Last Chance to Sign up for the "British Isles Research From Afar" workshop

You're running out of time: Our British Isles Workshop is this coming Saturday! Sign up by the 25th and you will get your lunch included! Join us at Faith United Church in Courtice, just east of Oshawa. We start with coffee and check-in at 9 a.m. and our Opening Remarks will be at 9:30 a.m.

We have 2 great speakers for you: 

Ruth Blair of Oakville and Stephen Wood of Whitby

We have 4 great talks for you:

Researching Your English and Welsh Ancestors

Taking Your Irish Ancestors Back Over The Pond

Particulars and Peculiarities of Scottish Research

Researching Your Scots-Irish Ancestors: Canada and Beyond

Register Now at the Durham Region Branch Workshop Page

or send us an e-mail to durhamevents@ogs.on.ca

November Meeting is on Nov. 8th

Just a quick reminder that, due to library scheduling, we are booked into the Auditorium on Tuesday November 8th, NOT Tuesday, Nov. 1st!!

Introducing ... Our Workshop Speakers: Stephen Wood

Stephen Wood is a long-time genealogist, having been a member of the Ontario Genealogical Society for over 40 years. He is a founding member of the Durham Region Branch and has headed up the Research Committee for almost as long, as well as serving several terms as branch chair. Stephen has ancestral roots in Scotland, the Netherlands, England and also Quaker families from Pennsylvania. His own family research includes families in Perthshire and he will share his Scottish research expertise with us with his presentation on "Particulars & Peculiarities of Scottish Research"

For more information on our workshop, see http://durham.ogs.on.ca/workshops/index.htm

DNA Special Interest Group October Meeting

Our Special Interest Group for DNA will meet at our Office on Wednesday, October 19th at 7:30 pm.

Everyone is welcome to join in the discussions and demonstrations. There is plenty of free parking at our office.

Topic suggestions can be sent to durhamchair@ogs.on.ca

Introducing ... Our Workshop Speakers: Ruth Blair

Ruth Blair is one of our 2 speakers at our first "Day of Learning" - British Isles Research from Afar. She will be doing 3 talks for us on October 29th: 

• Researching Your English and Welsh Ancestors
• Taking Your Irish Ancestors Back Over the Pond
• Researching Your Scots-Irish Ancestors: Canada and Beyond

Ruth Blair is a professional genealogist and lecturer based in Oakville, Ontario. She has been doing family history research for over 30 years. Ruth has researched her family history from Canada to Ireland, England, Scotland, the United States, Australia and New Zealand. She has her Professional Learning Certificate in Genealogical Studies for Canada, England and Ireland from the National Institute for Genealogical Studies. Ruth has written two books: Planning a Genealogical Trip to Ireland: the Research Trail in Dublin helps novice research travellers prepare for their trip and gives advice on using the various repositories in Dublin. Her second book, Remembering Trafalgar Township, commemorates the township’s 200th anniversary.

Ruth is the author of The Passionate Genealogist blog. She is a member of the Ontario Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists, Ontario Genealogical Society, Manchester and Lancashire Family History Society, Genealogical Society of Ireland, Glasgow and West of Scotland Family History Society and the National Genealogical Society. 

For more information on our workshop, see http://durham.ogs.on.ca/workshops/index.htm

A Day of Learning - temporary web page problem

During OGS's migration of our branch website, the page showing the Day of Learning Workshops information has reverted to an older version for some reason. This is what it should look like (and should again, in the near future), with an active link to the Paypal instructions: http://durham.ogs.on.ca/workshops/paypal.htm
Just to review, registration simply involves e-mailing your name and e-mail address to durhamevents@ogs.on.ca. Anne Delong, will read your message and generate a Paypal invoice to be sent to your e-mail address. The invoice will have a link for making payment, either with a Paypal account (not necessary), or with a credit card. Or, mail your registration information, with a cheque, to the address shown on the form - still clickable, on the workshops main page.
In order to make lunch arrangements, she requests registration by October 18th.

Tip-Palooza! - An Extravagant Celebration of Ideas & Tips

Calling all genealogists! Send your tip(s) to Nancy Trimble at  nancy.trimble@gmail.com or 416-562-5879. You can present your tip or I can do it for you, but you must contact me ahead of time, so that I can prepare. Your tip can be a website or a particular portion of a website. Or, it can be a programme or an app for a phone or a tablet. Consider a productivity item or maybe you want to show your DNA Dashboard. In other words, we want an extravagant palooza of useful ideas, tips or tricks that we can share with our members and guests at our November 8th meeting!

British Isles Research - A Day of Learning

The registration for the British Isles Workshop on October 29th is now open at durham.ogs.on.ca/workshops 

1. On the left is a downloadable print form to (snail)mail to us with a cheque or money order.

or

2. You can click on the PayPal symbol in the middle of the page & follow our instructions on how to access that service. Unfortunately, we haven't been able to successfully programme a 1-click button, so we have to do a 2-step procedure. Once you sent us your information by e-mail to durhamevents@ogs.on.ca, we will generate a PayPal invoice back to your e-mail. Once you click on the Pay Now button in that invoice, choose the "Don't have a PayPal Account?" button at the bottom in order to use your credit card directly.

October 4th Meeting - The Irish Palatines

Carolyn Heald & Roger Shier (from OGS' Irish Palatine SIG) will be talking about the Irish Palatines of Ontario. The 2009 revised edition of Carolyn's book, shown above, contains many Palatine surnames, including those who settled in Durham townships. Roger Shier has included many useful resources here. Both have toured our local area during research outings.

The meeting will start at 7:30 pm on Tuesday, Oct. 4th at the Oshawa Public Library Auditorium on Bagot Street, just south of the Oshawa City Hall. Parking is free after 6 pm. 

Everyone is welcome!