2012 Vintage Wings of Canada Flight

Yesterday, a press release was received by this blog, and it says -

On behalf of the Honourable Steven Blaney, Minister of Veterans Affairs, the Honourable Laurie Hawn, Member of Parliament for Edmonton Centre, took part this evening in the launch of the 2012 Vintage Wings of Canada flight season at the Gatineau Airport. The aviation enterprise is dedicated to promoting and preserving the history of Canadian aviation

"Vintage Wings of Canada does important work in preserving and better enabling us to understand the role and history of Canadian aviation in the development of our country," said Honourable Blaney.

Vintage Wings of Canada brings together aviators and aviation enthusiasts, who maintain a fleet and participate in flight activities and the promotion of Canada's aviation heritage. The organization offers educational programs and guided tours (by reservation only) of its collection, exhibited in their hangar at the Gatineau Airport. Veterans and members of the Canadian Armed Forces are welcome at all times. 

Veterans Affairs Canada maintains on its Web site at www.veterans.gc.ca archived videos that capture the personal experiences of women and men who have served Canada in times of conflict, including Canadian aviators.

Earlier this month, Minister Blaney and MP Hawn announced a $100,000 contribution toward the creation of a new Bomber Command Memorial to be unveiled this June in London's Green Park in the United Kingdom.

During the Second World War, while the Royal Air Force Fighter Command defended the United Kingdom against aerial attacks, approximately 50,000 Canadian service men and women were part of the Bomber Command, which attacked the enemy's military strength by bombing key targets in an attempt to weaken its military and industrial capabilities.

To see Vintage Wings of Canada's calendar of events, visit www.vintagewings.ca.

Canadian Funeral Home Records Online

Steve Fulton, Chairperson of the Niagara Peninsula Branch of the OGS, writes that the Morse & Sons Funeral Home Records Index is now online.

He would like to thanks the volunteers who have spent countless hours working on this project. You can visit their website http://ogs.on.ca/niagara. Please click on the Index Button to do a search.

Finally, he would like to reintroduce the Surname Index on our website as well, and he says you will find it under the Index Button also. Over the next month, the Surname Index will be changed over to work and appear like the Morse & Sons Funeral Home Records Index.

So please visit their website often, as many things will be changing over the next couple of months relating to various indexes.

OGS Conference 2012 - Update

This year's OGS Conference — entitled Borders & Bridges: 1812-2012, and to be held in Kingston, Ontario from June 1-3 — celebrates the War of 1812, fought between Britain, Canada, and the United States.

The conference website, www.ogs.on.ca/conference2012, offers info on accommodations, registration, the program, and Kingston-area research facilities.

On the "Program" page, check out the speakers - their bios, and which lectures they are giving at the conference.

On the "Conference News" page are podcasts featuring interviews with the speakers, and the latest news on Conference events and happenings.

There is still time to register, so if you have been thinking about going but haven't decided as yet, take a moment to read about all the goings-on planned for Conference, and make your decision to join us. You won't be disappointed!

My booklet, Canada and the United States: War of 1812, will be on sale at the Marketplace. Divided into Canada and United States resources, it is full of quick facts, lists of battles fought, timelines, links to informative websites, and includes a guide of must-have books and suggested readings for both sides of the War. Available from vendors Rick and Sandra Roberts of Global Genealogy, and Louise St. Denis of the National Institute for Genealogical Studies, drop in and see for yourself why this booklet should be in every researcher's toolkit.

If the War of 1812 is too specific for your family research, try my booklet on Canada/US migration, Migration: Canada and the United States, also available from Global and NIGS. And if you can't wait until Conference to buy a copy of these booklets, visit them online. Booklets are also available from our American vendor, Leland Meitzler of Family Roots Publishing Company.
See you at Conference 2012!

New/Improved Canadian Websites and Blogs Week 22

Tack My Kin: Tracking the Past in the Present for Posterity http://trackmykin.blogspot.com/ A new blog about American genealogy, it covers the Smets - Smiths, and how they came from Quebec down to Lowell, Massachusetts.

