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Who you gonna call? The ghost-hunting Aykroyds

Fun fact: The Aykroyds love ghosts! And I think it can be logically concluded from this article that if you grow up in a haunted farmhouse in Ontario, you are destined to become a famous movie star. Sweet. Seriously though, let’s hope he makes an appearance on Celebrity Ghost Stories! This article is basically about Dan Aykroyd’s father, who recently published a book on ghosts (and as a side note, typing out “Aykroyd” requires more concentration than I’m used to!)

Father-and-son ghostbusters: For Dan Aykroyd's father, Peter Aykroyd, the whispered tales from the parlor of his family's 19th-century Ontario farmhouse were the stuff of a new book, A History of Ghosts.Aykroyd is famous for starring in the 1984 blockbuster movie Ghostbusters, which he co-wrote. But before the comedy about three eccentric parapsychologists-turned-ghost-exterminators came to be, it was what he overheard here in his family’s 19th-century farmhouse parlor that led him down the paranormal path.

“I remember when I was about 4 or 5 my grandparents and mom and dad discussing what went on in this room,” says Aykroyd, 57. “It was all in hushed tones, as if I wasn’t supposed to hear. It was about the séances that were held here.”

The elder Aykroyd, 87, is dead serious in his analysis of spirits, and not just those who, according to the Aykroyds, float around the family compound here north of Kingston.

The elder Aykroyd is even an original source. He stood in the parlor’s cellar doorway some 80 years ago, spying on a séance hosted by his grandfather, Dr. Samuel A. Aykroyd. The book is based on 83 handwritten journals left by Samuel.

“I knew something important was going on. I just didn’t know what,” the elder Aykroyd says.