July 23, 2005 I went on a road trip to Kingston with Steve Dietrich , Debbie Bennett and Andrew Ostrander Saturday we visited Fort Henry and did the downtown ghost walk in the evening then visited Skeleton Park
(McBurney Park) this attractive playground was once a cemetery from 1825-1893 The story goes not all the graves were moved when the cemetery fell in disrepair and between 3000-6000 bodies may still be buried there and in the close vicinity under streets and even in   backyards. Today some of the headstones are starting to show themselves through the ground.

 After returning home on the Sunday we realized that we had an interesting picture taken at Fort Henry, which we thought may have been an apparition in motion...I know what your thinking an apparition, clearly someone walking in front of the camera, this was not the case at all. The faded body and very much extended neck left us to do more investigation. After some time trying to re-create the photo and adjust it on Photoshop we realized we needed to venture back to Kingston to try and re-create it at the same location and time as it was taken.

 Saturday August 27, 2005 we headed back to Fort Henry to re-create the photo the best we could. After approx 50 photos we are comfortable we successfully re-created it the best we could. It just took the exact lighting to make the re-creation. 

 The above picture was taken at Fort Henry in Kingston on July 23, 2005 this location is reported to be haunted and also a 4 hour drive from Barrie. Our visit was not an investigation just a day trip. It was a hot sunny day and didn’t experience paranormal during our visit.

 After arriving home and going through all my 700 photograps, 3 were in question 2 of them were in conjunction with this one. Taking 3-5 photos a the same time holding the camera perfectly still. The first one had nothing in it, the second has this questionable picture and the 3rd contained nothing. So my first thought was what was this. I was a bit exited thinking this was the one!! After doing some research I found that a man named Von Schultz was hung on the fort grounds on December 8th, 1838. in a photo we found it looked like he had a longer neck than the average person “BINGO” this had to be him…………..Well not so fast, I immediately started to re-create this photo in different lighting conditions with different people walking in front of the camera at different speeds just to be sure someone hadn’t done it accidentally and maybe I just couldn’t remember it. Did someone walk in front while I was taking pictures? I still could not duplicate this photo, not even close, I even used photo shop to try and breakdown this photo. It was no use I couldn’t duplicate it.

 So what we did was the weekend after we drove back to Kingston back to Fort Henry, YES 4 HOURS to try and duplicate this photo. Everyone attended except my son (Andrew) who was the missing link to this puzzle. After arriving back at the fort we immediately started taking photos in that same room. Keeping in mind I used the same camera, media (camera) card, same camera settings and even took a few minutes to make sure I was standing in almost the exact same spot the picture was taken originally as I had brought this photo with me to make sure everything in this “re-creation” would be perfect. After doing this, the pictures were still not quite the same. So we waited until the exact time of day the original photo was taken. The sun at that time was shineing in the door in the next room to the one we were in when the questionable photo was taken. Sure enough we were able to come very close to duplicating this photo as being someone walking in front of the camera possibly being Andrew.

 Maybe your thinking I should of noticed this at the time, again this was not an official investigation, but this location was reported to be haunted! sure enough after doing some homework the hallway we took this picture in had had reports of an apparition walking the hallway.

 I guess in closing this is what we asnvestigators have to do if it's necessary to duplicate evidence before providing it to the general public as “evidence”. We were almost fooled and thought for sure this was the “ONE”, the ghost picture of the century, but sadly after breaking it down to the best of our abilities and driving 4 hours to try and duplicate it that was not the case…

Jeff Ostrander

 I thought I would take some time and write out some invstigation experiments that Jeffs-Paranormal Investigations and The Haunted-Barie Meetup Group use frequestly.These experiments can only be used inside in a contrlled environment to avoid inconclusive results. Our experiments page will be on going keep checking back for new ideas and exeriments.

 A quick update on what I have been up to, I'm currently very active doing investigations in Simcoe County and  have a few projects in the works also planning investigations for the winter of 2005/2006.
The unfortunate thing is the on going projects are confidential.

 Well it’s been a long time sine I've added to this page, so here's an update of what’s going on. After the Paranormal Summit I joined a group called PPRI (Paranormal Phenomena Research & Investigation) I'm happy about this new relationship and looking forward to future investigations with them.

 Last night October 21, 2005 I had the pleasure of meeting Sharon Bamford, a writer for the Barrie Advance who is currently working on stories about haunted locations in the Barrie area. We talked a bit about our interest in the paranormal, the equipment I use, some techniques and investigations I have been on.
We then ventured out to a reported haunted location in the Barrie area, which I have investigated before. Keep an eye out in the Barrie Advance for more details on our visit.

