Living on the Frontier

Everyone has a story. Countries have their founding myths, just as families and individuals have a story of their past and how they arrived at the present. These stories depend on memories that are sometimes malleable, as we are not necessarily accurate narrators.  Yet within the story, is something bigger that we as humans need both for our identities and understanding of where we fit in the world at large.

The story of the Bell family is part of a larger story that is directed by the forces of history and nation making. Yet, although these forces are large it is the response of individuals and families that is unique.

From the political machinations of English and Scottish kings along the borderlands between these two nations during the Middle Ages, the Bell family learned to live and thrive on the frontier. Their eventual displacement or migration to England’s first colony in Ulster placed them at the frontier between the Irish and the colonists. Their eventual arrival in Canada and settlement on the pioneer edge of an emerging Canada continued that journey of living on the frontier.

This blog will trace that journey in Canada has they learned how to live, survive and prosper on the “edge” of a nation.