Customer Reviews

The Donnelly Album: The Complete and Authentic Account of Canada's Famous Feuding Family

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The fighting,feuding,barn burning,animal mutilation and general mayhem around Lucan,Ontario,went on for about 35 years,and finally ended with 5 members of the Donnelly family being murdered in their homes by a vigilante committee on that awful night of February 4,1880.It was a national story that shocked the young nation of Canada.Canada had only recently become a country in 1867.These were often rough and ready times ,both in Canada as well as the US.This is the same period when,with the
American Civil War over in 1865,the west was opening up with range wars,cattle drives,gold strikes,train robberies,and outlaws like Jesse James and the shoot-out at the OK Corral with Wyatt Earp,Doc Holliday,and all.
The fighting and feuding in the Donnelly story had all together different origins.The source of trouble came from a whole different scene of problems that were brought ,mainly by settlers who came from the County Tipperary,Ireland.
The story of the massacre had just about disappeared from the radar scope when a pulp writer,Thomas P Kelly wrote a book,"The Black Donnellys"in 1954 and created a huge interest and sold millions of copies.Being a pulp writer he did only enough research to tell the essence of the story,filled in the details from his own imagination,including conversations as he saw them.It made for exciting reading but as time went on, readers and other authors spent a lot of time nit picking about what he wrote.
The author of this book heard about the story on the radio in
1962 got interested,read Kelley's book and spent years researching everything about the Donnellys and the history of the county;and finally in 1977 produced this book.He was a lawyer by profession and approached the whole story as would one preparing for a trial.He researched all the records,read everything ever written,talked to an endless stream of people,and,as as a result, produced a book that is totally factual and includes just about everything there is to know about what happened.The book is over 300 pages ,has pictures and/or illustrations of just about everyone and everything involved with the story.He has maps,documents,you name it,he's got it in the book.His writing style and overall organization is so good,the reading could not be easier.He not only researched the story,he has made it a lifelong hobby,interest,or or maybe even an obsession.Like I said,if there is anything you would want to know,you'll find it in this book,and you can count on it being as correct as one can make it.
There is no doubt that there is nobody who has researched the story as he has,and for such a long time,and he gives it all to us in this book.
If you have ever wanted to go into the real details of the story or plan to visit Lucan to see where it all took place and visit the church,graveyard,the Roman Line,the Swamp schoolhouse,the site of the Donnelly farm,the village of
Lucan and the many buildings that still exist;this is the bible and guide for you.He also gives a lot of information on the people involved and what happened during the years after the murders.

I have been following this story since my High School days of 1954 when Kelley's book first appeared and often talk to others about it.There are a lot of people who will tell you about someone knowing descendents of the Donnelly's.Well,let me tell you this.Mr Fazakas has researched that too.In 2001 he produced another super book "In Search of the Donnellys" of 300 pages. Again, he covers the whole history of the Donnellys ,all the way back to their roots in Ireland and the history of all the descendents.Another wonderful book and a great addition to the whole story.Like this "Album",it is filled with fabulous photos.I'll be doing a review of it shortly.
If you haven't found it yet ,there is an excellent website
"The Black Donnellys", where you can get lots of information and photos.
If you happen to visit Lucan some day,take a little side trip to Exeter,about 20 miles north of Lucan and see the rare White Squirrels.These are not albinos, but very rare and occur in a few isolated spots in North America,having been introduced many years ago from Hawaii.You can find more about them on the web under "White Squirrels of Exeter".

This book is excellent. I came across it while looking for something entirely different but what a great thing.

I fell in love with this mishappen family as women are wont to do with "bad boys."

Couldn't put the book down!

This is the only authentic account of this tragedy, and there is another sequel by this author that is just as informing.

This the best and most interesting of the Donnellys era. One of those books you hate to set down to finish later.

I first heard the story of the Black Donnellys in school - a version of the story was told to the class, and I can still remember how excited I was when I heard my own surname listed as rival of this infamous family.

That being said, I bought this book for my father... and not because of the Donnellys. I bought it because of the massive amount of history it gives. Not only does the book give a great deal of information on LIFE in Biddulph Township, but it also gives information on many of the people. In our case, this included tidbits on several ancestors from Biddulph and the neighbouring McGillivray Township.

The story of the Black Donnellys is a great read on its own, but if, like me, you have Irish ancestors hailing from Co. Tipperary you might find a bit of your own story here as well.

I found the writing convoluted, the storytelling lacked flow, and was left dissatified overall. There's much reference to archaic and regional language that's never defined, thus one loses the gist of meaning or the character's point of view. I found myself irritated by the introduction of peripheral characters and relations that continously lead to confusion. Overall, I could not visualize the geography, the main characters were bereft of substance, and the cultural relationships were never adequately fleshed out.