BIFHSGO December meeting: Great Moments

The BIFHSGO December meeting gets underway, Dec 11, 2010, at 10:00 a.m. You can pick up your winter issue of Anglo-Celtic Roots, renew your membership, and attend the intriguing line-up of presentations for this traditional seasonal Great Moments event.

Till Debt Us Do Part: A Fleeting Moment
by Tara Grant
Debt is not a modern problem. Our ancestors often spent more than they made - with dire consequences. This talk will take a brief look at one of the speaker’s ancestor's incarceration for debt in the infamous Fleet Prison.

The Serendipitous Fall of My Brick Wall
by Don Mutch
In 2002, Don knew the name of his maternal great great grandfather, John Miller, and that he had lived in Richibucto sometime before 1871. With this scanty information, Don set out to find out all he could about him. Through census records, two family letters dated 1858, online searching, visits to the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick and the towns of Richibucto and Rexton in New Brunswick (June 2005), Don learned more about John Miller, but his great moment came in Dumfriesshire, Scotland, September 2009.

He Wore His Buttons Well: Discovering the Details of an Epic Rescue at Sea
by Barbara Tose
In January 1926, a storm hit the North Atlantic that wreaked havoc on the ships in its path. Many ships were lost with all hands. However, the crew of the merchant ship, the Antinoe, were luckier than most. In a rescue that held the western world enthralled for 4 days, the Captain and crew of the passenger ship, the President Roosevelt, worked tirelessly to save all the men aboard the Antinoe. Barbara’s great-uncle, Harry Tose, was the grateful Captain of the Antinoe. Her father’s knowledge of the event was limited to Canadian poet, E.J. Pratt’s mention of Captain Tose in a poem he wrote about the rescue. Barbara’s talk will outline the resources she discovered that revealed the details of this epic tale.

Homeward Bound From Bannockburn
by Bill Arthurs
This talk will describe a major breakthrough in Bill Arthurs' genealogy, when a 36 of 37 marker DNA correlation was posted by an Arthurs in Ireland which has ended years of research frustration and which places his family place of origin in the town of Donaghmore, County Tyrone, Ireland.

A Visit to an 18th Century Family Farm in Sanquhar, Dumfriesshire
By Hugh Reekie
After many attempts, Hugh finally managed to visit and explore Nether Glengenny Farm, north of Thornhill Dumfriesshire in 2009. He was able to trace the changes in the farm buildings from the early 1600s to the early 1900s, when the present farmhouse was built. Evidence remains of how his forebears lived in the late 1700s.


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