de la Ronde LETTERS Ida Schneider to "Buzz" Lein

From the Nipigon Historical Museum Archives - de la Ronde File
Reply from Ida Schneider January 13, 1976

Dear Mr. Lein,

What a surprise your letter of January 7th.  It brought back some interesting years, on and off, of research in connection with some members of the de la Ronde family, originally from around Britt, later from Toronto.  They have large ramifications, lots of children, great and great - grand children and the Nipigon branch of Louis de la Ronde are also part of it.  Their noble ancestors go back to Louis XIV and the fact that a bona fide WILL of Charles Francois Denys de la Ronde, Count of Thibaudiere, who was a  free fur trader in the Georgian Bay and Mackinaw with his brother Louis from Montreal, (the Nipigon Louis was one of his sons) was never probated because the inventory disappeared, after the WILL was registered at the Barrie court house, makes the story so interesting.

What is more uncanny, is the fact that things turn up in the most unexpected ways, f.i. like your letter now.

Just now I have to clear up my correspondence and reports .  I do a vast amount of voluntary work for the epileptics, having correspondence with the foremost European centres of research, including Great Britain.

I shall have to look through my de la Ronde files and then write to you again stressing the still unexplained facts, the missing links.  Do you know, I saw in the Sigmond Samuel Gallery years ago a collection of the charming water colours by William Armstrong, the man who went also with the Red River Expedition as a recording artist.  He painted two Miss de la Ronde, sitting on a rock cleaning fish.  Canoes nearby.  They did not know who that Miss de la Ronde could have been.  I was able to tell them and they gave me permission to have two transparencies made of this daughter of Louis Denys of Nipigon.  Also there existed, so a member of the family here was told, a Mrs. Evelyn McEwen, a magazine, perhaps a weekend magazine - it was in the forties she was told - that a story of Charles Francois Denys de la Ronde appeared with a picture of him with 2 or 3 daughters, in dresses of around the period 1820 -30 - probably from an oil painting.  Distant relatives had seen it in Britt, but it was thrown out, just lost.  She could never trace it , nor could I.  Of course, I could write and research on and on, but had to stop on account of my other important interests.  However, since you are of Nipigon District, perhaps you know things first hand.  I shall let you know presently more. -

Thanking you for your letter and interest, I remain
Sincerely yours,

Ida Schneider

P.S.  You should have written to me when Mr. Benedict showed you my letter. I found out since a lot of his ancestor Louis and wife Louise.-