9 December 2023
Great Moments in Genealogy
Purleigh’s Brick Walls: Discovering the Brotherhood Colony in Purleigh, Essex
Veronica Scrimger
This presentation revealed a happy moment when Veronica determined that her great-grandfather, Walter Birtles, and his young family joined the Brotherhood Colony in Essex in 1897. There was a further great moment when she learned of the link between the colony and the immigration of the Doukhobors to western Canada in 1899.
A Bible Hunt, with Another Stone House at the End!
Beth Adams
Beth Adams got hooked on genealogy when her Aunt Charlotte took her and her mother to visit the Betts House in Pickering. The house was fantastic—but the family bible Myra got out to show them was the clincher! Inside that bible was a typewritten transcript of the family pages from an even older bible! This presentation outlines a 30-year search for Aaron’s bible.
It Could Have Been a Movie: Charles Roper & His Fiddle
Nancy Higgins
A family story of a relative who sailed the seas, played the troops into battle with a fiddle made of a tin and also played for the Prince of Wales. Fact or fiction or the plot line for a movie? The presentation explores the story behind a picture of a Charles Roper standing on a table playing a violin, along with an unattributed newspaper article about this event.
A Connection to Scotland in Italy
Carol Annett
Who does Scottish family history research in Italy? Carol did. Finding an abandoned 17th-century Scottish Catholic church in Rome with connections to her 19th-century Highland ancestors in Scotland was a highlight of Carol’s recent holiday in Italy. This Great Moment related to her ongoing exploration of the historical background of her Scottish Catholic forebears.
18 November 2023
Back to Basics: Military Service
Ken McKinlay
Finding records of those who served in the British military can be challenging due to record keeping issues, the loss of many First World War personnel records during the Second World War due to fire, and also privacy restrictions. In this Back to Basics session Ken looked at where to find the surviving records.
"We Will Remember Them" (Family stories from times of war)
One family’s military service 1916 to 2015
Susan Davis
When veteran Bob Davis stopped to count up how members of his extended family had served in the military, he came up with 32 mini-bios of those who had served in the First, Second or Korean wars or on NATO missions.
Remembering Uncle Melbourne
Sue Lambeth
Sue Lambeth has always wanted to know about her Uncle Melbourne and his life. Her cousin Mel Fearman (Uncle Melbourne’s namesake) felt the same way. Mel and Sue had a few old photographs and a small amount of memorabilia related to Uncle Melbourne’s service in World War I. Could they put together these clues together to write a story in remembrance of Uncle Melbourne’s life?
Ernest Alfred Polley, aka James Brett, an ANZAC
Linda Reid
Linda's Irish grandfather deserted the Australian navy to join the Australian army under an alias and his request for a pardon after the war provided the details of the places where he had fought.
A Cyclist’s War: A Grandfather and a Great-Uncle in the Canadian Corps Cyclist Battalion
Mary-Lou Simac
Two of Mary-Lou Simac’s relatives answered the call to enlist in the Canadian Expeditionary Force in the First World War. Both joined the Canadian Corps Cyclist Battalion, serving in France and Belgium. Her grandfather spent much of his time overseas in an unexpected way and her great-uncle suffered a fate that became all too common. Mary-Lou will relate their stories using original photographs, war diaries, personnel records and family memorabilia.
My Grandparents' War or Why I'm a Canadian
Barbara Tose
When Olive Burdick married Thomas Tose, she expected to live in England for the rest of her life but two events of WW I changed all that.
14 October 2023
Back to Basics: Ireland
Ken McKinlay
Researching ancestors in Ireland can often be a challenge due to many issues, not the least being the tragic events at the Four Courts in 1922. In this Back to Basics talk, Ken highlights the sites and resources that might just help break through your Irish brick walls.
From Derry to the Pontiac: The Dales of Clarendon
Nancy Dale Conroy
Local author, Nancy Dale Conroy, walked us through her experiences in researching and writing the story of her Dale ancestors’ journey from Derry to the Pontiac. The story begins in Ulster in the seventeenth century and ends in the early twentieth century in Clarendon Township, Quebec. The story documents the experiences of the Dales as they adapted to the wilderness and as they contributed significantly to the founding of the village of Shawville, Quebec.
9 September 2023
Back to Basics: England and Wales
Ken McKinlay
Ken began his British Isles Back to Basics series by looking at the various key collections and sites that can help us when researching our kin in England and Wales.
To give a taste of the great content in this series, the video of this first presentation is available to the public.
Locations and Occupations: Using Census Analysis to Explore Family Dispersion
Paul Cripwell
Paul’s presentation covered his secondary research towards a one-name study on his family name and the dispersion of the Cripwell families around England.
10 June 2023
Great Moments in Genealogy
Introducing the Cripwells
Paul Cripwell
This rare and unusual surname has its origins in southern Nottinghamshire and dates back to the mid-16th century. This is as far back as Church of England Records go. This presentation traced the descendants from the earliest Cripwells to the presenter. A second portion covers the spread of this surname throughout England and overseas.
Message from the Grave: Desperately Seeking Charity Gerow
Jane Simpson
Charity Gerow was Jane’s 6th great-aunt and her biggest brick wall. Jane outlined the highlights of her search.
A Family Mystery Solved through Research and DNA
Susan Smart
When Susan’s grandfather died in 1915, her grandmother left her two young daughters with a Toronto family, returning to England with her son, Susan's father. What became of these girls? What kind of a life did they have? Susan’s father never knew and her grandmother wouldn’t talk about it. A combination of research and DNA finally solved the family mystery.
