[Video] Interview with Julie Cruickshank and Jean Millward Cruickshank

[Two women are talking at a table.]

[The following question appears : Can you explain to us how you became the archivist of the Watts/Sheppard/Newton families?]

[Jean : ] I think when I was growing up in Sherbrooke, Quebec, I had a grandmother, an aunt and an uncle always at the dining room table, and as a child I remember them talking about family history. And then through the years, I never really thought of the family history. But as time went on, my mother and father moved next door in retirement, and my mother called the house “Woodfield”.

[Drawing of a house on yellowed paper, then back to the two women chatting].

[Jean : ] I thought, oh well, that’s interesting – here she is, thinking of an ancestor’s house. By then my father had died and my mother was going into a small apartment, so I inherited things in boxes, and they came to our house. After a few years, I don’t know, maybe 12 years ago now, I thought, “Oh dear, we don’t have much room in this house, I better see what is in this. We found all kinds of treasures. Now, I am very happy that we have found a place for a lot of the information that I have, because as an individual, you feel very responsible for this heritage.

[The following question appears : What do all these documents and photographs mean to you?]

[Jean : ] When they were in my house, in boxes, I never thought anything about what they represented. I really just thought it was a bit of a nuisance, because I was responsible for this wonderful collection, so it was a bit nerve-wracking trying to preserve everything. I didn’t look at things, I didn’t go through things until we retired to our home on Wolf Island, then I thought: “ok it’s time”. Well, there were too many articles, too many pictures, too many letters, it just went on, and I tried and tried to organize until I heard of this professor, David More, and he found out so much more about the background. It starts to come “Oh, these people are real people and I would like to get to know them.” I think that’s really what the pictures and the letters did; it was an awakening, really.

[Julie : ] I’m interested in history and I do love to have that link to the past.

[Colour photograph from the Millward Cruickshank family archives].

[Julie : ] I happen to be quite a sentimental person. To have the letters between Robert and his sister in Quebec City – I just loved reading those, when we would put them on the table and start trying to decipher what they were writing about, which was really fascinating.

[The following question appears : How should we remember your family history?]

[Jean : ] That is a big question and I don’t think there is any answer to that. It just gives you another idea of how people lived and how times have changed.

[Julie : ] I think on my part…we talk about history and we talk about what came before, and we look at our founding fathers; whatever they did, however they lived; the fact that they built a life, built a life for the people around them, they built a life for their community.

[Colour photograph of a letter written by Robert Nugent Watts to his daughter Harriet in 1849].

[Julie : ] I think for this family they were just part of the history of this area; they helped build this community. They were very community-minded; from the letters that Robert wrote and he received, it’s clear that he really cared about his community and he wanted his community to succeed and be healthy. I hope that it resonates with people here, and they they don’t look at the division but that they look and see a family who helped establish this area, and helped make it prosperous.

[A text of thanks on a black background appears with the following text: Thank you to Julie Cruickshank et Jean Millward Cruickshank, as well as to our partners Soprema, MRC de Drummond and Ville de Drummondville. The logo of the Drummond Historical Society appears, then the names of the people credited, namely the guest, Julie Cruickshank et Jean Millward Cruickshank, the people in charge of preparation and animation, Geneviève Béliveau, Gabriel Cormier and Chantal Proulx and the person in charge of video design, Kevin Lampron-Drolet.]