Preparing this statement of gratitude is a task I approach with deep misgivings. My gratitude to all individuals and institutions that have helped me in the preparation of this biographical dictionary is very real. Yet it is, I know, virtually impossible to assemble a list of names without omitting, through some mishap or other, some names which have as strong a claim to be there as some of those which have been included. If any person or representative of an institution believes I have made a serious omission in this respect, please communicate the data to me, and if this work ever has a further edition, or appears in online text, I will do my best to make certain the injustice is rectified there. In the following paragraphs, I will save space–even if this is space-saving at the expense of the appearance of ingratitude–by grouping institutions, such as state archives, without citing each specifically. (In many instances, debts to specific institutions will at any rate be found cited in the endnotes for particular biographies) Many people have kindly filled out for me biographical data forms for relatives or colleagues of theirs who appear in the present dictionary. These people, however, I have not thanked individually. Believe me, I am grateful to them, but my gratitude must be restricted to general terms.

The National Library and Archives, Ottawa, have been an unfailing resource during my years of work on this dictionary. They never got tired of me, or if they did never showed the fact. What expertise, what resources of knowledge they have, what reference sources for bringing recondite pieces of knowledge to light! I owe a great deal to the following: the provincial archives of Ontario and Quebec, and of all the western provinces, the Glenbow museum and archives, of Calgary, the small but admirable Yukon Archives, also the city archives of cities in central and western Canada, also archives of many American states, especially those west of the Mississippi, where so many successful Glengarrians made their careers, the archives of Queen’s and McGill Universities and the University of Toronto, the archives of many religious groups, including the Canadian Baptists, Canadian Presbyterians and the United Church and of the Roman Catholic religious orders and religious communities. Also I owe much to local historical and genealogical societies throughout North America, the American state historical societies, the mighty Library of Congress, the Canadian legislative and American state libraries, and a large number of university libraries, where my enquiries were carefully and helpfully answered even though I had no institutional connection with the universities, the Bibliothèque nationale du Québec, the Ontario Institute for Studies in Education, the archivists or record-keepers of medical and dental associations in Canada and the United States, the Canadian Museum of Civilization, the Centre de recherche en civilisation canadienne-française, of Ottawa, the Canadian Jewish Congress National Archives, of Montreal, the Directorate of History and Heritage, at National Defence Headquarters, Ottawa, the Law Society of Upper Canada (with special thanks here to its custodian Susan Lewthwaite), the Association of Ontario Land Surveyors, and the National Archives, Washington, which administers among much else personnel records of the American Civil War.

Many librarians in small towns and even villages throughout North America have provided detailed and careful reports plus photocopies (sometimes from newspaper microfilms) in answer to my enquiries–and have often not even charged me for the expenses. Is it a delusion on my part to suspect that in no few instances librarians did this work during their own time, not the time of their employment–that I was the beneficiary of their conviction that they were not merely employees, but educators and cultural workers besides?

The references in the end notes to the individual biographies must be read as statements also of gratitude to institutions and individuals. The phrase “private information” masks much debt. I have used the phrases “personal knowledge” to indicate some acquaintance, however slight, with the biographee and “private information” to indicate that I have obtained information from a family member or some other informed person. Six biographies in this dictionary which appeared in Ontario History Autumn 2005 are reprinted permission of the Ontario Historical Society.

I wish to express my gratitude also to the following people (*biography in the present dictionary):

David G. Anderson, Paul Banfield, Mrs Mary Beaton, Mrs Robert A. Brandon, Emil (Bud) Budzinski, Grant Cameron, Marie Carey, Lorraine Auerbach Chevrier, Paul Costello, W. Laurier Courville, Doreen Crites, Mary A. Croft, David H. Crumb, Charlene Dunbar, H. B. Edwards Q. C., Gerald P. Emmer, Denis Ethier ex-MP, Mr and Mrs Rae Ferguson, Dr Norbert Ferré, Velma Franklin, Alex W. Fraser, Jacqueline Fraser, Stanley Fraser, Sister Gisèle of the Congregation of the Sisters of the Precious Blood, Evelyn Gourlay, E. B. Gruhs, James L. Hansen, Walter Hare, Ralph and Diana Hennessy, Donell A. Hirsch, Donna Johnson, Tim Julien, Helen Seger Kaufmann, Betty Kennedy, Helen Kennedy (Mrs Cameron Kennedy), Larry King of Fort Macleod, Réjeanne Ladouceur, Michelle Landriault, Dane Lanken, Alice Laurin, Susan Lewthwaite, Ruth H. Larmour, Glenn J. Lockwood, Mgr Len Lunney, John Lusk, Lyall Manson, Francis R. Miller, John Munro, Lillian Munro, Kay MacCrimmon, Madeleine McCrimmon, Anna Margaret MacDonald, Duncan (Darby) MacDonald, Allan J. Macdonell, Angus H. McDonell*, Garnet MacDougall, Rev. William E. McDowell, Emerson MacGillivray, Flora A. MacGillivray, Grant MacGillivray, Keith MacIntosh*, Ken McKenna, Glen W. McKenzie, Herbert McKillican, Robert McKillican*, Harriet I. MacKinnon*, Judy MacKinnon, Mabel MacLean, Jean MacLennan, Ernie MacMillan, Harold MacMillan, Hugh P. and Muriel MacMillan, Ivan F. MacRae*, Mrs Ivan F. MacRae, Malcolm MacRae (Scotch Mac), Shawn McRae, Kent MacSweyn, Pauline Newton, Dan Parle, Debra Parminter, James Pendergast*, Janice Prater, Onagh Ross, Rhoda Ross, Edward St. John, Sylvia Sangster, Gretchen Schampel, Jim and Eileen Seay, Jeannine Séguin*, Donald J. Simerson, Bruce Sova, Joan Spink, Jack and Elizabeth Stewart, Linda Tannis, E. James Tarlton, Bruce Taylor, Evelyn van Beek, Edith MacLaughlin Watson, Sesel Wert, Brian Winter, Gordon Winter, and members and executive of the Glengarry Historical Society.

Three men of the Glengarry Historical Society, David Anderson, Dane Lanken and Allan Macdonell (to name them in strictly alphabetical order) worked hard and steadily to bring this large volume into print. To them the present author owes a very large debt of gratitude. David Anderson did the formatting with his usual admirable skill. Dane Lanken was the meticulous copy editor. Allan Macdonell, president of the Glengarry Historical Society, undertook many a challenge and suggested workable solutions to many a difficulty. All of these contributed much from their great knowledge of Glengarry history. The present author holds that it was a splendid privilege to have worked closely in connection with them.

Royce MacGillivray

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