The Story Chair: Memories from the Past

Born and raised in Toronto, Astrid thoroughly enjoyed the annual escape from the city to the family’s summer cottage in East Parry Sound. Located near the hamlet of Sprucedale, those memorable summers spent with her parents were to leave a lasting impression. Astrid quickly learned to appreciate the beauty of the Almaguin Highlands, as the countryside reminded her parents, refugees from the Second World War of their homeland, Estonia. Happily, there’ still a rustic cabin on the expansive property and today, living so close as she does in the nearby Village of Burk’s Falls, trips to the lake with her dog are on a regular basis. Astrid’s interest in everything to do with history blossomed while attending Victoria University at the University of Toronto. Although she eventually earned her bachelor’s degree in fine art, Astrid’s involvement with the grassroots conservation group, the Local Architectural Conservation Advisory Committee (L.A.C.A.C.) for the Town of Markham was to take her down a very different path. Before long she became the committee’s historical researcher as well as a regular columnist with the weekly Markham Economist and Sun, writing about the life and times of the early settlers of Thornhill, Unionville and Markham Villages. The committee’s hard work paid off as during L.A.C.A.C.’s 25th anniversary celebrations on October 25th, 2000, a banner was unveiled in recognition of the Town of Markham becoming the first-ever recipient of the Prince of Wales Award for heritage preservation.

Joining the editorial staff of the Burk’s Falls home office of Almaguin News (Almaguin Publishing (1989) Limited) in 1988, and working as a photographer/reporter until fall of 2006, today, Astrid continues to make her home in this picturesque riverside community, where as well as writing; she lends her support to environmental and humane causes.

In her first book, author Margaret Belfry Lynn has cleverly anchored her search for her ancestors with a marvellous little wooden rocker; hence the title The Story Chair: Memories of the Past.

Within the confines of her family’s lowly southern Ontario homestead, this special chair was crafted in the 1850s by her great-great-grandfather, Benjamin Switzer. Cherished by many family members over the years, Belfry Lynn explains the beloved chair’s final role, before retiring to her sunroom, was that of a “story chair” in her Westmount, Quebec classroom. With every gentle forward and backward tilt of the rockers, the author has made an honest attempt to “conjure up a vision of how life was back then.” Unfortunately, despite the best of intentions, it doesn’t quite work.

Belfry Lynn tackles genealogy in a most scientific manner. Instead of examining each of her family groups as they strove to overcome rather daunting conditions, the author chooses to turn their lives into numbers. Page by page, from cradle to grave, readers are assaulted by endless dates tied to mothers and fathers and offspring and in-laws, and anyone else who may have come in contact with the families in Belfry Lynn’s gene pool: the Switzers, Hillis, Belfrys, Shermans, and Nays. This book would have benefitted from an index, if only to keep the cast of characters straight!

The German Switzers are central to the book, but Belfry Lynn doesn’t portray them as such. A pity really, as it is the Switzer family that the author turns to in order to begin her odyssey. The Switzers trek across Europe in the late 17th century in search of a new beginning, first to England, then Ireland, and finally Canada, is what brought new growth to the family tree. A fascinating journey to be sure, but readers are only left to wonder about it.

Belfry Lynn would have us believe that just about everyone her family tree lived a “charmed life” with nary a word of hardship, hunger, poverty, or strife. In the real world, it just isn’t so.