Date/Time
Date(s) - 21/06/2025
11:00 am - 12:30 pm
Categories
Zoom Registration Link: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZckd–przkqEtfEduW1ixiFYRyypszGOhKl#/registration
June 21, 2025 11am EST
In Person – no registration required. Please arrive 10:50 am.
About two centuries ago, brothers William, Francis, Michael and Richard Ireland left their native Yorkshire and settled in Murray Township in Upper Canada’s Northumberland County. They all married (in William’s case, in spite of the active opposition of his eventual father-in-law) and had many children, who also all married and had many children. By the end of the century, there were a lot of Irelands in Murray Township, the new Brighton Township, and farther afield. The stories of these four brothers and their families include an intercepted elopement, a gold-hunting bigamist, a priest who invented dry breakfast cereal, two pairs of uniquely named twins, and a hop grower who had 16 children and whose third wife was his second wife’s niece.
Presenter: Rick Hill, Ontario Ancestors, Quinte Branch
A native of Toronto, and a graduate of the University of Toronto, Rick Hill has lived in Brighton, Ontario for over forty years. The births of his three sons during the Eighties inspired him to begin mapping their family tree. The arrival of two granddaughters in the 20-Teens, and the bandwidth offered by retirement, combined with the explosion of genealogical resources available online, all came together to prompt him to double down on this project. Besides being a member of the Quinte Branch of Ontario Ancestors, Rick is also Chair of the Brighton Public Library Board, and a director of Cobourg’s Marie Dressler Foundation. He is also Festival Director of the Foundation’s Annual Vintage Film Festival in Port Hope.
