Banquet Plenary Session
Presented by Paul Jones
Paul Jones took his first baby missteps in family-history research in 1989. He then studied at the former National Institute for Genealogical Studies, where his errors were corrected by, among others, the late, great Ryan Taylor. For the past dozen years, he has written the “Roots” column for Canada’s History magazine and has inadvertently managed to offend members of several religious faiths. He’s a former chair of OGS Toronto Branch and the 2016 OGS Conference, as well as a co-founder of the Toronto History Lecture, all of which survived his erring touch. His lifelong genealogical quest has been and remains the discovery of his paternal grandfather’s origins, a mystery that he pronounced “solved” at a Toronto Branch meeting in 2001. Some might describe him as uniquely qualified to speak on the topic of “Seeking perfection one mistake at a time”, but they would be wrong. As he says, “If there’s one thing I’ve learned after all these years, it’s that we all make mistakes, and that’s healthy. Sorry, two things.”
