Saturday Program

7:00-8:00am Breakfast in cafeteria – for ticket holders

7:30 am Registration desk opens (until 12:00 pm)

8:00-9:00am Plenary Session

S2: Lisa Louise Cooke – Tap into Your Inner Private Eye: Eight Strategies you Need to Find Living Relatives

It’s easy to get caught up with finding dead relatives, but it’s the living ones who can share their personal stories, their boxes of photos in their attic, and their address book full of other relatives. It’s imperative that you find and talk to these folks while you still can, but finding a living person can prove quite a challenge in today’s identity/security-conscious society.

9:10-10:40am OGS Annual General Meeting

10:00am Marketplace opens – until 6:00 p.m.

10:40-11:00 Break

11:00 “Ask a Pro” sessions begin. (Courtesy of members of Ontario Chapter, Association of Professional Genealogists). 15-minute free consultations. Sign-up sheets for this will be available from noon Friday. (Sessions may be available on Friday afternoon and Sunday morning as well.)

11:00 Research Room opens – sign up for half-hour sessions

11:00-12:00 Concurrent Sessions

S3: Serge Paquet – Through the Words of those who were there: the War of 1812 in personal records at the Archives of Ontario

The War of 1812 impacted all those living in Upper Canada, one way or another. Militiamen, officers, administrators, settlers, merchants all experienced the conflict in different ways. Some wrote letters, journals, or personal accounts that tell various yet compelling stories of the War. This session will look at some of these stories through personal letters and accounts held by the Archives of Ontario, bringing the war to life through the words of those who were there. It will also include records pertaining to post-War land grants and support to veterans.

S4: Phil Ainsworth – Porous Borders

Two brothers, Cornelius and Henry Ainsworth, emigrated with their father, Philip, and step­mother, Joanna (Whitney) [Burr], to Prince Edward County, Upper Canada, from Jefferson County, New York State in 1823. Both Henry and Cornelius pioneered forest-covered farm lots. Henry, and his wife, Mary Redner, granddaughter of Loyalist, Henry Redner, had ten children in Prince Edward County. Some stayed in Prince Edward County; others settled in Northumberland County; still others migrated to the American mid-West. Cornelius, and his wife, Mary Doolittle, daughter of another American emigrant, Lyman Doolittle, had six children, some of whom remained in Prince Edward; others also settled in Northumberland County; one migrated to Michigan. Subsequent generations migrated to many other points in the United States while others returned to Canada.

The major focus of the presentation will be on the challenges faced by this researcher in tracking down the migrations and settlement patterns of the generations. Sources used included the traditional ones of census records, as well as the less well-known ones of records found in various states, various city newspapers in libraries of various states, archival records in other American cities and ultimately cold-calling and tracking down living descendants.

S5: Chris Watts – Every Journey has two ends: getting the most out of departure and arrival records

So often when searching for migration details of our ancestors researchers think in terms of just arrival or departure records. This talk will, through the medium of examples, demonstrate how by using the two together the shortcomings of content, indexing and accessibility may be minimized. This talk will not be a survey of available passenger lists but a demonstration of research technique. Material from Australia, New Zealand, UK, Canada, USA, Germany, Sweden and Brazil will be used.

S6: Jane Down – Organize It: Systematic, Safe, Accessible

Need to get organized? Then this talk is for you. Get inspired to go from piles of paper to efficient, safe, accessible and logical storage of all family history items. This lecture will describe the author’s systematic approach to organizing family history memorabilia and data with emphasis on binder organization, care and storage of old photographs and CD/DVDs, storage of over-sized treasures, and use of fire safes. The system will be illustrated using examples taken from the author’s own family history.

S7: Steven Young – FamilySearch: Records Access Program

FamilySearch is the world’s largest free online genealogical data service, offering increasing access to records from all over the world. This presentation will explain, with examples, how the Records Access Program provides genealogical groups, lineage societies, or record custodians (libraries and archives) assistance in scanning, indexing, and publishing their records online.

