Toronto Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society

February 2019 meeting

Our next Toronto Branch meeting will take place on Monday, February 25 starting at 7:30 pm at Lansing United Church in North York.

What was life like for detectives in Victorian Toronto, and were their jobs as thrilling as on the hit television show Murdoch Mysteries? Our featured speaker, Ellen Maki, will take us back in time and introduce us to some of Toronto’s Early Police Detectives. Who were the policemen who became detectives and what kinds of cases did they tackle? Join us to find out!

After our mid-meeting break, we’ll enjoy a short talk by Melanie Parker titled Kilgour House. Speaker notes will be available through our new Members Only web pages.

Lansing United Church is located two blocks south-west of Sheppard and Yonge, at Poyntz Avenue and Beecroft Road (enter from Poyntz). It’s a short walk from the Sheppard-Yonge subway station, which also links to frequent bus service. If you are driving, parking on local streets is free after 6:00 p.m., and there are pay parking lots close by. The few spaces in the church parking lot are reserved for visitors with accessibility needs.

As usual, the Members Network will be gathering in advance of the main meeting, starting at 6:15 p.m. Members are welcome to join in and share family history questions and experiences in an informal setting.

Toronto Branch meetings are free to attend and open to all. Visit our Meetings page to find out more.

Members of the Toronto Police Force ca. 1883, William James Topley. Wikimedia Commons.

Campus memorials

Almost 450 more names have just been added to our For King and Country database of Toronto war memorials—this time from the University of Toronto’s downtown campus. These additions bring the total number of schools and other institutions in our database to 123, and the total number of names recorded to 47,679.

St. Michael’s College—officially the University of St. Michael’s College—is an undergraduate arts and sciences college at the U of T, with a postgraduate Roman Catholic theology faculty. The college church, St. Basil’s on St. Joseph Street, dates back to 1856 and is the oldest building on the campus in continuous use. The names of 158 former St. Mike’s students who died in the two World Wars and the Korean War are inscribed on sandstone panels along the wall of a passageway between two of the college residence houses.

A few blocks west, on the corner of St. George Street and Hoskin Avenue, stands The Newman Club, one of many Catholic student centres worldwide inspired by the writings of Cardinal John Henry Newman (1801-1890). The U of T’s Newman Club has been in its current location since 1922. Hanging in the Thomas Aquinas Church, or Newman Chapel, next door is an illuminated list commemorating the names of 289 Newman Club members who trained for service in World War II.

To search the names of the men and women listed on these memorials, and to learn more about the history of St. Mike’s and the Newman Club and the services they have offered Catholic students at the U of T over the years, visit our For King and Country website.