This bilingual (French/English) fonds contains financial records, daily journals, and a short family history created by Jules Robinet over more than six decades of business, family, and community life in Sandwich and Tecumseh. Since Robinet employed and/or entered business partnerships with many family members and neighbours, the records document intertwined elements of both his personal and professional activities. The journals in particular capture elements of daily life within a large Franco-Ontarian family during an eventful half-century of war and economic depression. Also included is a book of biographies about notable men in Essex County, inscribed by the author to Robinet, and a modern article about Robinet’s local significance as a winemaker and Francophone community figure.

This fonds contains records created ca. 1979-1981 in an attempt to identify and catalogue historical records found in both urban and rural parts of Essex and Kent counties which could be of use to those interested in local and family history. At the time, most of these records were not held in formal archives or other repositories, but rather were inactive files held on-site in the institutions that created them. The fonds has been divided into two series. Series I contains the original index cards used in the field to gather data for the Ontario’s Heritage project (ca. 1980-1981?) from both Essex and Kent County locations. These remain as much as possible in their original order, arranged by geographic location and institution. Series II contains a bound copy of the Windsor Archival Project report (1979) focusing on city records, and an incomplete typescript draft of Ontario’s Heritage: A Guide to Archival Resources, Vol. 10 Essex and Kent Counties which includes only Essex County records (ca. 1981?).

Although some of the record collections detailed have subsequently been donated to archives (including Leddy Library Archives & Special Collections), the index cards and reports still remain a valuable starting point for those seeking leads on archival sources.