Keffer Writing Contest Winners

At the Ontario Genealogical Society Conference (OGS) held in Barrie this year, the winners were annouced for the Keffer Writing Contest this year, and they are -

First prize - Joyce H. Munro for her essay How Ker-Burns-Weld- Thompson Got His Name.

Second prize - Stephen Young for his essay The Disguised Origin of George R. Young Jr.

Third prize - D. Russell Morton for his essay Fill in the Blank.

Fourth prize - James Bangtson for his essay The Loyalist Connection Revised.

These essays will be published in Families, the journal of the OGS.

The website of the OGS is https://www.ogs.on.ca/

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Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

 

If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/06/canadian-week-in-review-cwr-01-june-2015.html 

 

It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada!

OGS eWeekly Update is FREE!

The Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS) has many in-house publications, for instance, their journal Families, their regular newsletter NewsLEAF, and e-Announce which is available to their members. But they also have OGS eWeekly Update which is also available to the general public, and it is made available every Saturday.

It includes news on OGS matters, updates on genealogy initiatives and events, and heritage information from across the province.

The OGS eWeekly Update is available to anyone with an email address and you do not need to be an OGS member to subscribe.

 You can subscribe to receive the OGS eWeekly Update by filling in the subscription form at http://multibriefs.com/optin.php?ogs (Hint, for the Company field, type “OGS.”), or if you can contribute content to the OGS eWeekly Update please contact ed@ogs.on.ca.

Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/02/canadian-week-in-review-23-february-2013.html

 

It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada!

It has been a regular post every Monday morning since April 23, 2012.

 

November 2013 Families Part II

The Ontario Genealogy Society journal Families has issued its November issue, and here are the papers included in Part II.

The first paper More Than Dates: Lives Revealed Through Ecclesiastical Records by Ellen Paul, the 2^nd place Keffer Writing Contest winner.

In addition to the story she tells of Jean Baptiste Cotton, she demonstrates how to use the Drouin Collection when proving genealogy.

The surname keywords are Archambault, Beaudry, Cotton, DeGuay, Débussat, Dussault, Gauthier, Gauthier dit Landreville

“Up to Rawdon” Explained is a paper by Daniel B. Parkinson in which he explains how he came to write his 2-volume set of genealogies about the people from Rawdon, Quebec and their migration to such Ontario counties as Wellington, Huron, Grey, Bruce and Simcoe Counties.

The surname keywords are Burton, Bourne, Copping, Corcoran, Dugas, Eveleigh, Gray, Hamilton, Holiday, Holtby, Jefferies, Johnston, Keo, Mason, Norrish, Parkinson, Pearson, Scroggie, Rourke, Sadler, Smiley, Tiffin, Turner, Wade

“Feathers in the Family”: The Story of Magdeleine Pewadjiwonokwe by Lynne Duigou is the story of a ‘county marriage’ between Charles Denys de Laronde Thibaudiere and Magdeleine.   

The surname keywords are  Croteau, Pewadjiwonokwe, Laronde, Gaucher, piot, Langevin, Missosikwe, Tessepatikokwe, Gradmotagne, Okajagaw, MacFie, Douglas, Robinson

I Am a GOON: The Willox Search by Cathie Blackburn is the influence that the Guild of One-Name Studies has had on her study of her family name – the Willox.  

The surname keywords are Willox, Cole, Harper, Legge

  

Postscrpt:  December is the yearly membership drive by the OGS. This year the basic membership is $61.20 which is a deal for all the benefits that you can receive from the Members Only pages at http://www.ogs.on.ca/index.php                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   

November 2013 Families Part I

 The Ontario Genealogy Society issued its journal Families for November, and here are the papers included in Part I this issue. Part II will continue tomorrow.   

With 2014 being the 100^th anniversary of the First World War, the papers about the people who fought in that war are starting to come into Families to be published.

