The Plan: Pin Seniors’ Memories to Digital Maps
Imagine walking through your neighbourhood and being able to pull back the curtains of time as you go. What do people remember from decades ago? What family stories do they have to tell? What used to be where that condo now stands? What did newcomers experience years ago, and have things changed?
These are the questions we want to answer with Mapping our Memories. Thanks to a 2024-25 Government of Canada New Horizon for Seniors (NHSP) contribution, we have continued working on the project.
It’s ambitious we know, but here’s the plan: Build a team to explore memories and historical details about our neighbourhoods and make them easily accessible by linking the collected stories to a digital map. To start, we will be focusing mainly on the west end of Toronto – Roncesvalles and High Park, Parkdale, Swansea, Etobicoke, the Junction and Weston — but we will post good stories from across the city!
We are grateful to have software developer Michael Lenaghan building our website. We plan to continue holding free video-making and writing workshops for 55-plus. The workshops will cover subjects such as the elements of a good story, interview techniques, video-making and memoir writing. The cost: Share your stories for Mapping our Memories.
The Mapping our Memories project was inspired by Lois Broad, who several years ago was interviewed by a group of seniors for her video, Growing up in the Junction. Its popularity showed us how interested people are in what life used to be like in our neighbourhoods. Lois, a gifted story teller, sadly passed away at age 97 in 2025. Watch her video here.
To watch some of the short videos we have been making, please go to our YouTube channel. Click here for our Mapping our Memories playlist!
Over the past 12 months, we have completed video-making courses for 55+ at Humber Valley United Church, Humbercrest United Church, and at our studio. We have also had in-person and on-line writing workshops.
Thanks go to Cheryl Rondeau for her video expertise and to Anne Pietropaolo, Chris Higgins, Madelyn Miyashita and Janice Kulyk Keefer for their help in the past year.
Free Video-Making Workshops for 55+ Continue!
We are launching a new, free video-making workshop series Monday afternoons, from 1:00 to 3:00 pm starting Monday, Jan. 26. The sessions will run for six weeks (with an option to extend if needed)! Here’s your opportunity to pick up new skills and record your stories or those of others.
To make the videos, we use smartphones and laptops, equipment you most likely have, to put together short videos. The workshop fee: Make a 2- to 4-minute video, which we hope you’ll be willing to share for our Mapping our Memories project.
Our instructor is videographer Cheryl Rondeau. During the workshops, she will cover simple techniques for structuring, recording and editing a video. We will also explore online sources for archival photos, records of street addresses and more to provide more images and to confirm information for the videos..
Abandon your fear of new technology! There will be lots of one-on-one help. We will get those videos done and posted on YouTube!
Email us if you can join us. OUR STUDIO is located at 9 Neepawa Ave., Toronto, M6R 1V1, a block south of Howard Park and just east off Roncy.
Meanwhile, we will continue to offer drop-in workshop hours at our studio in Roncesvalles: Mondays, 10:00 am to noon, and Wednesdays, 1:00-3:00 pm. If you’re interested in learning some video-making skills, email us or call us: info@backlanestudios.ca or 647-313-1654.
Neighbourhood Writing Groups!
We also would like to set up small groups in our west-end neighbourhoods who are interested in collecting seniors’ stories about living in this part of Toronto. It would take just a few days a month, if you would be interested in volunteering for the project. Participants will interview their neighbours and record their stories. They also may be interested in recording their own stories.
We will have a journalist work with each group. Let us know if you might be interested. Please email at ellen@backlanestudios.ca or call 647-313-1654.
Research Workshops with Wayne Reeves:
When you start making videos, you realize how much research you’ve got to do — confirming addresses, looking for photos, verifying names, and trying to determine dates. Fortunately, Toronto’s former chief curator, Wayne Reeves, is here to help. He has presented three on-line Zoom workshops on becoming a better researcher. He has introduced us to photo searches, Toronto city directories and fire insurance maps. For links to PDFs he has created, recordings of the Zoom workshops and other resources, click here:
Researching your ‘hood online
Jessica Algie, from the City of Toronto Archives, presented free Zoom workshops on how to find out about Toronto buildings and neighbourhoods online. She discussed the resources available, and using the building where Back Lane Studios is located as an example, she showed what she managed to find from available sources.
To find links to resources Jessica mentioned in her presentation, click here.
To watch her presentation on YouTube, click here.