 I would like to start by saying what a busy fall it’s been all of a sudden it’s winter. I had the opportunity of going to the House of 11.11 seminars at the Barrie library. I got to meet some great people with great stories. It certainly made me think a bit more about spirituality and how it can possibly help during an investigation. Also I have been asked to possibly do a seminar on paranormal investigating, if you are interested in this topic, please send me off an email and let me know your thoughts on what topics you would like covered?

 I went on a road trip to the Ottawa Jail November 12-13 with Steve, Debbie, Michele and Kate I am still combing through the investigation material. Right now it looks like I will be venturing back out there as I have some to do some experiments. I did get some interesting things on audio and video. Are they paranormal? At this time I can’t say without some experimenting. Where the evp was captured to make sure it wasn't naturally caused.

 Last but not least November 30 2005, I had the opportunity to do another segment with Creepy Canada, I had the pleasure of meeting Phil and Simon who was directing the episode.

 This was shot at Skeleton Park in Kingston Ontario. Picture approx 9000 bodies buried and only 400 removed and re-located as planned, when the relocation became very expensive the rest of the relocation consisted of toppling the stones, covering the cemetery with earth and converting it to a playground. Umm that’s ok except the stones are starting to come to the surface over the years.

 The exact number of unmarked burials is unknown but is believed to be in the thousands.  This episode is going to be a must see, as soon as I get a release date I will post it.

 Well another investigation in the Rolling Hills Research Center in East Bethany, New York has passed sadly the bitter cold night cut our investigation short. We arrived at 8.30pm and left the building at 2.30am, slightly short of the 5.30 goal we had set.

 Lori did provide us with some heat to keep the groups warm, but for the most part this location was NOT HEATED. To give you an idea when you walk in the front hallway to your right is another hallway, it leads to some of the stores in the country mall, and to your left, you have the snack bar area which was kept heated. The rest of the building including the basement, 2nd and 3rd floors were unfortunately exposed to the bitter cold temperature mother nature had to offer.

 I documented the outside temperature fluctuating near –14 before entering the building, the indoor temperature was slightly below 0 and colder depending on were in the building you were at the time of the thermometer reading.

 During the evening Kate and Sue were able to pick up on some of the entities that still roamed the halls of Rolling Hills, Marcy was able to pick up on the sadness which in "her words" were stained in the walls, but as the night went on the priorities were only to keep warm and the investigation became non important. I did prepare my equipment for the long haul of the night; it outlasted me.

 I would like to start by saying hello to everyone who've recently sent me emails. It’s nice to meet new people in the Barrie are who are interested in the field of paranormal studies as I have been for many years.

 Now that spring is finally here it’s time for some outdoor investigations and will be nice to have some good weather to travel to distant investigations. I currently have some projects on the go in Cambridge, Fort Erie and Parry Sound which I hope to get involved with this summer.

 Over the winter months I have picked up some new surveillance cameras with infrared night vision, which I will be recording on new Panasonic VCR’S. I've been doing some extensive experimenting with them so when in the field I will hopefully be able to troubleshoot problems if they occur.

 By dong indoor esting in my home I will hopefully avoid any false proof positives if anything is picked up either with the audio or video. I also purchased a Temperature Base unit with remote sensors, with these I can monitor the temperature for locations up to 300’ away, either in a locked off room or area in a location.

 So an investigators work is never done even though I may not be on site Investigating there are always lots of things to do to prepare for future investigations. One last thing I would like to mention for anyone interested on September 8,9,10 there is a Psychic Fair at the Barrie Center, I will pass on more details on this event as soon as I get them.

 Looks like things have slowed down slightly as the emails, photos and the calls about things going bump in the night have slowed down, after pondering possible reasons I thought to myself could it be that Halloween is distant enough behind us that the average person is not as open to talk about their experiences with a strange person who investigates the paranormal? or could it be there have not been any recent ghost related movies at the theatres within recent months?

 On the other hand, there is an overwhelming amount of shows on TV related to ghosts, hauntings and the paranormal, such as the new season of Creepy Canada airing on OLN, Rescue Mediums, Most Haunted, Derick Accorah’s “Ghost Towns” and many more.

 I have also been working on some experiments, one of which, thinking of something that would catch a spirits attention, something that we all as humans react to. Something that would “turn-your head” sort of speak.

 First off I hope everyone is having a wonderful summer. It's been hot no question about that. I am very happy to have met Violet Aston, a Reiki Master/Teacher/Psychic from Barrie, we have been working together on building a team relationship, which basically means we have been working on running scientific data beside the psychic impressions she is able to pick up at various haunted locations. We are also working on matching historical data with the impressions she may receive before and also during an investigation. The data collected will be on going for sometime.
We have also been working on some new investigations together and I am hoping to be able to release details as soon as they become available.