The two papers are

Hart Leech: “A dog-gone good soldier … doing hid blooming job” by Catherine Whiteley tells the story of Hart Leech from Winnipeg, who, like so many others, went off to war as a young man, and like so many others died because of the war.  

But while he was fighting in the war, he earned the praise of his superiors, and when he died helping his fellow soldiers, he was given a burial in the Oville British Cemetery in France.

His mother received the Memorial Cross.

The keywords in the paper is Leech.

The ship on the front cover of Families and is the SS Olympic. It is shown in Halifax as it disembarked Canadian soldiers coming back from the First World War.

Blacks in the Great War by Jerry Hind is a paper which recounts the role that Blacks played in the First World War.

The men from the Chatham-Kent area who entered the 1^st Contingent of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and the discrimination that they faced.

To go with the Families paper, there is a website called    

Gathering our Heroes at http://www.gatheringourheroes.ca/ at which there are bios of many of the Blacks who were in the No. 2 Construction Battalion.

The keywords are Jones, Hosey, Lucas, and Mills.   

Postscrpt:  December is the yearly membership drive by the OGS. This year the basic membership is $61.20 which is a deal for all the benefits that you can receive from the Members Only pages at http://www.ogs.on.ca/index.php

Winter 2013 Families is now published

The latest issue of Families (the journal of the Ontario Genealogical Society, of which I am the editor) has just been released to the members of the society.

There are the articles in this issue –

Conserving, Preserving, and Restoring Your Heritage by Kim Kinnis. This is an excerpt from a book that was jointly published in 2013 by Dundurn Press and the OGS, that take you through the “saving” process ar home. This book is also reviewed on page 33 of Families.

Mrs. Teepell’s Tale by Anne Rahamut is exactly that – a tale about how a number of houses were exported to make room for the Old City Hall Building in Toronto, that you see on the cover.

 The surnames mentioned in the article are BAILEY, BROOMFIELD, CORBOULD, TEEPLE.

This article by Anne Rahamut was the third place winner in the 2011 Keffer Writing Contest.

An article by Brooke Findlay Skelton What Was the Cow Worth? War of 1812 Losses and Claims is on page 10. This article is the latest on the War of 1812, and it takes a looks at the Board of Claims for the War of 1812 Losses “ held at the Library and Archives Canada.

The surnames mentioned in the article are CHISHOLM, COOK, CORWIN, CUDDLE, CUMMINGS, FITZGERALD, LUNDY, LYON, McCLURE, MISENER, SHANNON, SILVERTON.

Willam Poole: Rebel or Relative? by Brian Latham, and he had a brick wall - where was William Poole. Read the article and see how he solved it.

The surnames are ANDERSON, BARCLAY, BEILLY, BOND, CARMAN, CARNEY, CLARKE, CORRIGAN, CUMETT, ELTON, FISHER, GOUR, HARRISON, HAWLY, HILLBORNE, JOHNSON, LAMB,LAWRENCE, MACKENZIE, MARCH, MARSHALL, MATTHEWS, MCPHADDEN, MONTGOMERY, NICKALLS, PORTER, ROBIN(S), ROGERS, RUMMERFELT, SCOTT, SKINNER, SLY, STPLES, VAN NOSTRAM, WTSON, WATTS, WILKE, WIXSON.

Scrathings, Across Cultures: A Memoir of Denial and Discovery is a book by Stephen Heeney. The part that was published in this issue was Chapter 7 of the book Squire and Jane Davis in Onondaga in Brant County, Ontario.

The surnames are DAVIS, BURR, JOHNSON, MARTIN, NORHELEMA.

The last article is Marguerite Brien – “Fille Naturelle” by Bill Amell tells about his Aboriginal ancestor, nd her life in Northern Ontario.

The surname are BRIEN dit DESROCHERS, FLEURY HAMEL/AMELL, PAQUIN, PROULX/PRUE, TURCOTTE.

If you wish to receive a copy of Families, go to http://www.ogs.on.ca to become a member.

