There is a drop-in chat on Thursday, 21 November 9:30 – 11:30 a.m.   

Drop in to The White Pine Café at Arlington Woods Church at 225 McClellan Road, off Greenbank Road. It’s an opportunity chat with BIFHSGO friends over a coffee and sweet treat.

Teaghlach Gaelach: A Celebration of Irish Family History

The online conference is over for this year, but access to the presentations, Connect Q&As and other materials are available online until midnight, 30 November. If you registered for the conference, go to the Registrants' Portal to access these. If you did not register, but would like to see them, go the conference  registration  page to sign up.

This is a hybrid meeting:

• Join us in person at Knox Presbyterian Church (Lisgar & Elgin) in Geneva Hall.  Please use the Garden Entrance on Elgin Street. Limited free street parking is available on Saturdays, and the City Hall Parking Garage is available for $2.00.
• Join online by registering here

This registration covers both events.

Annual Holiday Social / 9 a.m. EST

Join us for the Holiday Social which will focus on our 30th anniversary. We look forward to having members share stories of “What gifts BIFHSGO has given me over the last 30 years."  Come and also share holiday treats.

Great Moments in Genealogy / 10 a.m. EST

An Unexpected Gift
Presenter: Carol Annett

This presentation focuses on Carol's third great-grandmother, Ann Gillies McPherson. An unexpected gift of information broke down a 10-year-old brick wall and led Carol to discovering the complete story of her ancestor.

Carol Annett has been doing genealogy research for over 15 years. She enjoys travelling to places where her forebears lived in Scotland and in Canada. A member of the BIFHSGO writing group, Carol enjoys writing about her ancestors.

(From the Vaults) It Happened in Coolross
Presenter: Ann Burns

This is the story of the amazing coincidence that happened while Ann was travelling in Ireland with her father in 2008. He wanted to see where his paternal great-grandparents came from. They booked a self-driving trip that included a visit to Islandmagee, County Antrim, where his great-grandmother, Eliza McCullough, was born, followed by a few days in County Wicklow, where his great-grandfather, Edward Byrne, came from. Ann had driven on the left side of the road before, but the Irish roads offered? a special treat. They found nothing helpful in Islandmagee, viewing every headstone in every Presbyterian cemetery. They met and were treated by some really lovely people, but they had a life-changing experience in their search for the townland of Coolross in County Wicklow. And it happened on September 11. 

Ann Burns is a retired civil servant who has been working on her family history since 2002. She was born and brought up in Ottawa, as were her parents. Both sides of her family still feel much more connected to their Irish roots than those from England and France. She has travelled widely, but in recent years, she has spent most of her travel time in Ireland. She does most of her research herself but has hired a local genealogist in County Wicklow from time to time. That research confirmed what they found on that extraordinary day.

Blown Away 
Presenter: Veronica Scrimger

This Great Moments presentation highlights the journey Veronica took in 2019 to discover her grandfather’s foster home in the Shetland Islands.

Over the last ten years in retirement, Veronica Scrimger has been travelling to various parts of Scotland and England to walk in the footsteps of different ancestors. While all the trips have been incredibly rewarding, this Shetland one was a standout.

Over the “Golden Bridge”—The unexpected discovery of more British home children in my family tree
Presenter: Nancy Higgins

Nancy’s paternal granddad, William Stephen Higgins, was always “known” to be a British home child, though that has yet to be confirmed. He remains her brick wall, which she puts aside to pursue her easier Roper and Jefford maternal lines. A chance conversation in 2019 at one of BIFHSGO’s coffee breaks opened a door to unknown British home children in her family tree: William’s wife and Nancy’s granny, Mary Ann Rodger, and her younger sister, Helen. Following up on a few of the suggestions from this conversation has led to the discovery of Mary Ann and Helen’s sad past and their eventual journey to Canada.

Nancy Higgins retired from IBM after a long consulting career. She now enjoys spending her time as a family historian, while creating new family stories with her grandkids and indulging in her love of floral design. Nancy discovered she is related to not one but three British home children and the proud descendant of two, her paternal grandmother and grandfather. After a sojourn on the West Coast, Nancy has returned to live again in Ottawa. She looks forward to the day when her research is organized and in the meanwhile derives pleasure from the journey of discovery of her roots and creating family stories to share.

This is a online meeting only. Join by registering here. The registration covers both events.

How Valuable are Valuation Rolls? / 9 a.m. EST

Presenter: Robert Urquhart

The year 1855 is familiar to family historians with Scottish ancestry, as that is when the civil registration system for births, marriages and deaths was established in Scotland. But 1855 was also the year that a property ownership register was established, in the form of valuation rolls listing the owners and occupiers of most buildings in Scotland. From 1855 until 1987, assessors compiled an annual valuation roll for domestic and commercial property in each county and burgh.

 Valuation rolls are often ignored by genealogists, who assume that they merely confirm what has already been established from census returns and civil registers. This talk will explain that these rolls are worth a look, since they can provide details of the properties associated with ancestors (their houses, business premises, workplaces and wedding venues). These details can then be bridging information for access to other records (such as property registers, estate papers and employment records), and can help explain why some people apparently vanish from census returns and civil registers. Also covered in the talk will be precursors of the post-1855 valuation rolls, such as land tax rolls and assessment rolls compiled by parish heritors for poor relief purposes.

Robert Urquhart is a retired archivist from Fife. He worked in local archives in Glasgow and Ayrshire, before joining the National Archives of Scotland (now the National Records of Scotland), where for 20 years he specialized in opening up access to archives via the Internet. He was involved in making record series like wills and testaments, tax rolls, valuation rolls and kirk session records available online, and coaching researchers on how to read early-modern records via the Scottish Handwriting website (at www.scottishhandwriting.com). He now runs Abbotshall Palaeography (www.abbotshall.net), a small business offering palaeography tuition and transcription services.

From the Vault: The Time of Cholera / 10 a.m. EST

Presenter: Alison Hare