When Caroline Duncan drives around the Swan Lake area, she sometimes ends up back in 1912.

ItB次元官网网址檚 a game of fantasy made vivid by the municipal archivistB次元官网网址檚 work cataloguing a massive photo collection taken by Anne Alice Girling, a photographer who moved to Swan Lake from England in 1912 and documented every aspect of life in young Saanich.

On Oct. 4, 100 years to the day since GirlingB次元官网网址檚 family arrived on the Island, Duncan and GirlingB次元官网网址檚 great-niece, Maureen Mackenzie, scanned through the prolific photographerB次元官网网址檚 work. The two women have gotten to know each other through the 916-image, 535-glass plate negative, 357-film negative and 24-print photo collection, which they continue to catalogue and discuss as Mackenzie uncovers new details from the family.

B次元官网网址淲e donB次元官网网址檛 always have this connection and looking through these, the family becomes very real to me,B次元官网网址� Duncan said. B次元官网网址�(Maureen) embodies all of the history. It brings all of the history completely to life.B次元官网网址�

Girling was born in Suffolk, England in 1880 and studied photography at Woolwich Polytechnic before immigrating to Canada with her parents and seven siblings. She was a tiny woman B次元官网网址� just four-foot-seven. She never married and kept a close relationship with her family, with whom she lived her entire life.

B次元官网网址淚f Annie was here, weB次元官网网址檇 ask what it was like coming over to Canada, but we donB次元官网网址檛 need to because we can see right here, with all of it documented, the life that she had through her photographs,B次元官网网址� Duncan said.

From 1912 until 1940 Girling shot still lifes, captured quiet moments in nature and experimented with adding colour to the glass negatives. Her photos detail life in Greater Victoria: regattas on the Gorge, heavy snowfalls, the legislature lit up at night and landscape shots at Swan Lake B次元官网网址� where she often took photos during brush burning for a dramatic smoky effect B次元官网网址� but she also kept her lens focused tightly on her own family.

She often posed her brothers and sisters and their pets, revealing the tender relationship she shared with her siblings, seven of them younger than herself.

The collection could easily have been lost or destroyed, but luck and one determined student kept it intact. Until 2008, the photos, along with GirlingB次元官网网址檚 1901 mahogany Instantograph camera were in the care of Lindsay Lambert, who had been given the collection 31 years earlier and kept them preserved without ever knowing to whom they had belonged.

The Girling family had moved from Swan Lake to Thetis Lake, then finally to a home near the University of Victoria on Finnerty Road, where Girling died in 1953, leaving behind her massive body of work.

Somehow the photo collection, abandoned in the home, remained intact. When UVic purchased the Girling home in the 1950s, a university staffer discovered the images and held onto them until 1977. He then passed them to Lambert, a UVic theatre student with a strong interest in vintage technologies.

Lambert eventually moved to Ontario. He attempted to give the photos and negatives to museums, but without any reference details, archivists were reluctant to take the donation.

Four years ago next month, Lambert was visiting Victoria, equipped with the entire collection in hopes of donating the mystery to the Saanich archives. On that trip he happened to read a letter to the editor in the Times Colonist from MackenzieB次元官网网址檚 husband Richard, who made reference to one of her great uncles pictured in the collection. Lambert finally matched a name to the work.

Lambert called the Mackenzies, and suddenly Maureen had a tea crate with nearly 1,000 photographic insights into family members she remembers meeting just once as a young child.

B次元官网网址淚t was wonderful,B次元官网网址� Lambert said. B次元官网网址淓verything came together beautifully. B次元官网网址� I hung on to (the collection) for all those years for a reason.B次元官网网址�

But the notion of scanning nearly 1,000 glass plate negatives, before the identification process could even begin, kept the archivist grounded during the windfall.

B次元官网网址�(Lindsay) was showing us the camera and showing us the negatives, giving us a history lesson and I was just starting to get a sense of the significance. I was a little overwhelmed with the work ahead,B次元官网网址� Duncan said.

While the bulk of the process was completed in 2008, additional details continue to trickle in today. Every November since 2008, Duncan, Mackenzie and Lambert go on an Girling adventure to uncover elements of the familyB次元官网网址檚 past.

Last year they visited the site of the familyB次元官网网址檚 Ralph Street home, which is now a part of the Swan Lake-Christmas Nature Sanctuary. There, they could see evidence of the homeB次元官网网址檚 foundation and canary wheat grass planted by the Girlings. This year theyB次元官网网址檒l continue along a similar adventure, visiting Greater Victoria locations that Girling photographed.

B次元官网网址淚 go to auctions downtown and I find boxes of photographs B次元官网网址� Nobody knows who they are and theyB次元官网网址檙e not valued in the same way,B次元官网网址� Duncan said. B次元官网网址淭hereB次元官网网址檚 a story behind it and that story has been lost and this is why this is such a significant collection B次元官网网址� the story hasnB次元官网网址檛 been lost, itB次元官网网址檚 stayed with it and has been protected and preserved and found its way home.B次元官网网址�

B次元官网网址淚tB次元官网网址檚 a real gift,B次元官网网址� Mackenzie said. B次元官网网址淚 always tell Lindsay that. ItB次元官网网址檚 like it was meant to be.B次元官网网址�

See Anne Alice GirlingB次元官网网址檚 photos at the Arts Centre at Cedar Hill until Oct. 28. See her exhibit online through the Saanich archives at this .

nnorth@saanichnews.com