Pontiac Archives

In November, 2009, Walter Brown brought his collection of 73 binders and dvds to the Pontiac Archives and presented it to the Pontiac Archives as his donation. 

 After some 50 years of collecting records of Pontiac families, Mr Brown has decided to retire.   Lately, Kathy Buffington joined with Mr Brown and reproduced the documents so they are accessible by computers.  She will continue to keep the dvd files updated but the binders will no longer be updated. 

 These binders and DVDs are available to the public for researching at the Pontiac Archives.  Kathy will regularly visit the Archives to add any new material available.

Mr Brown has lived in Smith’s Falls for many years but his ancestors came from Ireland and the United States and settled in Litchfield, Quebec.

Since the early 1980s, Mr Brown has been visiting and donating copies of his collection going back to when the Pontiac Archives was established in Campbell’s Bay.  

Over the years, Mr Brown would bring his collection to the Pontiac Archives in Campbell’s Bay and then to Shawville after the relocation during one week in July when an “open house” would be held.

As technology changed, Mr Brown took advantage of techniques that would make researching genealogy easier and quicker.

After the holidays, the Pontiac Archives will be open, Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday, 9 – 4.

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all

The Pontiac Archives will be closed from 4 pm Thursday, December 17, until Tuesday, January 5, 2010 9am – 4 pm.

The Pontiac Archives has received donations of the following books.  They are available for visitors to read and enjoy.  However, they must not be removed from the premises.

Seventy Years of Memories, by Doris Barber Orr

Pastures Green, by Laura May Harris

I Always Wanted To Please My Mother, by Lynette Harris

Their Land of Promise, by Laura May Harris

The census on Microfilm 1842 – 1901 and Church Records on Microfilm  from Quyon & North Onslow; Fort Coulonge; Vinton; Ile du Grand Calumet; East Alfield; Demers Centre; Campbell’s Bay; Otter Lake; Temiscaming Ville Marie; Northern Ontario; Rouyn; Bryson; Litchfield; Noranda; Sheen; Bristol; Maryland; Lac Cayamant; Portage du Fort; St Joseph; Fort William; La Passe; Eganville; Golden Lake; Pembroke, etc are available for researchers to view on a microfilm reader recently acquired as a donation.

Tuesday, July 7 to Friday, July 10th, 9 am to 4 pm, the Pontiac Archives at 358 Main St, Shawville, Qc, will be open for visitors to drop in and view our numerous collections or do your research on genealogy or other topics.

The Pontiac Archives purchased “Echoes of the Forest – Canada’s Lumbering Story” by Alan Soucie.   Alan Soucie was born in Fort Coulonge.  Lots of stories about the lumbering in the Ottawa Valley.

Chris Seifried, who is Polish, donated the book “Polish Canadians”, illustrated by William Kurelek, including paintings of local places illustrating the lives of the Polish immigrants.

At one time, there was a family living in Pontiac County called “Montreal“ . The Pontiac Archives has a request for information on that family and have been unable to find anything after looking in early books, genealogy records, etc.  

If anyone has information, please contact The Pontiac Archives by  Email at  archives@pontiacarchives.org  or telephone 819-647-7013.

Hello everyone. On January 26, 2009, I clicked the wrong button and deleted the entire Pontiac Archives website by mistake. Terribly sorry about that. (This should teach me to be more patient with other people’s computer problems.)

We’re now back online, and I’m working to restore as much of the old site as I can, or to replace it with something newer.

In the meantime, the old version of this website is available through the Internet Archive’s Wayback Machine.