SLCCHC Brown Bag Presentation: Canadian Genealogy Research Part 2

Description

Join us Thursday, September 24, at  noon  for our September Brown Bag Presentation! In this Brown Bag Presentation, Pamela will expand on her first presentation in 2025, which focused on early Canadian land records and is currently available on our YouTube channel: https://youtu.be/cGMXSBTKbik?si=YZhC_awkdzswVgkK

Early Canadian land records tended to be fairly straightforward. But those records were generated when documented loyalist émigrés were awarded land for siding with the British. Prior to the distribution of land, loyalists were recorded and tracked by the British Army as they arrived in Canada, either having fled the colonies or when they joined one of the loyalist corps, either in a colony or after they arrived.

The primary source for the documents generated by the British Army at that time is the Haldimand Papers, named for General Frederick Haldimand, who was the commander. These records are less accessible and not searchable by name. Nevertheless, they can be useful, particularly in identifying the colony from which an ancestor had fled, and in some instances documenting relationships that were lost elsewhere.

Identifying the ancestor's original colony is key to tracing back to earlier generations. About the Presenter:

Pamela Brant Wright received her undergraduate degree from Michigan State University. She spent over 20 years conducting biomedical research, eventually transitioning into research administration. She holds two Master’s degrees, one in administration and another in theology.

She retired in 2017 from the University of Maryland, Baltimore, and currently works part-time as a freelance scientific editor and grant writer.

Pamela began genealogical research shortly after retiring, first her mother’s French Canadian roots and then trying to complete the Wright family history started by her father-in-law.

The latter opened up a whole new area of research into Loyalist history. While she has still not found her husband’s family, she did discover the Wrights of St. Lawrence County, only distantly connected to Silas Wright, and has two manuscripts submitted concerning them. She has written for The Quarterly, with several more articles planned, and completed an update to the history of her church in Baltimore, which was published last year. Since 2018, she and her husband head to the Adirondacks for the summer, where they have a camp in Chateaugay, NY.