Posted by conference on October 15, 2009 under Blog: New Postings, Delights Stream, Italian Research Stream, Pro/Advanced Stream, Speakers and Program | 
John Phillip Colletta of Washington, DC.
We are fortunate that John Philip Colletta, PhD, will be a mainstay of the Ontario Genealogical Society’s Conference 2010. Entertaining, knowledgeable and experienced, John is one of America’s most popular genealogical lecturers. People are still raving about his 2008 appearance in Toronto, where he spoke to the Ontario Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists. Conference organizers jumped at the opportunity to bring him back to Canada.
We will all get to hear John’s humour and wisdom during the closing plenary on Sunday afternoon. His topic promises to be quite a sensation: “Hacks and Hookers and Putting Up Pickles: Snares of Yesteryear’s English”.
But John’s contribution to Conference 2010 actually begins on Friday afternoon when he will present two lectures in the Professional/Advanced stream: “Stories that Instruct: Using Case Studies to Teach Genealogy Methodology” and “Principles of Good Writing and Good Storytelling”.
Then on Saturday, for a special group of family historians, John will be hard at work providing the backbone of the Italian ancestry program. After all, he literally wrote the book on researching Italian ancestry.
Sunday won’t be a day of rest, however. In addition to the closing plenary in the afternoon, John will give a two-part morning lecture on “Writing a Narrative History”.
Based in Washington, DC, John taught classes for the National Archives and Smithsonian Institution for 21 years. Now he lectures nationally and teaches at Samford University and the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy. His publications include dozens of journal articles, two manuals, They Came in Ships and Finding Italian Roots, as well as a narrative family history, Only a Few Bones: A True Account of the Rolling Fork Tragedy and Its Aftermath. This most recent book is a history of the German-speaking merchants of the Mississippi Delta during Reconstruction; it is written around the mysterious destruction of John’s great great grandfather’s country store, and its five unfortunate inhabitants.
You can read more about John at his website.
Posted by conference on October 8, 2009 under Blog: New Postings, Speakers and Program, Tours and Events |
Karolyn Smardz Frost will speak at the Ontario Genealogical Society Conference 2010 in Toronto, May 14 to 16, 2010.
We are delighted to announce that Governor General’s Award winner, Karolyn Smardz Frost, PhD, will speak at the Ontario Genealogical Society’s Conference 2010 banquet on Saturday, May 15.
Karolyn is an author, historian and archaeologist. (For 10 years she was Canada’s representative to the World Archaeological Congress!) She holds a BA in Archaeology, a master’s in Classical Studies and a PhD in Canadian History (Race and Slavery) and has won many research fellowships in both Canada and the US. She describes one of her greatest honours as presenting Canada’s Underground Railroad story at Robben Island, South Africa, where Nelson Mandela was a prisoner for so long, on behalf of UNESCO in 1998.
We know her best as the person who spent more than 20 years piecing together the stories of Thornton and Lucie Blackburn. Starting with the 1985 excavation of the Blackburn site, she poured another 20 years of historical detective work into researching her account of the fugitive slave couple’s dramatic and precedent-setting escape to Canada via the Underground Railroad. The resulting 2007 book, I’ve Got a Home in Glory Land: A Lost Tale of the Underground Railroad, was the first original fugitive-slave biography published since the 19th century and won not only the Governor General’s Award for Non-Fiction, Canada’s top literary prize, but numerous other accolades.
Among Karolyn’s most memorable accomplishments was the founding of Toronto’s Archaeological Resource Centre. For a decade, this unique facility provided hands-on excavation and educational opportunities for more than 100,000 schoolchildren, tourists and volunteers. She is a founding member of the education committees of the Society for American Archaeology and the Society for Historical Archaeology and has served on many other committees to further the cause of heritage education.
Formerly the executive director of the Ontario Historical Society and a past vice-chair of the Toronto Historical Board, Karolyn has lectured around the world. She is currently a Research Associate with the York Centre for Education and Community, Faculty of Education, York University, where she has also taught night school courses on primary research for Toronto’s 19th century history and African Canadian history.
