A legacy from Burt Lang
We are indebted to the Howick native Burt Lang and his family for legally transferring his genealogical and historical collections to our organization at the time of his death. This includes the name and contents of his form website SW Quebec. For technical reasons, we could not keep the swquebec.ca website available and as a result we have transferred the information from his website to our website ... and gently updated where appropriate and have provided a French Language version of the pages.
“....a community distinct from every other in the province of Quebec. With the Eastern Townships, with which they are often erroneously classed, the English-speaking settlements of the district of Beauharnois have no affinity. The first settlers of the Eastern Townships were Americans, and between the customs, speech, and habits of their descendants and those of the people who live to the south of them there is no material difference, but they who dwell by the Chateaugay and its tributaries are of Old Country stock, and in character, ways of life, and speech present nearly as striking a contrast to the Americans, who are divided from them by an imaginary boundary-line, as they do to the French Canadians who are found scattered among them and who hem them in to the north and east.” (Robert Sellar)
Robet Sellar’s Notes & History