The Reach P164  Silva family of Kilgard

Pete Silva, Sarah Vedder and Ambrose Silver (the current pronunciation of the Silva family name)
 
Periods of glaciations and subsequent thawing  had re-shaped the Abbotsford area to its present contour and the melting Sumas Glacier helped to establish and feed the new Fraser River.  Between 10,000 and 8,000 years ago the first early human occupation occurred when migratory hunter-gatherers made their way here.  By 5,000 to 4,000 years ago human occupation became more sedentary thanks to the abundance of salmon in the now-established Fraser River.  By about 3,000 years ago, the Sto-lo, meaning People of the River, had a highly-evolved culture and a population that numbered in the tens of thousands.

Contact with European explorers brought disease that wiped out two-thirds of the Sto-lo and Simon Fraser’s 1808 exploration of the Fraser Valley opened the way for white settlers to establish themselves.  The 1858 gold rush brought increased settlement and the construction of the Kilgard Fire Brick plant on the south side of Sumas Mountain brought employment and additional European immigration to the area.  The village of Kilgard was home not only to the First Nations people who had occupied the Sumas area for generations but developed into a thriving community of British, German, Italian and Portuguese immigrants.  Intermarriages resulted in the names of the Sto-lo families who reside in the area today.