George Lakin Parker and Halley's Comet

About two weeks ago, my mother and I set out on a road trip from Long Island to Ottawa, Ontario to see family and, of course, do some research.

On our second day in Canada, we drove the twenty minutes to the Gatineau branch of the Bibliotèque et Archives nationals du Québec to see the journal of our ancestor, my 2nd great-grandfather, George Lakin Parker.

This journal turned out to be about 80% cash book and 20% journal but was very interesting nonetheless. I learned that in the last years of his life George journaled most about the weather, planting vegetables and traveling, mostly to Ottawa and Montreal. I learned that he was very formal, referring to his married daughters as Mrs. Smith (my great-grandmother) and Mrs. Wilson and I also learned that he saw Halley's comet in May of 1910.

Halley's Comet, saw it this ? from 1/2 past three to 1/2 past 4

Planted 2nd lot Dutch setts

Sowed carrots and beans

After I noticed that George would sometimes go back and correct or add entries after the fact, I thought I should verify the date of his recorded sighting which was May 16, 1910. I first checked the Buckingham (Quebec) Post, the most local paper to George which was edited by his son Albert Hamilton Parker. The Google News Archive doesn't have all of the issues for that month, but it did have all of the issues that month of the Ottawa Citizen.  The biggest news story at the time was the death of King Edward VII (which George Parker noted on the correct date), his funeral and the ascent to the throne of King George V. The coming comet sighting did get a small mention on Monday, May 16th but said that it would be visible in the early hours of May 19th. Other papers that I checked, the Stanstead Journal (Quebec) and The Montreal Gazette (Quebec), didn't mention the event at all that I could find. This surprised me because when Earth last passed through the tail of Halley's comet in 1986, I remember hearing about it for months especially because we didn't have great visibility in the Northern hemisphere and the best viewing was going to mean taking a trip to Australia if memory serves. Just another reminder of presentism; we cannot assume that similar events are of equal importance 76 years apart and impose present viewpoints on the past.

George's last entry in this book was in January of 1915; he died at the home of son Albert Hamilton Parker on February 17, 1915, after a short illness. This journal was found in the offices of the Buckingham Post that Albert edited, I wonder if a historical society or family members we have yet to meet have the others or if they have been lost to time.