Scottish SIG Symposium

Join Us For A Day of Learning

The mandate of the Scottish SIG (OGS) is to provide opportunities for learning about Scottish genealogy resources. In response to this, we have committed to sponsoring an annual Symposium. This year's Symposium is scheduled for Friday, August 21, 2015 at the Courtyard Marriott in Brampton.

Included in our fees for renting the room at the Marriott we get a continental breakfast and a lunch. This is not an additional charge in your fees. Your fees are for the room rental and the payment for the three guest speakers.

This year's agenda for the Symposium is:

8:00 - Continental Breakfast

9:00 - Piping in the Procession of Speakers

       -  Welcome

9:05 - Intro by D. Bruce McCowan, St Andrews Presbyterian Church

9:20 - 10:20  Dave Naylor, Halton-Peel branch OGS, Understanding  DNA testing

10:20 - 10:30  Q&A

10:30 - 10:45 Coffee & Tea Break

10:45 - 11:45  Melissa McAfee, Special Collections, University of Guelph

Scottish Special Collections & Digitization of the Scottish Chapbooks

11:45 - 11:55  Q&A

11:55 - 12:55 Lunch

1:00 - 2:00  James Fraser, Chair, Scottish Studies Program, University of Guelph,

"Family History and the Historian: a personal story".

2:00 - 2:10 -  Q&A

2:10 - 2: 40  afternoon tea (scones & jam)

2:40 - 3:40 Christine Woodcock, genealogy educator, Scottish records,

Dinnae Waste Yer Credits Then

3:40 - 3:50  Q&A

3:50   Wrap Up

ABOUT THE SPEAKERS:

D. Bruce McCowan is a trustee of the Robert McCowan Memorial Scholarship and Co-Author of The Scots Kirk -- An Oral History of St. Andrew’s Presbyterian Church, Scarborough. He has spoken at the Scottish Studies Conference on Lowland Emigration to Scarboroughand to genealogy groups about Scottish history and research. Bruce will be speaking to us about the early history of St Andrews Presbyterian Church in Scarborough, which was founded by some of the early Scots in the area.

Dave Naylor is the webmaster for Halton-Peel branch of the OGS and has spoken extensively on DNA for genealogy. He will be speaking to us about the different tests available and what we can learn from them.

James Fraser is the chair of the Scottish Studies Program. He will be speaking to us about his own journey in unraveling a family lore through genealogy research.

Melissa McAfee is the librarian at the Special Collections Department for the University of Guelph. She has been instrumental in digitizing and making the university's collection of Scottish Chapbooks available online. Melissa will be discussing this as well as some of the other resources of historical importance that are among the treasures of the Scottish Special Collections.

Christine Woodcock is a genealogy educator in the Scottish records. She will be speaking about the ScotlandsPeople website and will be walking you through some key points to assist you in not wasting your credits.

SPONSOR:

ScotlandsPeople are our sponsor for this event and they are supplying each attendee with 20 free credits for the ScotlandsPeople website. This is a $9 value.

In addition to the workshops, there will be ample time to browse the marketplace and to network with other attendees. Bring your brickwalls and let us see if we can assist you in chipping away at them over the lunch hour.

Here is the link to register:

https://www.eventbrite.ca/e/scottish-sig-symposium-tickets-15845340841

We have partnered with Whova and all registrants will receive notice a week ahead of the event with an opportunity to download the SIG2015 app from Google Play or Apple. This will provide you with the agenda for the day, handouts, map to the hotel, the chance to network with other attendees via private messages, and for us as the organizers to make announcements about the day.