Fall Worshops

There are a number of workshops this fall in Ontario, and some of them are -

Kent Branch (OGS)

On Saturday October 20, 2012 from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm, the Kent Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society will host the REGION 1 MEETING AND WORKSHOP, and they will have the War of 1812 as their theme.

They will present the following topics -

* The Women of the War of 1812 by Susan Spencer

* The British Army 1660 – 1815 by Eric Shaw

* War of 1812 – Walpole Island Perspective by James Jenkins

This is a full day workshop available to the public. $30.00 includes lunch and snacks. Held at St. Andrews Residence, 99 Park Street, Chatham, Ontario

For more information and to register, please go to http://ogs.on.ca/kent/?page_id=129

Brant County Branch (OGS)

On Saturday, October 27, 2012 a Fall Workshop will be held 9:30 am to 4:00 pm at the library of the Brant County Branch Ontario Genealogical Library.

$25 with lunch if registered by October 24th, and $30 at the door +$5 for lunch.

The morning session will feature speaker Zig Misiak, and he will talk on the ” Six Nation in the War of 1812”, and John Sietsm in the afternoon will talk about “Using Computers in Your Research.”

The Brant County Branch Library is at 114-118 Powerline Road, on the grounds of Smokey Hollow Estates, going east from the Wayne Gretzky Parkway, just outside the North-East corner of Brantford.

British Home Child Day

And there are a number of events on the British Home Child Day to be held tomorrow Saturday September 29th.

There will be a British Home Child Day in Ontario Symposium/Information Session at the South Stormont Township Hall in Long Sault.

This will be a day full of exhibits, displays, speakers, and research information. It will cost $10.00, which includes refreshments and attendance at the event.

For more details, go to  www.uppercanadavillage.com/index.cfm/en/activities/special-events/british-home-child-day-first-anniversary

If you can’t make it to the events, but still would like to know about British Home Children, I suggest that you go to the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa www.bifhsgo.ca to discover the work that is being done by Patricia Roberts-Pichette and other BIFHSGO members.

They have indexed Home Children names in the passenger lists of ships arriving in Canada, and the indexing of Middlemore Home Children arriving in Canada between 1873 and 1933. In addition, several groups of Home Children settled in Canada by some small agencies are also being indexed

And there is the British Home Child Day to be held on the Internet tomorrow. You are asked, if you are a descendant of a home child, to share your stories on the Ontario Ministry of Children and Youth Services website at www.children.gov.on.ca/htdocs/English/britishhomechildday/index.aspx

RootsTech 2013 Registration is Live with $149 Early-bird Pricing

I won’t be able to go to the confernce this year, but if you are going to RootsTech , it promises to be a great conference.

Registration is now live for the 3rd annual RootsTech conference on March 21-23, 2013 in Salt Lake City, UT. With several thousand attendees each of the first two years, the 2013 conference is shaping up to be the biggest and best yet!

RootsTech, hosted by FamilySearch, offers an opportunity unlike any other to discover the lastest family history tools and techniques, connect with experts to help you in your research, and be inspired in the pursuit of your ancestors. You will learn to use the latest technology to get started or accelerate your efforts to find, organize, preserve, and share your family's connections and history.

New in 2013! A full track of Getting Started classes and labs will help those new to family history learn where to start, how to build their family tree, and how to use technology to explore their connections. Learn more.

Register NOW and Save $70 with Early-bird Pricing!

Registration Options

Full 3-Day Pass

Access to everything RootsTech has to offer (250+ classes).

$219 $149 (Early-bird Pricing)

One-day Pass

Full admission for just one day. $89

Student 3-Day Pass

Student ID required. $39

NEW! Getting Started 3-Day Pass

Beginner track with access to over 30 classes. $49 $39 (Early-bird Pricing)

Getting Started One-Day Pass

A selection of fundamental classes to help get you started. $19

Developer Day Pass (March 22)

A full-day technology program just for developers. $89

They has something for everyone, whether you are an avid genealogist, just getting started, or simply want to discover the latest technologies and solutions to better connect with your family.

To get further information, youcan go to www.rootstech.org

The British Isles Family History of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO) had its own technology expert at the conference earlier this month, and it was Tony Bandy who gave a workshop on “Tables, Netbooks, e-Readers and Apps for Genealogies”, and talks on “Dropbox, Evernote and Online Digital Notes”, and “Online Books: Are These Really Good Resources? “ which were well attended.

You may listen to an interview with John D. Reid of BIFHSGO and Tony at http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com/2012/06/bifhsgo-conference-interview-with-tony.html

The McLellan Settlers of Indian River, Prince Edward Island

Every once in a while, a new post on settlement of Prince Edward Island is put on the Island Register by Dorothy Farish.

So far, she has put on the families of the following –

Alexander Brown

Donald Macdonald

The MacLellan's - John and Angus

Alexander Cameron

The MacLean's - Roderick and John

The Other Maclean's - Hugh, Hector, and John

Donald McDongald (McDougall)

The McKinnon's - Neill and James

James Smith

Donald Gillis

And this week, she has added “An Interesting Sketch of the McLellan Family Who Settled at Indian River”, and who had come to PEI from the Isle of South Uist in Scotland.

You can read the accounts of these people at www.islandregister.com/lot14_16.html#maclellan2

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