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Joy Ormsby respected for commitment to historical research

Niagara-on-the-Lake has lost one of the most important keepers of its heritage and history. Long-time official town historian and 2008 Citizen of the Year Joyce (Joy) Ormsby passed away at Upper Canada Lodge after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease.
john-and-joy-ormsby-on-a-trip-to-the-czech-republic
John and Joy Ormsby on a trip to the Czech Republic.

Niagara-on-the-Lake has lost one of the most important keepers of its heritage and history. Long-time official town historian and 2008 Citizen of the Year Joyce (Joy) Ormsby passed away at Upper Canada Lodge after a long battle with Alzheimer’s disease. She was 94 years old.

Ormsby leaves behind two sons, three grandsons and three great-grandchildren, as well as her beloved second cousin and friend Julia Owen and her three daughters Meghan, Emma and Elizabeth.

Born in 1928 in Preston, U.K., she emigrated to Canada in 1952 with her husband John. They first lived in Belleville on a farm with Joy’s great-aunt Maggie. Joy and John raised their two boys, Stephen and Robin first in Belleville, then in Trenton. 

Educated in the U.K. as an elementary teacher, Joy was hired to teach history and English at Trenton Collegiate. John’s career was in public works. In 1976, he was recruited to work in Petrolia. Three years later he took a position in NOTL and they bought a house on John Street West. 

She threw herself into
the history of the town from day one. 

“That seemed to be something that she really occupied herself with,” her son Robin tells The Local. “She did a lot of house searches, and she had people writing to her from all over the world. Working at the museum probably meant more to her than anything.”

Managing director and curator at the NOTL Museum Sarah Kaufman met Joy in 2009 when she was working on digitizing War of 1812 property research, focusing on war loss claims. 

“I got to know her really well,” Kaufman says. “She spent time on the collections committee, and she helped our other volunteers identify new items that would come in. She came in every Monday. I would chat with her and ask her my research questions. She had such a wealth of knowledge.”

Kaufman was immediately struck by Ormsby’s passion for the town’s history. She pointed out how adamant Ormsby was about finding the exact location of both the Indian Council House and hospital on the Parks Canada land. Both locations are now marked by installations. 

“She wouldn’t stop until she found the answer,” adds Kaufman. “She’d go up against people who weren’t necessarily happy with the answers she found. She saved a lot of heritage homes in our community just from her work.”

On a personal note, I knew Joy as my next door neighbour for 14 years. She was the sweet lady who watched my wife Mishka and I bring our children home for the first time. Through the years she brought over birthday cards and gifts for them, and she kept a container of boiled carrots to give as treats to our dog Cocoa. 

As she threw herself into research projects she would often share her findings with me in conversation. After John passed in 2010 and she got rid of their car, I would see her regularly don her floppy hat and arrange a bag on her shoulder as she would walk to the library’s old archive room or the museum on a regular basis.

She often spoke of her post-war life in Britain and the decision to come to Canada. That experience seemed to have instilled a sense of austerity and practicality in her that lasted to her final days. 

And it was always clear to me that she was brilliant, and that she did not suffer fools. Her tenacity in saving the Butler Homestead site was proof positive of that. 

Author and heritage consultant Richard Merritt worked with Ormsby on several projects and publications and remembers that time well.

“Her real coup was proving that she knew where Colonel Butler’s homestead was,” Merritt claims. “There had been an archaeological survey done by one company that didn’t find anything. She just didn’t believe it.”

Ormsby, remembers Merritt, convinced the town to hire another company to do a second archaeological survey.

“Of course, they almost immediately began to find artifacts, and they found the foundation. It proved her theory. I personally consider that one of her greatest accomplishments.”

Ormsby was the co-author of a book, with former managing director of the NOTL Museum Clark Bernat, called Looking Back: Niagara-on-the-Lake Ontario. The copy she gave to us is inscribed with a message for our son Sebastian.

She also contributed the first chapter to The Capital Years: Niagara-on-the-Lake, 1792-1796, edited by Merritt, Nancy Butler and Michael Power.

Merritt and others pointed out her willingness to help anyone with her research talents. One of her final projects was assisting a neighbour on Mississagua Street dig into the history of his own home. 

“She contributed so much,” Merritt says. “Her forte was research and she was really good at it. She was a wonderful resource and we’re very fortunate to have had her. I consider her my mentor, really.”

Ormsby helped her close friend, Dr. Elizabeth Oliver-Malone, conduct research for her book Recipes & Remedies In Upper Canada, based on the archives of Hannah Peters Jarvis, who lived at Willowbank for over 10 years, and was the mother of Hannah Owen Hamilton, the first mistress of Willowbank.

“She loved researching the title deeds and getting into the details of financial land transfers,” says Oliver-Malone. “She had quite a mathematical mind. But when we were researching the history of the Hamiltons she would find these lively little side stories about domestic life.”

Oliver-Malone found a special bond with Ormsby, too, when she discovered that Joy had taught for many years at Trenton Collegiate. Oliver-
Malone, coincidentally, had graduated from that same school just 10 years before Ormsby began there. 

Gary Burroughs was lord mayor when Ormsby was named citizen of the year. He had also worked with her on past historical projects with the Niagara Foundation. 

“She worked with anyone who was interested in our history,” Burroughs says. “She knew everything about everything. With the work we are doing right now on finding information about some of our old cemeteries, Joy would have been an incredible resource. She would have known where they all were, and she would have loved to work on it. She would know the stories behind it.”

Besides that citizen of the year honour, Ormsby was an honorary life member of the Niagara Historical Society. In addition, she won the Ontario Historical Society’s Janet Carnochan Award, the Ontario Heritage Trust’s Lifetime Achievement Award, and was named a Living Legend by the Niagara Foundation.

When Julia Owen moved to Toronto in the 1980s, she often visited Joy and John in NOTL. 

“I would come down to visit. They took me in,” Owen says. “She encouraged me to move here. She was my rock. We used to take walks all around NOTL. I am certain she had a photographic memory. She remembered everything.”

Owen says Joy was completely passionate and dedicated to history. 

“It oozed out of her,” she insists. “But she always said this town gave more to her than she gave to it. She got a thrill finding out different things that nobody else had found.”

Owen remembers Joy’s work researching the William and Susannah Steward House just down the street from Ormsby’s home. She adds that her great-aunt was an avid reader and was truly passionate about the Shaw and theatre in general. 

“And she was so proud of her grandkids,” adds Owen, “and so proud of my daughters. She loved kids, and wanted to help them find their passion and pursue higher education.”

Kaufman gets emotional thinking about the influence that the first official town historian has had on her career. 

“She always believed in me,” Kaufman recalls. “She helped me dig my feet in, get to know the history a bit more. When she came on Mondays I would have a slew of questions to ask. To have one of the most knowledgeable people in the community believe in me and support me was amazing. I felt very lucky to know her and to have her guidance.”

There’s no doubt that Ormsby has left a lasting legacy in town. Her research files and archives remain at the museum and are still regularly used by anyone looking for historical information. 

“She was the one that everyone went to, even all the museum staff,” says Kaufman. “She was always digging and finding answers to our questions. We’ll be using her research for decades, for generations to come.”




Mike Balsom

About the Author: Mike Balsom

With a background in radio and television, Mike Balsom has been covering news and events across the Niagara Region for more than 35 years
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