What follows are the day books of my ggg-grandfather, Robert Ellis. He first came to the Island in 1819 and worked as a joiner. He married Hannah Darby in 1823 and lived in Bedeque. After returning to Devonshire for several years, he moved his family back to PEI about 1840. During this time it is apparent that Robert farmed his land, did carpentry work including the finishing of St. John's Anglican Church in St. Eleanor's and kept a store. These books record his transactions with many of his neighbors and give insight into their daily lives.

The books were found in a trunk in the attic of my grandfather's house on Belmont St. in Summerside in the early 1980's. My father had been named after Robert, so the day books came to him. At the time, my mother was well on her way to being known as the "family genealogist".

This is her work. She transcribed most of the books and made an alphabetical card index, and extracted every bit of personal info relating to Robert and his family that she could find. This she added to our family history. Now she's gone and her files have come to me. It seemed a shame that no one but me should benefit from these books so I want to share them with you.

My mother divided the book into sections to make it easier to transcribe. I will use her divisions as I enter the data. She notes in her log that capital letters "I", "J", & "T" are shaped similarly. When in doubt as to the letter she used an "I". This occurs mostly when they were used for initials. Her notes are added in [square] brackets.

Due to formatting restrictions I have made some changes while entering the data.