Breaking Down Brick Walls
Searching for family history becomes frustrating if you can't locate an essential record, or the records may be from another country (in another language), or a person's maiden name may elude you. Our moderators (and the audience at large) will provide advice, relate personal anecdotes, and point attendees in the right direction to resolve such dilemmas.
Mini-talk: Nancy Trimble - Genealogical Education - opportunities
Sher Leetooze - WW1 Nurses of Durham County and Oshawa Sher Leetooze names 36 WWI Nursing Sisters who hailed from Old Durham County. Through her research Sher has discovered fascinating accounts of the difficult working conditions nurses found themselves having to deal with near battlefields, and the resultant hair raising experiences foisted upon some nurses while performing their duties. Sher will likely bring copies of her book to the meeting. An althernate source is - Global Genealogy
Mini-talk: Graham Family - This is a Brick Wall Follow-up created by Stephen Wood and presented by Nancy Trimble.
Ruth Burkholder is our speaker for this meeting. Her topic is "The Hudson's Bay Company" just a chain of stores? Hudson Bay Company records are some of the earliest documents recording native peoples and overseas immigrants, particularly those from Scotland. There is much history in this company which has been in continuous operation for over 344 years. Started by two Frenchmen in 1670 under an English Royal Charter, it is now owned by an American Equity firm....truly a multinational history of a multifacted entity. http://firstpeoplesofcanada.com/fp_furtrade/fp_furtrade3.html [Handout for Ruth's presentation]
Free Websites: where to find them and how to use them. Stacey Goddard has post a descriptive list here, and on our Facebook Group.
http://www.englandsimmigrants.com/ and https://www.gengophers.com/ and http://www.stevemorse.org/ and http://www.alivingpast.ca/ and http://bibnum2.banq.qc.ca/bna/lovell/ and http://www.ukbmd.org.uk/online_parish_clerk and http://www.goodreads.com/ and https://www.kirkusreviews.com/ and https://books.google.com/ and http://www.lovell.ca/en/directories.html and http://image.durham.ca/yourDurhamMap/ and http://www.ourroots.ca/ Sites with tricky navigation will be demonstrated live.
Jane Macnamara - Inheritance Interrupted: WW1 reflected in Ontario Estate files The sudden deaths of so many young Canadian sons (and daughters) changed the normal patterns of inheritance. However, the accompanying records are extremly useful for genealogy. http://wherethestorytakesme.ca/inheritance-interrupted/
Jane has placed the notes from her presentation at the above location on her website. Click the link.
The streaming link for this event has been archived, or view the main talk, without the follow-up Q&A or Swabbing Session, on YouTube.
Dr. Maurice Gleeson - Supercharging Your Genealogy with DNA - DNA testing is really easy to do, costs about $125 Canadian dollars, and is helping family history researchers break through Brick Walls that they never thought would come down. The technology behind DNA testing has been given a real boost by the Adoption Community who have developed tools and methodologies to facilitate the use of DNA to reconnect adoptees with their birth families. These same technologies have proven to be of real benefit to ordinary everyday genealogists too. Maurice will explain how DNA testing (and autosomal DNA in particular) can help you connect with genetic cousins and solve your own family mysteries. He will also explain how to focus the attack on your Brick Walls by testing several targeted family members. He will illustrate his talk with real life examples, including an adoption success story from his own family.
Brief Biography
Dr Maurice Gleeson is a psychiatrist, pharmaceutical physician, some time actor, and genetic genealogy convert. He runs several DNA projects at FamilyTreeDNA, has several blogs, and has a YouTube channel devoted to videos on genetic genealogy with the aim of making the subject understandable and accessible to the widest audience possible. He was born and grew up in Dublin, is based in London (UK), and lectures on genetic genealogy worldwide.
Interview Video http://www.ogs.on.ca/conference/interview-with-conference-speaker-dr-maurice-gleeson/
Solve Genealogical Problems by Creating a Timeline (recorded webinar)
Timelines are very useful ways of visualizing data. Timelines give you an order of and context for events, or to show what kinds of events were happening around your ancestors. Using Excel spreadsheets (to record and calculate), this webinar will show how to solve different types of genealogical problems by using timelines. Beth Foulk maintains a website, Genealogy Decoded .
A slightly editted version of Beth's talk is at: https://youtu.be/XFH1y95jAXk
The September General Meeting porceedings are at: https://youtu.be/SneipxY-uZs
Jim Bowen - "She was What??" - Early 19th Century Travelling Female Preachers - Dedication, Heroics, Scandal and Tragedy
The Bible Christian Connexion and their Early Female Itinerant Preachers -YouTube Stream Recorded.
Our usual general meeting location is the Main Branch of the Oshawa Library (basement auditorium). This meeting will include our annual round of voting for - Chair, Vice Chair, Treasurer, and Recording Secretary.
Bob Bell and Glenn McKnight – War & Refugees, in Canada, over the Ages, 1812- 1918. YouTube Stream - starts at 7:30 p.m.EST [Streaming failed for this presentation due to technical difficulties.]
In this photo, having commandeered the 2013 tour bus; they are bound for adventure in various Durham locations.
Show and Tell / Bring & Brag –
At this meeting we celebrated the season together, along with any genealogical breakthroughs, special stories, favourite websites, interesting documents or other artifacts brought to this gathering.
Members were invited share genealogy 'ah-ha's and edible holiday treats.