By Mary Simpson and Caroline Gough, November 8, 2025.
The Glencoe & District Historical Society is absolutely buzzing this week (Nov 8, 2025) . A remarkable gift has just arrived at The Archives: the enormous scrapbook collection lovingly created over a lifetime by Mrs. John Alberta (Bertie) MUNSON McFarlane. Her daughter Caroline and granddaughter Betty Ann have generously entrusted this treasure trove to our care.
Bertie was one of those extraordinary rural women who quietly carried the heartbeat of a community. She clipped everything. Births, marriages, deaths, retirements, accidents, reunions, graduations, memorable storms, championship teams, church news, farm sales… you name it, she saved it.
A portion of her scrapbook fonds: Mrs. John “Alberta” McFarlane of R.R. #4, Appin, ON
This collection is enormous. What you see in the photo is perhaps one-fifth of the total “fonds” . The rest fills an entire wall of boxes. In archival science, a fonds is a group of documents that share the same origin and have occurred naturally as an outgrowth of the daily workings of an individual, or organization
Caroline Gough, Bertie’s daughter, told us that as a girl she never quite understood her mother’s hobby. Caroline loved horses and dance, while her mother spent evenings with scissors, glue, newspapers, and her other talent, fine needlework. But now she sees the magnitude of what her mother created: a family and community archive of extraordinary depth and love.
Middlesex County Approves Feasibility Study for County Archives
In a landmark and unanimous decision, Middlesex County Council has voted to move ahead with a Middlesex County Archives Feasibility Study, marking the most significant progress to date toward establishing a permanent county-wide archives.
In November 2025, the motion—brought forward by Mayor McMillan and seconded by Mayor DeViet—sparked thoughtful questions around the council table, with councillors expressing both strong support and prudent concern for the project’s long-term sustainability. Following discussion, the vote passed unanimously, prompting applause from the gallery filled with advocates, historians, and community supporters.
For the Committee to Establish a Middlesex County Archives (CEMCA), this moment represents a breakthrough many years in the making. The idea of a county archives has circulated for decades. CEMCA has spent the past several years building awareness, engaging municipalities, and championing the need for proper stewardship of Middlesex County’s more than 225 years of documentary heritage.
While the vote does not commit the County to building an archives at this stage, it does confirm the County’s intention to undertake a comprehensive, professionally guided study. This study will assess needs, gaps, costs, and opportunities—ensuring that decisions about preserving local history are grounded in strong evidence and reflect today’s economic realities.
CEMCA emphasizes that all heritage, cultural, and community organizations throughout Middlesex County will be encouraged to participate in the study process if invited. Broad input will be essential to reflect the diversity of local collections, stories, and archival needs.
This important step could not have happened without the many residents, volunteers, historians, journalists, and local groups who wrote letters, attended meetings, raised awareness, and kept the conversation alive.
CEMCA extends heartfelt thanks to all supporters and media partners. The work continues—but the door is now open.
Mary Simpson, President, 2024-2026, Glencoe & District Historical Society
The Canadian Government created the Public Archives of Canada in 1872. In Europe, archives retained government records only with personal papers going to libraries as manuscripts. The Dominion Archivist of Canada determined that all personal records of historical and cultural value should be collected as well as government records, with both being stored in the Public Archives. This Total Archives approach was a departure from other countries and is known as a Canadian contribution to archival theory and practice. Over time, multi-media records were added to collections in addition to traditional paper records. Many other national, regional archival programmes, as well as those in municipalities or universities, have adapted the total archives concept. The area municipal and university archives adopt this strategy as does the Provincial Archives of Ontario.
The benefit of this approach is that archives hold records for researchers about family history such as searching houses, land or any other item of interest. The government records also provide some of the information required in these searches. Having municipal records available – if they are open to the public – are advantageous to researchers and also to Municipal Clerks or staff, who sometimes are contacted by genealogists with family history requests. Municipal staff benefit by being able to transfer those questions to properly-trained staff who have access to, not only government records, but also personal papers and other resources. This removes the need for municipal staff to answer questions in an already busy day and provides researchers with a one-stop location. Genealogists account for over 40% of archives’ users who travel to areas specifically to visit Archives. While there, their tourist dollars support restaurants, hotels, local merchants and other local amenities.
