Yearly Archives: 2024

11 posts

Leeds & Grenville Branch – December 2024 – Genealogy December Event: Show and Share

Meetings

Join us on Monday, December 2nd at 7:00 pm on Zoom for a Show and Share experience!  Do you have a genealogy success story you want to share?  Is there a family history heirloom that you want to show off?  How about a challenge that you’re looking for help to solve?  Want to learn what’s new in our Archives?  Our December genealogy event on Zoom will have all of these elements!  If you want to send us a photo or document in advance to share with the audience, please reach out to [email protected] and we’ll make it happen.  If you simply want to tell a story or ask a question, all you need is a microphone on your computer or tablet. If you prefer, you can type questions into the chat section of the Zoom platform.  We’ll usher in the Christmas season with some family history stories! To register for this year-end presentation, click here.

Leeds & Grenville Branch – November 2024 Presentation – Mike More’s Grandfather’s Experience in the British Army in the First World War

Meetings
Salonika Front 1916
Salonika Front 1916. Image courtesy of the Imperial War Museum.

Join us on Monday, November 4th at 7:00 pm to learn about the service of a British soldier in World War 1.  Branch member Mike More will give a presentation about his grandfather’s experience in the British Army in the First World War.  Mike says “to many Canadians, The Great War was fought in the trenches of France. But my grandfather spent almost five years in India and the Middle East. This was truly a global war and, although few Canadians served on other fronts, there was a great deal of fighting outside of France, and ‘Soldiers of the King’ were involved in all of them, along with many other nations. I’ll give a brief summary of what happened in the other areas of the conflict.”

Mike More retired from the Canadian Forces after 32 years service, and is an active Ontario Genealogical Society Volunteer, with the Society as the provincial coordinator of The Ontario Name Index (TONI), with Ottawa Branch in many roles, and as the Technical Host of Zoom webinars for the Leeds & Grenville Branch.  Mike has been tracing his roots for about forty years. To register for this presentation, click here .

Leeds & Grenville Branch – October 2024 Presentation: A Connecticut Yankee in the King’s Rangers – With Pamela Vittorio

Meetings
Credit: Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1997-365-21

Though genealogists rely most heavily on original documents to prove family relationships or identities, using artifacts, though unusual, may help untangle a same-name mystery. Join us on Monday, October 7th at 7:00 pm via Zoom to learn the story of A Connecticut Yankee in the King’s Rangers, as told by Leeds & Grenville Branch member, and New York resident, Pamela Vittorio.

Between 1780 and 1783, Oliver Graham’s name appeared on both Connecticut and Loyalist militia rosters. Were there two men named Oliver Graham?: one who had volunteered in Connecticut, fought with Seth Warner’s regiment in Vermont, and was captured during the Burning of the Valley; and the other, a private with the King’s Rangers who received many acres of Crown Land after the Treaty of Paris was signed?

A detailed paper trail from research in Canadian archives and two U.S. states, combined with a nineteenth century watercolor painting and a Colonial powder horn, help confirm one man’s identity.

Pamela Vittorio is a historian, professional genealogist, and an Associate Teaching Professor (Research & Writing) at the New School University, in NYC. To register for this presentation, click here

Leeds & Grenville Branch – Picnic on August 30th!

Events

Hello, Leeds & Grenville Branch Members and friends!
 
We’re excited to announce that we are taking a lesson from Kingston Branch about getting folks together to talk genealogy! Although late in the “picnic” season, we are hoping to entice members and friends from Leeds & Grenville to join us for a picnic on Friday, August 30th beginning at noon, at Brockville Museum’s patio located on the Kincaid Street side of the Brockville Museum.  This is an informal affair, just to get together with those who love family history, and talk about our successes, challenges and activities.
 
Bring your own food and beverage, and a comfortable chair. Bring a friend, if you like! There is limited two-hour free parking in front of the Museum and on Kincaid Street, and we don’t anticipate exceeding that timeframe.
 
Should the weather not cooperate, we’ll send out a cancellation notice that morning, along with a “rain date”.  But we remain hopeful that it won’t rain on our gathering!  We hope to see many of you who haven’t had a chance to talk genealogy lately!
 
See you on August 30th!

Leeds & Grenville Branch Council

Leeds & Grenville Branch – September 2024 Presentation – How to Develop Online Newspaper Research Skills – With Kenneth R Marks

Meetings

Join us on Monday, September 2nd at 7:00 pm via Zoom for our presentation How to Develop Online Newspaper Research Skills with Kenneth R. Marks.

This webinar is intended to build newspaper research skills for genealogy and history researchers.  Online newspaper research can be a frustrating endeavor for several reasons.  The goal is for the audience to understand why it can be difficult, and to learn some skills that will drastically improve search results.  The webinar will cover why to search old newspapers and the challenges in searching old newspapers online, provide several skills and techniques to successfully search newspapers online, and include a demonstration of these skills and techniques.

Kenneth Marks is the founder of the popular website The Ancestor Hunt, a site which now includes over 270,000 curated links to free online resources in 24 common genealogy categories.  Kenneth began his genealogy journey in 2002, and has, over the years, become an expert in newspaper research, which helped to uncover the stories of his ancestors’ lives.

To register for this presentation, click here.

