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 2nd 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 6th 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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I enjoyed reading this bit of local history. Our daughter, Julie, was born on Christmas Day in 1979. Thank you for sharing, Arlene.
Thanks Shirley. It’s interesting to see how things have changed over the years, and to look back at a little local history!
That was great. I know many of them.
Thanks Debi! Glad you enjoyed it. It was definitely a lot of fun researching four decades of New Year’s babies. It would be neat to do a follow up and see where they are today.
Great memories I always enjoy your news thanks for sharing
Hi Arlene, how do we see later than 1987 as my daughter was the New Years/Millennium Baby on January 8, 2000? Would be great to show her.
Hi Janet – Algonquin College in Perth has “The Perth Courier’ on microfilm, so you could search there, if you live nearby. I went through the old newspapers and chose 40 years, and stopped in 1987, but there are many more years available.
Thanks Arlene!! I am not very technical or internet smart so finding and being able to post that information to share with my daughter would not be an easy task, lol. But thank you again for sharing this history 😊, sincerely Janet Lafortune.
Arlene thanks for sharing knew alot of the families.
How interesting! I knew several and taught 2 in Grade 2 in Perth and Kdg in Lanark.