OGS announces Trillium Grant

The Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS) is pleased to announce a Trillium Grant as a starter fund for a project with the OGS to help Ontario to help Ontario heritage organizations digitize parts of their collections.

The funds — granted over two years — will enable OGS to hire a technician, obtain equipment, and travel to the heritage organizations to scan the material.

The project will:

• provide a digitized version of one-of-a-kind records, increasing security
• allow small organizations access to digitizing they otherwise could not afford
• increase the exposure of small organizations
• increase access to records significant to Ontario's heritage
• allow an income stream to heritage organizations if they wish so that it can provide a Canadian not-for-profit portal as an alternative to foreign commercial portals

The OGS is working with Ristech Company Inc., a Burlington, Ontario company that specializes in scanning equipment.

OGS President, Don Hinchley, said, "I believe this grant will give many more genealogists throughout Ontario and the world access to materials without the necessity of travelling to the museum or local archive."

This project will help protect the culture and heritage of Ontario, some of which is in delicate condition and could be lost if it is not copied.

Dundurn Press & OGS Make A Joint Announcement

Dundurn Press www.dundurn.com and the Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS) www.ogs.on.ca have formed a joint imprint to publish books on Canadian genealogy. The announcement was made through a press release dated December 22, 2008.

The imprint will be called OGS Dundurn, and will be overseen by representatives from both organizations. OGS will be responsible for finding authors, receiving manuscripts, and the initial screening. Both organizations will be responsible for marketing - the OGS with the genealogical community, and Dunburn to bookstores.

Kirk Howard, President and Publisher, Dundurn Press, said, "As a long-time member of the OGS, I have admired the many ways in which the OGS connects with the genealogical community. In working together to publish books of genealogy significance, we will build on this success and be able to reach a wider readership."

Don Hinchley, OGS President, said, "Our partnership with Dundurn Press will provide those in the genealogy community with new resource material. We hope to encourage new authors through this partnership."

Dundurn Press has published books for over 35 years, and the OGS is the largest genealogical organization in the country, with over 4,500 members in 31 Branches across Ontario.

Anyone interested in publishing with the new imprint should contact the OGS at provoffice@ogs.on.ca.

Ottawa writer, June Coxon, wrote about Dundurn Press after she interviewed them at the OGS Conference '08, held last May in London, Ontario. The story is found at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2008/09/worldvitalrecordscom-partners-with.html.

Who are the Canadian Palatines?

The Palatines were Protestants who left the German Palatine Region in 1709 at the invitation of Queen Anne of England, and they settled in various English lands and eventually, Ireland.

In the 1830s, 185 families left Ireland and settled in Canada - mainly Ontario.

Over the years, their friends and family in Ireland started to follow them to Canada, and soon you had settlements in Ontario full of Irish Palatine names such as Barkman, Dolmage, Embury, Fizzell, Heck, Lawrence, Ruttle, Switzer, Sparling, and Teskey - to name a few.

To commemorate the 1709 migration, many Palatine descendants are planning events in North America and Ireland.

If you are interested in any of the events, please email Bob Fizzell at palatines@mac.com.

During this past year, the Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS) www.ogs.on.ca also worked to set up an Irish Palatine Special Interest Group (SIG-IP).

This is the first SIG for the organization, and Don Hinchley, the Society's president, said they were accepted "In a unanimous vote at our Septwmber meeting, the Board of Directors approved the application of the Irish Palatines to join the OGS as our first Special Interest Group."

The SIG-IP is open to any person who would like to explore the common heritage of the German language, the Protestant religion, and migration to Ireland. The SIG will offer a website to its members and special sessions annually at the OGS conference www.ogs.on.ca/conference/index.html.

If you are interested in this new group, please contact the SIG through SIG-IP@ogs.on.ca.

I am in the middle of writing an article on this for Everton's Genealogical Helper for publication during the Palatine's 300th Anniversary in 2009.

A Canadian Genealogist Dies in Scotland

Yesterday afternoon (Monday, October 27th, 2008), Don Hinchley, President of the Ontario Genealogy Society (OGS), wrote to tell a number of us that Paul McGrath, the genealogist on "Ancestors in the Attic", has died in Scotland.

He was the chair of the Toronto Branch, and had given many talks around Ontario on genealogy.

He died last Wednesday of a heart attack.

People who attended Conference '09 in London, Ontario this year heard him give a couple of seminars and the talk at the supper on "Ancestors in the Attic".

This blog send its condoldances to his family for thier personal loss, and to the genealogists of Canada, for they have lost a great family historian.