Posted by conference on September 28, 2009 under Blog: New Postings, Tours and Events, Visiting Toronto |
Built of red brick with buff brick accents, Dempsey's store stood for more than 130 years on Yonge Street at Sheppard Avenue. It was moved in 1997 to nearby Beecroft Avenue.
We hope when you come to the Ontario Genealogical Society Conference 2010 that you’ll spend a few extra days getting to know our city.
One thing you’ll notice, in contrast to many other North American cities, is the predominance of brick as a building material.
The earliest buildings in Toronto (then known as the Town of York) were built of wood—first rough-hewn logs, then squared timbers, then later frame and clapboard. Only a few of those wooden buildings have survived—most notably Fort York and Scadding Cabin.
As early as the first decades of the 19th century, brick was used for some public buildings and fine residences, and its popularity as a fire-resistant and fashionable building material continued to grow as bricks were manufactured locally.
Glacial action had resulted in plentiful deposits of shale and clay in many areas of Toronto. Small family-run brickyards clustered where these materials were close to the surface, in Yorkville, along Davenport Road, which ran below an escarpment (the shoreline of the prehistoric glacial Lake Iroquois), in the Don River valley and other ravines.
The craft of brick making was frequently a family business as shown in this listing of brick manufacturers in Might's The Toronto City Directory 1901, p. 923. (www.archives.org)
Some Toronto brickyards made several colours of brick. The most common were red and buff. The buff bricks (called “white” by Victorian builders) were used for St. James Cathedral (built 1832), and some grand “Cabbagetown” homes that you’ll see on our “Toronto’s Irish Heritage” bus tour. Many of these buff brick houses use red bricks as accents, sometimes in quite complex patterns.
Red brick was lower in cost, and much more common for residential use, sometimes with the pricier buff as an accent colour. However, there are some wonderful examples of superb red brick construction, including the 1892 Gooderham Building that combined high-quality pressed brick with terracotta ornamentation.
While Toronto’s brickyards have long since closed or left the city, the site of the Don Valley Brickworks which closed in 1984, has been turned into a treasured 16-hectare public park which preserves and repurposes a number of the industrial buildings.
Posted by conference on September 19, 2009 under Blog: New Postings, Speakers and Program, The Making of Conference 2010 |
The subcommittee in charge of planning the program for OGS Conference 2010 has been hard at work this spring and summer putting together the best lineup of workshops and presentations possible.
With more than 300 proposals to choose from, the selection process has been a challenge. Subcommittee members reviewed all the proposals and assessed them first on general merit. Would the topic appeal to Conference attendees? Was the proposal well organized and thought out? Had it been done before? The calibre of the submissions we received was such that we found it quite difficult to rule out any of them at this stage.
The next step was to categorize the proposals so that we could make our tough choices in a more systematic and balanced way. It was time for spreadsheets and index cards! We grouped proposals by geographic area—which ones had an Ontario focus, an Irish focus, a U.S. focus, etc.? We identified the target audience for each proposal—was it aimed at experienced researchers, at those just starting their family history adventures, or was it suitable for everyone? We sorted by the type of topic—which proposals related to the methodology of genealogy, to record collections, to case studies?
And perhaps most importantly, we looked carefully at each proposal to make sure that it reflected at least one aspect of the Conference 2010 theme—essentials, innovations and delights.
Putting together the actual Conference 2010 schedule has been a bit like working on a giant jigsaw puzzle—hours and hours of hunting for just the right fit, with some trial and error along the way, but a great deal of satisfaction when it all comes together. We started with our “corner pieces”—the presentations by Conference 2010 keynote speaker Thomas W. Jones—and we are building our program around them.
We have calculated travel and accommodation costs, crunched numbers and made the most of our program budget.
We are packing each Conference day with practical and inspiring content. And we are constantly asking ourselves… will every Conference attendee see at least one session in each time slot that he or she won’t want to miss?
