The Durham Region Branch celebrated with a hybrid meeting for our end-of-year Christmas social. For decades, our end-of-year highlight event has brought us together - in a real room - to enjoy personal family history stories, along with tasty seasonal treats, hot apple cider, and a very unstructured sharing evening.
Last year's virtual event was a great success followed by a wonderful sharing session. This year's event will be hybrid, so this is an opportunity to gather together in person or keep our distance using Zoom. Anything can be shown: photos, medals, heirlooms, a tricky piece of research or even a plea for help! The hybrid meeting drawback is that holding items up to a web camera is often not clear enough for all participants. Thank you to those who sent images to Chair Nancy Trimble ahead of time. Her email is durhamchair@ogs.on.ca
A recording of the entire meeting is on YouTube... https://youtu.be/W3NeIRImG4Y
Our speaker is Elaine Lievaart of the Ajax Public Library.
Prior to the Spring of 1940, Ajax did not exist. This all changed when two government surveyors arrived in Pickering Township, looking for land upon which to build the largest munitions plant in the British Commonwealth. We’ll take a tour of this plant, learn about what life was like on and off the production lines and how it eventually morphed into the Town of Ajax.
Elaine Lievaart has worked for the Ajax Public Library in various roles for the past 18 years. She is currently a Community Engagement Associate who works primarily with older adults where she organizes programs which are designed to educate, enlighten, enrich and, mostly, entertain. The other hat she wears is looking after the Local History and Genealogy collections at the Library. Elaine has a love of history and received her Bachelor of Arts degree from the University of Toronto with a double major in Anthropology and History. She is never happier than chatting with people about the unusual story of the founding of Ajax or being let loose in the Town’s Archives to see what treasures she can find.
This presentation is available in the Members Only Area. Elaine's PDF handout will be avialble here, for a short time. The business portion of our meeting is on YouTube... https://youtu.be/KqWYHEHhFz0
Whitby-Oshawa Branch was formed in 1982 as the 22nd branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society. We were assigned the area of the old Counties of Ontario and (part of) Durham. In 2005, our name was changed to better reflect that area of coverage: Durham Region Branch. First, we will be holding a very short AGM in order to present an update for the branch and welcome any new volunteers. Following our special speaker, we will be presenting certificates of appreciation, showing a slideshow of our activities through the years and, of course, celebrating our Ruby Anniversary with cake.
Newspapers are a treasure trove of information for all sorts of researchers. There are vital statistics such as births and deaths, there are articles highlighting the current events of the days and there are stories and advertisements that showcase social issues and community focus. Archives and libraries have worked to preserve their local newspapers so that they are available for researchers. This talk will focus on where to access newspapers from collections in and around Durham Region, the challenges faced by those preserving these collections and by researchers accessing them and some of the interesting ways local newspapers have been used to help tell local history.
Jennifer Weymark has been with the Oshawa Historical Society for 23 years, 22 of those years spent as the Archivist. This role has given Jennifer the opportunity to put to good use her undergraduate work in history and cultural anthropology, while also putting into practice the theories and skills learned while earning her Masters Degree in Museum Studies. In this position, Jennifer has not only devoted time to digitizing and reorganizing the archival collection, while maintaining the day-to-day collections management work, but she has also been focused on filling in gaps in the archival collection through focused collecting practices and original research. She has had the pleasure of sharing her work through presenting at conferences, developing and leading workshops for local students and speaking to various community groups. Handout with live links.
Jennifer has kindly permitted posting of her presentation, on our YouTube Channel, along with the entire meeting contents (Q&A, business portion, news and announcements)... https://youtu.be/o0_EfZPs7fw
Are you ready to go beyond census and births, marriages, and deaths? Estate files are rich source for finding family connections and revealing our ancestor’s social and financial circumstances, maybe even personality. As court records, they tend to be very reliable—and even come with indexes.
Now that FamilySearch.org has digitized an extensive collection of Ontario surrogate court records—we can discover these treasures from home.
This session will give a brief overview of how the court system worked in Ontario and a step-by-step explanation of how to access the records. It will concentrate on records for Durham Region available through FamilySearch.
Speaker Jane E. MacNamara is the author of Inheritance in Ontario: Wills and other Records for Family Historians (OGS/Dundurn) and writes about genealogy at wherethestorytakesme.ca. A long time member of OGS, Jane lectures about research methodology, Ontario, and English family history to genealogical and historical groups throughout Ontario. She teaches courses for the OGS Toronto Branch, most notably hands-on courses about Ontario records—both onsite and online.
