Corktown Christmas Forest

Alison Little tells us of the Corktown Christmas Forest which will be held at the Enoch Turner Schoolhouse at 106 Trinity Street, Toronto on Sunday December 2, 2011. The Schoolhouse will open its doors to families, friends and newcomers for our third-annual “Corktown Christmas Forest” event from 11 am to 5 pm.

They are excited to present the “Forest” in our West Hall – Christmas trees decorated in hand-made Victorian ornaments. Each tree will be sponsored by a local business or group, and donated to the Salvation Army Local 614 of Regent Park following the event.

The schedule will include:

• 12 p.m. Reading of “The Steadfast Tin Soldier” by our own ballerina – Katherine Belrose!

• 1 p.m. Performance by members of the Corktown Chamber Orchestra

• 2 p.m. Reading of “A Visit from St. Nicholas” by Stuart Hughes of Soulpepper Theatre Company

• 3 p.m. Performance by the St. Paul’s Toronto School of Irish Music

• 4 p.m. Reading of “The Steadfast Tin Soldier”

• All day -  Victorian ornament-making demonstrations - try your hand at scrapwork balls, paper fans, cornucopias, sugarplums, stars and pomanders! Cider, coffee, tea and treats for all, and cupcakes baked by Pretty & Sweet will be on offer. Tours of the Schoolhouse will be available all day.

Admission is pay-what-you-can, with children under 10 admitted for free.

For more information, please call 416-327-6997 or email enochturner@heritagetrust.on.ca.

The website is at www.enochturnerschoolhouse.ca

© Elizabeth Lapointe All Rights Reserved

How Did Ontario’s Early Settlers Celebrate Christmas?

Ever wondered how Ontario’s early settlers celebrated Christmas?

Drop by the Haldimand County Museum & Archives at 8 Echo St., Cayuga, Ontario on Saturday, December 1st from 1:00 pm – 3:00 pm, and enjoy some tea and a lecture on how settlers from 1812 celebrated the festive season.

You can contact them at 905.772.5880, or by email at museum.archives@haldimandcounty.on.ca

Go to their website at http://www.haldimandcounty.on.ca/residents.aspx?id=150 where you can see what they have to offer the genealogy researcher.

They have extensive collection of family histories, local histories, newspapers, church records, cemetery transcripts, census records, some birth, marriage and death records.

© Elizabeth Lapointe All Rights Reserved

SCHOOL OF CANADIAN IRISH STUDIES

On Friday, November 23, 7:00 p.m. at the Concordia University, School of Canadian Irish Studies located at the Hall Building, 1455 de Maisonneuve W., Room 1070 (10th floor). Montreal, they will be holding the 7th Annual St. Patrick’s Society Lecture .

The topic of the lecture will be “The Irish Decade of Commemorations: Some Reflections” and the speaker will be Catriona Crowe, National Archives of Ireland.

Catriona Crowe is Head of Special Projects at the National Archives of Ireland. She is Manager of the Irish Census Online Project, which has placed the 1901 and 1911 censuses online free of charge over the last 4 years. She is an Editor of Documents on Irish Foreign Policy, which published its seventh volume, covering the period 1941-45, in November 2010. She is editor of Dublin 1911, published by the Royal Irish Academy in late 2011.

She is Vice-President of the Irish Labour History Society, and a former President of the Women’s History Association. She is Chairperson of the Irish Theatre Institute, which promotes and supports Irish theatre and has created an award-winning website of Irish theatre productions.

I have heard her speak on many occasions and she has a dedication to her subject that is commendable. So if you are near Montreal, and have Irish ancestors, this is a lecture your should not miss. .

The website of the School of Canadian Irish Studies is http://cdnirish.concordia.ca

Plaque stolen from Gatineau family cemetery

This story just came into the office that the memorial plaque at the Edey Family Cemetery, Gatineau, Quebec has been reported stolen, and the story is on the Ottawa Sun site at
www.ottawasun.com/2012/11/20/thieves-nab-memorial-plaque-in-gatineau

You can go to the Edey Family Cemetery at www.gravemarkers.ca/quebec/gatineau/aylmer/edey/index.htm, and you can see photos of the grave makers in the cemetery.

© Elizabeth Lapointe All Rights Reserved

The Oakville Historical Society

The Oakville Historical Society is holding its last Public Speaker Night of the year this Wednesday. The topic for this final event is, “Alice’s Journey – A Personal Story of One Girl’s Journey from the Dr. Barnardo’s Homes to Canada,” as told by Alice’s daughter, Elaine Guther:

“The S.S. Scandinavian, with her precious cargo – Britain’s young children from the DR. BARNARDO’S HOMES cross the Atlantic on their way to Canada….. ALICE was on her way …..but would it be to “Wonderland”? “

The date of the lecture is Wednesday, November 21, 2012 at 7:30 pm – 9:00 pm, and the location is at St. John’s United Church, Dunn & Randall St., Oakville, Ontario.

The admission is Free. Refreshments Served

You may contact The Oakville Historical Society at 905.844.2695 or go to their website at www.oakvillehistory.org

For more information on the Home Children, go to

Home Children http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Home_Children

Young Immigrants to Canada: Barnardo Homes http://jubilation.uwaterloo.ca/~marj/genealogy/children/Organizations/barnardo.html

Read about this latest news on the Home Children at the Library and Archives Canada Blog at http://thediscoverblog.com/2012/11/20/home-children-introduction

© Elizabeth Lapointe All Rights Reserved

ONLINE PETITION! Domaine d’été des Pères Sainte-Croix

The Outaouais Heritage WebMagazine of the Quebec Anglophone Heritage Network has an online petition to help save a beautiful and unique piece of Quebec’s religious heritage.

The Domaine d’été des Pères Sainte-Croix located at 1565 chemin des Pères, Lac-Simon, is currently threatened by developers. Dating to the 1930s, this retreat was built to resemble a steamship on a majestic 45-acre property overlooking Lac-Simon, in the Outaouais region of Quebec, northeast of Ottawa.

Please sign the online petition calling upon the municipality of Lac-Simon to protect this building in its entirety. The petition is on
http://lacsimon.blogspot.ca/2012/10/sauvons-le-patrimoine-du-domaine-des.html

The website is at http://outaouais.quebecheritageweb.com/news/save-lac-simons-domaine-d%E2%80%99ete-des-peres-sainte-croix-sign-online-petition

© Elizabeth Lapointe All Rights Reserved

FREE Public Lecture - Institut généalogique Drouin

On Saturday, December 8th, there will be a FREE public lecture on “An Insider's View of the Institut généalogique Drouin” which will be given by Sébastien Robert, vice-president at the Institut généalogique Drouin.

He will provide a unique opportunity to learn from an insider what the Drouin records offer family historians.

The lecture will be from 10:30 am to 12:00 pm at the Briarwood Presbyterian Church Hall, 70 Beaconsfield Blvd., Beaconsfield, QC H9W 3Z3, and is sponsored by the Quebec Family History Society.

Members and non-members are invited to attend and stay afterward for refreshments and conversation

You can visit the website by going to www.qfhs.ca

You can also visit the Institut généalogique Drouin at www.drouininstitute.com It is both in French and English.

And, of course, www.Ancestry.ca has the complete Drouin Collection on their searchable database.