The June 2020 Branch meeting featured a presentation about the Leeds & Grenville Branch Archives, with lots of information about what you’ll find there when you visit.
Tag Archives: United Counties of Leeds & Grenville
October 2017 Meeting
Date: October 16, 2017
Time: 6:30 PM
Location: Brockville Museum
Program will be preceded by a pot luck dinner at 6:30 – a great way to get to know other members and chat about mutual interests, to say nothing of the delicious food.
September 2017 Meeting
Date: September 11, 2017
Time: 7:30 PM
Location: Brockville Museum
George Neville will be speaking on Monday, September 11th about Joseph Jessup, his land and Mill sites at Lyn Falls off the Lyn-Yonge Mills Road. George’s talk will be introduced through an early map (1810) of the St. Lawrence Front Royal townships extending from Edwardsburg Twp. in the east to Leeds Twp. in the west, wherein Jessup’s Mill sites are indicated in Lots 24-26 and E.½ Lot 27 of Elizabeth Town Twp., a location better known now as ‘Lyn Falls’. This map depicts the early route of the King’s Highway, pathways, creeks and waterways and emerging settlement communities.
Little personal information is known of Capt. Joseph Jessup, but insight will be shared from obscure documents of Jessup’s dilemma in later sale of parcels of his holdings to different purchasers only to learn before ‘the ink was dry’ that he was committed to greater total acreage than to which he held title by Crown Deed, and the efforts he invoked with the Survey General’s Department in York for favourable resolution.
May 2017 Meeting
Date: May 8, 2017
Time: 7:30 PM
Location: Brockville Museum
On May 8th Brent Collett, local land surveyor and mapper, will give a presentation about Willis Chipman, an early surveyor of Leeds & Grenville counties and the founder in 1881 of the company that Brent runs today. Brent has a library of old records from several Ontario land surveyors as well as surveying tools and documents over 150 years old.
March 2017 Meeting
Credit: LAC R112 2008-0377 box 265 PL-39933
Date: March 13, 2017
Time: 7:30 pm
Place: Brockville Museum
Speaker: Pascale Guindon
On March 13th, Pascale Guindon, a Parks Canada historian, will tell us the remarkable story of Lieutenant William Sharpe of Prescott, and his career as an aviator during the First World War. The talk looks at his early life and training, Canada’s first attempt at an aviation corps, his overseas service and concludes with some thoughts on his aviation legacy.
From 2014 until 2018, Canada is commemorating the centennial of the First World War, a global event that left lasting effects on generations of Canadians. During this commemorative period, Parks Canada has been recognizing and honouring the memory of Hometown Heroes across the country who contributed each in their own way to the war effort. Lt. Sharpe is one such hero.
Pascale Guindon is an historian with Parks Canada. With a passion for history since childhood, she studied in architectural history and Canadian Studies and began her career in heritage conservation as a student interpreter at Fort Wellington National Historic Site in Prescott. She is currently in the role of National Programs Coordinator for Parks Canada’s National Celebrations Branch helping to commemorate and celebrate with Canadians significant anniversaries of people, places and events that have helped shape the Canada of today.
Please join us at the Brockville Museum at 7:30 pm to hear this presentation and learn more about genealogy in Leeds & Grenville. Refreshments and an opportunity for discussion will follow the presentation.
Books Notice
If you have any books hanging around your house that others might like to read, the Brockville Museum is accepting donations for its upcoming annual Book Sale. There will be a cart in the Museum lobby where you can drop off donations.
October 2016 Meeting
October 17th, 2016
Kathleen Burtch will give a presentation on Grenadier Island.
This is also our Pot Luck dinner at 6:30. Bring a dish to share, a plate and your cutlery. Drinks are provided.
September 2016 Meeting
Summer vacations are over and fall is approaching. Also approaching is a return to the regular meetings of the Leeds & Grenville Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society.
The new season starts on Monday, September 12th at 7:30 p.m. in the Brockville Museum.
Our guest speaker will be Bill Boulton on his latest book, “Village Streets & Country Lanes: Lansdowne Then and Now.”
Do come out and join us & bring a friend.
April 2016 Meeting
Meeting, Monday, April 11th, 2016, 7:30 PM
Brockville to Perth Settlers Trek 1816 – 2016
2016 is the 200th anniversary of the original trek of discharged soldiers and Scottish settlers to the Perth Settlement. These people walked from Brockville to Perth where the new settlement was founded. In May, 2016 this trek will be re-enacted and many of the participants will be descendants of the original settlers.
Clark Theobald of the Rideau Lakes Historical Society will be our guest speaker and provide details of the Trek and subsequent settlement. The presentation will focus on identifying those settlers who headed north from Brockville in the Spring of 1816 as part of the first British government sponsored and administered settlement program in North America. Using original documents and modern technologies, we will follow their journey to Unionville, Athens, Delta and the Old Landing.
The Settlers Trek 2016 program, presented by the Athens Lions Club, will be re-enacting the original Trek of the Scottish and disbanded soldier/settlers to the Perth Military Settlement in 1816. This unique 200th Anniversary project will be attempted from May 15-20, 2016 and pass through the communities of Brockville, Lyn, Athens, Delta, Portland, Rideau Ferry and Perth. At each locale, a welcoming ceremony and community celebration will take place. Participants will include walkers and horse and wagon teams, plus there will be a separate water route from Portland to Perth attempted by the Geo-Venture class from Perth and District Collegiate Institute.
The 2016 Trek project was originally conceived by Clark Theobald out of discussions within the Perth 200th committee. Clark is a retired school teacher with a passion for local history. He will be accompanied by his wife, Elizabeth, also a retired school teacher, and Larry Cochran from Portland, a member of the Rideau Lakes Historical Society.
Two special guests will include Kathy de Souza, a descendant of John Kilborn, and Ron Shaw, a Perth author with a very strong interest in the military history of this region.
November & December 2015 Meetings
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.
New Publication: Items from the Past, Volume # 4, Birth, Marriage & Death Notices from the “Athens Reporter”
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.