July 15, 2006

I did an investigation with Golden Horseshoe Ghost Haunts at a private residence in Burlington, I am currently working on watching 24 hours of video and writing a report on that location, unfortunately I will not be able to post my finding on this one.

July 22, 2006

 I attended a seminar hosted by Matthew of Toronto Ghosts and Sue Darroch of Pararesearchers, In my opinion it was very informative, they gave a briefing on the Humber River area hauntings, also for the future investigators a hands on seminar on the use of paranormal “tools of the trade” including Video camera’s, still 35mm camera’s EMF meters, tape recorders, also different temperature recording devises which included do’s and dont's to avoid getting false proof of paranormal activity at any haunted location.

July 29/30 2006

 Now this was one hot weekend!! It was a bit warm for the average paranormal investigator visiting Fort Henry and the Ottawa Jail you guessed it, these were the locations myself, Steve and Debbie from Golden Horseshoe Ghost Haunts visited in the blistering heat.

 While in Ottawa, we had the opportunity to eat at Friday’s Roast Beef House, once a doctor’s office is reported to be haunted. For anyone venturing there it was a bit expensive  ($20-$30) per plate, but on the other hand the food was outstanding! if you don’t mind your wallet shrinking a bit it’s well worth the money not to mention upon my arrival mentioning I was a paranormal investigator I was offered a brief tour which was very informative.

Thanks to the staff of Fridays Roast Beef House

 

 Hi everyone, I hope you all had a wonderful work week? for me it’s been questionable but it’s almost over as I only have 8 hours to go. As most of my friends know this past weekend I was In Louisville Kentucky for the Mid-South Conference. Thanks for LGHS for putting on this event, I can’t imagine the planning it took to make this event run smoothly although in the future look for such an event to come to the Burlington Ontario CANADA area!! Opps did I say that…

On Friday Violet and I left Barrie at 1:00am on the nose, headed to Hamilton to pick up Debbie and Steve from there headed for Louisville Kentucky! A road trip we've been waiting a long time for, it was hard to believe September 22 was finally upon us.

 We arrived in Louisville on Friday afternoon luckily before the huge storm hit. In the evening we were battered by heavy winds and rain. Throughout the evening we were awoken several times to car alarms going off from the lightning strikes close to our hotel.

 Saturday morning we had our first opportunity to wonder around the conference to see the familiar faces drove a long way to meet. Some looked a little tired from a planned investigation on the Friday night that we could'nt attend as after the drive down we were in need of much required sleep. We spent the day taking in the seminars some were very informative others were just not my cup of tea, but if “I am a paranormal investigator” I need to learn about everything and not just ghosts. I thought the hour they were given to speak may have a bit short at least for the ones who were sharing the “ghost” information such as Vince Wilson, John Zaffis and Ron Milionie. I know myself talking with people on a certain topic can easily cover an hour hats off to them for stuffing the highlights of years of information in a very short period of time.

 Saturday night’s investigation at the Palace Theatre was another story, and I can’t really blame LGHS for this event after all they have no idea who we are or anyone else for that matter. We were basically put in groups of 10 and spent the night in certain areas well this is not the way to conduct an investigation unless your doing a vigil on “Most Haunted” but I'm sure there were stipulations made by the theatre that had to be followed. I wish I had known about the details of the investigation before paying my $50.00.

If anyone from LHGS reads this it’s all-good I’m just typing my thoughts. This is a beautiful place and having strangers wondering off by themselves would The investigation was quiet; although the girls did pick up on some entities throughout the night.

 Sunday was another day of seminars and meeting great people the weekend was taking it’s toll as we saw a lot of people from Saturday’s night investigation. We did spend some time talking to John Zaffis. Ladies and gentlemen this is one of the nicest people I have ever met! willing to share information and willing to help people so we may learn together hats off John. I also met Scott L from Ghostly Talk, I wish we had more time to talk but that will give me more reason to keep going these conferences in the USA. I realize even more in Canada we are in our own world, knowhere near as open as the Americans as far as paranormal studies go, maybe they have more resources than us or maybe it’s because we are taxed to death by the government and unable to buy the necessary equipment to move ahead in the end we will hopfully work as one entity.

 Sunday evening we decided we were going to find Waverly and see if it was possibly open for tours. Sadly it wasn't and were only to make it as far as the gate and catch a small glimpse of the 800,000 square foot building once used as a TB hospital. This building is undergoing a slow restoration. After snapping a few photos from the gate we headed back to the hotel to rest and pack for the drive home on Monday. Well I'm going to wrap this up. Mondays drive home was trouble free and having a easy border crossing certainly helped make that happen.
Thanks for stopping in.

