Are you interested in your Scottish roots? In discovering who your Scottish ancestors were and how they lived? The Scottish Genealogy Group is made up of people who share these interests. At our informal meetings we share information and resources and discuss our successes and our brick walls. We all, beginners and experts alike, learn from and encourage each other.
Visit the links page to find information about Scottish research.
Saturday, June 9
Great Moments in Genealogy (Monthly Meeting)
10:00 am to 11:30 am
Finding Uncle Percy’s Naval Service Record
By Betty Warburton
Old photos told his family that Uncle Percy had served in the navy during World War I. Lettering on his cap H.M.C.S ---BE, suggested that he had served with the Canadian Navy. BUT the Genealogy Centre at Library and Archives Canada could not find his name in their index. This is the story of breaking through that brick wall.
About the Speaker
Born in England, Betty Warburton (née Morris) came to Canada with her parents as a child. With a degree in Library Science, she worked as a librarian in Cape Breton and Hamilton, Ontario. After her marriage and while raising a family, she worked part-time in nursery schools in Ottawa. A long time member of BIFHSGO, Betty has been searching for her ancestors in England and for her late husband’s ancestors in Toronto for over fifteen years. For much of that time she has been actively involved in the society’s library.
My Journey to the Middle of Nowhere
By Judy Thamas
Judy’s WOW moment actually took place in the middle of nowhere in northern Cumbria in England. The family rumour was that they were somehow connected to the Armstrong family in England. Her story started in the 1970s when she began to gather information. About 10 years ago, she found information that confirmed the Armstrong connection. From there, she found the information needed to take her to the family of parents and 12 children along with the church that the parents were married in and the children christened in as well as the farm that they lived on. The story culminates in her finding the church and the farm and walking the ground.
About the Speaker
Judy Thamas grew up in southern Ontario and has spent a good majority of her adult life either as a wife of a member of the Canadian Forces or as a reservist in the Primary Reserve or a combination of both. Thanks to the military, she has lived on both coasts of Canada, in Ottawa, and in Germany. She has worked for the private sector as a bookkeeper, factory worker, and in administration. Judy retired from the Reserves in September of 2010 after 24 years as a musician, a cook and a clerk. She first started working on her family history in 1976. Since her retirement, she fills her days with family history.
Scottish and English Architects of the Chateau Laurier and Union Station
By David Jeanes
On 1 June 1912, Ottawa's grand Chateau Laurier and Union Station opened with little fanfare. These spectacular buildings were the work of a newly-assembled team of architects led by two Scottish-Canadians born in Montreal, George Allen Ross and David Huron MacFarlane. Many members of their team had just arrived from Scotland or England and most of them established close ties to the Royal Institute of British Architects (RIBA). Some common and some unusual British sources yielded interesting insights into their backgrounds and the creation of these two Beaux-Arts landmarks. A particularly rich resource for these individuals was found in the archives held at RIBA’s remarkable library in London, which were recently transferred to the Victoria and Albert Museum. British genealogical sources have also proved useful in identifying the little-known architects of some grand railway stations in other Canadian cities, including Montreal, Toronto and Winnipeg.
About the Speaker
David Jeanes is a retired professional engineer with long-standing interests in genealogy, heritage architecture and railways. Born in southeast London he came to Ottawa in 1957, attending Lisgar Collegiate and the University of Toronto, and working at Nortel. He is a BIFHSGO member since its early days, vice-president of Heritage Ottawa and president of Transport Action Canada (a public transport advocacy group). His British research for his own and his wife’s families covers all the coastal counties from Essex to southwest Wales. He has spoken a number of times at BIFHSGO and also elsewhere on architectural and railway history.
Not so Hidden Treasures at the BIFHSGO Library and Ottawa City Archives
by Ann Burns
This talk will spotlight what our BIFHSGO library and the Ottawa City Archives have to offer and what most people are missing out on by not using this resource. Ann has discovered a great deal about her grandparents and great-grandparents from searches and serendipity at the Archives.
About the Speaker
Ann Burns embarked 10 years ago on her most successful career choice among the many dabbled in over the years - retirement. Now she is enjoying all the pleasures of doing what she pleases, when she pleases - within the bounds of reason and social norms - and where she pleases - which is mostly in libraries, archives, in front of the computer, out on the golf course or exploring a new and distant destination. Her travel plans are becoming more focused on where her family has come from rather than exotic locales and tropical splendours. Her wish is that young people might find out something about their ancestors that gives them an interest in history when they have no choice but to study it.
BIFHSGO Writing Group (Special Interests Groups)
11:45 am
Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.
Open to BIFHSGO members who want feedback on writing their family history or memoirs, the Writing Group meets after the monthly BIFHSGO Saturday meetings. We bring extra copies of our writing to share with members. Most of us also bring a lunch to eat before we begin our readings. Meetings run from about 11:45 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. in the 5th floor cafeteria at Library and Archives Canada.
