Meetings

90 posts

Leeds & Grenville Branch – April 2025 Presentation: “Border—What Border? Our Ancestors Who Called Both Canada and the USA Home” with Annette Burke Lyttle

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Join us on Monday, April 7^that 7:00 pm via Zoom for a presentation by Annette Burke Lyttle. Her topic is “Border—What Border? Our Ancestors Who Called Both Canada and the USA Home”.

Movement from the United States to Canada was unrestricted and unrecorded until April 1908. The U.S. began recording the entry of Canadians along its northern border in 1894. Before that, many thousands of people lived cross-border lives, without visas, work permits, passports, or immigration records. Learn how to find these elusive ancestors.

Annette Burke Lyttle, CG^®owns Heritage Detective, LLC, providing professional genealogical services in research, education, and writing. She speaks on a variety of genealogical topics at the international, national, state, and local levels, and loves helping people uncover and share their family stories. Annette is a course coordinator for the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy and the British Institute. She is a published writer whose research interests include Quaker ancestors and ancestral migrations in the US. She is past president of the Association of Professional Genealogists and editor of The Florida Genealogist. To register for this presentation, click here.

Leeds & Grenville Branch – March 2025 Presentation: A History of Brockville Photography Studios

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Join us on Monday, March 3^rdat 7:00 pm via Zoom for a presentation on A History of Brockville Photography Studios by Alice McMurtry from the Brockville Museum.

This presentation will shed a light on some of the leading names in photography’s early days in Brockville. We will explore how photographic technology has changed over time, and look at photography’s impact on the development of tourism in Brockville. This talk will be highlighted by photographs from the Brockville Museum collection. Do you have family photos taken by a Brockville photographer? Learn more about the photographers who took them, and the studios they operated. It may even help you to identify “mystery photo” sitters!

Alice McMurtry is the Community Program Coordinator at the Brockville Museum, where she develops public and educational programming for a range of audiences. She has extensive museum experience, having worked at the Royal Ontario Museum, the Ontario Heritage Trust, the City of Toronto History Museums, the Bata Shoe Museum, Black Creek Pioneer Village, and other cultural institutions across the province. She holds a Master’s in Museum Studies and an Honours BA in History and English Literature from the University of Toronto. To register for this presentation, click here

Leeds & Grenville Branch – February 2025 – FamilySearch: Accessing & Using Images and Full Text Search – With Jill Morelli

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Join us on Monday, February 3^rdat 7:00 pm via Zoom for our first presentation of 2025! Author and speaker Jill Morelli will speak about Family Search research techniques. Her topic is “Be a Super Sleuth: Accessing & Using Images and Full Text Search”

Did you know that Family Search is placing their recently digitized material online in less than 24 hours after it is scanned? Did you know that they are placing them, not in the Catalog, but in Images? This makes the images tab (under Search) the most up-to-date repository of FS records–not the Catalog. Did you know that using Artificial Intelligence, you can conduct an all-word search for certain documents in their “Lab”? What is a Super Sleuth to do? We will learn how to access these two features of FS to find your ancestors. Treasures await!

Jill Morelli, CG, CGL is a writer, lecturer and co-founder of the online Applied Genealogy Institute, providing hands-on educational opportunities for intermediate and advanced genealogists. In 2017, she founded the Certification Discussion Group, an online series discussing her certification journey in order to demystify the process for others. Jill is past president of the Seattle Genealogical Society, co-chair of SGS Centennial 2023, program director for the Puget Sound-APG chapter, and a member of many local and national genealogical societies. To register for this presentation, click here.

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

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Join us on Monday, December 2^nd 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. Image courtesy of the Imperial War Museum.

Join us on Monday, November 4^th 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

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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 7^th 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 – September 2024 Presentation – How to Develop Online Newspaper Research Skills – With Kenneth R Marks

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Join us on Monday, September 2^nd 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

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

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Join us on Monday, May 6^th 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

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Join us on Monday, April 1^st 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.