An Archives is a program, not a project. Continued funding and municipal support are required to ensure the success of the Middlesex County Archives.
Written by the Committee to Establish a Middlesex County Archives, July 2021
Film industry pros sweat the possibility that many digital files will eventually become unusable — an archival tragedy reminiscent of the celluloid era.
Martin Scorsese: “The preservation of every art form is fundamental.”
For the movie business, these are valuable studio assets — to use one example, the MGM Library (roughly 4,000 film titles including the James Bond franchise and 17,000 series episodes) is worth an estimated $3.4 billion to Amazon — but there’s a misconception that digital files are safe forever. In fact, files end up corrupted, data is improperly transferred, hard drives fail, formats change, work simply vanishes. “It’s a silent fire,” says Linda Tadic, CEO of Digital Bedrock, an archiving servicer that works with studios and indie producers. “We find issues with every single show or film that we try to preserve.” So, what exactly has gone missing? “I could tell you stories — but I can’t, because of confidentiality.”
Specialists across the space don’t publicly speak about specific lost works, citing confidentiality issues. So, only disquieting rumors circulate — along with rare, heart-stopping lore that breaches public consciousness. One infamous example: In 1998, a Pixar employee accidentally typed a fatal command function, instructing the computer system to delete Toy Story 2, which was then almost complete. Luckily, a supervising technical director who’d been working from home (she’d just had a baby) had a 2-week-old backup file.
Experts note that indie filmmakers, operating under constrained financial circumstances, are most at risk of seeing their art disappear. “You have an entire era of cinema that’s in severe danger of being lost,” contends screenwriter Larry Karaszewski, a board member of the National Film Preservation Foundation. His cohort on the board, historian Leonard Maltin, notes that this era could suffer the same fate as has befallen so many silent pictures and midcentury B movies. “Those films were not attended to at the time — not archived properly because they weren’t the products of major studios,” he says.
Can you imagine digitising the Mona Lisa painting and destroying the original? The Magna Carta? The British North America Act? 1798 Act of Parliament to create London District? The answer to maintaining records is not paper or digital – it is both!
Committee To Establish a Middlesex County Archives
Ken Beecroft, Ina Nelms, and Harold Carruthers, members of the Glencoe & District Historical Society speak about the need for a County of Middlesex archives to ensure our critical paper and digital records are preserved for the use of future generations.
Unlike other Counties in Ontario that have established archives (Lambton, Kent, Elgin, Oxford, Norfolk, Perth, Huron), Middlesex County has no such thing. In February 2020, representatives of historical societies and interested citizens met to gauge the interest in establishing a Middlesex County Archives. These aging keepers of history were frightened about the potential loss of local history. The group worried about what would happen to their precious historical documents due to aging volunteers and lack of funds.
What will the County of Middlesex decide? Stay tuned.
This video message published 29 July 2021
Edited by Colin Varga
Directed by Mary Simpson Social Media team, Glencoe & District Historical Society
Federal and Provincial Governments in Canada have mandated that public records be officially archived for legal, governance, and historical purposes.
The division of records kept usually coincides with jurisdictional boundaries: Federal, Provincial, County, and Municipalities. (Library and Archives of Canada Act, S.C.2004).
Ontario has further mandated that preserved public records be available to the public. (Archives Act, RSO 1990; Archives and Recordkeeping Act, 2006; Archives and Recordkeeping Amendment Act, 2019.
The Ontario Municipal Act 2001, S.O. 2001. C. 25 Section 254 further states that municipal offices must preserve certain documents and they are to be publicly accessible. Those records need to be adequately stored. It further indicates that municipal offices could deposit their records in an archives.
Many neighbouring Ontario counties have created their own archives to fulfill their legal obligations and to preserve important heritage materials. These include Elgin, Oxford, Huron, Perth, Grey, Bruce, Lambton, Haldimand, Wellington and more recently in 2020, Norfolk. Middlesex County has not done so yet.