Fiddles & Folklore: Our Acadian-French Heritage http://cajuncharlie.blogspot.com/ Started in April of this year, this blog covers the families of Bourgoyne, Ferbos, Frioux or Fryoux, Landry, Marson, Roccaforte, Smith, Tullier, and others from Iberville, Quebec and the West Baton Rouge Parishes in Louisiana.

Anne Brooke's Ancestry http://www.annebrooks.ca/ The name of Noseworthty in Canada, and the Brooks and Beck families in Prince Edward Island.

Beck, Keffer, Moore & Puterbaugh families from Germany, USA, and Ontario. Also, Kratochvil Ondrejov, Bohemia; Secor/Sicard families from Quebec, Canada. www.cyndislist.com/openurl/?url=310138, http://ks-gt.blogspot.com

Calhoun-McKnight Genealogy http://calhoun-mcknight.blogspot.com/ A blog of narratives and charts concerning the names of Calhoun, McKnight, McGraw, and Bombard; ancestors from Ireland, Scotland, England, and Quebec who settled in the northeastern US, mainly New England.

Harrison Family History http://harrisonfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/ History of the Harrison family of Egton, Glaisdale, and Lyth, North Yorkshire and Toronto Gore Township, Peel County, Ontario, Canada.

Hewgill Family History http://hewgillfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/ A history of the Hewgill Family of Glaisedale, North Yorkshire and Toronto Gore Township, Peel County, Ontario, Canada.

The Blaney Family - Birmingham to Canada http://birminghamtocanada.blogspot.ca/ A history of the Blaney family as well as the Elcocks, Cheffins, Langley, Bellingham, Welch, Lewis and Barnes families across Canada.

The Blog of Russian Genealogist ~ The Only English Blog about Genealogy in Russia and ex-USSR http://russianmemory.org/ Semionoff Vitaly lives in Moscow, and he can provide you with first-class genealogy research if you speak English, French, German, Spanish, or Polish.

Booklets
 
I have just published two booklets - The War of 1812: Canada and the United States, and Migration: Canada and the United States.

They are available for purchase through Global Genealogy at http://globalgenealogy.com, the National Institute of Genealogical Studies at http://www.genealogicalstudies.com/, and now, in the U.S., from the Family Roots Publishing Company at http://www.familyrootspublishing.com/.

For more on the booklets, go to http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2012/01/booklet-1-war-of-1812-canada-and-united.html and http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2012/01/booklet-2-migration-canada-and-united.html

OGS "Families" – February 2012 Issue

Photo – A cover photo by Janet Iles of the Greenwood Cemetery in Owen Sound, which was once known as the “People's Cemetery”. Read more about its history in “On the Cover” on page 34 of this issue.

The Ontario Genealogical Society's journal, Families (of which I am the editor) was released in February of this year.

As usual, there were two themes to this issue – Ontario Cemeteries, and Ontario Heritage.

Cemeteries

The excerpt was from the book, A Better Place: Death and Burial in Nineteenth-Century Ontario, by Susan Smart in which Chapter 6: The Establishment of Cemeteries in Three Towns (the three towns were Peterborough, Kingston, and Niagara-on-the-Lake) was reprinted in full. Plus, a book review was written about the book on page 32.

To continue the cemetery theme, two more articles about Ontario - Rambles Around Some Halton-Peel Cemeteries by Dorothy Kew, in which she gives an excellent review (with photos) of cemeteries of Halton-Peel, and an article, Changing Gravestone Motifs in Quinte and Beyond by Peter Johnson, in which he describes the “changing motif” on gravestones through the centuries – and there are fourteen photos in the paper!

Ontario Heritage

Three papers were published in acknowledgement of Ontario Heritage Day in February, and they were - Family History of a Caribbean Canadian by Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh, in which he traces the life of Tom Ashby; Why and When Had Mary Ann and Joseph Whiteley Moved to Grey County by Catherine Whiteley, in which she traces the life of George Forbes; and Hunting for Hidden History: How Slavery Came to the Town of York by Hilary Dawson, in which she write an account of slavery in York Township.

