|
Service
for Members
|
|
Description of Services for Members
At regular meetings we offer lectures of interest for members. Our branch works to promote our Loyalist heritage within the local school system. We also advise/guide members or prospective members who wish to prove their lineage to Loyalist ancestors.
With a dual focus on the history of the Loyalist era and the genealogies of the Loyalists, the United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada has proven to be an excellent resource. The following information provides a brief outline of the benefits of membership.The Association
The Association was first organized in 1914 and was incorporated by an Act of the Dominion Parliament on 27 May 1914. Traditionally, the Governor-General of Canada is a patron of the Association.
UELAC’s Dominion Head Office is located in Cornwall, Ontario. For more information, visit the UELAC website at https://uelac.ca/.
The Mission of the Association
This mission statement was adopted at the Annual General Meeting June 8, 2002.
To preserve, promote and celebrate the history and traditions of the Loyalist epoch in Canadian history by:
1. Uniting in a Canadian association the descendants of those families who, during the American Revolutionary War, sacrificed all to retain their loyalty to the British crown.
2. Collecting and cataloguing portraits, documents, books, weapons, flags, clothing and other artifacts relating to the United Empire Loyalists.
3. Publishing an historical and family research journal, books and newsletters as well as educational resource materials and encouraging scholarship and publication about Loyalist history and demography.
4. Erecting, constructing and repairing buildings, monuments and memorials in Canada to perpetuate the memory of the United Empire Loyalists.
5. Increasing public awareness of the Loyalist contributions to Canada and preserving, defending, and promoting Loyalist heritage within Canadian society, by developing and participating in projects and activities which honour and celebrate the memory of the United Empire Loyalists.
6. Defending and promoting the values and institutions fundamental to Canada's United Empire Loyalist heritage and, in particular, the Constitutional Monarchy, the Commonwealth, Parliamentary Government, the Rule of Law, Human Rights and Unity.
UELAC Branches
Branches are located in every Province of Canada except Newfoundland.
Correspondence to the New Brunswick Branch should be addressed to:
UELAC NB Branch
PO Box 812
Hartland, NB
E7P 3K4
The Loyalist Gazette
This journal is the official periodical of the Association, published in the spring and fall. A subscription is included with your membership, otherwise subscription rates are (Canadian funds) $ 16.00 – one year; $ 30.00 - two years; $43.00 – three years.
The Gazette contains articles and pictures of particular interest to those with an interest in the American Revolutionary War period in history. Some articles which have appeared:
• The French Artillery at Yorktown
• Black Loyalists in Canada
• The Loyalist Ancestors of Thomas Alva Edison
• The American Loyalists and Australia: Matra's Proposal
• Peter Oliver: Loyalist Historian
• Standards, Guidons and Colours of the British Army and Provincial Corps During the American Revolution
• Voyage of the 23rd Foot to New York in 1773
• 84th Highlanders
• Major Mordecai Myers: Citizen, Soldier, Loyalist
• Submarine Warfare in the American Revolution
• American Historians on the Loyalists, 1789-1932
• The Mohawks of Quebec
• The Battle and Massacre of Wyoming, Pennsylvania
• Van Cortland Skinner and The New Jersey Volunteers
• American Provincial Uniforms, 1776-1783
Educational Programme
The United Empire Loyalists’ Association of Canada strongly supports an increased public awareness of Canada’s history. In particular, UELAC spotlights the role of the United Empire Loyalists in our national history. At the Dominion level, UELAC has created an Education and Outreach Committee to coordinate and develop resources and programmes for schools, communities and Branches across Canada.
Membership
To join the UELAC, you join a branch. With twenty-eight of those across the country, there may well be one local to you. We recommend that you join that one so you can share in events and network with others. However, some people in Canada, or from other countries around the world, are remote from a branch. If you have Loyalist ancestors, we suggest you join a branch near where they originally settled. Some people belong primarily to a local branch, and additionally to branches where their ancestors settled, in order to receive newsletters etc. from those locations.
For those who believe they have Loyalist ancestry, you have the option of proving that ancestry. After becoming a member, work with the Branch Genealogist to verify that your ancestor was a Loyalist and collect the appropriate genealogical proofs of the connection. The Genealogist will provide direction and guidance, but being a volunteer like the rest of us, is generally not able to do the research. You can then submit a certificate application form, available from the Branch Genealogist, along with proofs and the application fee. If all is in order, you will receive a certificate attesting to your Loyalist ancestry.
Who Qualifies as a Loyalist?
The general guidelines are:
• A person, either male or female who as of 19 April 1775 was a resident of the American colonies, and joined the Royal Standard prior to the Treaty of Separation of 1783, or otherwise demonstrated loyalty to the Crown, and settled in territory remaining under the rule of the Crown; or
• a soldier who served in an American Loyalist Regiment and was disbanded in Canada; or
• a member of the Six Nations of either the Grand River or the Bay of Quinte Reserves who is descended from one whose migration was similar to that of other Loyalists.
As noted these are general guidelines. If you think you may have Loyalist ancestry, why not join and undertake the journey? At a minimum you will learn more about your family.
Being a proven Loyalist descendant confers no special status but many members use the post-nominal letters "UE" after their name, in consequence of Lord Dorchester's Order in Council in 1789, conferring recognition of the service of the Loyalists in defense of "The Unity of Empire."
Membership Dues
New Brunswick Branch Annual Dues are:
• Individual Membership: $50.00
• Family (household) Membership: $65.00
• Student Membership: $ 25.00
• Institutional Membership: $ 50.00
• Secondary Membership: $10.00
Please note that Secondary Membership is available only to persons who are primary members of another branch.