How to Find War Documents, Part 3

Published August 23, 2015
Revised March 10, 2016

How to Find War of 1812 Related Documents for Your Ancestors
Part 3:  Personal Recollections

            This is a series of blogs on how to find Upper Canadian documents from about the time of the War of 1812, but some of these strategies could be applied to other British provinces.  This discussion will focus on documents from before, during, and after the war.

            There are a number of sources for personal recollections of the war that were written throughout Upper Canada.  Diaries with daily entries were kept, letters sometimes survived the years, journals were compiled after the war, newspapers reported on interviews with veterans, and some wrote down the stories that they had heard from veterans.  The compiled journals, newspaper reports, and family stories were more likely to contain errors.

            Finding a personal recollection by a veteran who lived in the same community as your ancestor or who served in the same regiment may reveal details about your ancestor and their experiences during the war.

            Personal recollections may also be found in land grant petitions, war loss claims, and other correspondence with the Upper Canadian government, which I will write about in other How To Pages.

          Private William McCay’s “Quick March to Glory” recounts his experiences with Brock’s expedition to capture Fort Detroit.  They travelled in small boats across Lake Erie to Detroit and William returned on a ship guarding American prisoners of war.  This diary has most recently been published at The Yorker Gazette Volumes 2 & 3 at https://www.2ndyork.com/news

            Donald E. Graves edited Merry Hearts Make Light Days:  The War of 1812 Journal of Lieutenant John Le Couteur, 104th Foot, Carleton University Press, Ottawa, 1994.  I have not found this book online but was fortunate to find it on the shelf in the local library.  Le Couteur arrived in Kingston in April, 1813 and remained in that area until sometime in 1814 when the 104th moved to the Niagara Frontier.  The journal was written sometime after the war and Mr. Graves has noted discrepancies in Le Couteur’s recollections of the war.

            Captain William Hamilton Merritt’s diary was published in Journal of Events, Principally on the Detroit and Niagara Frontiers, during the War of 1812, by Capt. W.H. Merritt of the Prov. Light Dragoons, The Historical Society, B.N.A., St. Catharines, C.W., 1863.  Google Books has a copy of this journal online.

            Lieutenant Ely Playter of York Township kept a diary during the war and wrote about life on his farm and in the community and his experiences as a lieutenant in the 3rd York Militia.  The Ontario Archives has a copy of this diary and excerpts have been posted online at https://twitter.com/ElyPlayter1812

Private Benjamin Smith of Ancaster Township also kept a daily diary.  His diary is at the Ontario Archives in the Benjamin Smith Fonds F582.  Transcripts of the diary are available for the years after the war but there were none in the fonds box for the war years.  This diary was of particular interest to me as my ancestor, Ebenezer Blair, was living in the same township at that time.  Although Benjamin wrote about his interactions with a number of people in the community he did not mention Ebenezer.  I have a digital copy of the pages from June, 1812 to February, 1816.

This diary is difficult to read for a number of different reasons but I did discover some interesting details about life in the township which I have included in my Story Pages.  Benjamin served as a private in the 5th Lincoln and also wrote about his militia experiences.


            Correspondence between British officers and Upper Canadians and other papers can be found in a number of books online at ourroots.ca and other online libraries.  On this website I have looked at the Annals of Niagara by William Kirby and Lorne Pierce, the Documentary History of the Campaign Upon the Niagara Frontier, Volumes 1 to 9, A Memoir of Colonel, the Honorable James Kerby, and Records of Niagara (in a least 3 volumes) all by Ernest Alexander Cruikshank, publications of the Welland County Historical Society and the Wentworth County Historical Society, and a number of local histories.  There is a search engine that will help you find a particular topic or name.
            I have also used www.openlibrary.org and www.ourontario.ca.

            There are probably personal diaries and journals, autobiographies, letters, and reports that I have not seen yet.  This is a Page that I will no doubt have to update a number of times.

            I usually try to substantiate the personal recollections that I have read.  I recently found a copy of Papers and Records of the Wentworth Historical Society 1892 at www.openlibrary.org.  On page 62, Joseph Birnie gave an account of Brock’s death which was different from the generally accepted version.  He had Brock shot by a stray shot at the foot of the escarpment while sitting on his horse, rather than targeted by a lone sniper while leading the charge on foot up the side of the escarpment, and Joseph reported that he had caught Brock as he fell from his horse.  I have also seen a few reports made by elderly veterans in which the names of commanding officers and regiments were questionable.  Document as much personal history as you can.

Fred Blair

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