One other paper, Letters Home: Upper Canada to England by Dr. Bill Mills, give a very gripping account of a homesick Christopher Stokes writing home to his family in Nottinghamshire, England.

Families is available only to members of the Ontario Genealogical Society. There are two membership packages available – a six month term for $35.00, or a full year for $60.00. Memberships are available at www.ogs.on.ca/membership.php

Full issues of Families, including an index, is also available for the years 1962 to 2006 through the “Members Only” portal at

www.ogs.on.ca/membersonly/mem_sign_in.php.

Chris Paton is Coming to Ottawa!

When Chris Paton came to Toronto last year to speaker at a full day workshop, my plans didn't allow me to attend the meeting, but I will be at the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa in Ottawa at their conference this fall because Chris will be the featured speaker!

I can hardly wait since my maiden name is BARCLAY from Cleish, Kinrossshire, Scotland, and I have been doing research on the Barclay's in the area for 20 years.

I must say a few words about the BIFHSGO conference – I believe it is the best Anglo-Celtic conference held in North America today.

I have attended every conference for the past 6 years, and I have come away from every conference with a new way to look at doing research on a particular subject, I have had delightful talks with fellow genealogists, and the size, and variety in their marketplace is outstanding!

If you are able to come to the conference, it will be held from Sept 14 to the 16 of September, 2012 at the Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa.

Go to http://bifhsgo.ca/

Dunnville Heritage Day

Dunville, Ontario will hold it's heritage day on Saturday, April 28, at the Dunnville Public Library. The theme of the day will be the area's railroads!

Dunville was important because not only did people travel by rail for business, and pleasure, but some of them migrated from sounthern Ontario to the United States Midwestern cities in the 19th and 29th centuries.

Special exhibits will be presented by the Hamilton and Buffalo (TH&B) Railway Historical Society, the Haldimand Museums and Archives, the No. 6 RCAF Dunnville Museum, and the Haldimand Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society.

For more information, email genealogydpl@yahoo.ca.

Vote for OurDigitalWorld

We have received this news from the OurDigitalWorld people -

“Recently, ODW has applied for the EMC Heritage Trust Project grant and were informed this weekend that we are finalists in the grant process!

The proposal we put forward is to develop and enhance our newspaper portal which will be a one-stop search and free access to the largest collection of online Ontario newspapers and newspaper index records.

The Heritage Trust Project will select three winners from the list of finalists through a Facebook voting campaign available here: www.facebook.com/emccorp?v=app_222471081145150

I was wondering if you could ask your readership to vote for the OurDigitalWorld proposal and support the promise of more, free, easily searchable newspaper pages and index records to improve their research.

Many thanks for your consideration”.

Jess

Pioneer History of Anderdon Township, Ontario

A new book Anderdon; Some Folks Down the Road has been published about the pioneer history of Anderdon Township 1790-1920. Samples of the book are online at www.anderdon1812.com.

The township is in the southwest corner of Ontario, generally in the Amherstburg and Windsor area.

The author Mark Warren says that “The book itself is 429 pages of adventures, disasters, heartbreak and stories of great courage and determination. Images are from many local and international archives, including the Smithsonian Institution and Library of Congress in Washington, the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa, the Stark Museum in Texas, and the Archives of Ontario. These are matched by intriguing photos from family albums… over 100 of them! There are many newspaper clippings from (among others) the Essex Free Press, the Amherstburg Echo, the Windsor Evening Record and the Canadian Emigrant and Western Advertiser.

This is history, as well as genealogy. Anderdon had been a First Nations Reserve, so its gradual demise and the enfranchisement of its band members receive special treatment. The War of 1812 is covered, along with the Patriot Rebellions, and the American Civil War. Seventy-four immigrant families are traced in detail, and hundreds of surnames are mentioned in the text. The appendices contain official government documents, personal letters, accounts of land auctions, a list of homesteaders, crown patents that were issued and census information. There is a strong 32-page index”.

You can look at the surnames mentioned in the book, there are area maps available for viewing, as well as samples from the book itself.

