Welcome
I’m Christine Castle, a retired museum educator, returning to my roots as an historian.
What I’m trying to do here
In 1977 I was helping my mother clear out her family home. While going through a bedroom closet my mum discovered, or really re-discovered, a cache of really old letters that she referred to as “the Hirst letters.” She told me she had heard about them ever since she could remember but she had never actually seen them. They were clearly “old,” folded into their envelopes like old airmail letters used to be
We took them back to the cottage and read all 13 of them, back and forth to each other. My mother had no idea who William Hirst was or why his letters dated 1787 to 1798 and written to his parents in England ended up at the back of a bedroom closet of a farmhouse in Muskoka. We were both curious though …
Over the years, I’ve pieced together bits and pieces of the story. For my mother at first and then after she passed away in 2016, for myself. I hope this blog will allow me the structure to organize not only the research I’ve done to date but also new work.
Possible topics
- William Hirst
- The Hirst Family
- Places from which the letters are written
- How the letters came to Muskoka …
I’m hoping to connect with
- fellow historians who might help me flesh out the story and
- family and friends interested in the story.
What I’d like to accomplish
By the end of the year I’d like to have the complete story of the life of William Hirst and the impact he has had and continues to have on friends and family up to the present day.
The William Hirst Letters 1787-1798 