We think we’re close to completing our puzzle and we can’t wait to show it off…
Posted by conference on September 14, 2009 under Blog: New Postings, Visiting Toronto |
It is easy to forget that 655 Dixon Road was not always a stone’s throw from Pearson International Airport and Highway 401. Until it became part of Toronto in 1998, the land where the Doubletree now stands was part of Etobicoke, one of the original townships of York County surveyed in 1791. (Don’t pronounce that “k” in Etobicoke.) You’ll find a wonderful 1878 map of the Township of Etobicoke in McGill University’s Digital Library.
This detail of the 1878 map predates Dixon Road, but you can see the path it will take starting with the diagonal Scarlett Road on the east side of the image, then west between the 200-acre farms of Peter Wardlaw and John Little, and a little further along between the farms of R. Dixon and John Dixon.
The Doubletree would be on the next farm, but there’s no sign today of the stream that meandered through the Robert Harris farm.
The Dixons you see on this little map (there are at least four) are likely all descendants of John Dixon, a native of Westmoreland, England, and one of the earliest settlers in Etobicoke. (See: Mulvany, Charles Pelham. History of Toronto and the County of York, Toronto: C. Blackett Robinson, 1885, volume 2, page 250-1.)
The settlement on the right side of the image on the Humber River is Weston, still proudly identifiable within Toronto.
If you have Etobicoke (or other Toronto) ancestry, plan a few extra days before or after OGS Conference 2010 to visit local historic sites, churches, cemeteries, and of course libraries and archives. Exploring the “Researching Toronto” pages at the Ontario Genealogical Society, Toronto Branch web site is a great way to get started.
Posted by conference on September 5, 2009 under Blog: New Postings, Delights Stream, Tours and Events, Visiting Toronto |
Toronto was home to a vast number of Irish immigrants who settled here from the city’s beginnings as the Town of York in 1793. On Friday, May 14, you can join the Toronto’s Irish Heritage bus tour for a day exploring the Irish connections in Toronto.
The tour will begin at the Conference 2010 hotel. Participants will travel by chartered bus to Ireland Park on Toronto’s waterfront. The Park, opened in 2007, commemorates the arrival of some 38,000 Irish Famine refugees who inundated Toronto (population 20,000) in 1847.
We will continue on to the Corktown area of Toronto, named for settlers from County Cork, and explore various venues where they lived and worked, including Little Trinity Anglican Church. Participants will relax over lunch at Enoch Turner Schoolhouse, the oldest existing ‘free’ school in Canada.
In the afternoon we’ll visit the splendid St. Paul’s Basilica in Toronto’s first Roman Catholic parish, established in 1822.
We will continue our journey to the Necropolis Cemetery and the Cabbagetown neighbourhood of Toronto. Cabbagetown’s name has its roots from the cabbages and other vegetables that were grown by the thrifty Irish immigrants who settled in the area. Cabbages grew readily in the sandy soil and provided an excellent food source. The Necropolis was the second non-sectarian cemetery in Toronto. Opened in the 1850s, it provided the final resting place for a number of Irish immigrants who lived in the area and worked in the factories along the Don River. We will also visit the graves of other people who helped shape our history such as Thornton Blackburn, an escaped slave from Virginia who provided the impetus for the underground railway into Canada, William Lyon Mackenzie a leader of the 1837 Upper Canada Rebellion and Joseph Burr Tyrrell who found dinosaur bones in the Alberta Badlands.
Watch for more details about the Toronto’s Irish Heritage Bus Tour when registration opens this fall.
Posted by conference on August 28, 2009 under Blog: New Postings, Dutch Research Stream, Italian Research Stream, Speakers and Program |
We are pleased to include two more firsts at the Ontario Genealogical Society Conference 2010. On Saturday, May 15, we’re adding add two specialized streams to the program on the essentials of researching Dutch and Italian ancestry respectively*.
The two streams will begin with an exclusive joint lecture on preparations for a European research trip to the Netherlands or Italy. Then the groups separate for in-depth two-part lectures on researching Dutch and Italian records. After lunch, each group will hear a case-history presentation from North American researchers who have successfully used both Canadian and Dutch or Italian records to construct a family history.