Bay of Quinte UEL Genealogy Workshop

Brian Tackaberry UE, President of the Bay of Quinte UEL Branch, has informed us of an up-coming workshop -

“The Bay of Quinte Branch will be presenting a workshop to help people find their Loyalist Roots on Saturday April 21st, 2012 at the Adolphustown Township Hall in Adolphustown, located on old Highway #33, the Loyalist Parkway. 

We invite anyone doing research on their Quinte area ancestors to come out for help with their Loyalist links, and to bring along any other individuals who may be interested to discover their Loyalist connections.

The program begins at 10:00AM and runs throughout the day until 3:00PM.  People may feel free to come at any time throughout the day.  Those in attendance will receive several handouts, including application forms and tips for Loyalist Lineage, a list of UEL names for the Bay of Quinte area, examples of acceptable proofs and where to find them, and a certificate of participation.  There will also be tours of the UEL Museum, research library and the park including a visit to the UEL Cemetery and site of the original Loyalist Landing.

There will also be a series of short talks on researching your links during the morning by Linda Corupe, Peter and Angela Johnson, and Brian Tackaberry.  We will also have them available later to give you one-on-one assistance with your family search.  There will also be books for sale to help with your Loyalist research.

 The cost for the day is $10 which will include the handouts, coffee/tea/water and certificate.  You are asked to bring along a bag lunch for the day.  If you wish to attend the workshop, please complete the registration form and send to Angela Johnson, or email myself  btackaberry@trytel.com or Angela johnsonue@xplornet.com. To find the registration form, go to the Bay of Quinte website, www.uel.ca.

Brian Tackaberry UE, President, Bay of Quinte Branch”

 

Ancestry.ca Offers FREE Access to French-Canadian Records

Ancestry.ca is offering FREE access to more than 14.5 million records of millions of people in Quebec, and France, and they will be available free from April 17-22.

Among the free collections is the Drouin database. This database spans 346 years from 1621 to 1967,  and includes  37 million names in baptism, marriage and burial records, plus a summary of church records from Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and various New England states.

The free access also includes the Tanguay collection. This large, seven-volume collection was published by the French-Canadian priest and genealogist Father Cyprien Tanguay from 1871 to 1890.

The collection includes Quebec, the Maritimes, Ontario and old French settlements in the United States and France. Tanguay traced ancestors of many early French-Canadian colonists back to Normandy, and other parts of France.

Entries in this collection details family pedigrees with baptism, marriage, and burial dates, and places.

Go to http://www.ancestry.ca/

Genealogy Association of Nova Scotia Events

This note comes to us from GANS - 

"Since we don't have a monthly lecture planned for April, we've been busy
planning a number of other ventures that will take us out into the community.

Tomorrow, Bob Davison, VP; Dawn Josey, Membership and Correspondence Secretary
and I will be attending the Kings County Genealogy and Family History
Committee meeting at the Kings County Museum in Kentville at 1:30 pm to
promote the August 25 30th Anniversary event.

As well, we will be at the West Hants Historical Society monthly meeting in
Windsor at 7:30 tomorrow night.  We will again provide information about the
30th Anniversary event and Dawn Josey will be giving her "Research to Artwork"
presentation.  If you missed Dawn's presentation in January, come and join us
tomorrow night.  Here is a little bit about the presentation and Dawn:

  Dawn Josey, a visual artist, has taken her family research from paper to
works of art telling the story for generations to come. Come hear how your
story can be told visually.

  Dawn Josey is a mixed media artist living in Enfield, Nova Scotia. For 17
years she practiced Biomedical photography first in Life Science then Biology
at Dalhousie University. She is an elected member of the Society of Canadian
Artists and a board member of Visual Arts Nova Scotia who exhibits her work in
group and solo shows throughout the province. She is currently continuing
studies at NSCAD.

