Re-enactment Battle of Queenston Heights Oct 13/14

Doug Grant UE, Editor of Loyalist Trails and Manager of the   (UELAC) website, says that on October 13 and 14, 2012, a Re-enactment of the Battle of Queenston Heights will be held in Queenston, Niagara-on-the-Lake and Lewiston, New York.

October 13, 2012 marks the 200th anniversary of the historic Battle of Queenston Heights. Join us at Queenston Heights where historic interpreters and musicians, re-enactors, merchants and suttlers will make history come to life!

Take a tour of the battle site, and climb the 235 steps to the top of Brock's Monument to get a bird's eye view of battle site. Don't miss the re-enactment of the Battle of Queenston Heights, which will be starting at 3:00 pm, and the burial of Issac Brock will also be honoured on the weekend.

For more information and links to greater detail, go to www.friendsoffortgeorge.ca/event.htm

And the is offering education materials called “About War of 1812” with the support of the Department of Canadian Heritage, and the assistance of Library and Archives Canada,

The Canadian Geographic Education has been working on creating a host of educator resources surrounding the bicentennial of the War of 1812. These items include a Giant Floor Map (11m x 8m), a kit of replica documents from 1812, Portrait Cards of 27 influential figures of the War, Model Ships, and a freestanding Timeline.

All items are being shipped in September. Quantities are limited so be sure to check it out soon!

Check their website at www.canadiangeographic.ca/educational_products

The UELC website is at www.uelac.org

New Websites, Blogs, and Newspaper Articles

I have come across the following websites, blogs, and newspaper articles this past week, and I thought you would be interested in them too -

History is Where You Stand www.calverley.ca This website covers Peace River Region of British Columbia and Alberta. Most of these articles have been selected from the Calverley Collection of local history materials created by the late Dorthea Horton Calverley of Dawson Creek, British Columbia.

BRANCHING OUT: My Endless Journey up the Family Tree and the Resulting Organizational Adventure http://kylanderbranches.blogspot.com This blog has posts about the Mt. Elgin Cemetery, the provincial Archives of New Brunswick, and Oxford County, Ontari o.

Site Genealogique Gaston Soucy & Ginette Pelletier www.freewebs.com/soucygaston/page.htm There are 2354 individuals listed here, and 693 families.

Local author continues her Dangerous Journey
www.mykawartha.com/what's%20on/article/1500082 Catherine Whitnall writes that Virginia Winters’third book featuring Canadian doctor and amateur genealogist Anne McPhail has been published. (accessed 21 September 2012)

Canadian Women and the Peace Movement
www.flickr.com/photos/lac-bac/sets/72157631100522816/comments
Female advocates for peace made their voices heard in the public sphere long before they were fully welcomed into politics. (accessed 21 September 2012)

Chris Paton at BIFHSGO Conference 2012

Ttwo beautiful mornings (Saturday and Sunday, September 15th and 16th) greeted us as we made our way to the Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa to hear Chris Paton give four lectures (two lectures each day) on Scotland. He had also given workshops the day before which, unfortunately, I was unable to attend.

The first lecture was an introduction to “Researching Scottish Family History”, and Chris took us though Civil Registration, Decennial Censuses, Parish Records pre-1855, Wills and Testaments, Where People Lived, Newspapers, Books, and Courses.

Since my ancestor was Scottish (BARCLAY), and was born in 1738, I took particular interest in the records of Scotland pre-1855.

The second lecture was on the “Scottish House and Land Records” and, through his lecture, we learned that Scotland was under the feudal system up until 2004.

He went through all of the available land records and explained the terms so that land records could be more easily researched.

On Sunday, the morning started with Chris giving a talk on “The Godly Commonwealth” in which he talked about The Church of Scotland – the Presbyterian Church of Scotland.

Besides giving a timeline of the development of the Church, he told us how to search the records, and the biographical details of the ministers.

The fourth and final lecture given by Chris was called “The Mount Stewart Murder”, in which he talked about the murder of his 3x great-grandmother, Janet (nee Henderson) Roger, who was killed in 1866.

The murder has never been solved, and Chris took us through a list of “possible suspects” of who could have the murderer.

His talks were easy to follow because his hand-outs were very well-organized, and we were given them before the lecture. He stayed behind and answered many, many questions, and was very approachable during the times when he wasn’t giving a lecture.