For each of the last two sessions of the day, attendees can choose from five different lectures from the full Conference program such as Canadian immigration and passenger list records, using newspapers in genealogical research and deriving ancestral clues from old photographs.
These streams will appeal to experienced family history researchers who’ve never gotten around to their one Dutch or Italian ancestor, as well as to those in the Dutch and Italian communities who’ve always been curious about their family histories but have not had access to the quality information necessary to get them started.
Speakers and full program will be announced in this blog in upcoming months. To register to receive an e-mail alert when the program and registration form go online, please contact us at conference2010@ogs.on.ca.
*The Dutch and Italian streams will be offered in addition to the usual compliment of five concurrent lectures during every session.
Posted by conference on August 23, 2009 under Blog: New Postings, Delights Stream, Speakers and Program |
The “Delights” of our theme—Essentials, Innovations & Delights—will be very evident in the Ontario Genealogical Society’s Conference 2010 program. The more than 70 plenary and concurrent lectures will include a generous sprinkling of genealogical case histories.
Case histories—lectures that tell the story of how a researcher discovered a particular individual or family—might just demonstrate a new source or technique that can be directly applied your own research. They will certainly show you how one piece of information provides clues to the next, and how the pieces can be drawn together to paint a more complete picture of an ancestor’s life.
The case histories selected for the Conference 2010 program cover a wide variety of subjects, locations, and time periods. There’s sure to be something for everyone.
The proposals intrigued our program committee, and we hope they will inspire and “delight” you.
Posted by conference on August 15, 2009 under Blog: New Postings, The Making of Conference 2010 |
Ontario Genealogical Society conferences are organized by volunteers—from one of our Society’s 30 branches, or sometimes from a group of branches. The conference is held in a different part of Ontario each year, rotating on an informal basis.
With the wrap-up of the 2009 event in Oakville, the reins of OGS Conference 2010 are firmly in the hands of Toronto Branch.
It is not the first time for Toronto Branch. The 1969 conference was presented by a one-year-old Toronto Branch and included volunteer hostesses “nattily attired in Centennial dress”. In 1975 we took on the task with the theme “York and the Home District”, and again in 1985 with “Toronto: Meeting Place” which featured a banquet in the blockhouse of Historic Fort York. In 1993 we celebrated the founding of the Town of York with “Toronto: The First Hundred”—and the largest attendance to date. In 2004 we emphasized methodology with the “3RRRs of Family History”, expanded the program to include a full day of concurrent sessions and workshops on Friday, and co-hosted the first pre-conference activities on Thursday.
For OGS Conference 2010, we are incredibly lucky to have an enthusiastic organizing committee of 36 people, that has been coming out to meetings since the fall of 2008. (A steering committee of eight implements the decisions of the organizing committee, coordinates the sub-committees, and makes sure no detail falls between the cracks.)
Each volunteer filled out an information form that asked about his or her skills and experience—but more importantly about how they’d like to be involved. Sometimes volunteering is about a new challenge.
One of the most active committees to date has been program. In several marathon sessions, the six-member program committee has read and considered more than 300 wide-ranging proposals, and is well on the way to an excellent final program with a good balance of familiar and new faces, and topics that will appeal to novice and seasoned researchers.
Other committees are working out the details of all other aspects of Conference 2010—from contacting potential exhibitors for Marketplace, to handling the crowds at the registration desk, and providing opportunities to sample genealogical software and subscription databases. We’re figuring out how to use changing media (like this blog) to attract registrants, and how to keep them informed once they’ve made the decision to attend. And so much more…
So why would we take on the big task of organizing OGS Conference 2010?
We have each experienced the benefits of learning and sharing with other family historians at Toronto Branch meetings, courses, workshops, and annual OGS conferences. We’re excited to invite you to join us for a conference that will be as stimulating, content-rich—and smooth running—as we can possibly make it!
Posted by conference on August 7, 2009 under Blog: New Postings, Pro/Advanced Stream, Speakers and Program |
On Friday, May 14, OGS Conference 2010 will offer a special full-day program for the professional genealogist or advanced researcher with comparable expertise. This special five-lecture module will be one of several options for those looking to profitably extend their weekend. (Other Friday lectures, workshops and a tour will be announced in due course.)
