Abstract

The Benares estate is a nineteenth century farmstead located in Mississauga which has been home for over 150 years to the Harris family. In addition to good documentary evidence, there is a wealth of oral tradition from living descendants of the family. Much of this revolves around two fires which occurred in the mid-1800's. The problem of integrating the oral history and documentary evidence with the archaeological data to establish context is not uncommon on historic sites. Focusing on the 1836 summer kitchen, which survived the fire(s), the specific problems encountered in applying the oral histories and the documents to the archaeological evidence at the Benares estate will be discussed.