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.
Elma Township
Hamlets, Villages and Towns
This is mainly a farming community, and includes the communities of Atwood, Donegal, Trowbridge, Gotham, Britton, Newry.
Books Specific to Elma township
$ The new township history book The Elmanac is now available.
Do you have a relative who was a teacher in Elma? Memories of School Days in Elma by James McCallum gives a short history of each school in the township, and also has a list of teachers for each school.
There's a book dedicated to Elma 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 of Elma Township
Elma township began to be settled at about the same time as Mornington township, in the late 1840s; however, it was not officially surveyed and opened for settlement until the early 1850s.
It is generally agreed that the first settlers in the township were George and Richard CODE, who settled at Trowbridge in 1847 or 1848.
The BUCHANAN family (seven brothers) settled c1848, the first at Donegal.
Other early families in the area mentioned in William Johnson's book are: TENNANT, Robert and William BINGHAM, the GIBSON family, John and Sam RITCHIE, HAMILTON, BOYD, COGHLIN, GRAHAM and LOWRIE.See also the new Perth County Pioneers page for visitors' submissions of their pioneer info.
Elma Township Links
North Perth Public Library has a branch in Atwood.Photo of students at Donegal School, 1924 (originally published in the Stratford Beacon-Herald, 1982)
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