A little family history

[KAT]

I'm unsure where this fits or if it even fits at all on this site, but it doesn't hurt to throw it out and see what happens.

Last year during a visit by my mother, she was telling me some history of her family in relation to boating and canoes in particular. She had been to a family gathering in Arthur Ontario and had been shown what apparently is the last remaining of the Durnan made canoes. The Durnan clan lived and worked on the Toronto Islands for many many years, were lighthouse keepers and had the family boat works as well. They rented boats and canoes and from what my mother had found out, they made their own canoes.

I have a couple of arhive photo's from Toronto history but that is about all. She apparently had no knowledge of this history until that fateful family gathering.

I find it interesting that there is a link to canoeing past in my family and that I now have the hobby of remaking old canoes.

 

[Kathryn Klos]

If you can pull together enough information, this might make a good story for Wooden Canoe.

 

[WoodNCanvas]

Quite the Island family. James James Durnan was the Gibraltar Point Lighthouse keeper in 1832.

 

[KAT]

At least a couple of the Durnans were lighthouse keepers on the islands.

Digging up information is a formidible task and I have asked my Mom to see what she can find out about the one remaining canoe. Durnan's Boathouse is what the operation was named and John Hanlan Durnan was the boat builder. Most of what google brings up is excerpts from newspapers of the time and apparently JH Durnan was a exceptional rower.