Leeds & Grenville Branch – June 2024 Presentation – Mallorytown Glass Works – With Bob Greenhorn and Reg Hunt

Meetings

Did you know that Mallorytown in Leeds County is the location of the first glassworks in what we now call Canada? In 1839 Amasa Mallory realized the need and market for locally produced glass, and he founded the Mallorytown Glass Works. The factory produced household items such as plates, bowls, jugs, pitchers, jars and bottles.

(Photo courtesy of the Royal Ontario Museum Online Collection.)

Join us on Monday, June 3rd at 7:00 pm on Zoom for a presentation about the Mallorytown Glass Works, and a virtual tour of the permanent exhibit featuring historical and replica examples of the goods produced at the factory. Bob Greenhorn and Reg Hunt from the Mallory Coach House Museum will talk about the man and the business and will give us a virtual tour of the permanent exhibit housed in the Museum.

To register, click on this link.

Everyone welcome!

Leeds Heritage Day – May 25, 2024

Events

The Leeds & Grenville Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society will be open on Saturday, May 25th to celebrate Leeds Heritage Day.  Our Archives, located in the Brockville Museum, will welcome visitors with refreshments and a chance to see our collection of family histories, land abstract books, and much more about the history of Leeds & Grenville counties.  Come to visit us!

Other activities taking place for Leeds Heritage Day include:

•        The Athens Museum is celebrating 20 years and will also have a BBQ.  Athens Library has a book and plant sale and there is a community yard sale. Maple View Lodge Auxiliary has a pie and yard sale.

•        The Brick School in Elgin will host a display of photos by famed photographer Clifford Pennock, an early 20th century photographic pioneer.

•        Delta’s Old Stone Mill will be open and offers guided or self guided tours.

•        At Mallory Coach House in Mallorytown there will be a chance to visit the new Glassworks display as well as other exhibits.

•        The Thousand Islands History Museum in Gananoque will be hosting the last weekend for the fibre arts show, “From Away”.

•        The Brockville Museum is a member and offers many exhibits of local interest. 

•        The Rideau District Museum, located at 29 Bedford Street in Westport, has many unique and interesting artifacts.

•        The Brockville Museum is a member and offers many exhibits of local interest. 

•        The Rideau District Museum, located at 29 Bedford Street in Westport, has many unique and interesting artifacts.

Leeds & Grenville Branch – May 2024 Presentation – Poppies in a Field of Stones – With Jan Briggs-McGowan

Meetings

Join us on Monday, May 6th at 7:00 pm via Zoom for our presentation Poppies in a Field of Stones with Jan Briggs-McGowan.  Jan is an OGS member and an active member of the Bruce County Genealogical Society and the Royal Canadian Legion.  Over the past decade she has been inspired to create a lasting recognition of Canada’s veterans with the Poppy Rocks project.  In recent years she has arranged for the creation and placement of more than 700 stones painted with poppies and placed on the graves of veterans in the Bruce County region.

Last November a group of grade 6 students in Kemptville painted their own poppy rocks for placement at the local cenotaph.  Jan is hoping to inspire us in Leeds & Grenville to build on this initiative and ensure that we pass on the act of remembrance to younger generations. To register for this presentation, click here.

Leeds & Grenville Branch – April 2024 Presentation: Brockville Newspapers From 1821 to 1917 – With Alice McMurtry From the Brockville Museum

Meetings

Join us on Monday, April 1st at 7:00 pm via Zoom for our presentation about Brockville Newspapers from 1821 to 1917 with Alice McMurtry from the Brockville Museum.

This presentation chronicles the formation and development of Brockville’s leading newspapers. Power, politics, and technology all play a part in this story. This talk looks at familiar examples like the Recorder and the Times, along with stories of lesser-known papers like the Brockville Gazette and the Statesman. We’ll see how the politics of the day influenced the development of these papers and how they shaped the Brockville community.

Alice McMurtry is the Community Program Coordinator at the Brockville Museum, where she develops public and educational programming for a range of audiences.

To register for this presentation, click here.

The Leeds & Grenville Branch has digitized many of the Brockville papers up to 1901, and the digital files are available in the Members Library on the Branch website.  The microfilm reels are also available for viewing in the Branch Archives, by making an appointment for a visit.

Leeds & Grenville Branch – March 2024 Presentation: Loyal They Remained – With Jean Rae Baxter

Meetings

Join us on Monday, March 4th at 7:00 pm via Zoom for our presentation entitled Loyal They Remained delivered by author Jean Rae Baxter.

This presentation tells the story of the American War of Independence from a “Canadian” point of view. Covering the period from 1777 to the settlement of the Loyalist refugees in what is now Canada, it will examine the effect of the conflict on those who opposed the Revolution.  It wasn’t just white colonists who became Loyalists!  The native people, especially Iroquois (Haudenosaunee), and thousands of enslaved black people, earned their freedom through their service to the British military. All these became Loyalists, too.  Join us as Jean ties it all together!

Jean Rae Baxter UE holds a B.A. and M.A. from the University of Toronto and a B.Ed. from Queen’s. Before becoming a fulltime writer, she taught Secondary School English in Lennox & Addington County.  Although she was born in Toronto and grew up in Hamilton, “down home” was Essex and Kent Counties, where her ancestors had settled, some as Loyalists in the 1780s following the American Revolution, and some a century earlier, in the days of New France.

To register for this presentation, click here.