Jeff Ostrander

 It's been quite awhile since I have posted anything on this page almost 2 years to be exact, I'm hoping that will change and get some updates on here monthly even if it's just a couple of lines.  I will now attempt to  put up 2 years worth of "what's new" updates or "blogs" as everyone calls them. Briefly running through 2007 and into 2008 which was another busy year gone by.

 2007 started off by me Meeting some great people who I have become good friends with, Lynn, Gina, Suzanne and Jeff H.

 People who are a partial make up of what Jeff's Paranormal Investigations is today. March 2007 I have to say is the most memorable as "The Haunted Barrie Meet up Group" was born,  I knew this was going to be a success as our first meet up we had a room full of eager paranormal enthusiasts. People wanting to get out and talk about their experiences in a place where the person listening isn't going to run away or give them "the look" you know what I mean.

 Try and tell your friends you've just seen a ghost! You may be looking for new friends. 2007 was filled with some amazing meet up events from our open mic meet up, bbq, investigations, social meetings and being a part of several ghost walks that Tottenham and Alliston have put on we also attended the historic walks hosted by the City of Barrie.

April 2007

 I did a return investigation to the Ohio State Reformatory in Mansfield Ohio it was a quiet night with not a lot of activity. Of course when we went (April) the weather was supposed to be fairly good it turned out we went into a winter storm wih snow and freezing rain.

October 2007

 The Haunted Barrie Meet up Group had it's very first bus trip to the well known haunted Ottawa Jail. 56 people boarded a bus and off to Ottawa we went. That was an amazing experience from the dinner at Fridays Roast beef House, the ghost walk of Ottawa and the jail itself with an evening of ouija sessions and investigating. Most members didn't even sleep they saved that for the ride home!

December 2007

 I had the opportunity to investigate the Bayview Wildwood Resort in Port Stanton, this would be a corner stone as I captured one of my best evp's ever. With only 6 of us in the main building on the 21st of December. We had captured a class B evp of a past employee. This was confirmed by several staff members during our revealing of information.

January 2008

 The Haunted Barrie Meetup Group investigated the Bayview Wildwood Resort  this time my long time friend Steve Dietrich from Golden Horseshoe Ghost Haunts did an equipment seminar for our members. The outcome was positive and looking forward to having him investigate with us in the many years ahead.

February 2008

 Another important date as Jeff's Paranormal Investigations did our first investigation of the "Museum on the Boyne" in Alliston, although nothing happened during that investigation we were able to confirm that the ghost "FRED" the museum had been calling for years, was actually named ANDREW. He has made his appreciation clear as sometimes when his name was called by staff members he has been heard walking towards them.

 This Investigation created somewhat of a bond with the museum as we are on Investigation #9 and 10 this coming October.

March 31 2008

 During one of our investigations at the Museum on the Boyne we had 4 out of 5 VCR units in the base area shut down. Sounds explainable except there was a timeline they shut down one at a time 1,2,1 and the final one took 4 seconds from the one before. Doreen who was listening for evps in the same room received a tug on her shoulder, a second or so before with a little female person saying "WATCH THIS"  best of all I have this captured on video! Camera F, we hope that the base area is in a room that's not haunted but thats not always the case. Although I wasn't in this room at the time, the members present now have an experience of a lifetime to ponder and try to explain.

May and June 2008

 Another couple of busy months returning to the Bayview Wildwood Resort on May 3 with 20+ investigators documenting different forms of paranormal phenomena. Later on in May we investigated the Black Episcopal Church on the 3rd line of Oro and Old Barrie Road. That was another interesting investigation as it reminded me that daytime investigation sometines just don't work due to the daytime traffic in the area. We hung in there trying different forms of spirit contact as we didn't even know if this location was haunted. The psychics present picked on some residual imprints but no actual grounded spirits when we were there.

 May 31

 I was honoured to have the opportunity to investigate the childhood home of William Avery Bishop in Owen Sound a National Historic Site. During the set up of our equipment we captured an amazing class B evp of someone shouting at myself and Tara..Mind you we didn't find this out until we went through our evidence in the weeks to follow. I am truly looking forward to the next 2 upcoming investigations in 2008 one with meet up and one with the public from Owen Sound and surrounding areas.

July 2008

 I headed down to the Haunted America Conference in Decateur Illinios, That was an interesting experience, ever see a town where the stores downtown are closed on Saturdays and Sundays? I wonder how such a town would survive. The conference itself was good I met some great people and enjoyed the conference. Although some of the key speakers did cancel out and honestly didn't learn as much as I was hoping. I did learn that sending a group of 50+ people into a haunted location with just cameras and recorders just isn't going to work for me. And for those of you who have had the oppertunity to investigate with me know what I'm talking about.

