Genealogy à la carte

The Ontario Genealogical Society this month will host an International Series of three webinars.

The series is free for members. It is $25 for non-members or $10 for a single webinar.

Thursday, July 10, 7:00 p.m. Eastern time
Tracing Your Caribbean Ancestors by Pooran Bridgelal

This specialized genealogy course is designed to assist individuals tracing their Caribbean ancestry — whether African, East Indian, Chinese, Portuguese, or otherwise. While traveling to one’s country of origin can be costly and time-consuming, participants will discover a wealth of resources available locally and online. The course introduces materials found in libraries and digital archives that provide valuable insights, laying a strong foundation for amateur researchers. It also prepares participants to identify key records and documents when they eventually visit archives in their ancestral homelands.

Thursday, July 17, 7:00 p.m. Eastern time
Landscape of Dreams: Jewish Genealogy in Canada with Kaye Prince-Hollenberg

The landscape of Canada is extensive, and so are our genealogy resources! This session will look at accessing some of the most common Canadian genealogy documents available online, including census, immigration, military, and vital records. We’ll also explore the abundant number of Canadian Jewish specific resources including archives and heritage organizations, newspapers, and digitized books.

Thursday, July 24, 7:00 p.m. Eastern time
Getting Started in Chinese Genealogy by Linda Yip

Chinese Canadian genealogy has it all: challenges, determination, and grit. In this talk, attendees will gain an understanding of the laws and regulations established for all Chinese in Canada and how they created unique record gaps and alternate sources. It may surprise you to know the Chinese Immigration Act applied to all persons deemed to be of the Chinese race, whether born in Canada or immigrated. The discussion will include some of the top issues in this branch of genealogy and how to get over those brick walls. Never before seen examples will be drawn from persons of Chinese descent in Ontario.

Learn more about the series and register here.

MyHeritage is offering free access to the entire collection of US newspaper pages on OldNews.com from July 3 to 5, 2025.

No need to set up an account. And there’s no need to sign up for a free trial. Just click on the above link and start searching.

Even if you subscribe to another newspaper site, I recommend you check out OldNews. I’ve been pleasantly surprised many times by the articles that have appeared in my searches.

For the next five months, from July 17 to November 20, the Québec Genealogical eSociety has scheduled eight webinars in English and six webinars in French on a variety of interesting topics. They are all free and open to the public. All you need to do is register.

The topics presented in English include Quebec’s land registry, Indigenous research, Library and Archives Canada’s website, and AI. The speakers will be Mark Thompson, Jenna Lemay, Tracey Ariel, and Ken McKinlay.

In French, the topics include Indigenous genealogy, FamilySearch, searching for ancestors on the Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec website, AI, and the future launch of Transcrire la Nouvelle-France. The speakers will be Jean-Claude-Sa’n Béliveau, Marcel Blais, Nathalie Poulin, Marie-Eve Robert, and Maxime Gohier.

The webinars will take place at 7:00 p.m. or 7:30 p.m. Eastern time.

For Canada Day, Ancestry is offering free access to key Canadian collections for a limited time. The free access period ends on July 2 at 11:59 p.m. Eastern time.

These key collections include Ontario marriages, 1826-1942, and Quebec church records (Drouin Collection), 1621-1968.

Learn more here.