FamilySearch is a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. Patrons may access FamilySearch services and resources free online at FamilySearch.org or through over 4,500 family history centers in 70 countries, including the main Family History Library in Salt Lake City, Utah. FamilySearch is now partnering with genealogical businesses, such as The Generations Network (Ancestry.com), FindMyPast.com, Footnote.com, and others, to cooperatively index and post millions of records from countries around the world. FamilySearch can benefit genealogical societies, libraries and archives by providing a platform on which nonprofit organizations can broker solutions for digitizing, indexing, publishing their data, and/or generating income with a variety of partners in a variety of ways. FamilySearch will remain a free service with outreach efforts aimed at assisting the worldwide genealogical community in identifying and making accessible relevant records for genealogical research.

12:00-1:30 Lunch for ticket holders – time for marketplace too

1:30-2:30 Concurrent Sessions

S8: Fran Murphy – Women and the War of 1812

This lecture explores the sources available on discovering the roles your women ancestors played in the War of 1812. Women of the upper and middle classes wrote most of the manuscripts, dairies, letter that remain. Drawing from family papers and correspondence found for Anne Elinor Provost, the Ridout papers, and Anne Powell and others, this presentation will demonstrate how to find documents available at the Archives of Ontario, Library and Archives of Canada and local history depositories. To learn more about the women in the War of 1812, other records will include Land Claim records, militia muster and pay lists, pensions, local history manuscripts, and period newspapers and periodicals.

S9: Meldon J. Wolfgang III, F.G.B.S. – Researching over the river: Resources for Family Research in the New York State Archives and Library

In the US Federal census of 1850, more than 27,000 people living in the 12 northern “river counties” of New York State listed “Canada” as their place of birth. Similarly, thousands of individuals living in Canada West in 1851 came from a location in New York State. Moreover, many of today’s United Empire Loyalists descend from New York families who headed north because of the Revolutionary War. So, when faced with a research challenge that leads over the river to New York State, where should a genealogist start?

Try the New York State Archives and Library in Albany! In spite of the State Capitol fire of 1911 that destroyed nearly a million books, documents and manuscripts, there’s still a wealth of information available for researchers. This presentation will examine some of the research riches available to genealogists in Albany, focusing specifically on records that will be of interest to Canadian researchers. Early tax assessment lists, Revolutionary War records – including Loyalist claims, manuscript collections of family papers, militia lists, bounty land claims, and much more can be a treasure trove for genealogists. Plus, the State Library has a very large genealogy and local history collection available on “open stacks” for browsing, and is less than an hour’s drive from the regional National Archives facility in Pittsfield, Massachusetts.

S10: Joseph Wearing – Making Bridges Across the Sea

Often the biggest challenge for Canadian family historians is to make the link across the sea to their origins in an “Old Country” in order to find where their ancestors were born and lived. They also want to connect with living relations, no matter how distant, who can not only be of assistance in further exploring the family’s origins but can also benefit from our own research.

The author uses case studies from his own family history to show how these links can be made. In one instance, he was able to find his great-grandfather’s grave in an ill-kempt church­yard and to prove that this ancestor was brought up by his birth-father, though he did not take the father’s surname. In another instance, he was able to meet the descendant of a family member who had stayed behind in England while his siblings were shipped to Canada as Home Children. The third case illustrates how to find a family, when all we know is that “they lived in a part of Ireland where you could see Scotland on a clear day.” In the fourth case, he connects with a fourth cousin in England who had important family papers relating to a wealthy testator in Ireland.

S11: John D. Reid – Your Family History in Canadian and British Newspapers

Mine the gold-rich veins of your family history in newspaper archives. Find out how.

S12: Glenn Wright – On both Sides of the Bars: Kingston Penitentiary Records for Family History

Kingston Penitentiary is the oldest federal prison in operation and over the course of its long history, a vast amount of fascinating records have been created and preserved. In this presentation, I will look at the history of the penitentiary and the kinds of records that are available on inmates since the 1830s through the early 20th century.

Amongst the many records that have been preserved are three main series: convict registers from the 1840s through 1919, punishment books, and liberation books. Together, they provide incredible biographical information about inmates, but in many cases, one can also learn additional details about family and the social context of the time. Moreover, the Kingston Penitentiary records at Library and Archives Canada (LAC) also include visitor’s books, hospital and diet records and much more.

In addition, the records also document those who were employed at the penitentiary, especially in the nineteenth century, and these men and women will be featured in this presentation, too. The Penitentiary was a major employer in Kingston and these records document those on the “other side” of the bars. As in any presentation, published and online resources will be examined and described as well.

