Meeting, Monday, February 8th, 2016, 7:30 PM
Mike More will speak on “The First World War Beyond the Western Front” about the rest of the world war. This presentation is aimed at those who may not be aware that there was fighting outside of France. Mike is an accomplished genealogist and researcher. This is a program you will not want to miss.
The Brockville Museum and the Leeds & Grenville Branch Archives and Library will be closed from December 23rd until January 3rd inclusive, reopening for business on January 4th.
Wishing everyone a Merry Christmas and a Happy, Healthy New Year!
The Brockville Rifles will be celebrating their 150th Anniversary in 2016. They are inviting the public to join them in their celebration of 150 years with the community, comrades and country. For more detailed information about their planned events for the year review the website www.thebrockvillerifles.com or write to The Brockville Rifles, 144 King Street East, Brockville ON K6V 1C2.
The City of Brockville has proclaimed 2016 the ‘Year of the Rifles’.
The Provincial Office of the Ontario Genealogical Society has recently developed Family History Lesson Plans, to be used by Ontario elementary and secondary school educators as educational resources for their classrooms which integrate family history into the Ontario Provincial Curriculum. With the generous support provided from the Archives of Ontario, each lesson plan includes primary resources for students to work with and learn from.
Eight lesson plans have been developed to align with the provincial curriculum. These lesson plans will increase awareness of and interest in genealogy and family history through student-driven learning with historical thinking concepts. Where grade appropriate, social media and online curation tools have been included, as well as communication activities that encourage students to make connections to current events, and their own family histories.
These lesson plans are cross-curricular in nature, and aim to increase knowledge and curiosity of social provincial history in Ontario to students with a wide variety of skills and interests. Creating learning environments where students can explore the histories and importance of where they live, and how their personal histories contribute to our history making, will ultimately provide students with the tools to be empathetic and active historians.
The family history lesson plans are available on the Ontario Genealogical Society’s website at These lessons can be downloaded in PDF format for free and used by teachers in classrooms across Ontario.
Monday, November 9, 2015
A presentation by Viktor Kaczkowski and Alison Dingledine from the Brockville Museum, unveiling the museum’s new website, providing an update about the museum’s Open Drawer project, and demonstrating how to use the online collection database currently under development. The meeting starts at 7:30 PM.
Monday, December 14, 2015
Doug Bond will be speaking on “Farmers & Cheesemakers in North Leeds”. The meeting starts at 7:30 PM.
January, 2016
There is no January meeting.
Monday, Sept 14, 2015
The annual joint meeting of the Leeds & Grenville Branch of the OGS and the Colonel Edward Jessup Branch UELAC, with speaker Denis Jones, Treasurer, Charter Member and Past Chair of the Irish Palatine Special Interest Group of OGS.
Denis descends from the early Prescott families of John Lawrence, who married Margaret Switzer (widow of Philip Embury) and also John Dulmage, who married Sophia Heck. Denis will tell the Irish Palatine story.
His talk is titled “A Pictorial History – the Irish Palatine Journey to Upper Canada 1709 – 1784”. The talk (with photos) will cover some of the history of the Irish Palatines, including the following topics:
Denis has given this talk (or a version thereof) several times, most recently at the OGS conference in Barrie.
Monday, Oct 19, 2015
Pot luck dinner at 6:30 PM, followed by presentation at 7:30 PM by the Généalogie et archives St-Laurent, based at the Cornwall Public Library, talking to us about their holdings of Stormont, Dundas and Glengarry families. For the pot luck bring a dish to share, your plate & silverware. Drinks are provided.
In either November or December we plan to have a presentation by the Brockville Museum about their latest digitization project which will assist in researching material in their collections.
Items From the Past, Volume # 4 – Birth Marriage and Death Notices from the “Athens Reporter”, October 22, 1942 – December 16, 1949
Thanks to Gerry and Pat Flood for preparing Items From the Past, Volume # 4 – Birth Marriage and Death Notices from the “Athens Reporter”, October 22, 1942 – December 16, 1949, which follows the three volumes done by Lorna Johnston which cover the period from 1884 to mid-October 1942.
All volumes are available for purchase from the Branch for $30.00 each (+ postage if mailed). Here is the order form.
We are finalizing our fall and winter meeting programs. Our next meeting will take place on Monday, September 14th at 7:30 pm at the Brockville Museum. Check back in July for details on our fall program speakers.