Celebrating the Holiday Season and Genealogy!
Show & Tell / Bring & Brag
At this meeting together we celebrated the season and any genealogical breakthroughs, special stories, favourite websites, interesting documents or other artifacts, etc.
Members, were invited share with us what genealogy 'ah-ha's you've experienced.The break was extended to ensure an opportunity to chat and taste.
- Remembering Paul McGrath
- Annual elections for the 2009 Executive Committee
- Club News and Club Publication Tables, and
- Feature Presentation:
Favourite Genealogical Websites or Software
Several of our members will present brief demonstrations of computer tools
and websites they find useful and would help you as you research your families' ancestors.
(Gedcom Tools, Funeral Cards, County Maps, Our Roots, Automated Genealogy)
Breaking Down Brick Walls - This Round Robin session, led by Stephen Wood, asked experts and non-experts to relate personal break-through experiences in the realm of genealogy.
Also, Ken Nicholls presented some of the material he has collected about one room school houses during his recent travels through Durham's northern rural areas (including stories and photos).
Ken's ongoing project can be viewed on one of the office computers.
Finding your Scottish Ancestors with Stephen Wood - an in-depth presentaion and discussion exploring various research methods for Scottish ancestors. [Stephen has made his Scotland resources available here (pdf) and on the blog.]
In addition, Nicole Patterson (Genealogy and Local History Librarian) , described the resources for genealogy, both in-house and on-line, available at the Oshawa Public Libraries.
905-579-6111 ext 5243
Halvor Moorshead - "The Internet 2008"
- best uses when researching genealogy
Mr. Moorshead recently retired as editor and publisher of Family Chronicle, History Magazine, Internet Genealogy, and Discovering Family History (new -with free first edition download). He was also a featured speaker at the OGS Wired Genealogy Conference (May 30 - June 1) in London, Ontario.
Two of his books: Dating Old Photographs 1840 - 1929 and More Dating Old Photographs, are available from Family Chronicle Magazine (above) or Amazon.com.
Also, a Dan Delong presented a short mini-talk about RSS Feed Readers - i.e.; methods to automatically receive blog postings. A help page is available on this site at: RSS Feed Readers: How to.
Larry Doble - Famous Events and People of Brock Township. Those interested in local history, or whose family was originally from Brock Township, should not miss this. Larry has information on most of the early settlers, compiled into booklets containing 15 family histories and sourced from a database of 48,000 names. [School punishments - for the curious]
http://www.brockhistoricalsocieties.ca/
Also: "What if the Web Site Doesn't Speak English?" - 15 minute mini-talk by Guy Lafontaine.
Finding your English Ancestors - Our panel described their experiences doing research in England, and answered audience questions. Members of the panel shared many years of genealogical experience in this area. [Sample link from MyTrees.com]
March meeting was...
Brian Winter, Whitby Archivist, brought forth more letters, written by Whitby pioneers, to their families back home in the old country. These letters reveal much about local history - its hardships, development, customs, and individual personalities. Some are funny, some are sad, but all are very interesting. Brian has authored books and numerous magazine and newspaper articles during his long career in Whitby.
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Anne Delong demonstrated the techniques she uses when researching with the aid of "Obituary Daily Times".
Wanda Griffin, Deputy Land Registrar for the Land Records Office in Whitby, explored the fully automated resources available at the municipal office.
[905-665-4007 ext 211] wanda.griffin[AT]ontario.ca
View a few examples of old Whitby deeds at: Nipissing University
e.g.; - a) Alexander Cameron's mortgage on December 7, 1847 established that fifty pound payments were to be made to Abner Nash. b) William Morcombe agreed to pay James Cameron two hundred and seventy-five dollars every October 1st for the use of certain premises near the baseline between Oshawa and Whitby. The document is dated December 2, 1876 .
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Note: Fawne Stratford Devai and Ruth Burkholder (and husbands) have been highly active in finding safe homes for land records under a group called APOLROD.
Association for the Preservation of
Ontario Land Registry Office Documents
251 Second Street, Stouffville, Ontario, L4A 1B9
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Please, bring - empty computer printer cartridges and old cell phones (a fundraising project for the Society), - and funeral cards for scanning during the meeting break.
Exploring Irish records - A panel, consisting of three members who have been researching Ireland (both the north and south), discussed their findings and answered questions from the audience. Sample Link: Council of Irish Genealogical Organisations |