On Saturday, April 14 and Sunday, April 15, GANS will have a table at the
Shearwater Spring Hobby Show held at the Aviation Museum in Shearwater outside
of Dartmouth.  You'll be able to purchase our publications, register for the
30th Anniversary event or pick up some handouts.  We could use some help
during those two days.  The show is open from 10:00 to 4:00 both days.  So
far, four members of the executive have volunteered, but it would be nice to
have at least two people at the table at all times.  If you'd like to spend a
half day with one of us, it would help us immensely.  Send me a quick email
and let me know which half day you are available. As a bonus, the company is
pretty good too! :)

If you can't help out, please consider coming to the show - drop by to
introduce yourself and say hello.  The show is wonderful entertainment and at
$3.00 per person/$10 per family, is an excellent bargain.  Proceeds are
donated to the Aviation Museum."

Hope to see you at any or all of the above events!

Regards,

Pamela Wile
Programme Convener
https://www.facebook.com/NovaScotiaAncestors

Ancestry.com Has Canadian Titanic Records

As a lead in to the 100th Anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic on April 15th, Ancestry.com has added more than 200,000 records to the collection at www.ancestry.com.

Among the records are two collections from Nova Scotia, and they are – headstone photographs of 121 victims buried at Fairview Cemetery in Halifax, N.S. and coroner inquest files and 330 records about bodies that were recovered from the wreck The collection includes the vessel's passenger list of the Titanic, information about crew members, and coroner files, and records about recovered bodies. Access to the records is FREE until May 31.

95th Anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge

One just has to say "Vimy Ridge" to any Canadian, and we think of the sacrifices that our fellow countrymen have made in the First World War. And this year. Major Arthur William Currie, grandson of  famed Canadian commander, General Arthur Currie, will lead Ottawa-area cadets on a pilgrimage to Vimy Ridge.

The cadets are from the Ottawa unit of the Royal Canadian Dragoons Cadet Corps, and they will see Vimy Ridge today. They will participate in a Remembrance Ceremony organized by the government.

To find out more about the Memorial, please visit http://veterans.gc.ca/eng/feature/vimy-ridge/history.

To learn more about Vimy Ridge, visit the following websites –

Canadian National Vimy Memorial Stone Display www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/memorials/cbmr/wall_stone_display See if your ancestor is on the Memorial.

Canadian War Museum www.warmuseum.ca/home See the events and displays at the museum on Vimy Day.

If you want to find out more about your ancestor in the First World War, Glenn Wright has written an excellent book, Canadians at War 1914-1919: A Research Guide to World War One Service Records. I have used this book many times to help me answer the questions that my clients have about their ancestors in the First World War.

It is available from Global Genealogy at http://globalgenealogy.com/countries/canada/military/resources/101160.htm

Richmond Hill Public Library

Richmond Hill Public Library located at the corner of Yonge Street, and Major Mackenzie Drive has a genealogy library on the library’s fourth floor (now known as the Mary-Lou Griffin Room) to house information about Richmond Hill.

They have had public lectures during the winter/spring season called "Finding Our Roots Online", and they have two sessions left -

Googling for Genealogy: How to Take Advantage of all Google has to Offer


Saturday, April 28, 2012, 10:30 - 11:30 AM

Most genealogists know that Google is a good place to start to find family information on the Internet but many don’t know how to get the best results from this search engine nor do they take full advantage of everything else Google has to offer. Author, librarian and genealogist Marian Press will guide you through Google alerts, image searching, Google Maps, Google Books, Google News Archives, Google Blogs, Google translation tools and more

Using Ancestry Library Edition to Find Your Family

Saturday, May 26, 2012, 10:30 - 11:30 AM

Working with the databases and creating a family tree online can make it easy to keep track of your family. We all know Ancestry has the Ontario births, marriages and deaths and some of the census returns but what else is available to help us find our family? Join author, historian and genealogist Ruth Burkholder and find out

Tickets for each program is $5.00 per person.

Interested people are asked to pre-register at the Central Library’s Full Service Desk

The website is at http://www.rhpl.richmondhill.on.ca/

OGS Receives Trillium Grant for Phase 2 of Digitization Project

The Ontario Genealogical Society is pleased to announce that we have been granted funding by the Ontario Trillium Foundation to begin Phase 2 of our Keeping and Valuing Ontario’s Heritage Project. The funding consists of $156,000 over two years and will allow us to continue to assist Ontario heritage organization in scanning their materials and making them available to researchers.

