The idea of WI members writing the histories of farms, buildings, and places of interest at the local level began in the mid-1920s. In 1925, a committee was formed with the aim of giving more time to the study of local history, in the hopes of gaining greater insight into the lives and thoughts of our ancestors.
By the mid-1930s, Lady Tweedsmuir, wife of Lord Tweedsmuir, Governor General of Canada, took a great interest in WI’s in this country. While at a meeting of the Athens WI, Lady Tweedsmuir stressed the need for preserving the history of our Canadian people. As an active WI member in England, she suggested that Ontario WI Branches follow the example of their English counterparts and keep detailed local history books.
In 1940, a recently widowed Lady Tweedsmuir was delighted to approve that these histories should be named after her late husband, thereby originating “The Tweedsmuir Village History Books.”
Documenting local history was seen as a fitting project to mark the upcoming fiftieth anniversary of the Women’s Institute movement. Thus, a campaign was launched in 1945 encouraging every WI Branch in Ontario to prepare a history of their local community before the 1947 celebrations took place. This proved to be a popular project, and these local histories were officially named Tweedsmuir History Books in 1947.
The Navan WI has been extremely active in creating and preserving our own Navan Tweedsmuir History Books; and, through the careful and watchful eyes of members such as Betty Deavy and Verna Cotton, we have collected almost 20 volumes of histories about the community of Navan and the families that make up our community. Nine volumes were digitized, printed, and bound into 3 comprehensive volumes, copies of which can be viewed through our WI, the Cumberland Library, and the library at Heritage School. Our current Tweedsmuir coordinator is keeping up the challenge and we look forward to continuing this archival effort for many years to come.