The Toronto History Lecture

A press release came from The Toronto History Lecture this morning, and I thought that you would be interested -

“Please join us again this year in spreading the word about The Toronto History Lecture. It will be held on October 24 at 7:30 pm at the City of Toronto Archives and is presented jointly by the Archives and the Toronto Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society.

To commemorate the bicentennial of the War of 1812, the City of Toronto Museum Services created a Book of Remembrance for the men of York who fell during the war and all the casualties of the Battle of York. Janice Nickerson's research on the militia men uncovered so many fascinating stories that she decided to put them together in a book, York's Sacrifice: Militia Casualties of the War of 1812.

For the bicentennial year's Toronto History Lecture, Janice will tell a few stories of the men, women and children whose lives were transformed by this pivotal event in the history of Toronto.

Admission is free, but reservation is required. Their website is at www.toronto.ca/archives

Many members of the heritage community contributed to the great success of last year's inaugural Toronto History Lecture. We look forward to a similar success on October 24th”.

May I add that in the November 2012 issue of the Ontario Genealogical Society Families, we will have a book excerpt from Janice’s book mentioned above, and a book review.

The website of the OGS is www.ogs.on.ca

OGS Families - August 2012

The August Families has just been published, and this issue contains six  papers, and they are –

Dealing with Documents – This is excerpt from the book by Althea Douglas called Time Travellors Handbook: A Guide to the Past. A review of the book is available on page 33.

How An old Handkerchief Helped Me Discover my Kinston Roots – This paper was by the 1st place winner of the Keffer Writing Contest Virginia Reid.

She tells the story about how her great-grandfather Thomas James Reid was wounded by a shell that left holes in a handkerchief in his back pocket.

A Mystery Like No Other – This paper was written by William Vollmer, the winner of the 2011 Dr. Don Brearley Genealogical Essay Prize, and it is about his ancestor Charles Vollmer who disappeared from Maryhill, Ontario.

Life of a Guyanese in Canada – by Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh in which he follows the life of Hector Lachmansingh, an Indian- Caribbean.

The Family of Jacob Phillips and Sarah “Sally” Kaake of Etobicoke: An Overview – by David Phillips in which he traces the life of the Kaake and Phillips family in Etobicoke.

The Search for Auntie Hutton – by Donald R. McLaughlin in which he discovers who Auntie Hutton of Ross Township, Renfrew County really is – Almeda Rosanna Fuller Palmer Hutton.

In order to receive this magazine you must be a members of the Ontario Genealogical Society at www.ogs.on.ca.

Keffer Writing Contest

Every year, the Ontario Genealogical Society sponsors a writing contest called the Keffer Writing Contest – and this year – it was something special. We had 14 entrants!

From the 14 essays – four were chosen as winners, and they are -

First Place goes to Virginia Reid, and her essay "How an Old Handkerchief Helped Me"

Second Place goes to Debra Butler Honor UE, and her essay "The Stain Glass Mystery"

Third Place goes to Anne Rahamut, and her essay "Mrs. Teepell's Tale"

and

Fourth Place goes to David Harper, and his essay "Tracing 19th Century Homesteading"

If you want to see the rules for entry, go to www.ogs.on.ca/home/essay.php

If you aren't a member, they have a special offer where you can join for $35.00 for a six month period, and be eligible to submit an essay. Plus, there is lots of records on the OGS Members Site.

There will be one essay published per issue of Families, starting with the August 2012 issue.

The deadline for the 2013 contest is November 1, 2012.

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.

NewsLeaf Goes Electronic

GenealogyCanada has just received this news -

"Starting in 2012, the Ontario Genealogical Society will publish NewsLeaf in electronic format. This "green initiative" will save the environment while providing members with alternate means of receiving and storing their issues".

NewsLeaf is the newsletter of the Ontario Genealogical Society, and word is that the journal Families will still be in paper format.

The website of the OGS is http://www.ogs.on.ca

Happy 2012!

