Perth’s New Year’s Babies 1947-1987

No birth has been as widely documented, or made as public through the media, than the first birth in a new year.  It’s not clear when the tradition of announcing the arrival of a town or city’s first baby began across Lanark County.

In the early 1940s, “The Perth Courier” began to mention the ‘New Year’s baby’ in their listings of social and community events, but it was not until January 1947 that this venerable newspaper started to showcase  the area’s newest resident with a feature story, and often a photograph of baby and mother.

In the January 2^nd 1947 edition of “The Perth Courier” for the very first time, there was a long list of prizes to be supplied by local merchants, and instructions to new parents, on how to claim the title of “Perth’s First Baby of 1947”:

“All the parents need to do to secure all these good things for Perth’s first baby of 1947 is to give the Courier a statement of the time and date of the arrival, signed by the doctor or attending nurse.  The Courier will then provide a statement to the parents, which will enable them to pick up the merchandise.  News of the arrival must reach the Courier by Monday, January 6^th to qualify.”

In honour of those special New Year’s babies born in Perth, four decades of announcements follow, from “The Perth Courier”, beginning in 1947 through to 1987:

1947 – Ronald Gilchrist  –  Snow Road

1948 – Audrey McCurdy  –  Lanark, Ontario

1949 – Robert Frank –

Canonto, North Frontenac

1950 – Diane Egge  –  Perth, Ontario

1951 – baby ‘Dustin’,  Perth, Ontario

1952 – baby ‘Foley’  – Balderson, Ontario

1953 – baby ‘Thomas’, Balderson, Ontario

1954 –  baby ‘Mooney’,  R.R. 1,  Perth, ON

1955 –  baby  ‘Bell’,   Perth, Ontario

1956 –  baby  ‘Dickson’ , Perth, Ontario

1957 –  baby ‘Young’  R.R. 2, Maberly, ON

1958 – baby ‘St. Pierre’,  Sharbot Lake, ON

1959 –  baby ‘Fielding’,  Perth, ON

1960 – baby ‘Kerr’,  Perth, ON

1961 – baby ‘Cordick’,  Perth, ON

1962 –  baby ‘Daoust’,  Perth, ON

1963 –  Heather Pratt, Clarendon, ON

1964 –  baby ‘King’  R.R. 5, Perth, ON

1965 –  Sheldon Barr,  R.R. 1,  Perth, Ontario

1966 –  Heather Paul,  Perth, ON

1967 –  baby ‘Murphy’ , Perth, ON

1968 – Diane Haughian, Perth, ON

1969 –  baby ‘Cameron’   R.R.5, Perth, ON

1970 – Eric Brousseau,  Perth, ON

1971 – Tammie Adam, McDonald’s Corners

1972 – Peter Alexander,  R.R. 5, Perth, ON

1973 –  Matthew Lowery,  Parham, ON

1974 – baby ‘Blackburn’, R.R. 1  Maberly

1975 –  Gregory Young, R.R. 4, Perth, ON

1976 –  Erica Labelle, R.R. 2  Lanark, ON

1977 – Duncan Campbell, R.R. 1, Lanark, ON

1978 – baby ‘Gardiner’ , R.R. 5, Perth, ON

1979 – Christa Rintoul, Clayton, ON

1980 – Trevor Tysick,  Lanark Road

1981 –  Nicole Moore, R.R. 4, Perth, ON

1982 – Liam Ryan, Elgin  ON

1983 – Natalie Lowery,  Perth  ON

1984 – Jennifer Campbell, R.R. 4  Perth, ON

1985 – Wayne Drysdale, R.R. 4, Perth

1986 – Victoria McMunn, Perth, ON

1987 – Jennifer Roy ,  Perth, ON

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These babies, began their lives as tiny celebrities in the community, lavished with many gifts from local merchants, some would say had a lucky start to life.

I wonder where these New Year’s babies are today, and if lady luck has followed them throughout their lives?

As they used to say in the 1960s, “You’ve come a long way baby!”

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