Durham Branch's April 2nd Meeting - "They Sure Moved Around!"

Durham Branch presents “They Sure Moved Around!” on 2 April 2024

Please join Durham Branch at 7:30 pm April 2nd for a hybrid meeting as Sher Leetooze, local author and historian, presents “They Sure Moved Around!”

Sher will be in person at Northminster United Church, 676 Simcoe St. N., Oshawa, ON (NW corner of Simcoe Street North and Rossland Road West). Parking can be limited.

If joining online, kindly pre-register at:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZAude2grzstHNx8Tsob2Zit6OsZ05EHGdda

Description:

Sometimes we lose our ancestors – not because they die, or we’re not doing a very good search – but because they moved away. Most of the time we don’t know why they moved, and we may never know why they moved.

Doing a recent genealogical search for a man from the US, I followed his family from Darlington Township down to Kent County and environs and in doing so blew some family myths out the window!

Ontario isn’t really all that big, so let’s look at some of the resources in other parts of the province that you can call on to dispel some of our ancestral fog!

Bio:

Sher has been doing her own genealogy for over 40 years – a family’s story is never quite finished! But besides doing her own family, Sher has assisted others to follow the paper trail backward for their families. You might say enjoys the genealogical search – anybody’s genealogical search! With each new search Sher learns about new resources that should not be overlooked, or looked at again. This is what she will speak about at April’s presentation.

Everyone is welcome!

 

Canadian Resources Review - April 5th Durham Branch Meeting

Come and join Durham Region Branch on Tues., Apr. 5th @7:30 pm when we host Sher Leetooze as she takes us on a tour of online Canadian Resources.

Sometimes, when we are researching our families, one of them goes missing. Before you jump to conclusions and check death records, why not check out other provincial archives. Here in Ontario land was taken up at a rapid rate by the first wave of incomers, so when the sons and daughters were ready to take up land, there was precious little left. In order to make a life for themselves they went farther afield. Sher has found many Ontario people out west in the later 1800's. Manitoba has a wonderful online BMD site for researching the whereabouts of relatives. And if you are researching in Quebec, Quebec Genealogy/Drouin is one of the best genealogy sites Sher has ever used.

From coast to coast, we have great archives - provincial archives, university archives, county / regional / district archives, libraries who specialize in genealogical material, historical societies, genealogical societies - the list goes on and on and she will try to present a good cross-section to you - giving you url's &/or e-mail addresses.

Sher Leetooze started her genealogy when her children were small, so you can imagine that she didn’t find much time to put into it in those days. But nearly 50 years on she is still digging into the family’s past and finding great material that just wasn’t available 50 years ago. 

In 1994, Sher decided to write about the township in which she lives for the bicentennial celebrations. She went on to write the history of all the townships in the old Durham County. While doing her genealogy she discovered her ancestors were staunch Bible Christians, and so wrote a trilogy about the Bible Christians - the people, the chapels and the preachers.  From WW1 Nurses and Clarington Home Children, to gardening and the study of wild plants, and now a foray into fiction, Sher has continued to produce books about the things that interest her,

Today’s presentation is a culmination of her research experiences, both genealogical and historical.

Everyone is welcome!  Kindly pre-register at:

 https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUtcOihrz0oEtXZVcRaa3-5x_e6RImJ1czp

Durham Region Branch Announces "Day of Learning" October 19th

Click HERE for more information.

Research Experiences - On The Road Again

Durham Region Branch welcomes Sher Leetooze, a favourite speaker at our meetings, to our April 2nd meeting.

Join us at Northminster United Church (corner of Rossland and Simcoe St., Oshawa) at 7:30 pm.

Research experiences - On The Road Again.

Sher Leetooze has been researching her family for just over 40 years, but still has a long way to go.  In the process of doing research, Sher has gone right to the source in Great Britain and found some GREAT stuff!  Some of these things she will share with you on April 2nd.

Mini-Presentation: Stephen Wood will update us on one of our Brick Wall discoveries from our January meeting.

All are welcome (and bring a friend!)

November Meeting - New Location

Durham Region Branch will be holding their general meeting on Nov. 7th at 7:30 p.m.

New Location: The Branch has moved the venue for their meetings to the Bobby Orr Room, Civic Recreation Complex, 199 Thornton Rd. S., Oshawa. Parking is free.

The Durham Region Branch presents Sher Leetooze and Robert Bell who will be talking about some of the churches in Oshawa and Bowmanville. With the help of pictures we will learn where they were and what they looked like originally and where they are today.

Devon and Cornwall Research - May 3rd Meeting

Sher Leetooze will be our speaker at our May 3rd meeting, which will be held at 7:30 p.m. in the Basement Auditorium of the Oshawa Public Library, Bagot St., Oshawa (just south of City Hall).
Parking is free after 6 p.m.

Sher is a very entertaining speaker, as well as a local author and researcher with wide ranging interests, including overseas genealogy in Devon and Cornwall. She is a regular presenter at the Toronto Cornish Association, and presented at the International Gathering of Cornish Cousins in Milwaukee in 2014 (a biennial event).

Our short presentation will demonstrate how to access and use the Durham Region Branch's Members-Only Section of the Website.

This meeting will be streamed and the url for watching is on our website at durham.ogs.on.ca

Everyone is welcome - come and bring a friend!

Branch Meeting Tonight - WW1 Nurses

The February meeting of the Durham Region Branch will be held tonight at 7:30 p.m. in the Auditorium of the Oshawa Public Library (Main Branch) on Bagot Street (just south of the City Hall)

Topic: WW1 Nurses of Durham County and Oshawa  

Presenter: Sher Leetooze

Sher Leetooze names 36 WWI Nursing  Sisters who hailed from Old Durham County. Through her research Sher has discovered fascinating accounts of the difficult working conditions nurses found themselves having to deal with near battlefields, and the resultant hair-raising experiences foisted upon some nurses while performing their duties. Sher will likely bring copies of her book to the meeting. An alternate source is - Global Genealogy

Mini-talk: Brick Wall Follow-Up - The Graham Family

Created by: Stephen Wood & Presented by: Nancy Trimble 

NEW! to our meetings:

TONI Tidbit - showcasing findings in The Ontario Name Index, which now has over 3 million entries!

    &

Brickwall Bomb - a 15-minute brainstorming session on a problem from the audience.