Lambton County Branch of The Ontario Genealogical Society (Ontario Ancestors)

Alan Campbell, Facilitator/Newsletter Editor

The receipt of photos of a Fenian General Service Medal awarded to a Sarnia man, William John Gurd, for service in 1861 with the Sarnia Provisional Battalion triggered an article in the December issue of the Ontario Ancestors newsletter, Lambton Lifeline. Not content with this information about one part of his life, I began a timeline of his life to try to fill in the blanks. I knew that he served in Lambton but had died in London as that was where the medal was sent in February of 1900.

In the 1871 census, he was working as a bookkeeper in Sarnia. By the time of the 1881 census, he was working as an agent. An agent for whom? When the 1891 Canada Census was taken, he was living in London and involved in the manufacture of water meters. A directory for the City of London and Middlesex County identified the company as the Gurd Gas and Water Meter Co.

Two sources helped to flesh out his story. A search on https://canadiana.ca unearthed the fact that he was an inventor as he had a five year patent (No. 36,341) on a meter for gas and fluids, registered 8 April 1891. He had a second patent for improvements on calculators for interests and time, registered 19 July 1880. The second source was his obituary in The Sarnia Daily Observer, 3 February 1903. It recorded that he had left his job as the manager of the Lambton Loan Co. so he could devote his time to the completion and manufacture of his own inventions.

Although William died in London, his body was returned to Sarnia and buried in Lakeview Cemetery. Had I not been curious about the rest of William John Hurd’s life, I would not have known that he was a successful inventor as well.

Upcoming Branch Presentations

All of these events are open to all OGS members and the general public.

30 January 2023 Drop-In Session 2:00 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. Contact Lambton County Branch at lambton@ogs.on.ca for the Zoom link to this session. These are unstructured webinars held the last Monday of each month except for December where members or guests can ask research questions or share successes in their Lambton County research for the benefit of others.

Drop-In & Chat - Zoom Webinar

January 30, 2023 – 2pm-3:30pm

February 27, 2023 – 2pm-3:30pm

March 27, 2023 – 2pm-3:30pm

We are bringing back the Drop-In Sessions for 2023. Working on your Lambton County Genealogy? Have questions? Meet with others to discuss obstacles or exciting new discoveries. You can register for all of the sessions in 2023 using the same link so make sure you star the confirmation of registration email that provides that link information to use each month. The sessions run the last Monday of each month except for December. For a link to the meeting email lambton@ogs.on.ca

14 February 2023 My Trip to Rathkeale, a webinar presentation by Donna Bjore who travelled to Ireland to research her Palatine ancestors in the Counties of Limerick, Kerry, Tipperary and Wexford. This is a webinar only, there is no in-person meeting due to the possibility of bad winter weather. Register for this webinar at this link: us02web.zoom.us/ meeting/register/tZUkdOuuqjMqEtFytEOiwjDQUnftsfYRBLY9

February 14, 2023 – 7p.m. Lambton Branch, Ontario Ancestors Meeting

Speaker: Donna Bjore - “My 2022 Irish Palatine Trip-Never Give Up the Search”. ON-LINE ONLY. Register for Zoom Meeting at lambton.ogs.on.ca Meetings are free and open to the public – all welcome. For more information email lambton@ogs.on.ca

Visit the landing page of our Branch website at lambton.ogs.on.ca/ . There are a number of links to items that can be accessed by non-members. Our Members’ Resources section of the website contains all sorts of things from cemetery transcripts to digital images of family histories. One of the latest additions is an updated transcript for Hillsboro Cemetery, Plympton-Wyoming.

The Ontario Genealogical Society has moved away from a calendar year membership so if you join during the year, your renewal will occur at the same time the following year. Go to the Society’s webpage at ogs.on.ca/why-join-ontario-ancestors/ if you wish to see what a membership offers.

Do you, as a heritage organization, want to reach out to more genealogists, historians and other members of heritage organizations when you are offering events and programs? Do make use of ads placed in The Ontario Genealogical Society e-weekly which comes out most Saturdays of the year. The deadline for submissions to the editor, Patti, at eweekly@ogs.on.ca is the previous Wednesday. The eweekly is sent to 10, 042 subscribers. You can subscribe to the eweekly at ogs.on.ca/