Designed with input from the Ontario Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists (OCAPG), the professional/advanced module will deal with thorny issues of genealogical evidence, proof and problem-solving. Delivering the three morning lectures will be Dr. Thomas W. Jones, who was introduced in this blog on July 24 (below) in regard to his presentation of the Houston Memorial Lecture.
Here is a tentative list of methodological topics on which Dr. Jones will speak in the professional/advanced module:
- Inferential Genealogy: Deducing Ancestors’ Identities Indirectly
- Organizing Evidence to Overcome Record Shortages
- The Jones Jinx: Tracing Common Surnames
Discussions are underway with speakers of comparable stature to deliver two afternoon lectures in the professional/advanced module. Stay tuned…
Posted by conference on August 2, 2009 under Blog: New Postings, Marketplace |
The Marketplace has always been a major feature of OGS conferences.
It is a once-a-year opportunity for all 30 Ontario Genealogical Society branches to display books about their local areas and in particular the publications they have produced. Sales of these very modestly priced books and CDs are an important source of income to fund future projects.
Most of the OGS branch publications are transcriptions of records—like gravestone inscriptions, registers of births, marriages and deaths, cenotaphs, wills, and almost anything else you can think of. Branches are also great at producing guides to research in their areas. But the most important features of an OGS branch table are the local experts standing behind it, only too pleased to answer your questions and suggest new routes for your research.
The Ontario Genealogical Society as a whole also produces many publications that will be available at Conference 2010. It has become tradition for the Society to launch new books at the annual conference. We can’t wait to see what’s coming up for 2010!
The 2010 Marketplace will also include displays from other genealogical and historical organizations whose publications, databases, or expertise could be the key to your research.
The final component of Marketplace is the commercial vendors. These vary from small publishers or authors with one or two print or software titles, to antiquarian booksellers, to the largest Canadian retailers specializing in family history. Companies offering online subscription genealogical databases, periodicals, and genealogical educators will also be well represented.
And Marketplace is always a great place to pick up a one-of-a-kind treasure, a bargain book or CD, a subscription discount, or even a free trial offer!
Posted by conference on July 24, 2009 under Blog: New Postings, Pro/Advanced Stream, Speakers and Program |
We are thrilled to announce that one of North America’s most highly respected—and honoured—genealogists will deliver the Houston Memorial Lecture at Conference 2010. Thomas W. Jones, a genealogical educator involved in family history research personally and professionally since 1964, will present this marquee lecture to formally open OGS Conference 2010 on the evening of Friday, May 14.
His credentials are legion. Let’s start with his post-nominal letters:
- PhD: OK, that one was easy—Dr. Jones is a retired professor of education at Gallaudet University, the world leader in liberal education and career development for deaf and hard-of-hearing undergraduate students
- CG, CGL: Certified Genealogist and Certified Genealogical Lecturer, as credentialed by the Board for Certification of Genealogists
- FASG: Fellow of the American Society of Genealogists (a lifelong honour limited to 50 individuals at any one time)
- FNGS: Fellow of the National Genealogical Society, an honour conferred this past May
- FUGA: Fellow of the Utah Genealogical Association
Thomas W. Jones, who will present the Houston Memorial Lecture at the Ontario Genealogical Society Conference 2010 in Toronto
As to his service to the genealogy community, Dr. Jones is:
- editor of the NGS Quarterly (the journal of the National Genealogical Society)
- a former trustee and past president of the Board for Certification of Genealogists
- a trustee of the Association of Professional Genealogists (APG)
In addition to elected fellowships, Dr. Jones has received the following awards:
- APG’s Grahame T. Smallwood Jr. Award of Merit (2004)
- the National Genealogical Society Award for Excellence for an essay in the NGS Quarterly (1997) explaining how name variations, a common surname, misinformation in a death certificate, census inconsistencies, and an altered record were overcome to connect a Florida family to its Virginia forebears
- the same award (2002)—he is one of only two people to win twice—for an article demonstrating and explaining how to piece together indirect evidence to reconstruct a lineage in eighteenth-century Ireland
Altogether Dr. Jones has contributed fourteen articles to NGSQ, ten of which have dealt with analyzing difficult genealogical problems and developing sound conclusions.
