Toronto Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society

Unusual Lives – Online

Registration is now open for a very special series of Toronto Branch webinars in June titled Uncovering Unusual Lives.

Four seasoned researchers will present four extraordinary case studies, each with its own intriguing twists and turns. Our speakers will tell us about the roadblocks they faced, and the sources and techniques they used to separate fact from fiction.

Three of the sessions will take place in the evening and the fourth in the afternoon, since our final speaker will be joining us from England! Each session will consist of an hour-long presentation and an opportunity to ask questions.

We’ll be recording the sessions too in case you can’t attend live or you’d just like to enjoy them a second time…

Wednesday June 16 (7:30 p.m. EDT)
Misbegotten, Misled, Mistaken: Tackling the challenging quest to identify a mystery father.
Lecturer: Paul Jones

Thursday June 17 (7:30 p.m. EDT)
The Curious Case of Dr. Henry Head Gray: Piecing together the true fate of a young Toronto doctor.
Lecturer: Jane MacNamara

Wednesday June 23 (7:30 p.m. EDT)
FAKE News! Read all about it!: Debunking myths in the report of a young woman sold into slavery.
Lecturer: Guylaine Pétrin

Thursday June 24 (2:00 p.m. EDT)
The 1815 Murder behind Toronto’s Oldest Ghost Story: Digging up the facts of a lighthouse keeper’s untimely death.
Lecturer: Eamonn O’Keeffe

Click here to find out more and register for Uncovering Unusual Lives.

By Unknown author – Image from volume 2, page 203 of Robertson’s Landmarks of Toronto by J. Ross Robertson, Toronto, published in six volumes from 1893 to 1914 and hosted by the Internet Archive. Public Domain, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=4366477

May 2021 meeting and AGM – online

Our next Toronto Branch meeting will be on Monday, May 31. It will begin a little later than usual—at 8:00 p.m.—in order to accommodate our members’ Annual General Meeting, which will get underway at 7:00 p.m. Both the AGM and the regular Branch meeting will be entirely online with separate sign-ins. The AGM will be open to members only—all members should have received an AGM package with details. The Branch meeting will be open to all.

This month, librarian and archivist Danielle Van Wagner will tell us about an early Toronto resident with an unusual hobby of recording the deaths of his acquaintances and passing judgment on their lives. William Henry Pearson’s notebooks over the course of six decades—now available online—contain fascinating personal accounts of hundreds of individuals with Toronto connections and represent a significant historical resource. Please join us for Pearson’s Opinions: What one man’s preoccupation with death can tell us about early Toronto.