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Murder and Mayhem / Settlers and Sinners / Colonists and Criminals—More Thrilling Stories from New France
Carol Ufford and Dawn Kelly return with more fascinating stories from New France—unusual deaths, illegitimate children, and of course a little witchcraft and murder. As they tell the stories, Carol and Dawn will show some of the resources they used to trace their family histories.

Carol Ufford has been researching her family history for over 30 years. Her family has deep roots in Ontario, but she is jealous of her husband’s deep French Canadian and Acadian roots. Carol has served on the Toronto Branch Executive, and is currently the administrator of the branch Facebook Group, and a member of the branch Education Committee. While practising social distancing during the COVID-19 outbreak Carol undertook a 14-day research challenge, and documented her progress on Facebook.

Dawn Kelly has been researching her family history for more than 25 years. She started looking for her Irish ancestors and along the way discovered she is more French than Irish. She has traced some of her family lines back into the 1500s in France and found that one of her 10th great-grandfathers was Samuel de Champlain’s valet at the time of the death of the founder of New France. Dawn has been a radio newscaster for 35 years, the last 22 of them at The Canadian Press. This spring she found herself doing national newscasts from her dining room during the COVID-19 pandemic.

No one wants a criminal at the dinner table, but finding one in your family tree can add pizzazz to an otherwise boring list of names and dates! Did you know that 19th Century Ontario jails were also full of people who just couldn’t pay their debts? Or got caught in public drinking too much? Or got in one too many fights? Did you know that most people spent only a few days in jail? Or that Irish people were overrepresented? Or that women were most often incarcerated for “moral” offences? Or that jail records are one of the few types of 19th Century records that provide physical descriptions? This lecture will introduce you to wonder of jail records, and what they can tell you about your ancestors.