Welsh Family History Workshop, Ottawa, 1st March 2008


The Welsh Society of Ottawa are running a Welsh Family History Workshop during the morning of Saturday 1st March 2008 at Westminster Presbyterian Church, 470 Roosevelt Ave, Westboro, Ottawa. All are welcome to attend; registration fee $5 to cover room costs etc.

The Workshop, 9 am - noon, will be run by Ridge Williams and Hugh Reekie, both of whom have been researching their Welsh forebears in some detail. From 9 am there will be a display table, with books, pamphlets and wall charts - and an opportunity for brief discussions.

From 9.30 - 10.15am Ridge will give an illustrated lecture on the basics, including Census access using Ancsestry.com, access to birth & marriage records & certificates and some of the problems specific to researching Welsh forebears (eg local place names, surnames, and variations). He will cover other aspects of research eg Welsh drovers and will mention some resources available at the National Library of Wales, Aberystwyth.

During the refreshment break, there will be opportunities for questions, and two sign-up sheets will permit more formal, brief discussions.

From 10.45 - 11.30 am Hugh will describe his recent research into his mid mid-Wales forebears, emphasizing the Merchant Marine activities of his Jones family from Aberayron. Using a mixture of specialist databases on the web, requests for documentation from Museums, libraries, etc, and obtaining specialist books, Hugh has been able to create a detailed picture of the lives of his Master-Mariner forebears from Ceredigion around 1850. The talk will include the "how" and will discuss the merits of using the many specialist databases now available on the Internet via the Web. One particular resource is the fully-indexed Cambrian Newspaper, Swansea from 1804 to 1860 (and 1876 for marriage announcements) - a real goldmine for those with forebears in the area.

Both Ridge and Hugh will have their laptop computers with them, and can access databases during the one-on-one sessions, from 11.30am, which can extend over the lunch period if necessary. Make sure you bring what FH you know - eg the full names and marriage date of your grandparents! The process of obtaining birth & marriage certificates, and for accessing census data will be shown.          


Formal registrations should be sent to Alison Lawson, Ottawa Welsh Society, 449 Mansfield Rd., OTTAWA ON K2A 2S6. Cheques payable to "THE OTTAWA WELSH SOCIETY":

Details - contact Alison Lawson 613-725-2704 or Hugh Reekie max-com -at - allstream.net, phone 613-728-5343


This page has URL:http://members.allstream.net/~max-com/welsh.FH.wkshp.1Mr08.html  updated 09Feb 2008              


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