I headed out to the country today, undeterred by the rain. The return of the By the Falls Musical Social was a good reason to make a day of it, visiting my mom then spending the afternoon "at the Falls," as we often called activities in the Ferguson Falls Community Hall. As I shared in February and March, the By the Falls Musical Social is a free gathering that takes place in the afternoon of the second Thursday of each month in the Community Hall. Ferguson Falls is a rural village a 15-minute drive west of Carleton Place. I grew up a mile from the Community Hall on the farm where my mom still lives.

As part of my ongoing foray into the past, today I asked my mom about land registry records she had obtained years ago from Archives Lanark. She pulled out copies of documents showing the various owners of her farm: Lot 2, Concession 8 of the Township of Lanark (now Lanark Highlands) The documents identify owners beginning as early as 1835 and ending with my parents' purchase of the farm in 1959. We pored over the documents together, trying to understand how to read them and struggling to decipher the handwriting.

I guessed that the representatives of Archives Lanark, to whom I had spoken at previous editions of the By the Falls Musical Social, would know exactly how to interpret the land registry records. When I arrived at the Community Hall this afternoon, I headed to the small room where Archives Lanark sets out a variety of resources each month for Musical Social guests to peruse. There, I found Archives Lanark Board of Directors Chair Frances Rathwell, and Chief Administrative Officer Wendy Roberts. Frances generously spent about 20 minutes with me, explaining how to read the registry and expertly interpreting the handwriting, something she says she has a lot of practice doing. Coincidentally, Thomas Rathwell (possibly a relative of Frances') and Benjamin Mash were the first owners of sections of what is now my mom's farm. The farm would pass through the hands of various Rathwells, later Rothwells, until my parents bought it in 1959.

I also learned more about the Ferguson Falls School. Frances Rathwell explained that it was considered a union school. That meant it received children from both Lanark Township (for which it was named S.S. #8 Lanark) and the neighbouring Drummond Township (for which it was named S.S. #19 Drummond). The school was built largely on land at the corner of Lot 1, Concession 8 of Lanark Township. The owner of the property at the time of the school's establishment (Edward O'Connor) received $50 for the half-acre parcel of land. Perhaps initially, or over time, the school would encroach on Lot 2, Concession 8, as my mother would discover when she severed two lots on the corner of her farm beside the school.

In her final entry in the Ferguson Falls School register in June 1968, teacher Jean McLellan noted where the students would be attending school in the fall. Many students would go to Carleton Place, one set of siblings, to Glen Tay, and the Hollington children, to the "Lanark Separate School."

I find that conversations about the past—whether linked to an old photo, a historic document or an aged artifact—often stir up memories. I'm enjoying listening to my mom's stories, even the ones she repeats, because they become clearer in my mind through each telling. I am enjoying documenting her stories and those of the community in which I grew up.