[This was be the branch’s first hybrid meeting, that is, both in-person and via Zoom. It was be held in the basement meeting room of the Northminster United Church, Simcoe St. N., Oshawa, Ontario (NW corner of Simcoe St. N. and Rossland Rd. W.)] Here is a recording of the business portion of our meeting, without Jane's presentation... https://youtu.be/yXocNE9je84
Jane has made her presentation available on YouTube; it will be available in the Members Only Area for a year.
Be sure to visit Jane's blog (linked above) for her posts related to the recently digitized/unlocked "Durham Region Surrogate Courts" records, or download Jane's PDF version of this presentation.
Durham Branch’s Virtual Library Monthly Drop-In -
Durham Branch’s Virtual Library Monthly Drop-In, Thursday, August 25th.
Nancy Trimble: Chair, Durham Region Branch
You are invited to join “Durham Branch's Library Drop-In”. We have a permanent day and time now: 4th Thursday at 11:00 am via Zoom. Drop-in and let’s talk genealogy!
We have booked Zoom meetings from June to October. It is one link and you can book all dates at the same time or pick and choose which “drop-ins” to attend.
All are Welcome! Kindly register at:
https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYocuioqz4oHdLUmfh9rWpNJRU-fAAj8_A_
After registering, you will receive a confirmation email about joining the meeting.
Watch our (under 3 minute) tour of the library and office: -https://youtu.be/sHdO2sMYW0A
Nancy Trimble, PLCGS, (team leader of the DNA Special Interest Group of the Durham Region Branch, Ontario Ancestors) guided us through an exploration of Ancestry.ca’s DNA portion of their website.
She explored the DNA Story, DNA Matches and the Thru-Lines areas of the website in detail, showing how you can glean hints from each as you explore what your DNA is telling you.
[Nancy Trimble is a graduate of the National Institute of Genealogical Studies and is currently the Chair of Durham Region Branch, Ontario Ancestors, as well as Co-Chair of the branch’s DNA SIG. Having a medical background, she has a keen interest in the application of DNA to furthering your genealogical goals.]
Now available for viewing on YouTube: - https://youtu.be/V2c_W1YjZiQ
We will talk about all the things you need to know before your sign-up, terms of service and privacy updates (changes in the last month!) and the things you can do once you are registered. It's all about uploading your DNA data and using the tools and analysis available to discover new DNA cousins and hopefully make exciting discoveries in your family tree.
Mags Gaulden is a Professional Genealogist and the founder of Grandma’s Genes in Ottawa. She is an international Genetic Genealogy lecturer, blogger and social media maven. She serves as admin of various Facebook groups including the ISOGG Facebook group. Mags non-profit work includes Wiki-Tree and mito-YDNA.org
In lieu of a handout, Mags offers a shorter version of her slide presentation - GEDmatch IntroShort [5MB PDF]
A slightly editted version of the entire Zoom meeting, including Mag's presentation, is here: https://youtu.be/vR2rGS3VqAY
Sometimes, when we are researching our families, one of them goes missing. Before you jump to conclusions and check death records, why not check out other provincial archives. Here in Ontario land was taken up at a rapid rate by the first wave of incomers, so when the sons and daughters were ready to take up land, there was precious little left. In order to make a life for themselves they went farther afield. I've found many Ontario people out west in the later 1800's. Manitoba has a wonderful online BMD site for researching the whereabouts of relatives. And if you are researching in Quebec, Quebec Genealogy/Drouin is one of the best genealogy sites I've ever used. From coast to coast we have great archives - provincial archives, university archives, county /regional/district archives, libraries specializing in genealogical material, historical societies, genealogical societies...; the list goes on and on.
I will try to present a good cross-section to you - giving you url's &/or e-mail addresses. [https://sherleetooze.com/about/]
Sher's presentation is in Members Only.
Stephen Wood's mini talk featured the New General Registry Office (GRO) for England and Wales (1841-1861). President Nancy Trimble chaired the meeting and updated news regarding future genealogical events, including Conference 2022 in June... https://youtu.be/RZHbFdhYagc
Jennifer's presentation was in Members Only, until Aprl 1st. 2022. The rest of the March meeting, including the Internet Archive min-talk, is here... https://youtu.be/m70HDp3jO-c
The Anglican Diocese of Toronto is quite large and holds records covering the areas of Halton-Peel, Toronto, York, Simcoe, Durham, Northumberland, Kawartha Lakes, Peterborough and Haliburton. We expect this talk to be of interest to a wide number of researchers.
“In Search of Home: Migration into, out of and within Canada”
