Lyn Lunsted only meant to pass through Hamilton on her way to Vancouver.
Somehow, along the way, she ended up becoming a Waterdown resident and the town archivist and historian.
In 2009, Lunsted retired from a 35-year career in business computer systems. The plan was to move west to Vancouver, where her sister lives, but when her daughter decided to stay in Hamilton after graduating from Queen's University, plans changed.
That Saturday, Lunsted's husband cancelled their tickets to Vancouver. By Monday he had found a new home for them in Waterdown.
“Wednesday we had a house in Waterdown, and then we liked it here. It was a small town, really community-oriented,” she said.
Lunsted’s neighbour, Don Woods, was working on a book about the history of the town’s mills — The Mills of Waterdown: the growth of an Ontario Village 1790 to 1915.
“I had offered to clean up the maps. He typed out little things and then glued them on. I said I can fix that for you, and he said, ‘Well, you've got to come to the archives,’” she said.
She began volunteering in 2010, then took over from Sylvia Wray as archivist in 2015, when the collection was moved to the newly built Waterdown Library. Wray had been town archivist for 30 years when Lunsted took over.
Early on in her career, Lunsted worked as an archivist for the Royal Bank of Canada. In her retirement, as a volunteer, she has continued that work.
“I'm here five days a week,” Lunsted said. “It’s like a job. I’m always finding neat things.”
Lunsted is now a familiar face at the Waterdown Library, writes FlamboroughToday's popular Then and Now and Remember This columns, and is a member of the Hamilton Municipal Heritage Committee.
From Monday to Friday, Lunsted is often in the Flamborough Archives room at the Waterdown Library, helping people research their family histories, discovering old ghost stories from the Flamborough area, protecting and storing photos, old newspaper copies, documents and even a handmade wooden dollhouse. She also works with students over the summer.
Lunsted is currently working on a display about Flamborough photography through the decades. The display is at the Waterdown Library, near the front windows.
For Lunsted, working at the archives means learning something new all the time — and working with local residents to uncover Flamborough's history.
"There's a lot of things that I've learned from reading and talking to people," she said.
