History tells a good ghost story
Authors update Ghosts of Niagara-on-the-Lake with time-honoured tales of the paranormal
His older brothers used to terrify him with stories of headless ghosts that walked across the septic tank at the family cottage.
Older and wiser, Andrew Hind eventually grew fond of the stories. He loved hearing tales of monsters, ghosts and assorted paranormal encounters.
But then logic and doubt crept in and hardened the malleability of his imagination.
In his words: “As you get older, you stop believing because reason tells you not to.”
And then, all that changed. Hind embraces paranormal possibilities as an author, but from an historical perspective. He has written multiple books that bring together his passion for history and his love of a good ghost story. His latest book, “Ghosts of Niagara-on-the-Lake” (Second Edition) (Dundurn Press, $24.99), is a revised version of the book he wrote with author Maria Da Silva, published back in 2009.
The pair, from Bradford, north of Toronto, included more ghost stories, including a new chapter on Fort George, and more details to stories he had already told.
About a year ago, he asked people for anecdotes of close encounters. And got lots. Stories from everyday people. Psychics. Even a paranormal investigation team was keen on sharing its scientific evidence and real-life tales. But Hind is a historian. He’s all about facts and proof.
So, armed with these stories he spent long hours in the library, searching through archives, newspapers, land records and other written documents in an
UPDATED WITH TIME-HONOURED TALES OF THE PARANORMAL
Available at Dundurn Press or at any Chapters bookstore. Better yet take a trip to The Haunted Shop, 126 Queen St., NOTL where you can buy the book and also see Lizzie, the haunted doll.
effort to substantiate the question: Is this historically possible?
“A lot of times ghost stories become part of the folklore. And told often enough, they morph and become more dramatic.
“So you have to go back to the source.”
And when history corroborates the supernatural — or at least does not discredit it — it’s an exciting moment.
“It makes you feel there is a plausibility to it,” he says. “As a history nerd, when I find an historical tidbit of validity, you jump up and do a little dance.
“When you find something that fills a pothole, it’s exciting.”
Case in point: the ghost of a little girl who is known to follow visitors of the Fort George National Historic Site in Niagaraon-the-Lake, playfully engaging in games such as peek-a-boo or hiding under beds and behind pillars, says Hind.
She might tug on a visitor’s clothes, but then disappear, offering the perplexed visitor only a momentary glimpse of a child in bare feet, wearing a white dress.
“For the longest time, she didn’t have a name,” says Hind.
Even when some psychics picked up on Sarah Ann, it was met with skepticism. Why would the spirit of a child be at a military base?
“It just didn’t make sense,” he says.
And then, history answered the question. A military family had lived at the fort and on a tombstone in St. Mark’s cemetery in Niagara-on-the-Lake there’s the name of their little girl who died in 1840 at age seven — Sarah Ann Tracey.
Writing about the long dead comes with certain obligation. “You feel a responsibility to tell their stories properly,” he says.