2:30-3:00 Break

3:00-4:00 Concurrent Sessions

S13: Ruth Burkholder – Captain John Button and the War of 1812

John Button was born in Dutchess Co NY and settled in Markham Twp, York County, with his wife and family in 1809. Prior the War of 1812, he raised a volunteer cavalry unit within the local militia, likely the first in Upper Canada. This presentation will talk about this family from Markham, the Governor General’s Horse Guards which grew out of this unit and celebrated their 200th anniversary in 2010, and the research and records used to find information about both. Come and hear of their exploits during that war, and learn how to find records about your militia ancestors.

S14: Evelyn Kolish – Court records over the border: from New France to contemporary Quebec

An introduction to over 350 years of Quebec court records, including some explanations of how differences in the common and civil law systems have had an impact on record series, with a discussion of series of particular interest for family historians and of some online resources as well as other resources available at any of the nine regional archives centres of Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec.

S15: Jane Down – Case Study: Tracing the Origins of Mary Jane Somers

This lecture will describe the journey taken by the author to trace her great grandmother’s family from unknown places in Ontario to unknown places in England using various genealogy tools such as tombstone inscriptions, the Ontario Cemetery Finding Aid, census records, tax assessment rolls, Ontario vital records, Rootsweb World Connect, Find My Past, Ancestry.ca, Devon Family History Society databases, parish records, newspaper obituaries, old family photos, maps, archives and their websites, local family histories, hiring a professional researcher, and communications with new-found cousins.

S16: Stephen Young – Ontario Vital Records: What Registrations Will and Won’t Reveal

Prior to online publication of the Ontario civil registration indexes, a manual extraction of every birth, marriage and death registration in Toronto of persons bearing the surname Young was performed. This intensive study took several months and revealed some interesting and delightful idiosyncrasies in these records which are instructive to every researcher.

The information contained in Ontario civil registration records evolved over time from their initial introduction in 1869 into the 20th century. Genealogical researchers should be aware of the limitations and differences between registration formats at different times in the province’s history. Although we might expect a constant progression of additional information being added in the registrations, there are periods when the inclusion of important genealogical data was abandoned. Elements of Ontario’s social history also become evident within the registrations. Naming patterns and name popularity are obvious elements of the indexes themselves, but examples of given and middle name persistence in some families can be very interesting and informative. Average age at marriage, percentages of illegitimacy, and causes of death offer more factors in considering the context of our ancestors’ lives The chronology and evolution, using visual examples of civil registration, will frame this presentation.

S17: David Hemmings – Burials, Gravestone Motifs and Age Statistics in a Frontier Township, 1780-2009

The early settlers and their descendants in and around Niagara Township played a pivotal role in Canadian history. This frontier area, including Niagara-on-the-Lake, was settled to establish supplies for troops by farmers loyal to the British crown. Tracing our UEL and other roots here is becoming increasingly difficult as graveyards are allowed to deteriorate and individual gravestones disappear. The address will cover numerical analyses relating to the numbers of known burials in relation to population and to the graves still existing today, and the mean ages of those buried over the first 200 years of the township’s history. It will describe the changing prevalence of gravestone motifs over the nineteenth century, which provides insight into the economic status of the buried, as well as some indication of beliefs. The presentation will also address a burial project which documented all burials in Niagara Township by each of the 30 graveyards, with 6,000 gravestones photographed and alphabetized by surname for ease of search. The sources of genealogical data will be provided.

4:00-4:15 break

4:15-5:15 Concurrent Sessions

S18: Guylaine Petrin – Loyalty and property after the War of 1812: the case of John Diver

Many American families have ancestors who passed through Canada on their way West. This presentation explains one of the reasons that families did not stay in Canada. War records can be a rich source of genealogical information.

