Petra Wall has published the first volume of her "Now and Then" columns, chronicling the histories of over 100 Manitoulin Island families. The book is available for $40 at The Expositor Book Shop.
MINDEMOYA鈥擥enealogy is a popular pastime for many Island residents, especially as they grow older, but all too often those explorations of the past come too late to talk to the ancestor being researched. The popular 鈥楴ow and Then鈥 column penned by long-time Expositor columnist Petra Wall, that ran in this newspaper for over two decades has proven a valuable genealogical resource.
鈥楴ow and Then鈥 covered the lived experiences, histories and personal stories of over 250 local residents and families who lived on Manitoulin Island.
Ms. Wall has now published a collection of her first 100 columns in an 8 x 11-inch softcover volume. And this is just the first in a planned three-volume set.
Among the themes covered in her columns were local history and biography, where Ms. Wall interviewed locals in their homes, viewing their personal photographs and documenting their work, family lives and contributions to Manitoulin Island; pioneer and community life, where she highlighted the sacrifices of pioneering women and the spirit of early settlers; and regional employment where her pieces often detailed traditional industries of the Island, such as working on Ontario Hydro lines, shipping on the Great Lakes, local dairies and local forestry.
The engaging pieces provide a vital link to both the recent past, the present and a world that has largely long moved on.
鈥淚鈥檝e loved reading these,鈥 said fellow columnist and New Yorker Bonnie Kogos, whose Window Seat column in the Sudbury Star also chronicles Island life and times. 鈥淚t鈥檚 been fascinating to sit and read and learn about the lives of others on the Island.鈥疉ll she鈥檚 chosen to write about are part of the social and happy fabric of the Island.鈥
鈥淚 began the column back in 2002,鈥 said Ms. Wall. 鈥淭here was a person living in Wiarton on the Bruce Peninsula who asked The Expositor to share more stories about people who lived on Manitoulin Island. I saw this request in the paper and I phoned the paper to tell them that I could certainly interview people and write up each person鈥檚 or a couple鈥檚 amazing stories to share in the newspaper. I didn鈥檛 hear back right away because the paper was so filled with news. Two weeks later, the editor phoned me, saying, 鈥楪o to it, Petra鈥.鈥 The rest is Island history.
Ms. Wall鈥檚 book can be purchased at The Expositor Book Shop in Little Current for the remarkably low sum of $40. As a tribute to Ms. Wall鈥檚 many years of dedication and hard work in creating the chronicle, and to make it easier for people on Manitoulin to acquire, The Expositor is not adding the usual markup to the book. But in truth, we believe it is well worth double the asking price.