics, where women first looked for the vote, and then began more active participation.

This book is not scholarly. Bennett looks at a wide variety of topics, making observations about the way life was lived, then illustrating it with one or two case studies, The format makes for interesting reading and is thought provoking. As she intended, the women she talks about interest us, and I usually wish I knew more about them.

Doris Fleming of Carleton Place tells about nurse's training in the bad old days when students were like forced labour. She talks about endless scrubbing, feeding, folding. It reminded me of my sister's story of learning to make a hospital bed in the late 1950s, when a quarter tossed on a sheet was expected to bounce. If it didn't, the sheet was too loose and the bed had to be remade. I have never understood why old-style nursing supervisors felt that they had to be unpleasant to be effective.

Weddings were much simpler affairs in the distant past, with a boxful of small gifts and a trunk of linens which the bride had made. This was enough to start a new household. The pride and excitement were as great as today, however.

One aspect of older women's lives which we forget is their role as midwife and general nurse to the community. Certain women who were handy at it would acquire a reputation and spend a great deal of time assisting at births, while others would simply work in their own family circle. Their training was a lifetime's experience, far from a lecture hall. This is not only an example of the value placed on age, but also a reminder that rural communities were more cooperative affairs. People helped their neighbours and were helped in their turn.

There is a reminder about one-room schools. Inez Miller of Lake Dore says she started school in 1909. "We had a mile and three-quarters to walk. All our work was done on a slare. We had a little bottle of water and a rag and we would wipe the slate clean when we were done."

Bennett's wide-ranging stories build a picture of hard work and full lives, crammed with interest and experiences. Most of her examples come from eastern Ontario, but they could be anywhere in the province. I expect that her readers will find themselves remembering similar stories told by women in their own families. Perhaps they will even call to mind faces from the dim past whom they thought they had fogotten completely. This is a book which will interest anyone with an interest in women's history, or social history, in Ontario over the past 200 years. I would also say that anyone who has ever known a rural woman and would like to understand her life better would also benefit from reading Invisible Women by Carol Bennett McCuaig.
© Ryan Taylor

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