 Phase 1 began in Fall 2008 with the aim to do the following:

• provide a digitized version of one-of-a-kind records, increasing security
• allow small organizations access to digitizing services they otherwise could not afford
• increase access to records significant to Ontario's heritage
• allow an income stream to heritage organizations if they wish

Since then we have successfully joined with several Ontario heritage organizations to digitize their records and make them available online through a revenue generating program. We have launched a beta version of The Ontario Name Index (TONI) as the main access point to the Pay-Per-View database. The information available through Pay-Per-View allows access to the history of the people of this province.

Phase 2 seeks to continue to support the preservation of Ontario heritage materials through digitization by adding to the data available on this system and expanding our affiliations to include new heritage organizations. 

We will improve and expand on TONI while creating new indexing systems where necessary.

We will also create and launch a more user friendly search interface for TONI and Pay- Per-View to ensure that researchers can find and access their information with ease.

OGS gratefully acknowledges the Ontario Trillium Foundation for their strong support of this project and appreciates their ongoing efforts to support the growth and vitality of communities across the province of Ontario.


To go to the website of the Ontario Genealogical Society, click on www.ogs.on.ca

Sable Island Will Be a National Park Reserve

Sable Island was passed from the Canadian Coast Guard to Parks Canada this week, and the sandbar where so many ships went down (shipwrecked), and lives were lost, will be recognized as a National Park Reserve.

Over the recent years, more requests have been made by people wishing to visit the island, and it was believed that Parks Canada was best equipped to answer these requests.

The Honourable Peter Kent, Canada’s Minister of the Environment and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, the Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence and Regional Minister for Nova Scotia, and the Honourable Darrell Dexter, Premier of Nova Scotia, signed a landmark agreement in 2011.

“Today’s historic agreement will ensure that this iconic and valued Canadian landscape fabled for its wild horses, shipwrecks and one of the largest dune systems in Eastern Canada, will be protected as a national park reserve.

Located 290 kilometres offshore from Halifax, Sable Island is a windswept crescent-shaped sandbar 42 kilometres long that emerges from the Atlantic Ocean near the edge of the Continental Shelf. The island’s sand dunes and fresh water ponds are home to over 400 wild horses and numerous migrant and breeding birds, including the rare Ipswich Savannah sparrow", said Minister Kent in the press release.

Called the "Graveyard of the Atlantic”, there were over 350 shipwrecks recorded here since 1583 due to the fog and storms that beset the island from time to time.

Branches, Twigs, and Roots Newsletter

I received my first issue of the newsletter Branches, Twigs, and Roots this week.

Sue has an interesting topic this month in her newsletter, and it’s about how doing genealogy in different cultures can lead to brick walls.

She gives an account of a query she received by a reader in which she was asked to help find Edward Mayo/Maheux and his wife Ann Toose of Quebec. Were they of different cultures - or are they from the same culture? Is Edward French? Is he Irish? Are there any clues in their surnames?
Read about her case study, and what she has to say about taking culture into account in working through the problem.

To subscribe to the newsletter, go to http://www.familyhistoryalive.com/.

While you are there, look at the various topics which she has included to help you in your researh.

Researching Family History in Vermont (Free Lecture)

The lecture will be held on Saturday, April 14, 2012 at 10:30 a.m. at Briarwood Presbyterian Church Hall, 70 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield (Montreal) QC, H9W 3Z3.

The leacture will be given by Ed Maquire, President of the Vermont French-Canadian Genealogy Society.

Ed Maquire will discuss the long history shared by Quebec and Vermont. In the 1860s, about almost half of Vermont’s residents were French-Canadian, and many from Lower Canada in the Eastern Townships.

They were living close to the US border, and many married in Vermont. Mr. Maguire will talk about the type of records available, such as church, immigration, naturalization, court, and military records, and explain where to find them.