Dr. Jones is on the staff at the Samford Institute of Genealogical and Historical Research, where every summer he coordinates the genealogical writing course. He taught the 2009 course on skill building for the professional at the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy and in 2010 he will coordinate the course on advanced genealogical methods. He has spoken at myriad conferences about genealogical evidence, proof and problem-solving
At Conference 2010, his theme for the Houston Lecture will be “The Seven Habits of Highly Effective Genealogists”.
Posted by conference on July 18, 2009 under Blog: New Postings, Green Conference, Marketplace, The Making of Conference 2010 |
On July 13, the Conference 2010 organizing committee convened at the Doubletree by Hilton, Toronto Airport. It was a chance for some committee members to tour the facility and clarify what till then they’d only seen on paper. For members who had been involved with the conference Toronto Branch had hosted in 2004 at the Doubletree, it was an opportunity to reacquaint themselves with the venue.
We started our tour in the north-east end of the hotel, near the room where the Ontario Library Association will hold a pre-conference event on Thursday, May 13. Conference registrants arriving by public transit will enter the Doubletree here. We could also see the group of off-site restaurants, like Tim Hortons, Swiss Chalet, and Milestones, right across Dixon Road.
As we strolled south-west through the hotel, we passed the Orchid restaurant where many conference attendees will have breakfast and other casual meals, and the front desk. In the same area, we saw two other restaurants—Alfredo’s (northern Italian and Continental cuisine), Ginko (classical Japanese cuisine)—and Harry’s Bar.
Turning south at the front desk, we passed the west entrance from the parking lot, a small retail area, and the pool and fitness centre, on the way to the Plaza conference centre where OGS Conference 2010 will be held.
The Plaza conference centre is on the second floor. Our registration area will be at the bottom of the stairs (there’s an escalator and an elevator, too.) It was easy for the committee to see how that will channel registrants on the right route.
At the top of the stairs, escalator and elevator, the spacious Plaza foyer will be home to a number of activities (more later) and will serve as a gathering place. The 10,000 square-foot Marketplace and the meeting rooms are all clustered around this foyer. (With the exception of one overflow room which is a short stroll away on the ground floor.)
All these areas have complimentary wi-fi access.
The Plaza rooms were undergoing an upgrading of the ventilation system when we visited, but despite the tarpaulins, it was clear how quick and easy it will be to get from session to session, and to the Marketplace.
We finished the tour with a quick peek at a couple of the well-appointed hotel rooms, noting that all rooms have complimentary wi-fi access.
We were impressed with the facilities, the attention to detail, and the staff at the Doubletree—and confident that it will be a great venue for OGS Conference 2010.
Posted by conference on July 11, 2009 under Blog: New Postings, Speakers and Program, Visiting Toronto |
Toronto is home to a wonderful cluster of archives and reference libraries for genealogical research—particularly if you have Ontario roots.
On Thursday, May 13, before Conference 2010 gets rolling, you can join the “Hands-on Research Tour” for a day of research with assistance from Toronto Branch volunteers.
The tour will begin at the Conference 2010 hotel. Participants will travel by chartered bus and public transit (with a volunteer guide) to one of four research facilities. There will be a tour—we’ll keep it brief to allow the maximum time for research. Local experts will be on hand to help you navigate finding aids and records.
At lunch time, participants will have the opportunity to switch to a new research facility.
Choose from the Toronto Reference Library, North York Central Library (and the OGS Library), the City of Toronto Archives, or the new facilities of the Archives of Ontario. For more information about the holdings of these institutions and links to their web sites, see <http://www.torontofamilyhistory.org/libraries.html>
Watch for more details about the “Hands-on Research Tour” when registration opens this fall.
Posted by conference on July 6, 2009 under Blog: New Postings, Green Conference |
The 2010 organizing committee is considering the environmental impact in every planning decision—from coffee cups to name badges to air travel.
