My favourite discovery was determining that Ripley progenitors Robert Ripley and Isabella Beane likely lived on a property originally granted to Henry Denny Denson that passed through his agent Richard Bulkley to his daughter Lucy in trust and then from son-in-law Robert Fletcher to Thomas Cochran through his executor William Hill to Cochran's daughter Isabella and later became the homestead of Francis Smith on Smith Road. Ernest Coates was hot on the trail of this discovery; there was a copy of Fletcher's lease to Robert Ripley in his papers. However, Ernest had mis-transcribed Denson as Damon. I was only able to complete the search because so many original deeds and papers have now been digitized and made available on the internet. Quite by accident, while browsing the DesBarres Fonds online, I discovered Thomas Cochran's map showing the location of "Mr. Ripley" north of the Nappan River. It was then possible to discover a deed trail that led from the disposal of Thomas Cochran's estate to Francis Smith. Today, a researcher can find these deeds by searching an electronic database. I can't even imagine the thousands of hours Ernest Coates and his fellow researchers spent combing through the actual deed books originally stored at Amherst.
My passion project for the future is to continue matching old grants and deeds to modern properties in Amherst, Maccan, Nappan, and Fenwick. This website evolved in keeping with my research and is becoming a bit unwieldy. I have spent the past few months developing a format which will make it easier to document and share information about particular properties on this website and beyond so the information is not lost.