This is a history of the early pioneering families of Vancouver Island: the Garrards, Watsons, Burdetts, and Maitland-Dougalls, who settled in Port Alberni, Nanaimo, Duncan, Tofino, Victoria, and the Lennard Island Lighthouse. The pedigree is recorded right back to King Edward I of England, who married twice: first to Eleanor of Castile, the ancestor of the Garrards, and then to Margaret of France, the ancestor of the Burdetts. Nineteen generations later, the two families merged when Francis Thomas Garrard (1823-1913) married Eliza Mary Burdett (1840-1942).

My hope, in compiling these stories through photos, letters, newspaper articles, journals and many years of genealogical research, is that I might shine a light on the strength, bravery, and thirst for adventure that brought these pioneers to the remote Canadian West Coast. In spite of the countless hardships and losses these people endured, they forged on with admirable resilience and lack of self-pity, still able to love and devote themselves to their communities and their families, and to find joy and meaning in life.