Loyalist group to host ancestor seminar
Posted Feb 4, 2010 By Roy Lewis
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Tweet ThisEMC Events - In recent years, more and more people are attempting to search their ancestral roots but don't know how to go about it.
The Col. Edward Jessup Branch of The United Empire Loyalists' Association of Canada would like to help and will be holding a seminar to assist those seeking information about their ancestors. The seminar will take place at the Grenville Genealogical Society's headquarters at the old Prescott train station on Saturday, Feb. 13, from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. The former station is located on Railway Avenue on the south side of the CN mainline in the west-central Prescott.
"We have information on Loyalist settlers in Leeds and Grenville but we also have resources on early pioneer families in this area," said Myrtle Johnston, president of the Col. Edward Jessup Branch.
The seminar is being held by the branch, a historical and genealogical organization, as a beginning event to Ontario Heritage Week, Feb. 15 to 22, but also as an early event to the 200th anniversary celebrations of the founding of Prescott being held this year. The branch has a close connection to the town since the organization is named after Col. Edward Jessup, a Loyalist who founded the community in 1810. And it will mark the first time the branch has joined with the Grenville Historical Society to host an event.
To help with ancestral searchers, members of the Col. Edward Jessup Branch will have books of resources, including early census and cemetery records.
"We will also have books specifically relating to Loyalist families who settled in Leeds and Grenville," said Johnston.
The Loyalists were British citizens living in the Thirteen Colonies when the American Revolution broke out in 1776 in part over the taxes imposed by the United Kingdom to finance the Napoleonic War raging in Europe. Although not in favour of the tax, the Loyalists did not feel the issue was strong enough to split away from Britain.
When the Americans won the revolution in 1783, about 80,000 Loyalists left the colonies with about 37,000 fleeing to British North America and most of the remaining Loyalists returning to the United Kingdom. In gratitude for their loyalty as well as military service, the British government granted land to the Loyalists in the Maritimes and what is now Quebec and Ontario. One group established farms along the St. Lawrence River, including Leeds and Grenville. But settling in Upper Canada, which later became Ontario, was anything but easy at that time. One settler, in his memoirs, described conditions as follows:
"Upper Canada was indeed one widespread and dense wilderness, except here and there a hut, cabin or log house with a little cleared around them or beginning to be cleared. There were bears, wolves and deer in this country in great abundance and there were lynx, wild cats, beavers and foxes in every direction around us, also martins, mink and weasels beyond our calculation. In all our streams of water, such as might be called creeks or rivers, as well as in our bays and lakes there were abundant quantities of fish. Notwithstanding these advantages in this new country, our hardships and privations were many and severe...."
Johnston, who is the genealogist with the Col. Edward Jessup Branch, has an extensive knowledge of early families in the United Counties. She is also a charter member and past president of the Leeds and Grenville branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society. Housed in one section of the basement at the Brockville Museum, the society, created in 1974, provides information for thousands of requests on ancestry in Leeds and Grenville through its extensive collection of births, deaths and marriages, cemetery records and newspaper clippings on microfilm.
She will be joined by her sister, Lorna Johnston, who is also a charter member of the genealogical society and has done extensive research on family histories in the area, particularly in Elizabethtown-Kitley Township.
Another charter member of the society who is expected to attend the seminar will be Norma Moug of Prescott. She is also a member of the Grenville Historical Society and will have records of families and events in this region. Sandra Shouldice and Bonnie Gaylord, also members of the Grenville Historical Society, will assist those at the seminar.
To give the event a pioneer flavour, members of the Col. Edward Jessup Branch will be dressed in period costume and there will be a collection of display boards giving more in-depth descriptions of the Loyalist experience.
There is no admission charge to the seminar and refreshments will be served.
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