In 1801, Jacob Delong and his three sons-in-law (Oliver Prentice, John Diver and James Weiant), as well as his four sons moved from New York State to Upper Canada. The families all settled in the Home District in Markham and then on the Humber where they intermarried, helped each other and supported each other’s petitions. The War of 1812 was especially unwelcome to these American-born settlers, and their conduct during the war led to official reprisals after the war. Using petitions and land records and militia records I researched the family of Jacob Delong to see what impact the War had on them. Jacob Delong and his sons moved to Ohio, where Jacob died. His son Benjamin Delong was the only resident of Etobicoke who had his land taken by the Forfeit Estates commission. Son-in-law John Diver was deprived of his patent to his lot in Markham, mostly because of the desertion of his sixteen-year-old son, while Oliver Prentis sold his land to a neighbour who sold it back to Oliver’s son a few years later. The other son-in-law of Jacob Delong, James Weiant was able to prosper on the Humber and he stayed in Canada with his family. Loyalty (or disaffection) during the War had a direct impact on the ability of settlers to get and keep property. This in turn had an impact on whether the families chose to stay in Upper Canada or leave.

S19: Lois Sparling – The Last Best West

The Prairie Provinces were advertised as “The Last Best West”, i.e., the last area of North America to offer homesteads on good farmland. A major portion of the settlers who poured into the area in the early years of the twentieth century were from Ontario and the United States. These highly mobile individuals and family groups can be traced initially online by using the indexes to the 1901,1906, 1911 and 1916 censuses, the Western Land Grants database at the Library and Archives Canada web site and the CPR Grants database at the Glenbow Museum web site.

Once located, they can be researched in provincial vital records, local histories, directories, land records, etc. Another way to locate people and families at the end of this period of rapid settlement is through the Soldiers of the First World War database at LAC. The next of kin recorded in each soldier’s attestation papers are useful to confirm that the soldier is indeed a member of the family of interest. The address of the next of kin is provided.

S20: Chris Watts – Just what is there at TNA?

The National Archives of England, Wales and the United Kingdom (TNA) has one of the largest archival collections in the world, spanning 1000 years of British history, from the Doomsday Book of 1086 to government papers recently released to the public. Its on-line Catalogue list over 10 million boxes, files and volumes; these occupy over 154 km of shelving and are accumulating at the rate of 1 to 2 km per year. In this talk a brief survey will be made of the some of the material of significance to the family historian such as divorce, wills, estate duty office, tax on apprentices, emigration and immigration, armed forces, coastguard, customs, excise, railwaymen, police (Metropolitan and Royal Irish) and records of the law courts. It will explain what level of indexing you might expect to find in the on-line Catalogue.

S21: Meldon J. Wolfgang III, F.G.B.S. – Extra! Hear All About It! Exploring Some New and Less Familiar Pathways in Newspaper Research

Although most genealogists are familiar with newspapers as prime sources for obituaries, marriage notices and similar genealogically significant events, they often miss other kinds of newspaper information that can lead to new and exciting family discoveries. Moreover, even if they regularly access digitised newspapers online via subscription databases, many genealogists are blissfully unaware of the millions of pages of historic newsprint that are also available online elsewhere – for free.

This presentation will explore the rapidly expanding variety of opportunities for newspaper research, highlighting some of the available digitised and searchable resources and will also illustrate some of the often-overlooked types of genealogical clues that can be found in both mainstream and “special interest” newspapers. The audience will learn about some of the useful bibliographic resources for North American newspaper research that are available online from the US Library of Congress, and will also learn about the US National Digital Newspaper Project and the specialized online international resources available through the ICON project spearheaded by the Center for Research Libraries. Some attention will be given to non-North American and non-English language digital newspaper projects, as well as to digitised college newspapers and other “special interest” collections. Finally, the presentation will highlight the limitations of the online search engines found on many digital newspaper sites and suggest strategies for overcoming these limitations.

S22: Jane MacNamara – Record Sources for the Ontario Home Front during The Great War

Whether or not your ancestors were in uniform, or had a close family member in the armed forces, WWI and the “war effort” was a big part of their lives and transformed many aspects of society in Ontario. Records of how individuals, organizations, businesses, and every level of government coped with the hardships, tragedies, and opportunities that came with war, have survived in archives and libraries. This presentation will look at a selection of these records – including a municipal scheme to insure its soldiers serving overseas, clubs and charities that aided soldiers’ families and provided soldiers’ comfort packages, organizations formed to aid returning soldiers, Ontario military hospitals, and the activities of businesses and religious bodies.

6:00-7:00 cash bar before banquet

7:00-8:00 Banquet – for ticket holders

8:00-8:30 Awards and Presentations

8:30-9:00 S23: Speaker Glenn Wright – Sex, Lies and Archives

9:00- cash bar