Finding Archy Ban Egypt
Carol Annett
While researching her 4th great-grandfather, Archibald Gillies, Carol learned that he had an unusual nickname. This presentation is about several great moments she experienced while looking for Archy Ban Egypt.
13 May 2023
Zotero - Reasons Why You Need It While Doing Your Family History Research
Dena Palamedes
Whether you are a pro at citations or you struggle to cite your sources at a minimal level, Zotero is the perfect tool for genealogists. Dena provided an overview of Zotero and its power so you can cite like a pro!
New Netherland Roots of Canadians
Brian Laurie-Beaumont
Despite all the attention on the Pilgrims and Plymouth Colony, many Canadians have roots in a contemporary competitor, the Dutch colony of New Netherlands. Using his wife's ancestry as an example—they were farming along Wall Street before the Pilgrims set foot on Plymouth Rock—Brian covered the early history of New Netherland from Dutch trading posts at the start of the 17th century and indigenous relations, to competition with English settlers and eventual defeat in 1665, and their integration by 1700; traces of that presence over 400 years later; and the resources available for genealogical research. Some of your early ancestors from New York may turn out to be not English after all.
8 April 2023
Practical Tips for Repair and Care of Family Treasures
Kyla Ubbink
Kyla Ubbink presented some handy and practical methods to ensure the longevity of family collections. A brief review of archival enclosure and housing options provided a guideline for storage; while methods for basic cleaning, deacidification, and dealing with mould and musty odours present some of the tools needed for artifact care. Whether a collections consist of documents, photographs, artwork, or heirlooms, applying archival principles safeguards their preservation for future generations.
Canadians on Vimy Ridge, April 1917: Resources and Research
Glenn Wright
It has been more than one hundred years since Canadian troops captured Vimy Ridge on Easter weekend 1917, a victory that resonates with Canadians to this day. In this presentation, Glenn reviewed the common and not-so-common resources for researching and documenting your ancestor and his role in what was one of the most significant battles of the First World War.
11 March 2023
Tips For Genetic Genealogy DNA Research
Shirley Marshall Monkhouse
This presentation provided ten top tips and a method to organize your genetic genealogy DNA research. By working your way through the tips and process, you will reduce time and effort in future analysis and have a better understanding for your family history research and your DNA results. This was an updated and revised version of a presentation given in 2017. There was also information for those with Irish DNA and a detailed handout provided. This talk was a benefit to everyone doing family history research as well as those with DNA results.
There was a shot; after that everything is confusing
Shirley Marshall Monkhouse
Just a short walk outside a small town on the border of Co. Wexford and Co. Carlow in Ireland, near the shore of the lovely Slanny River, on a market day 18 June 1831, a musket shot was heard. After that everything is confusing. This event is referred to as “The Battle of the Pound.'' After Shirley first learned about the “Newtown Barry Affray '' in 2016, it has taken time to untangle the story and to understand the complex back history and the long-lasting outcome. When she used the genealogical concept of “Context” research the story became clearer and easier to understand, as part of Irish history and family research.
11 February 2023
Census Records in the Virtual Treasury of Ireland
Dr. Brian Gurrin
The Virtual Record Treasury of Ireland was launched in June 2022, on the centenary of the destruction of the Public Record Office of Ireland at the Four Courts in 1922. The Virtual Treasury brings together tens of thousands of copy records and transcripts to replace, as far as possible, the vast collection destroyed in that opening engagement of the Irish Civil War a century ago. Funded by the Department of Culture as part of the Decade of Centenaries, this is a free, public online resource that will continue to grow. With millions of words of searchable text, it is an exciting new resource available to anyone interested in Irish history.
In his talk, Dr Brian Gurrin, census specialist on the Beyond 2022 project, told the story of the lost Public Record Office and explained how the team of historians, archivists and computer scientists collaborated to recreate virtually many of its missing collections. He then talked about the census resources available in the Virtual Treasury.
Lust, Lucre and Lybell: An 18th-Century Soap Opera
Dianne Brydon
Adultery, divorce, yelling and cursing in the street, challenges over inheritance. In plotlines that could be taken from the modern series Dallas, this 18th-century soap opera features the Guild family of Tranent, Scotland. For over a decade, between 1788 and 1798, Tranent citizens not only witnessed the family drama, they at times actively participated and told their story for the record. Dianne Brydon recounted the saga, gleaned by interweaving details from church, estate, property and court records.
14 January 2023
ScotlandsPlaces for Family Historians
Robert Urquhart
The ScotlandsPlaces website (www.scotlandsplaces.gov.uk) is a resource well-used by local historians in Scotland, but it is also a very useful site for family historians with Scottish ancestry. It combines data and historical records from three national institutions in Scotland: National Records of Scotland, Historic Environment Scotland and the National Library of Scotland. As well as providing some key information on specific places and administrative units (like parishes, counties and burghs), it allows free access to 17th and 18th century tax rolls. This presentation gave some practical examples of how genealogists can get the best out of the site
Untangling "Family Thickets": Cornwall to Canada
Wesley Johnston http://www.wwjohnston.net
Families can be like thickets, full of intermarriages over multiple generations. The multiple connections made for a very complex familial landscape, just as real to our ancestors as the terrain where they lived. Putting the families of a locality back together yields deep insight into their lives and the choices they made, but doing it successfully requires a solid research method. This presentation looked at three related case studies of family thickets: St. Blazey in Cornwall, Columbus in Ontario, and the voyages that connected them. Wesley showed how their interconnected family histories were reconstructed into databases, web pages and analytical presentations.