“To discover and rescue from the unsparing hand of time the recordswhich yet remain of the earliest history of Canada. To preserve while inour power, such documents as may be found amid the dust of yet unexploreddepositories, and which may prove important to general history and to theparticular history of this Province, County of Richmond and adjacent areas’.”(RCHS Charter October 2, 1962)
The above quote from the charter of RCHS expresses the purpose for thefounding of this historical society. To that end, an archive developedand grew with historical papers and documents of particular interest toRichmond County. These documents include paper records (letters, diaries,journals and other unpublished written materials); photographs and othervisual records; maps, plans and architectural records; sound recordingsand oral history tapes; printed material (eg. local newspapers, books),electronically stored data and the records of the Richmond County HistoricalSociety.
General references for local history include listings for: Richmond,Danville, Melbourne, South Durham, Ulverton, Greenlay, Brompton, Windsor,St. Cyr, Denison’s Mills, Kingsey, Trenholmville, L’Avenir, Asbestos, Kingsbury,Kirkdale, Shipton, Cleveland.
Genealogy
Family History researchers will find many sources for information,which include:
- Cemetery indexes
- Index of individual names in local cemeteries.
- Census Records: Township of Melbourne 1851, Township of Ely 1861, Countyof Drummond(Durham) 1861, Township of Shipton 1851, Township of Kingsey1861.
- Land Grant Indexes
- Books of Birth, Marriages,Deaths for District of St. Francis 1815-1879
- Individual family histories
- Computer listings of genealogy
- Index of the Annals of Richmond County & Vicinity, Vol. 1 & 2 rev.ed.1998
- Legal Documents-photocopies
Newspapers
Original newspapers, which number in excess of 600, date from 1864-1928.These include:
- Richmond Guardian
- Richmond Times-Guardian
- Times & County Record
- Richmond News & District of St. Francis Advocate
- Danville Courier
- Danville Times
- Danville Union
- Windsor Times
Photographs & Maps
Richmond County Historical Society’s collection of local area photographsand postcards includes: schools, churches, industry, mercantile, mining, agriculture,railway, portraits and social life.
A wide assortment of maps of the local areas is available.
Railway History
Rail enthusiasts and historians will find information and photographsfor the following historic railways:
- Orford Mountain Railway
- Grand Trunk Railway
- Asbestos & Danville Railway
Special Collections
The archives house collections of papers/ photographs donated by localfamilies. Included among these are:
- Annett Collection
- Christine Aspinall Collection
- Boast Collection
- Booth Collection
- Day Collection
- Dickson Collection
- Doyle Collection
- Grainger Collection
- Gilchrist Collection
- Harkom Collection
- Hayes Collection
- Horan Collection
- Ignatieff Collection
- Manning Collection
- McAdams Collection
- Paige Collection
- Pray Collection
- St. Cyr Collection
- Watters/Sims Collection
- The Early Postal System of Richmond County
- Craig’s Road
- Rufus Wadleigh
- Richmond County Agricultural Society
- 150th Anniversaries for Melbourne, Cleveland and Ulverton Townships. 1855-2005
- History of Cleveland Township
- English Theme
- The Early Local History of the Grand Trunk Railway, Dr. John Hayes, 1909
- Mayors of Melbourne Township 1855 – 2014
- Secretary Treasurers of Melbourne Township 1855 – 2014
- Some Protestant Schools in Richmond County and Vicinity
- Town of Richmond History
- Asbestos Post Office by Robert Carr
- La naissance du bureau de poste d’Asbestos par Robert Carr, Traduit par Veronique Dion
- Drummondville High School Building to be Demolished