I received an email a couple of weeks ago asking for information on the following photo.

"I am writing to you to see if you can point me in the right direction of how to identify the men in the attached photo. I believe one of them is my great-grandfather and wish to confirm this information. The surname would be either Fee, Gray, Burley or Dunk. I do not have any information on the other two gentlemen. The back of the photo indicates it is a post card, made in Canada and has no writing on it".

This a problem that I run into all the time. These postcard photos are quite common. I expect just as in the case of my own collection nothing is written of the reverse because it is assumed that the people who received the postcard knew who was in the photos. Luckilly for me I still have some 90 year olds around who can put names to the individuals in my collection.

Other than that I can not help very much.

200th. Anniversary of the War Of 1812

The Prime Minister hob nobbing with re-enactors in Niagara Falls.

2012 is not here yet; but the old clichés are. The two hundred anniversary of the War of 1812 is getting off with a literary, and political battle. Christopher Moore has some interesting views on this topic. I wonder how much relevant research will be done ?


The Federal Government has pigeon holed somewhere between 10 and 13 million dollars which will be spent on various activities celebrating the war. James Munroe, the federal heritage minister has been quoted as saying that he expects:

“ all Canadians to understand the war’s importance. Canadian identity was largely shaped by the War of 1812,” says Moore. “It was a fight for Canada and the beginning of our independence.”
“This war leads directly to Confederation in 1867,” Moore explains, ascribing the most basic characteristics of Canada—a constitutional monarchy, the preservation of a French-speaking Quebec, an accommodating native policy and our healthy economic and political relationship with the Americans—to the successful defence of Canada’s borders. “We were invaded and we repulsed that invasion. Because of the War of 1812 we grew up to be uniquely Canadian.”

Well that is stretching it a bit in my estimation. There needs to be a lot of convincing before I accept the notion that the War of 1812 had anything to do with the development of Canada. The exception in my mind was that the end of the war saw everything - with the exception of the Indian lands- remaining as it was before the war.

I expect that we will be seeing a lot of military re-enactors marching around in red coats carrying reproduction Brown Bess’s.