PLEASE NOTE THAT I DO NOT HAVE ACCESS TO THESE RESOURCES. CHECK YOUR LOCAL LDS OR LIBRARY. GENEALOGICAL.COM IS ANOTHER GOOD RESOURCE. REQUESTS FOR INFORMATION CANNOT BE ANSWERED AS ALL I HAVE IS BELOW.
Downie Township
Towns, Villages and Hamlets
The area includes these: Sebringville, Kastnerville, Avonbank, Avonton, Conroy, Fairview, and St Pauls Station.
Books Specific to Downie Township
There is a book on Downie township in Vera McNichol's excellent series Reveries of a Pioneer. There's more information on this series on my Perth County Books page.
Pioneers
The first area settled was, of course, Stratford, which is no longer part of the township. The second area to be settled was Sebringville.Early settlers mentioned in the history books include: MONTEITH, RANKIN, DEMPSEY, John MURRAY (all mentioned in William Johnson's book).
Huron County Library has put online many assessment rolls for 1842. This is basically a list of residents of the area in 1842; it tells you who was living there and how much land they owned. Read their introduction first and then go to their Downie Township page.
See also the new Perth County Pioneers page for visitors' submissions of their pioneer info.
About Perth County, Ontario
Welcome to Perth County GenWeb, your online guide to Perth County Genealogy since February 1998! I am Meg Fuller, Your Coordinator for this County site.
I hope you enjoy your visit. Please email me if you have any suggestions or contributions you would like to make.
I hope you find my efforts helpful in your research of your County roots. I am unable to do additional research on your family as I do not have direct access to records. I post everything I have for all to use.
Perth County is located in south-western Ontario in about the middle of the peninsula. There are many small towns and hamlets in this area, and the largest city is Stratford. Stratford currently has a population of about 30 000. This population swells in the summer tourist season! For the most part Perth County consists of rural agricultural land. The other major industry is tourism because of the Stratford Festival.
It is one of the few counties in South-Western Ontario that doesn't touch any of the Great Lakes. Because of its location, and distance from the Great Lakes, it was one of the last areas in Ontario to be settled. People who aren't familiar with Ontario often confuse it with Perth, a city in Lanark County. If it's Perth, Lanark County you're after, or if your reference just says Perth, here's a link to the Lanark County GenWeb. But it was nice of you to visit.
Surrounding Counties
Oxford | Middlesex | Huron | Wellington | Waterloo