Trajectories: The Experience of Three British Families’ Immigration to Canada, 1832-1920

The following is a notice from the Ottawa Historical Association.

Please join the OHA for its third public lecture of its 2010-2011 season.  Dr. Gillian Leitch of CDCI Research will speak on "Trajectories: The Experience of Three British Families’ Immigration to Canada, 1832-1920" on Thursday, January 20, at 8pm at the Faculty of Arts and Social Science Lounge, Dunton Tower Room 2017, Carleton University.  The lecture is free and all are welcome to attend.

Canada in the 19th Century was marked by massive British immigration.  This presentation seeks to understand the British immigrant in more intimate terms- as families.  It will present three British families (one English, one Irish, and one Scottish) as examples of families who emigrated in the nineteenth century.  It will explore the relationship they had to one another as family members (family identity) and the creation and maintenance of family networks in the new world and the old, encompassing not only the original immigrants, but the ensuing generations of these families.

Gillian Leitch’s PhD thesis "The Importance of Being English?: Identity and Social Organisation in British Montreal, 1800-1850" at the Université de Montreal, explored the expression of national identities of Montrealers of British origin, through their public celebrations, commemorations and voluntary associations.  This presentation was a part of research conducted as a Post Doctoral Fellow at the University of Edinburgh.  She is currently a Senior Researcher at CDCI Research Inc.

For more information, please e-mail contact@ottawahistoricalassociation.com. The Ottawa Historical Association gratefully acknowledges the support of the Department of History and the Dean of the Faculty of Arts and Social Science, Carleton University.