A VIRTUAL PRESENTATION FOR THE DURHAM REGION BRANCH, ONTARIO GENEALOGICAL SOCIETY
Township Papers are a highly-organized series of records—resulting from the very hectic and disorganized activities of the Crown Lands Department. Consider some 72 metres of “orphaned” land-related records, often submitted or pulled from their original files because of a dispute or enquiry. Before being sent to the Archives of Ontario, these records were sorted by township and lot to make them accessible. Not quite comprehensive, but covering a large percentage of Ontario properties, these files may contain everything from warrants, location tickets, and settlement duty certificates, to assignments and transfers, explanatory notes and diagrams, letters from neighbours and other witnesses—anything that might prove ownership or occupancy and settle disputes. This session will show you how to check your ancestor’s property and neighbouring properties, understand the documentation you find and to follow the clues to untangle the full story.
This will be a hybrid presentation. Attend in person or click here to register for your Zoom link.
AN INTERACTIVE SESSION AT OGS CONFERENCE 2024
If your ancestors lived near the shores of Lake Ontario or Lake Erie, or along any of the major rivers that fed into them in the 1860–1880s, they may have met Fisheries Overseer, John W. Kerr. With a policing background, Kerr was charged with imposing new rules on a previously unregulated activity. He was passionate about protecting fish stocks and water quality as well as the viability of the fishing industry. Based in Hamilton, Kerr travelled extensively, crisscrossing his territory which included today’s Niagara Region, Hamilton, Halton Region, Peel Region, Toronto, and Durham Region. His jurisdiction, covering rivers like the Grand, Credit, Humber, Don, and Rouge—took him further inland.
Kerr interacted with fishers, both large enterprises and those who supplemented their income by fishing—as well as farmers, millers and other industry owners whose activities impacted fish and water. He kept extensive journals, including lists of fishing licenses sold and other less positive reactions to the new rules. (It could be dangerous work!) His journals and letter books—nearly 10,000 pages—are full of names and his experiences—and available online for free.
Using the digitized journals of John W. Kerr as an example, this session will demonstrate how you can tell a more complete and captivating story by finding supplementary information, context and illustrations. We’ll also look at various presentation formats and techniques to attract your readers/ viewers/ or listeners.
CONFERENCE REGISTRATION CLOSES JUNE 1.
MONTHLY MEETING OF TORONTO BRANCH OGS
Are you ready to go beyond census and births, marriages, and deaths? Estate files are rich source for finding family connections and revealing our ancestor’s social and financial circumstances, maybe even personality. As court records, they tend to be very reliable—and even come with indexes.
Now that FamilySearch.org has digitized an extensive collection of Ontario surrogate court and Court of Probate records—we can discover these treasures from home.
This session will give a brief overview of how the court system worked in Ontario and a step-by-step explanation of how to access the records. It will concentrate on York County records available through FamilySearch.
This will be a hybrid presentation. No need to register if you are attending in person. To attend online, click here to register and get your unique Zoom link.