I am a fifth generation SLY from the Gananoque/Lansdowne area. I also have the book THE REAR OF LEEDS & LANSDOWNE: THE MAKING OF COMMUNITY ON THE GANANOQUE RIVER FRONTIER, 1796-1996 by Mr Lockwood. I was there that day in Lyndhurst when it was first released. This has been very interesting for me to read so many replies about the area where my families have lived since it was first colonized in the late 1700's. In regards to Lockwood taking several paragraphs he quoted from "anonymous, WEBSTER [family history] (gestetnered manuscript and family tree, n.d.)" loaned to him....I found this very interesting because I grew up all of my childhood beside the WEBSTER farm of the man who gave him that family history. Mr WEBSTER was our unofficial community historian and a very kind gentleman. In answer to the question "I always wondered why my ancestor picked such a remote place to go to. The settlement was mostly Irish and some Scots." They probably had the same reasons as a lot of other Irish yeomen did. They were drawn to these remote rural areas by the free land grants to loyal Irishmen offered by the government in an attempt to populate the area just north of the St. Lawrence River which was the natural border separating the still loyal colony of Canada from the United States of America which had just finished rebelling against the Crown. The area was almost entirely settled by "United Empire Loyalist" (Americans who were forced to leave their families, friends and homes because they wished to remain loyal to the Crown and not rebel along with the rest of their countrymen). . The government became very much aware of that these UEL's had too many ties to their old country and could not be trusted upon in the event of a war to fight against their old neighbors and family after the War of 1812, when many UEL's refused to fight. (In fairness to those people, some of which were my ancestors, I think the government had already inflicted enough hardship upon them and should not have expected them to fight against their loved ones!) After this eye opening experience the government then chose to encourage loyal emigrants from the British Isles to come help populate the area. They would make an effective barrier against any future fighting with the United States. Of those emigrants who chose to come to Rear of Leeds and Lansdowne nearly 75% of them were Irishmen. There was a virtual flood of Irish emigrants to the township in the 1820's. In the 1842 Census of Leeds and Grenville County (Rear of Leeds and Lansdowne is part of this county) the Irish emigrants numbered close to 1/3 of the population. In the community where I grew up there were very few people who didn't have Irish ancestors. I have travelled over a good deal of the United States with my husband who is a trucker and in fairness to Rear of Leeds and Lansdowne, I can honestly say that it contains some of the most beautiful country in all of God's creation! With all of the hills, forests, crags, and lakes too numerous to count, there is no where that I would rather live. Sonya Palaisy Download NeoPlanet at http://www.neoplanet.com