The past year of 2011 was great as far as Canadian Genealogy was concerned!

For the Ontario Genealogy Society (OGS) www.ogs.on.ca, it was their 50th Anniversary (which was celebrated in Hamilton), the OGS and the National Institute for Genealogical Studies www.genealogicalstudies.com started a partnership, and TONI (The Ontario Names Index) www.ogs.on.ca/home/TONI.php was started.

It was also the year of the 17th Conference of the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ontario (BIFHSGO) www.bifhsgo.ca, and the beginning of covering the Conference using Social Media tools (I was one of their Official Bloggers, which included John D. Reid of Anglo-Celtic Connections blog fame http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com, and Susan Davis, BIFHSGO's Director of Communications, and presenter of her excellent and informative lecture, “A Social Media Primer for Family Historians”).

My blog was very successful this year: I published 326 posts, and I made many new friends over the year through the blog. It was the first year that I tried a series of blog postings for Remembrance Week www.genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2011/11/blogger-showcases-canadas-veterans-week.html, and it was extremely well-received.

Another year has past as Editor of Families, the journal of the Ontario Genealogical Society, and I had a year of exceptional papers submitted and published. And it doesn't look like it will slow down ...

So I wish everyone a Very Happy, Healthy, and Prosperous New Year, and may all of those Genealogy Wishes (and you know what they are) do come true for you!

Elizabeth

Monday's Post: 4th Blogiverary

Dave Obee - Canada's Genealogist

I first met Dave Obee of Victoria in 2007 at a genealogy/library conference at the Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa. His website is at http://www.daveobee.com/

Since then, we had the occasion to meet each other in various events, and at the 2011 conference of the Ontario Genealogical Society held in Hamilton, I asked him to write a piece on Social Media for the August issue of Families.

As a lead-up to reading the paper in the fall issue of Families, there is a good article called "Database search strategies” at http://www.daveobee.com/columns/09search.htm in which he gives us ten reasons why a search may not be as straightforward as we may think they would be - as Dave says “There are dozens of reasons why a search might fail”.

Some of the reasons he gives are -

Original records were poorly written,

Places were confused, and

People lied - Some people do not want to be found.

But he gives eight ways to search to increase your chances of success, including the use of wildcards, and how to be flexible in searching.

Dave will be speaking at the 2012 Ontario Genealogical Society Conference to be held at Kingston, June 1-3, 2012. The website is http://www.ogs.on.ca/seminar/conference2012.php

Dear Readers

As you have seen from my infrequent postings to this blog as of late, I have been busy doing other "genealogical" things, and I really haven't had the time to post on a regular basis.

Plus, I have just taken on another job.

John Becker, the editor of Families (the journal of the OGS) has taken ill, and is unable to complete the August issue. So I have taken over the editorship of the August issue as Guest Editor.

Those of you who have been involved with publications know that it is very intensive work, and since I am also the editor of NewsLeaf (the newsletter of the OGS), I don't imagine I will see too much of the summer from now until the middle of July, when the two publications go to the printer.

So if you will bear with me while I work on these three OGS publications (yes, I also edit e-NewsLeaf, the e-mail newsletter), I will be posting a bit less during the next few weeks.

Of course, you can always read me in NewsLeaf, e-NewsLeaf, or Families by simply joining the Ontario Genealogical Society at www.ogs.on.ca. NewsLeaf and Families are issued four times a year (Feb, May, Aug, Nov), while e-NewsLeaf is issued eight times a year (Jan, Mar, Apr, June, Jul, Sept, Oct, Dec).

But I have more good news for my readers - if you were not aware, there are over 200 previously posted blogs in the archives to keep you company in this dry time - see the section marked "Blog Archive" at the right side of the page. You can search by date, or if a more direct approach is desired, use the custom search box for the site, powered by Google.

In any event, I look forward to getting back to the blog, and in the meantime, I wish to say -

"Thank you for your patience, and continued support!"

Regards,

Elizabeth