An email from Myrna in Idaho about the Watt family has put me back on the trail of the relatives of Barbara Watt, my 3x great grandmother. She married into the Frood family, also from the Renfrew area.

A great source for Renfrew area family history is a small two volume work (published together in a single volume) The story of Renfrew: from the coming of the first settlers about 1820 (published in 1919). It’s easily available, thanks to the website archive.org and can be downloaded in a variety of formats, including PDF.

Thanks to archive.org and other sites, many local histories are readily accessible. A quick search with the terms “history” and the town or area can often times bring rich rewards. It’s how I came upon the Arnprior & McNab Braeside archives. You can search items from their collection, not just books but photos as well. I found a number of Frood family pictures online. Their photos include those of a local photography studio going back to the early days of Renfrew.