Often records are not easily accessible due to the location of the records in the municipality. They are either stored off-site in another municipal structure or are not available for access to the public. Whether in digital or hard copy, records need to be accessible in a timely manner, especially when there are MFIPPA requests.
Environmentally controlled (EC) storage facilities are necessary for preserving records. The temperature must be 18-21 degrees Celsius, which is colder than an office environment. Relative humidity (RH) should be between 45-50%. If both elements are not met, mold can occur if humidity is too high, and paper can deteriorate if the temperature and RH are too low. Based on the surveys returned from the municipalities in Middlesex County, none of the records are in EC areas. A few municipalities indicated the records are stored in their community centres. While these facilities may have air-conditioning, the RH control is still an issue.
Even if municipal records are covered in Records Retention Schedules as per the Municipal Act 2001, S.O. 2001. C. 25 Section 253, some records have historical value that can be retained for researcher and/or historical value. When records no longer serve administrative value, they could still have cultural value for information. Less than 3% of municipal records are archival. While it might not be a lot, municipal records like tax assessment rolls, building plans, environmental assessments and other documents should be considered for placement in the Middlesex County Archives.
Written by the Committee to Establish a Middlesex County Archives, July 2021
Middlesex County does not have a county archives to protect our history for future generations.
Report from the Committee To Establish A Middlesex County Archives (CEMCA):
Unlike other counties that have established a County Archives (Lambton, Kent, Elgin, Oxford, Norfolk, Perth, Huron etc.) to house municipal as well as important historical materials, Middlesex County has not. In February 2020, representatives of historical societies and interested citizens from across Middlesex County gathered to ascertain the interest in establishing a Middlesex County Archives. The group had concerns about what would happen to their precious historical documents due to aging volunteers and lack of resources. The group gave resounding approval to the initiative and the Committee to Establish a Middlesex County Archives was born. After two meetings, Covid-19 halted those for the year but work remained ongoing. In February 2021 virtual meetings commenced via Zoom.
How best to achieve the goal? The primary focus had to be municipal records. Through legislation, County and Municipal governments are mandated to officially store public records for legal, governance, and historical purposes. The Ontario Municipal Act 2001, S.O. 2001. C. 25 Section 254 further states that municipal offices must preserve certain documents, and that they are to be publicly accessible. Those records need to be properly stored and available in a timely manner. It further indicates that municipal offices could deposit their records in an archive, to be secured. In addition, many historical societies hold historically significant documents and still more remain in private hands. Without a County Archives, there is concern about the location and condition under which many valuable historical documents are being stored.
CEMCA, through a survey to Mayors and Clerks, and another survey to Historical Societies within Middlesex County, ascertained much data – most materials were not stored in secure, environmentally-safe areas and most were not easily accessible. That is a problem for municipal as well as local historical documents.
In June, CEMCA developed a series of “Facts Sheets” and other pertinent information to be sent weekly to County and Municipal Councillors and Administrative Staff. Information included: Municipal Act and Responsibilities, What is an Archives? How Will the Municipality and Clerks Benefit? Where Are the Records Now? Who Would Use the Middlesex County Archives, Resources Required and Challenges and Opportunities. To see any of this information, please check Middlesex Centre Archives webpage: www.middlesexcentrearchive.ca or email proposedmiddlesexcountyarchive@gmail.com.
Committee representatives from each municipality are contacting their councillors and/or making presentations to their councils. On September 28, 2021, CEMCA will be making a presentation to County Council to formally ask that a Middlesex County Archives be established.
Who benefits from a County Archives? Municipal clerks, town planners and developers, lawyers and architects, heritage advocates, scholars and educators, genealogists and family historians, tourists. The biggest benefactors will be our future generations!!!!!!!
How can you help? Contact your county councillors by writing, email or telephone to express your support for the Archives. For more information, please email proposedmiddlesexcountyarchive@gmail.com.
Let us lose nothing of the past, it is only with the past that one builds the future. Anatole France