 That's all for now summer is winding down and everyone is getting there children ready for school, me included! my oldest son Andrew is heading off to College. Take care and I hope to go the opportunity to investigate with you or even meet with you at one of our upcoming social events.

Jeff Ostrander

Hello to everyone visiting Jeff Ostrander.com, this new adventure will bring myself, Jeff's Paranormal Investigations and The Haunted Barrie Meetup Group all under one website for information, events and also will be a resource for those of you who are thinking of getting into the field of paranormal studies.

I have a busy week coming up with my visit to The King Township Museum on Friday October 30, 2009 . Myself Tara and Kelly have been invited to set up and represent The Haunted Barrie Meetup Group. The museum is offering a haunted bus tour of the King area and the museum will be the last stop where we're going to be setting up some evp listening stations showing videos, doing experiments, monitoring cameras, doing evp work and best of all talking to 30 potentially very excited people who have never seen an investigation set up of even been involved in an EVP session of any kind.

Saturday night October 31, 2009 I'll be at Wickies Pub for the HBM fist annual Halloween Party. My costume is ready and I'm very excited as I haven't been to a halloween party in many years, this should be interesting.

 As I get my costume ready for tonights HBM Halloween party I was reflecting on last nights public event at the King Township Museum. The Museum had a "haunted" bus tour where they took 30+ people to different haunted locations around the King area while explaining the ghostly happenings.

 When they arrived back at the museum I spent some time talking to
them about what I do as an investigator, The Haunted Barrie Meetup.

 We had also planned on doing 2 EVP sessions to give them the experience of being involved in one, with 15 people this would be a challenge. We arranged to have half the people head to the school house for the first session as I headed up there I noticed we had all 30+ people there. Seeing people so excited about being there and participating in a form of spirit communication is absolutely amazing! Thanks to Kathleen and Heather for having me out and Tara and Kelly for helping me put this together I can't wait for next year which I assure you it will bigger and better!

 As winter approaches, myself and 17 members of The Haunted Barrie Meetup Group prepare for this weekends investigation at the Inn at the Falls in Bracebridge, a location I’ve been wanted to get back to since last years Chasing Ghosts and Angels event with Andrew Hind and Maria de Silva.

My first ever investigation here was in 2005 when Steve, Debbie and myself focussed an investigation in room 105. I remember the bell we put on the chair by the window in hopes of getting a sound or a capture. Nothing happened until in the early morning hours Steve captured an EVP of a male voice mimicking him counting down an audiotape. Last year in the parlour we captured an EVP of a little girl so what will this weekend bring?

The last few weeks I’ve been preparing investigation maps, equipment positioning and experiments we’re going to execute this time out, the time has come just days away. Tapes are labelled, batteries are charged and the forms are filled out

 We sit in the comfort of our homes relaxing watching television while thousands of our military personnel are in other parts of our world fighting for our freedom. We are very lucky to be born in such a wonderful place, a place with a balanced society a place where we don't have to worry about mortar shells exploding around us. Hats off to the men, women and their families for fighting for our freedom and those who have made the ultimate sacrifice in the past for us.

Lest we forget.

Article date

 Finally I’ve started to recover from this past weekends trip to the Ohio State Reformatory, the weather was great which made the drive down seem much shorter than it really is. I hadn’t been to the prison since my last investigation there in 2007. You know the type where you go in with 100 people and head for the hot spots with as much equipment as you can carry trying to get a capture. We’ve all done it after all that’s where I started as well.

 Over the past 4 years working on different methods to make a controlled investigation run smoothly I’ve come to realize it seems like I have been doing it this way all along throughout the 10+ years of investigating ghosts. Some of you may of heard of me talk about this but it’s really a discipline, checking equipment before an investigation, filling out investigation forms and documenting every setup, experiment and investigators movement throughout the investigation on site all in preparation for reviewing data when you leave the location.

 Tara, Lynn and myself spent 2.5 hours mapping, videotaping and photographing key areas of the prison for our May 2010 investigation, I really feel I could head there tomorrow set up and execute a well put together investigation, the feeling of knowing how well the investigation will turn out makes it all worth while.

 This weekend I’m heading over to the Orillia Opera House to prepare for Februarys fundraiser investigation for a local charity. Thank you to everyone involved for making that happen. I’ve wanted to investigate this location for several years and I am just days away from walking through it’s front doors. This will certainly be a cornerstone investigation of 2010.