The Dales left County Derry, Ulster to pursue a new life in the Canadas in about 1820. Here, author Nancy Dale Conroy traces the story of their journey. Having undertaken this adventure at an opportune time—when land was still up for grabs—the Dales would go on to play a foundational role in the establishment of a vibrant community at the centre of Clarendon township that would one day become Shawville, Quebec.

In this engrossing work of family history, the author takes us through more than a hundred years of her family’s place at the centre of this growing community, outlining her research process and encounters with distant relatives along the way. Ultimately, the story of the Dales provides a refreshingly intimate lens through which to view the history of early settlement in the Canadas, and a welcome addition to the bookshelves of anyone curious about this formative era.

Nancy Dale Conroy is a former public service executive and a successful entrepreneur in the field of retirement planning. She has been the Editor of Reflections/Réflexions, the newsletter of the Retirement Planning Institute, for the past 20 years and has had several articles published in the retirement planning field. She is currently retired and living with her husband Peter and their daschund, Max, in Ottawa.

Despite living the bulk of her life away from Clarendon and Shawville, she holds a deep appreciation and love for her home town and is proud to be a descendant of the many Clarendon Dales who came before her.