Ontario Genealogical Conference 2014 Genealogy Without Borders

My wife and I attended this conference, which was held at Brock University in St. Catharines, Ontario, May 1-4.
My wife set up and looked after a both in Marketplace, The Guild of One-Name Studies.

I attended lectures.

We both attended the Opening Ceremonies and the Houston Memorial Lecture. The speaker was Chris Paton, and he gave a very fast moving and interesting story about his family. His theme fit nicely with the theme of the past few RootsTech conferences which stressed family stories.

On Saturday morning I attended the Plenary session - Social Media Panel moderated by John Reid.

After the panel, I sat in on the OGS Annual General Meeting.
At this meeting awards were presented. My wife and I are on the OGS Awards Committee.

I am also the editor of The Ottawa Genealogist, the Journal of the Ottawa Branch OGS. I had submitted a 2013 issue for consideration in The Dr. Don Brearly Newsletter Award. I won! First time! Great feeling!

Other than that, the lectures I attended were interesting. Nothing popped out at me that would help me in my research. I did talk to Hank Jones, who I had met in Ottawa at one of our Gene-O-Rama conferences. I have Palatine ancestors and he has done great work on the Palatines.

Colonel By Day, Ottawa, Ontario. August 5, 2013

Colonel By Day, Ottawa, Ontario. August 5, 2013

The day turned out to be a great day for this celebration. The weather cooperated with no rain. It was sunny mostly with a little breeze coming off the Ottawa River and funneling up the Rideau Canal entrance locks in Ottawa.

 Elizabeth and I along with Kyla and Mike looked after the Ottawa Branch Ontario Genealogical Society table for the day. We talked to a number of people during the day. There were a lot of people passing by but the traffic in the Exhibition tent seemed to be lighter than usual.

Three of us, Elizabeth, Edward and Kyla dressed up in costumes representing different time periods. I know that I did attract a little attention, as a number of people asked to take my photograph. Kyla had a demonstration of book binding and even made it on the CTV news that evening for about 5 to 10 seconds.

 The one group that did attract attention was the 78^th Fraser Highlanders Fort Glen Garrison. This is a re-enactment group staffed by students. They had a great drum and fife band and presented mini concerts throughout the day. There were many people dressed in costume wandering around during the day. There was the annual celebration at the Irish Workers Memorial cross beside the canal.

To find out more about Colonel John By do a goggle search and look at the Wikipedia article.

Also have a look at Council of Heritage Organizations of Ottawa (CHOO)website under events. www.choocopo.ca/english/.

CBC Radio One - Ottawa Morning - 1921 Census

Hi everyone:

You may be interested in the following.

Elizabeth and I were invited to be interviewed on CBC Radio One - Ottawa Morning, about the 1921 Canadian Census.

The interview took place today at about 6:25 a.m.

The interview can be found at:


http://www.cbc.ca/ottawamorning/index.html

Go to the Featured Audio section on the right side of the page and use the sliding bar to look for 1921 Census.

Enjoy!

It was an experience and so early in the morning!