The Timmins Public Library in northeastern Ontario has digitized an almost complete run of The Porcupine Advance newspaper, from 1912 to 1950, and the issues are now available online on Our Ontario.
In its announcement about the digitization project, the library said, “Preservation of community newspapers is crucial, as these gems allow us to understand issues over time. They represent the history of a community and are important research tools for historians and amateur genealogists.”
Issues of the newspaper can be searched, browsed and downloaded. Included in the online collection are an Articles index and a Birth/Marriage/Death announcement index.
In the early part of the 20th century, Timmins and the region attracted men who wanted to work in the mining and lumber industries after gold was discovered and the train arrived. A number of these men were French-speaking and came alone or with their families from Quebec.
The Porcupine Advance was the first newspaper to serve the Porcupine Camp, town of Timmins, and surrounding areas. It was founded in 1912 by George Lake. The paper was originally published on a weekly basis, and later twice a week, until it ceased publication in July 1950. Today, more than a century after its founding, Porcupine Advance Printers continues to operate with members of the Lake family on staff.
The digitized newspaper is a welcome addition to the library’s existing resources in local history and genealogy. It complements the recently acquired collection of more than 2,000 genealogy reference books that were donated by Généalogie Timmins Genealogy in 2016. Other resources at the library include:
- A collection of local history books, city directories, mining journals, historic site inventories, reports, and commemorative publications
- A cemetery index of burial plots, covering up to 2003
- Biographies of early settlers in the Porcupine region
- The Daily Press Newspaper, from 1933 to present (on microfilm only).
