Lambton County Archives Blog

Constructing the St. Clair Tunnel

With Electro-Motive making waves in the media recently, I settled on a locomotive theme to start off the year. In September of 1891, Sarnia made international waves with the opening of the St. Clair Tunnel. The tunnel was a marvel of technology and a symbol of our relationship with our neighbours to the south.

[IMAGE] Cutting the tunnel

The Port Huron Daily Times released a special "International Tunnel Opening" edition on September 19, 1891. Here are some of the key excerpts from that lengthy and...

Much To Learn About Maps!

[IMAGE] Fire Insurance Plan of downtown Sarnia, May 1958. "Insurance Plan of the City of Sarnia, Ont. Including the Village of Point Edward."

The Lambton Room's collection is full of interesting primary sources (original material created in the past), and maps are one of our most interesting passports into history. Many maps include not only the names of streets and towns, but also details about the topography of an area that can provide valuable insight into natural history. Maps give not only a...

Tips and Tricks: Ancestry Library Edition

Ancestry Library Edition is a wonderful tool that is available free of charge at library branches across Lambton County. If you aren't interested in acquiring a personal subscription to Ancestry.ca, the Library Edition is an excellent alternative. The more you know about the website's databases and search functions, the more information you can find about your ancestors. Here are some tips and tricks I learned in a recent webinar hosted by ProQuest that will help you navigate Ancestry Library Edition...

The Saga of the Moorings

[IMAGE] The Old and the New: The Moorings before the structure's demolition. A new home was built on the property with the intention of removing the Moorings and it can be seen in the background.

It is always disappointing for the heritage community when historic buildings are demolished. The County of Lambton dealt with this issue recently when one of the county's oldest homes, a lakefront brick fortress in Hillsboro called "the Moorings," was demolished. Efforts to save the structure by the county's...

Lambton County's Titanic Connection: Oil Driller James McCrie

[IMAGE]

The world remembers the R.M.S. Titanic this month as April 15, 2012 marks the 100th anniversary of the ship's untimely demise. The sinking of the Titanic cost 1,514 deaths in one of the worst peacetime marine disasters in history. Lambton County may seem like it's far away from the Titanic disaster, but there is an intimate connection: one Sarnia man lost his life.

Local resident James McCrie was born in 1879, one of Matthew and Roxanna McCrie's eight children. Matthew and Roxanna were a farming...