While I have been working on "Notes on" for nearly twenty years now, I started to put the finishing touches on it in order to have it printed in time for the celebrations happening in Shelburne, Nova Scotia the summer of 2008.
The celebrations will highlight the founding of the town as Canada's first Loyalist city in 1783 by 16 captains who brought 400 settlers from New York. Andrew Barclay, my g-g-g-g-grandfather, was one of the captains, and although he suffered the same difficulties as others did, he was successful in raising a family, and many of his relatives still live there today.
In November, I read an account of a diary which had been published in the Argyle Archives of Tusket, Nova Scotia that I did not know existed. For the past twenty years, I was hoping that I would come across such a document, and I finally have done it, with great thanks to the people at the archives.
The diary was written by Annie Louisa (Barclay) Haley, the second-eldest daughter of Andrew Barclay (grandson of the elder Andrew Barclay) when she lived in Tusket in the late 1800s.
I was extremely lucky to find her great-grandchild, Brian Haley, in California as well as his sister, who also lives there, and they filled me in on some other things, but unfortunately, Annie Louisa did not continue to record her life in a diary in California.
So I have been busy fitting in her memories in the book and getting it ready to send to Shelburne, as they get ready to celebrate their 225th anniversary this summer.
