John D. Reid and Glenn Wright are at WDYTYA Conference

I learned last week that John D. Reid, and Glenn Wright, will give a special 45- minute talk at the Who Do You Think You Are Live genealogy conference in London, UK on Saturday afternoon.

The talk will be entitled Finding English Emigrants to Canada and Their Descendants.

John said that because of the time constraint “it will be a once over lightly” talk, but if you are going to the conference, both John and Glenn hope that you can stop by, and say ‘Hello’.

You can check John's blog at http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.ca, and Glenn is president of the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa, and their web site is at www.bifhsgo.ca

All information about the event is at www.whodoyouthinkyouarelive.com

BIFHSGO Meeting Saturday October 13th

On October 13th, 2012, starting at 9:000, at the Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa, there will be a meeting of the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ontario (BIFHSGO).

Starting at 9:00, there will be a “Before BIFHSGO Educational Talk” and it will be “Using A2A Archives (UK)” by Glenn Wright, from 9:15-10:00 am, there will be the “ Discovery Your Library and the Research Computer” out in the foyer, and from 10:00-11:30, there will be the monthly meeting speaker who will be Gillian Leitch, and she will talk about “Itchy Feet: Understanding the Emigrations of the Paulin Family from Henley-on-Thames” in the audiotorium.

She will discuss their various moves in England, their lives in their home-towns in England, and the reasons why chose the places to live that they did.

There is a 10 minute interview with Gillian by Brooke Broadbent on www.bifhsgo.ca/cpage.php?pt=59 in which she explains how she discovered the reasons why her family emigrated from England to Canada in the late/early 19th and 20th centuries, and then back to England again.

She says that being a professional historian, she always “spreads a wide net” so that she catches all of the reasons (both economic and political), as to why a family may emigrate.

There meetings are FREE, and open to everyone to come and enjoy family history.

The website for BIFHSGO is www.bifhsgo.ca

FindMyPast Ignores Canada

The British site FindMyPast.com is starting to begin an International Records web site.

They will include international records from England, Ireland, Scotland, Australia and Wales. Where is Canada! Canada is among the missing.

When will this county be included? There are lots of records here that could go on their site.

For those who want to search the new records, there is an introductory offer for the World Subscription of $4.95/month (U.S. funds) instead of the normal $20.83/month.

Go to findmypast.com

Genealogical Day in England and Wales (Seminar)

Gary Schroder, QFHS President, will give a talk on Sa turday, March 31st 2012 from 10:00 a.m. to 3:00 p.m. at the Quebec Family History Society Llibrary, 173 Cartier Avenue in Pointe-Claire.

The purpose of this seminar will be to A) examine the basic structures of family history research in England, Civil Registration of BMD's 1837-2005, Censuses 1841-1911, Wills 1858-2011, etc., and B) examine how to find your ancestors for the period prior to 1837 and how to make the best use of the English databases to found to be found on Ancestry and other commercial websites.

Reservations are necessary: call 514.695.1502, or you can visit the society online at http://www.qfhs.ca/. The fee $30.00.

BIFGSGO Begins Fall Meetings

The British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO)first fall meeting will be Saturday, Sept 10, 2011 at Library and Archives Canada Auditorium, 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa from 9:30 - 10:00 a.m.

Tom Rimmer has done research on the Fancy Railway Stations in Westmorland. His great-grandfather was absent from his Lancashire home as shown in the 1871 Census of Rainford, Lancashire. When Tom eventually found his great-grandfather, he was building railway stations in the Lake District. Tom's granddaughter, Anne Rimmer, will present the talk.

Come early, have a coffee, and explore the Irish, English, and Scottish Discovery Tables before the talk.

The website is http://www.bifhsgo.ca/

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.