The vital statistics in the available newspaper microfilms, housed at the Port Hope Library, pertaining to Port Hope/Hope Township families have been indexed. At Chief Librarian Patricia Enright's suggestion 20+ years ago, we began with the first existing microfilmed copy (1832) and finished when the Evening Guide ceased publication on 13 February 2009.
Note Issues prior to 1870 are limited in number.
Thanks are extended to those who gave of their time over the years to help us compile this database of over 35,000 entries: Barbara Trumper, Shirley Horner, Bill Hubbs, Allan Mackenzie, and Lori-Anne Simpson.
As transcriptions were done by as many as seven people at a time, the amount of material copied varies. Where there were weekly and daily issues we used the former, as the material in the dailies was generally repeated in the weeklies.
A special thanks to Walt Sammis of Florida, who, in 2011, discovered the 'lost' 1928-1954 issues, stored in the basement of Cobourg's Northumberland Today building. One hundred three bound volumes (image right) were acquired and microfilmed through the efforts of Sun Media's Darlene Robertson, Port Hope Library's historian Lori Stephenson and the financial aid of Cameco Corporation.
Note A finder's index to the complete collection at the Library can be found here.
1832-1899 (3,898 entries)
These entries generally contain a considerable amount of information, including cross-referencing with the local cemetery database, CemSearch, and Ancestry.
1900-1930: 8,592 birth
(2331), marriage (1960), and death (4403) entries
Note There are only a few issues for 1927.
1931-1982: 18,151 birth (5696), marriage (4093), and death (8363) entries
The birth index, due to concerns about identity theft, has only the name and newspaper issue.
Note The existing sixteen issues for 1941 have been indexed, but not yet microfilmed. Missing are issues for Jul-Dec 1950 and May-August 1964. As many of the entries are for weekly issues, accurate dates were often difficult to ascertain (eg. "Married Tuesday last...").
1983-1999: 3,658 death entries
Note We are recording only death entries from this point for privacy issues, and only those that indicate local people. The listed descendants only include those with connections to the area at the time. While there may have been six offspring, only the "local" one(s) is/are shown.
2000-2009: 1895 entries, completed to 13 Feb 2009 when publication of the Guide ended
A number of original issues (1877-1927: 18 entries) are housed at the Port Hope Archives.
The following seven entries were transcribed in full from issues housed at the Port Hope Archives, which due to their fragility, are not accessible to the public.
Port Hope Watchman 11 July 1850 (3/1):
- Birth of a daughter to Nathaniel Bate on 09 Jul 1850 at Port Hope.
- Death of Alice Annette (15 months, 10 days), only daughter of James Grant of Port Hope, at Beloit, Wisconsin, on 10 Jun 1850.
Port Hope Watchman 11 July 1851 (2/6):
- Birth of a daughter to James Grant at Port Hope on 05 Jul 1851.
- Birth of a son to M.F. Whitehead on 09 Jul 1851.
- Marriage of Rev. H.E. Plees, Missionary in the Eastern District, and Catherine, 2nd daughter of Morgan Jellet of Cobourg, at Port Hope on 25 Jun 1851 by Rev. Jonathan Shortt.
- Death of Edward Warren Powers. The obituary reads:
"Died, At the residence of his father, in the Township of Hope, on the 7th instant, after a long and painful illness to which he submitted with singular patience and fortitude Edward Warren, eldest son of Samuel S. Powers, Esq., aged 21 years. The early death of this amiable and promising young man, is deeply regretted by a very large circle of relatives and friends. His manners were gentle, winning and unassuming; and his intellect was such as led those who were intimately acquainted with him, to predict that his future career would be one of usefulness and honour. But the angel of death stood over him and he withered, like a flower that is cut down at noonday. He was perfectly conscious for several weeks that his end was approaching, but he was not afraid to die. He departed in the unshaken belief that "this mortal shall put on immortality," and met the icy gaze of the pale King of Terrors with the calm and sublime triumph of a chritian. The lines underneath were handed to him a few hours before he expired, and which he perused with great pleasure. Tiddy, in the concluding stanza, was the pet name of a beautiful and interesting little sister of his that died about twelve years ago."
TO EDWARD
Above this world of care,
Of anguish and despair,
Above earth's night of sorrow,
Above the loftiest star,
Heaven's shining mansions are,
And an immortal morrow!
There no sad mourners weep,
No looks turn hoary,
And brows forever keep
Their gladness and their glory.
There little Tiddy stands
Eager to meet you,
And lifts her angel hands
To clasp and greet you!
T.C.W.
Port Hope Times 06 Sep 1876 (5/4):
- Death of Frederick Jacobs (10 months), youngest son of T. Hewson, at Port Hope on 04 Sep 1876 (of whooping cough).
Peter and Barbara Bolton - Port Hope, Ontario
www.alivingpast.ca