National Day for Truth and Reconciliation

Urban Iskwew - Hawlii Pichette©

September 30th has been designated as the "National Day for Truth and Reconciliation". As we take this day to reflect on the legacy of residential schools, we wish to honour the survivors and their families.

Oshawa raised the Every Child Matters flag on Friday, September 24th in Civic Square. The best thing that we can do is to educate ourselves about indigenous matters. The following website from the City of Oshawa can help:

https://www.oshawa.ca/residents/national-indigenous-history-month.asp

Check your own local area to see what is being done to recognise this holiday. Every child matters.

FamilySearch Completes Digitization of Massive Microfilm Collection

 

On Tuesday, FamilySearch announces the completion of the their ambitious project to completely digitized their microfilm collection. This project started in 1998 with a projected timeline of 50 years. They finished 30 years early! This is absolutely amazing and due to technological advances that they themselves pioneered.

See their news release here.

Next step -  to digitize their massive microfiche collection.

Ongoing: to index these digital images. Take part here and sign up to be one of their massive team of volunteers!

Lesley Anderson of Ancestry.ca Speaks at Durham Branch' October Meeting

 

Search Tips – Researching Women on Ancestry

Tuesday, October 5th @ 7:30 p.m.

This session will provide strategies for searching for women in the Ancestry databases, including methods to uncover females using name variations and other search techniques. Famous or interesting women will be highlighted wherever possible using the new Ancestry databases from around the world, as well as the core record groups. The presentation will appeal to new and experienced researchers alike.  

Everyone is welcome and bring a friend! Pre-registration is required:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0kcumgpjwpGdNFOQpBM7JSYxKDx_krFcg_

Lesley Anderson has worked for Ancestry.ca for over 14 years as their Canadian Spokesperson and has done numerous presentations for genealogy societies and conferences across Canada as well as TV and Radio appearances.  

She has been involved in the personal research of her family tree for over 50 years specializing in Canadian, British and Irish records.  Her passion for genealogy has branched out to DNA genetic genealogy, teaching classes, speaking at seminars and conferences, consulting and doing research for others.  For years she was well known for her computer and genealogy classes offered through the Ottawa Catholic Board Continuing Ed and her “field trips” to various archives and libraries.

She was the Director of Education for BIFHSGO (British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa) for many years and volunteered at the Ottawa Stake - LDS Family History Center.  She gets great enjoyment out of helping new and experienced genealogists with their research.  

 

Join Us For More Eastern Europe Research Skill-Building

 

Durham Region Branch and the Uxbridge Genealogy Group announce a special joint presentation!

Topic: I Just Can't Get Enough of Eastern Europe with Eva Kujawa

Time: Tuesday, September 7th, 2021 @ 7:00 p.m. Eastern Time  **Note: earlier time**

In her intermediate level talk, Eva Kujawa will go more in depth with regards to Civil Registration records, how to locate places within the various countries that make up Eastern Europe, how to locate Church records as well as how to decipher and read the many languages and alphabets. Migration patterns, identify & research Clusters, newspapers, land, military and more records will also be covered.

Branch members will find Eva's introductory lecture from April 15th on the Durham Region OGS Members’ Only section of our website.

Eva Kujawa was born in South Africa and specializes in German, South African and Eastern European genealogy with 30 years of research and learning. Currently, she is a member of Ontario Ancestors' East European Special Interest Group and many other societies. 

You must pre-register at the following link:

https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZYqcO6ppz4uHdEa6m0GX0XQYxLjWzPbyFM5