Clyde River History Books Arrive in Cambodia

The following is an email received by Emily Bryant from Jon Darrah on January 12th. It was interesting that this was the day Jon received the books in Cambodia, and his cheque for the payment of the books arrived in Clyde River. However, as Jon explained Cambodia is on the other side of the International Date Line, so he actually got the books while it was still January 11th on Prince Edward Island.

Dear Emily –
This is just a quick note to let you know that the two books that you mailed arrived in Cambodia today, 12 January 2010. Thanks for your diligence and hard work on getting these books to me. In addition, thanks for the two bonus pictures.

The picture of Hector Darrach’s place brought back memories. Hector Darrach was brother to my grandfather John Duncan Darrach. My grandfather, Hector and all the rest actually grew up on the next place down river from Hector Darrach’s. You would have known Hector Darrach’s son Jack Darrach. Jack Darrach farmed the Darrach home place for many years until he retired to driving the school bus. His wife Margaret “Peggy” just died within the last year or two. The other picture is of my great grandfather’s generation of Darrachs i.e. my grandfather’s father. The tall man in the middle is also named Hector Darrach. He migrated to Connecticut where he became a well known ship builder. The Darrachs seem to have a standard slate of names that were parceled out to each generation.

I mailed you a check in the international mail on 28 December 2009. If it doesn’t arrive by the end of January let me know and I will figure out how to get money to you via another means.

Once again thanks for helping me get copies of the two books. When I quit wandering – another Darrach trait – I will go back to my home in Florida where I have a whole box of family pictures from PEI. In fact my father’s cousin Arnold Beer helped me to identify the people in many of the pictures.

Happy New Year,
Jon Darrah