Some decisions are easy, like the reuse of plastic name badge holders. OGS has been doing that for years to save money, and your 2010 badge may have seen five years of service. “Waste not, want not” has become an environmental adage.
But consider the coffee cups. We estimate that, over the three days of the Conference, about 3,500 disposable cups will be replaced with reusable ones. Ice water in pitchers and tumblers will replace the dreaded plastic bottles.
We’ve been saving paper during the planning process by distributing the minutes of our meetings by e-mail. Most committee members have found it unnecessary to print them, and for many meetings the only paper distributed has been a one-page agenda.
Following the 2009 Conference lead, we’ll be distributing most publicity electronically, including the program and registration form. We’ll have printed forms available for those who would prefer them, but we anticipate the quantity of paper to be a fraction of former years.
For the first time at an OGS Conference, a password-protected online syllabus will give registrants access to lecture information ahead of time and the ability to print all or just the pages for the lectures they plan to attend. With up to five lecture choices in each time slot, that could reduce the paper used by close to 75%. (Registrants will have the option to purchase a printed syllabus, if they prefer.)
There are many more decisions to make in the months ahead, and opportunities to have less of an impact—or a positive impact—on our environment. We welcome your suggestions.
Posted by conference on June 27, 2009 under Blog: New Postings, The Making of Conference 2010 |
On February 9, 2009, after much discussion and “wordsmithing”, the Conference 2010 organizing committee wholeheartedly approved the Conference theme: Essentials, Innovations and Delights.
So why do we need a theme anyway? And why this particular theme?
The first question is easier. We had to set a direction that would guide the call for papers and, later, our program choices. It had to suggest benefits that would attract registrants and serve them well. And it had to provide a vision for the Conference that would engage and motivate our 26 committee members over the next 18 months.
The theme needed to appeal to both beginners and seasoned researchers, as well as everyone in between, all of whom are busy and have many other demands on their time and discretionary spending. We decided therefore that we have to deliver a content-rich Conference in which every lecture is relentlessly practical or inspiring in order to earn the support of prospective registrants.
So how to be relentlessly practical? Two ways: You offer necessary information about unfamiliar topics, “Essentials”; or you provide new information about familiar ones, “Innovations”.
Bear in mind that we’re all beginners when we embark on research in an unfamiliar record class or a new jurisdiction. So we all need “Essentials” at some point.
Likewise keeping up with “Innovations” in sources and techniques is essential to genealogists at all levels at all times.
“Delights” is the best word we could think of to describe the magic that happens when the dry documents yield to the tenacity and imagination of the researcher to bring an ancestor or a family “to life”. It is the reason we all do what we do.
Posted by conference on June 20, 2009 under Blog: New Postings, Registration Updates |
The Conference 2010 organizing committee launched our publicity campaign with a short presentation at the closing ceremonies of this year’s conference in Oakville—and a draw for a full weekend and a Friday registration. We were very pleased to present the weekend registration (which covers Saturday, Sunday, and Friday evening’s opening ceremonies and keynote Houston Lecture) to long-time Ontario Genealogical Society member (and active volunteer) Betty McQuillan of Toronto. The Friday registration went to Bill Whiteside of Toronto, and will entitle him to choose from a very full program of workshops and lectures, or a bus tour. Bill isn’t an OGS member, but tells us that his experience at Conference 2009 has convinced him to join.
Our congratulations to Betty and Bill!
Posted by conference on June 1, 2009 under Blog: New Postings, Speakers and Program |
Welcome to the Ontario Genealogical Society Conference 2010 blog. OGS Conference 2010 is to be held in Toronto in 2010 at the Doubletree by Hilton – Toronto Airport. It will be a little earlier than usual, from May 14 to 16 with an extra day of exciting events.
Mark your calendars. We hope to see you there.
The Conference theme is “Essentials, Innovations & Delights.” We aim to present information that is both relentlessly practical and inspiring. We have received more than 300 proposals for presentations, so watch this blog for information on the program as it develops.
