Category for Ontario Lost Villages?

+6 votes
167 views
I'm working on the profile of my great-great-grandmother Gertrude Robertson Murray. She was born in Dickinson's Landing, Ontario, and later lived in Mille Roches, Ontario, two of the "Lost Villages" that were flooded during the creation of the St. Lawrence Seaway. Is there an existing sub-project or category for the Lost Villages? The closet I could find was the category for the modern South Stormont Township, which encompasses both former townships where the Lost Villages once were.

Are there any experience Ontario researchers out there with any advice on how to categorize profiles for former residents of the Lost Villages?
WikiTree profile: Gertrude Murray
in Policy and Style by Alexandra Carter G2G6 (7.6k points)

3 Answers

+2 votes
 
Best answer

Hi again, I didn't really want to paint the back door anyway :) Here are some websites: 

http://www.ghosttownpix.com/lostvillages/

http://lostvillages.ca/history/the-museum/

I'd be happy to set up a free-space page for Lost Villages of Ontario as I have for the Talbot Settlers and the York Region Settlers (see Ontario Project). The category could be Lost Villages of Ontario to put on the profiles, then each town would have its own category if it doesn't already. I agree with Mary that the category page should have a description, although I suspect a date doesn't follow the Categorization Project's rules. 

What does everyone think about that idea?

by Laurie Cruthers G2G6 Pilot (167k points)
selected by Alexandra Carter
We discussed the use of dates in category names in the Categorization Project when we were developing a geographic name structure for Denmark.  Its okay if there is a good reason for it, but it is really up to the consensus of the project responsible for the geographic area.  There was also some discussion of using dates in connection with Canadian history and changes in names of provinces and subdivisions of provinces and also the proper name of the  country over periods of history.  I don't remember how far along the Canadian History Project is with their discussions and decisions on standardizing the category structure for Canadian locations over time.
Thanks for the information, Mary. Although I may be wrong, I suspect no one has taken on what would be a huge job standardizing the category structure for Canadian locations. My inclination would be to categorize any lost villages that haven't been categorized yet using the system in place, adding a comment on the page and not using the date for now.
Thanks for your response and suggestions, Laurie!

I really like the idea of having a free-space page for the Lost Villages. That's one I could end referring to often as I add profiles, as I have many ancestors who settled in Cornwall and Osnabruck Townships.

A "Lost Villages of Ontario" category would be great, because it could pull together former residents of all 10 villages.

The categories for individual villages may not necessarily need dates. The individual villages could have sub-categories under the former Cornwall and Osnabruck Townships, but would not exist as sub-categories for the current South Stormont Township, since at the time of South Stormont's amalgamation, the villages were already gone.
You're welcome, Alexandra. I'm going to send you an email regarding the free-space page.

Here's the free-space page Alexandra: Lost Villages of Ontario Looking forward to your input. Very nice profile on your great-great-grandmother, BTW!

+3 votes

I'm not experienced with Ontario, and I would encourage you to consult with the Ontario Project which is a subproject of the Canadian History Project. That said, it would seem to me that these villages would be similar to the villages and towns in the United States that were submerged when the Corp of Engineers or other government agencies built dams for hydro electric power or flood control creating many large lakes.  And those in turn are similar to places which became ghost towns for other reasons such as the mechanization of farming or the  flight from the dust bowl in the 1930's.  The big difference with  former towns that are now submerged is that there is usually a specific date or small time period when the submerged towns became extinct and there usually is not one for ghost towns that gradually were abandoned. They are all types of historical place names.

There are several different ways of handling historical place names which have been discussed in prior posts.  Check out this G2G thread.

My personal preference would be to put a date qualifier in the category name to alert users to the historical nature of the place name and an explanation on the category page something like the following:

Mille Roches, Ontario, Canada (before 1958)

with an explanation on the category page describing the submergence of the village by the Saint Lawrence Seaway Project in 1958.  However, most of the ghost towns I've found in categories on Wikitree do not use the date qualifiers and many do not even have descriptive information on the category page indicating the community no longer exists.

by Mary Jensen G2G6 Pilot (131k points)
+1 vote
Hi Alexandra,

Great question. I'm the project coordinator for the Ontario Project. Mary has made some excellent suggestions. I'll look into it tonight and get back to you.
by Laurie Cruthers G2G6 Pilot (167k points)
Hey Laurie,

How many lost villages do we have in Ontario?? We also lost Black Donald in Renfrew County when they built the dam in the 1960's.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Black_Donald_Lake
Hi Christine, I was going to do some Toronto cemetery work for you, wasn't I? On my list! As for Black Donald Lake, "Lost Villages" seems to be the term used to describe the communities submerged by the St. Lawrence Seaway, so I think for now we'll stick to the 10 villages on that particular list, then maybe expand it later.
Haha.. don't worry about the cemeteries.. like my husband always gripes, they'll still be dead tomorrow won't they??

I was thinking more of a Lost Communities...Category? Under that, the Lost Villages, Black Donald... are there more?? With all the geography we have, have we wiped out other settlements in the name of progress?? Just a future thought!
They just don't get it, do they? :)

I'll check and see what other countries are doing. Ghost Towns?

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