The Rich World of Family History Research
Guest Speaker: Gary Schroder, President, Quebec Family History Society
When: Thursday, September 21, 2017, from 7:30 p.m. to 9 p.m.
Where: Centennial Hall
288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4
Lecture in English followed by a bilingual question period.
Family History Research has become one of the fastest growing hobbies in the world. The purpose of this presentation will be to explore some of the major types of historical documents that are used in genealogical research in Canada, the US, the UK, and other parts of the world. These include civil registrations of birth, marriage, and death, church registers, census records, probate records, land records and even dog records. This evening we will see how to pursue your own family history, leap over 'brick walls', and track down elusive indigenous ancestors in Canada.
Gary Schroder is or has been
- President of QFHS, the Quebec Family History Society, since 1995.
- Chair of the 'Roots' International Conferences on Family History held at McGill University in 1997, 2002, 2007, 2011, and 2015.
- Teacher of family history courses at McGill University and Champlain College.
- Lecturer to genealogical and historical societies across North America.
- Speaker at the 2001 International Conference on Irish Family History held at Trinity College, Dublin.
- Member of the Special Advisory Board of Library and Archives Canada.
- Editor of numerous publications, e.g. Christ Church, Montreal Marriages 1766-1850.
- Frequent guest on Canadian Radio and Television answering a wide variety of genealogical questions and promoting the educational value of family history research.
- Research consultant on the American, British, and Canadian versions of the “Who Do You Think You Are” television series.
- Originator of the All Day Genealogical Seminars at the QFHS Library.
His primary research interests are Canadian, English, Irish, and British (Military) resources for genealogists.
His first known ancestor in Canada was his 3rd-great-grandfather Cornelius Flynn who arrived in Quebec City in 1805. Cornelius Flynn 1787-1861, native of Cork, Ireland, served in the Royal Navy for over twenty years and was wounded aboard the HMS Agamemnon during the Battle of Trafalgar.
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Born in Marseilles, educated in Lyon, the printer Fleury Mesplet (1734-1794) one day decides to flee the intolerance that reigns in France at that time to seek refuge in England. He meets Benjamin Franklin, who recruits him as a Francophone printer of the American Continental Congress, fighting against the English. He prints the Letters sent by the American Congressmen to the inhabitants of the Province of Quebec to incite them to join against their common enemy: the English. In order to reinforce this purpose, Franklin arrives in Montreal in 1776; Mesplet accompanies him: he shall be the instrument of the North American rebellion against the European oppressor. But the project fails; the American patriots are decimated by the English. However, Mesplet decides to remain in Montreal, despite a “preventive” imprisonment of almost a month. With the aid of a few friends as enlightened as he was by the philosophy of the Enlightenment (Valentin Jautard, Pierre du Calvet, etc.), he founds in 1778 the first journal of opinion in the country, the Gazette littéraire, and the first think tank, the Montreal Academy - which perhaps hides a French Masonic lodge. After another hard imprisonment of three years, Mesplet recovers his wife, his friends, his workshop, his values and his fights; he creates in 1785, on a new basis, a second newspaper, the Montreal Gazette, which survives him even today. Beyond the centuries, between the American War of Independence and the French Revolution, Mesplet’s story reminds us that the struggle for freedom of expression is still valid.
Born in Spa (Belgium) in 1948, Jacques G. Ruelland immigrated to Canada in 1969, holding a printer technician diploma from Liège (Belgium). He holds presently a BA and an MA in philosophy of science, a second MA in history, a third one in museology and a Ph.D. in history of science. He taught philosophy at the Collège Édouard-Montpetit (Longueuil) for 31 years (1979-2010), and he currently teaches history as an associate professor in the History Department of the University of Montreal. He also works currently as a museologist for the Musée des Maîtres et Artisans du Québec (Saint-Laurent), and the Museums (a set of five museums) of Mont-Saint-Hilaire. He signed some fifty books published in Canada, the United States, Europe, and Asia, and translated into various languages. 
Guest speaker: Adrian Willison
Port Royal. Amy gave the Roddick Gates at McGill, in memory of her husband, a Newfoundlan
In 1609 and 1611, Samuel de Champlain visited the sites of today's Kahnawake and Montréal (marking the latter with an A on his 1612 map). Here he had to portage around “Sault Saint-Louis”, the Lachine Rapids, noting their importance to the natives gathering to parlay and trade, the former diplomatic function commemorated in the Iroquoian name Tiohtiagi, and the latter commerce still a hallmark of Montréal's importance at the start of the St. Lawrence Seaway.
We now know that the earthwork tradition is very ancient in this region but that it particularly exploded during two periods. The first explosion occurred about 100 BC and continued to about 400 BC, contemporaneous with the Mediterranean Roman Empire, and the second occurred about 1000 AD and terminated about 1400 AD, paralleling the European Middle Ages. European scholars and archaeologists have proposed many theories about the societies and histories that were responsible for building and using these great earthworks. Many of them are currently rejected by most North American archaeologists and referred to collectively as the Mound Builder mythology.
Martin Byers was born in Fort William, now Thunderbay, Ontario in 1937 but grew up in Montreal. He graduated from McGill, BA and MA in history/anthropology, gained a PhD in anthropology/archaeology from New York State University at Albany (New York). He taught anthropology and humanities at Vanier College, Montreal, from 1970 to 1998. Martin Byers is a research associate in the Department of Anthropology at McGill University in Montreal, Quebec, Canada. He has authored numerous articles in scholarly journals and has published 3 books.