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Prince Edward Island, Canada
9
th March 2004


The last two days have been involved in meetings with various folks that hopefully will help to provide some interesting historical accounts on island life and the people themselves.

On Monday I had lunch with Norma Jean MacDonald who kindly provided me with a list of folk that might help along with their email addresses. She is also going to speak to some folk personally to try and persuade them to send us historical articles. 

I also popped in to see Kate Westphal of GraphicDetail who is going to attempt a re-design of the Electric Scotland logo.  I really need it much sharper so we can produce good quality merchandise. So am looking forward to seeing the results.

Also took a few more pictures of Charlottetown...


A tank!


And this is Norma.. she was waving and not trying to hide from the camera <grin>

After lunch I went through to Summerside to see Fred as I just couldn't get hold of him.  Mind you it turned out I had his fax number <sheesh>.

Anyway we had a good talk and Fred is going to organise me getting a regular source of biographies of Scots settlers and other historical articles. 

I also found a barber so managed to get my hair cut which was long overdue :-)

On Tuesday I went over to see Waldron Leard at Kingsboro which is on the east of the Island so that gave me more opportunities for a few new pictures!


This is me on my way on Route 2 towards Kinsboro which is around 1 hours drive


You can see on the left how the snow drifts over the road


And I arrived in Kinsboro and the home of Waldron Leard and that's his house and office on the left and his goodself on the right :-)

I think I stayed for around 2 hours with Waldron as he had a whole host of tales to tell.  He obviously loves his work and it is a real community and family effort. His research on the MacDonald and other families in the area is just huge. You can see two of his sites at...

http://www.isn.net/susankin and http://www.islandregister.com/leard.html

Once again I heard that 60-70% of the island has Scottish blood in them and certainly Waldron can point to his in depth research to back this up.  He went on to tell me of the many thousands of people that wind their way to his wee office to touch base with their roots and he obviously gets a great kick out of helping people.  I must say that he has a lovely spot to work looking out the window to the bird feeder where squirrels also were to be seen, across the woods down to the beach and sea.  I think many people would kill for that view and he tells me in the Summer it's amazing.

Waldron also helps the local school children and many turn up to do some research in all his history files and he's keen that they do so they are brought up with their heritage and culture so they too can pass it on to the next generation.

He tells me they get many donations from people all over the world which helps them to continue the work they do but let him tell you more himself...

Waldron also kindly provided two list of interest to researchers...

Listing of early area surnames and the communities in which they may be found
[Co-ordinates relate to the P.E.I. Highway Map]

You will find other useful lists in the History Room all prepared by Waldron, his family and volunteers so it is well worth a visit any time you get to Prince Edward Island.


Just some of the things you can see in the History room and the great views you get outside.

And as Waldrom knew that Electric Scotland visitors liked stories he gave me this one for you to read...

He also provided me with a CD of some stories about PEI and here they are for you to listen to here... (coming shortly)

And then it was time to head off and so many thanks for giving so freely of your time Waldron, if I return I shall be sure to pay you another visit :-)


And this last picture is really one I've kept meaning to take. It's the school bus and you should note that when it stops to let off the children lights flash and a stop sign comes out from the side of the bus meaning all motorists must stop until the stop sign retracts back into the bus. This actually caught me a wee bit unawares when I first got behind one so just thought I'd mention it incase you don't have this system in your neck of the woods :-)


And here is a picture of myself that Waldron took while I was visiting with him :-)


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