It was a very successful conference for Chris – he completely sold out of his books!

Go to his blog, British GENES (British Genealogy News and Events) http://britishgenes.blogspot.co.uk/2012/09/bifhsgos-2012-conference-report.html, to read his report on the conference in Ottawa, and the nice words he said about my booklet on the War of 1812 - "an absolute gem"!

There are interviews with Chris, Lucille Campey, and Patricia Whatley by Austin Comerton on Ottawa's radio show, The Gaelic Hour (CJLL 97.9 FM) www.thegaelichour.ca. To listen to the interview, click here www.thegaelichour.ca/20120916.m3u.

Podcasts at BIFHSGO

As I get in the car this morning to go to the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO) monthly meeting at 9:00 am at the Library and Archives Canada, I am reminded of the number of podcasts that are now online on their website.

For example, there is a two-part podcast with Gary Schroder, president of the Quebec Family History Society. He talks about the Cadastral Numbering System, and how they hold the key to the land records in Quebec. Gary calls it ‘the hidden history of Quebec”.

The website is at www.qfhs.ca

There are also interviews with four founding members of BIFHSGO - Fern Small, Gary Bagley, Alan Rayburn, and Bob Campbell.

There are interviews with Malcolm Moody, Canadian Archive CD Books from Ottawa www.archivecdbooks.ca/acdbcanada.html, Ed Zapletal, Moorshead Magazines www.moorshead.com, and Lesley Anderson from Ancestry.ca and Ottawa, who talks about her experiences at "Who Do You Think You Are?". The interview was recorded live in London with Lesley.

There are over 30 interviews to listen to, all of them enlightening. I think BIFHSGO is the only society in Canada which has adopted this method of doing interviews at such a prolific pace.

A big “Thank You” goes out to John D. Reid (who tells us in an interview why he blogs) http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com, Brian Glenn, and Brooke Broadbent for conducting the interviews.

So have fun listening to the podcats.

I have a feeling that BIFHSGO will be doing a lot more podcasts in the future. Another example of how social media is changing the genealogy world!

The BIFHSGO webite is online at http://bifhsgo.ca/cpage.php?pt=59

Upcoming PEIGS Meeting

The PEI Genealogical Society's next general public meeting is in Summerside, Prince Edward Island Saturday, September 29, at the Lefurgey Cultural Centre, 205 Prince Street, off Granville Street, at 2:00 p.m. All welcome, free admission.

Includes brief business meeting and illustrated presentation by Island historian Mr Earle Lockerby speaking on "Descendants of Samuel Holland on PEI and Their Royal Connection". Mr. Lockerby will trace the family lore that has grown up concerning the family's connection to Prince Edward, Duke of Kent (after whom the Island is named), and compare the conventional wisdom with the results of historical and genealogical research.

The meeting will also receive an update from the Public Archives and Records Office, one of the most-frequented resources for Island genealogical researchers.

For more details contact society president Fred Horne, fredchorne@gmail.com or go to www.peigs.ca

Lest We Forget: Researching Your World War Ancestors

The Keshen Goodman Branch of the Halifax Public Library is hosting a talk this Saturday at 2:390 pm on learning how to build your military ancestors' stories using the most common resources available online and at the library.

The talk will be given by Joanne McCarthy, Reference Librarian, and she will use actual examples of Nova Scotia service files from the Lest We Forget workshops for those of you in the area,

Visit the Keshen Goodman Public Library at
www.halifaxpubliclibraries.ca/branches/locations/keshen-goodman.html

Visit them on Facebook at www.facebook.com/hfxpublib

Talk Notes

Do you know that they have a series of "Talk Notes" on the Alberta Family History Society since 1997 up to the present day.

These are notes on the talks that are given by the meeting presenters to post on the society's website, and some of them are quite useful.

I took a minute and read through them yesterday, and there are notes on Eastern European Ancestry, Scottish Law, Ontario Land Records, Mining Online Resources, and Family History in Homestead and Land Records.

There have been other societies in Canada which have done this, but they hae usually put them behind “Member’s Only” website, so they aren’t available to the public.

But if you want to read the AFHS "Talk Notes", go to www.afhs.ab.ca/aids/talks/index.shtml to see what notes are available.