Friday, September 14 through Sunday, September 16
BIFHSGO's 18th Annual Family History Conference (Conferences)
Celebrate your Anglo-Celtic roots and share your family history knowledge and stories. This year's focus is Scotland.
For more information, visit our Conference pages.
Saturday, September 22
Scottish Genealogy Group (Special Interests Groups)
Are you interested in your Scottish roots? In discovering who your Scottish ancestors were and how they lived? The Scottish Genealogy Group is made up of people who share these interests. At our informal meetings we share information and resources and discuss our successes and our brick walls. We all, beginners and experts alike, learn from and encourage each other.
Visit the links page to find information about Scottish research.
Why Study Genealogists? Initial Results from the Canadian Genealogy Survey (Monthly Meeting)
10:00 am to 11:30 am
Presented by Dr. Leighann C. Neilson
During the summer and early fall of 2011, over 2,700 family historians completed the Canadian Genealogy Survey online, including many BIFHSGO members. This survey was the first to attempt to capture data about family historians across the nation, and promises to expand our knowledge of the ways that genealogical work is being advanced by new information technologies and increase our understanding of the reasons for undertaking family history research as well as the impact that such research has on issues of personal and community identity. Dr. Neilson will share some of the initial results from the analysis of the survey data and invite feedback from the audience.
About the Speaker
Dr. Leighann C. Neilson is Associate Professor of Marketing at the Sprott School of Business, Carleton University. She is a consumer researcher and marketing historian by profession and a family historian by calling. A descendent of early Irish settlers of March Township, Leighann is a life-long resident of the Ottawa Valley and has been conducting her own family history research since 2006. She is the Coordinator of the Carleton Network for Business History, an exciting new initiative which seeks to archive the papers of important Ottawa and Rideau Valley businesses for teaching and research purposes.
Saturday, October 13
Itchy Feet: Understanding the Emigrations of the Paulin Family from Henley-on-Thames to Points Far a (Monthly Meeting)
10:00 am to 11:30 am
Presented by Gillian Leitch
Over the years Gillian has been fascinated about emigration and the reasons for a person or families making the decision to move away from their home, their larger family network and their communities. Her mother's family, the Paulins, originally from Henley-on-Thames in Oxfordshire, are an example of a family which made the decision to leave their home (several times) and move away first to other parts of England, then abroad (a period from 1830 to 1960). This talk will describe their various moves, their lives in their home-town and the lives they forged elsewhere, the reasons, as indicated by historical records and family rumours which propelled them to leave, and the reasons why they chose the places to live that they did.
About the Speaker
Gillian Leitch is currently a historical researcher for CDCI Research. Genealogy was what led her to pursue history in university, with a PhD in Canadian History from the Universite de Montreal. Her academic interests are in 19 century Quebec and Canada, and the expressions of identities by British groups in Canada, including the expression of ethnic or national identities in public celebrations, and more recently the creation and maintenance of family identities and networks in Canada and in Britain.
Saturday, October 20
Scottish Genealogy Group (Special Interests Groups)
Are you interested in your Scottish roots? In discovering who your Scottish ancestors were and how they lived? The Scottish Genealogy Group is made up of people who share these interests. At our informal meetings we share information and resources and discuss our successes and our brick walls. We all, beginners and experts alike, learn from and encourage each other.
Visit the links page to find information about Scottish research.
Saturday, November 10
Prizemaking in the War of 1812, Relatively Speaking (Monthly Meeting)
10:00 am to 11:30 am
Presented by Faye Kert
In June, 1812, the ship Magnet, of Plymouth, MA, sailed from Belfast to New York carrying 100 “poor distressed people” from Ireland. Little did they know that the United States had just declared war on Great Britain and American-owned vessels were liable to capture. A month later, a British naval ship captured the Magnet as a prize of war and sent it into Halifax. The ship was condemned in the Halifax Vice-Admiralty Court and the passengers were left to their own devices. The passenger list was filed with the court documents and rests in RG 8, IV, Vol. 125 in the collection of Library and Archives Canada. These little-known but fascinating court records contain a range of historical, legal and genealogical information that deserves a wider audience. As part of Faye’s longstanding research into prizemaking and privateering during the War of I812, she will put the case of Magnet into its wartime context and share some previously unpublished information about 100 impromptu Irish immigrants.
About the Speaker
Faye Kert is an historian, an underwater archaeologist and a former civil servant with a Ph.D. from the University of Leiden, in the Netherlands. She has published several articles on Atlantic Canada privateers in the War of 1812 and a book on New Brunswick privateers and pirates. She has lectured on cruise ships and presented papers in conferences in Canada, the United States and Europe. Her next book looks at the impact of Canadian and American privateers during the War of 1812.
Saturday, November 17
Scottish Genealogy Group (Special Interests Groups)
Are you interested in your Scottish roots? In discovering who your Scottish ancestors were and how they lived? The Scottish Genealogy Group is made up of people who share these interests. At our informal meetings we share information and resources and discuss our successes and our brick walls. We all, beginners and experts alike, learn from and encourage each other.
Visit the links page to find information about Scottish research.