Members and guests are welcome to join us!

Visit http://www.qfhs.com/

Postscript: I will have a new booklet entitled French-Canadian in Canada/Franco-Americans in the United States available in June of this year.

Watch this blog for the date the booklet will be available.

Genealogy Courses in Toronto

Gwyneth Pearce of the Toronto Branch of the OGS has just written to GenealogyCanada to tell us that the previously scheduled March/April course, "Going Back to Basics – A Refresher", has been cancelled due to low enrolment.

In addition, their course on "Exploring the Baldwin Room’s Manuscript Collection", which was to be offered in March, has been postponed (new date TBA) due to the Toronto library strike.

The following are courses which are still offered by the Branch. They are -

DATE: 5-19 Apr 2012: 3 sessions, Thursdays (5:30-7:30 p.m.)
COURSE: Toronto Branch OGS
LOCATION: Archives of Ontario, 134 Ian MacDonald Blvd., Toronto
TITLE OF COURSE: "Hands-On Ontario Estate Records"
NAME OF INSTRUCTOR: Jane E. MacNamara
BRIEF INFO: Participants will follow assigned case histories to learn hands-on at the Archives of Ontario how to find estate files and land registry records. Basic course or equivalent experience is a pre-requisite. This course is now FULL.

DATE: 18-25 Apr, 2-9 May 2012: 4 sessions, Wednesdays (6:15-8:15 p.m.)
COURSE: Toronto Branch OGS
LOCATION: Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street, Toronto
TITLE OF COURSE: "Advanced English Family History"
NAME OF INSTRUCTOR: James F.S. Thomson & Joan Read
BRIEF INFO: This advanced course will focus on the 1700-1837 period – topics will include finding vital events, researching a parish, population listings, inheritance records, poor relief, apprenticeship records and land tenancy records.

DATE: 28 Apr 2012: Saturday (9:00-4:00 p.m.)
COURSE: Toronto Branch OGS
LOCATION: North York Central Library, 5120 Yonge Street, Toronto
TITLE OF COURSE: "A Day of Technology for Family Historians"
NAME OF INSTRUCTOR: Carol Nichols
BRIEF INFO: Learn how to harness the power of technology in your genealogy – find out how technology can assist family historians in finding and organizing information, and in editing and sharing photographs and other images.
CONTACT INFO: www.torontofamilyhistory.org/

The following is the monthly meeting -

DATE: 23 April 2012 (7:30 p.m.)
MEETING: Toronto Branch OGS
LOCATION: Burgundy Room, North York Memorial Community Hall, 5110 Yonge Street, Toronto
TITLE OF TALK: “Women, Bicycles and Animals: Humanizing the First World War”
NAME OF SPEAKER: Melissa Ellis
BRIEF INFO: A look at some databases of women's involvement in the war effort and the bicycle corps' work in reconnaissance gathering. Additional short presentation by Elayne Lockhart: “My DNA – the Genealogical Gift That Keeps on Giving”. $5 charge for non-members of OGS.

For more information, go to http://www.torontofamilyhistory.org/

BIFHSGO's Anglo-Celtic Roots - Spring 2012

The Spring 2012 edition of the newly-revamped Anglo-Celtic Roots has just been received, and the new format lends itself very well to the writings of the members of BIFHSGO.

Under the title of "Family History Research" are four articles - Perhaps Love: A Postcard from the First World War; Little Girl Lost – and Found; The Yacht Armide; and Eleanor, Ellen and Francis.

In "Techniques and Resources" are the articles The Cream of the Crop, and The Bookroom.

There is the "BIFHSGO News" section in which they have put the Notice of Annual Meeting and Minutes of 2011 AGM; Website Access; Great Moments: June Meeting; and the Membership Report.

Anglo-Celtic Roots is published four times a year; this is in addition to an electronic newsletter issued once a month via email.

Over 20 informative and interesting articles have been reprinted and made available online as "Classic Articles" at www.bifhsgo.ca/cpage.php?pt=33, while past issues are available in the "Members Only" section at http://bifhsgo.ca/members.php.