The 400th anniversary last year of Samuel de Champlain’s voyage up the Ottawa River and its focus on the natural and human history of Champlain Park inspired one of our area residents to research a pioneering Canadian family with deep roots in England—the Cowley family, after whom Cowley Avenue is named.

Christine Jackson described the Cowley family’s Canadian beginnings and their significant and sometimes colourful role in the development of the Ottawa Valley in an article published last fall in her local family history society’s journal entitled The Cowley Family Saga: From Sherwood Forest to the NHL

During the last year Christine has been researching the Cowley family’s origins in England and the second part of the story, Cowley Family Saga has just been published.

Both these articles these can now be accessed on the Champlain Park website’s on the Home page under Our History drop-down tab.