The Canadian Friends Historical Association (CFHA) has been active since 1972 in collecting and publishing the heritage and historical impact of

Quakers Quakers are people who belong to the Religious Society of Friends, a historically Protestantism, Protestant Christian set of Christian denomination, denominations. Members refer to each other as Friends after in the Bible, and originally ...

in Canada. The Association is responsible for two publications, a quarterly newsletter and an annual Canadian Quaker History Journal, and one annual conference in September. The Association maintains a website at www.cfha.info . The annual conference often meets in places where Quakers made a notable contribution, and the event consists of visiting cemeteries, museums, and markets looking for lost Quaker heritage. For example, in 2008 the CFHA met in

Owen Sound Owen Sound (2021 Canadian Census, 2021 Census population 21,612) is a city in Southwestern Ontario, Canada. The county seat, seat of government of Grey County, it is located at the mouths of the Pottawatomi River, Pottawatomi and Sydenham River ...

, Ontario to explore the Quaker contribution to the Underground Railway in that area. CFHA is a not-for-profit national body and a registered Canadian charitable organization. All activity and governance are performed by unpaid volunteers, and membership is open to all. CFHA was incorporated under the laws of Ontario in 2011. Although it is not a formal part of any Yearly Meeting of the Religious Society of Friends (Quakers), meetings of the Executive and business conducted are performed in the manner of Friends, and Quaker principles and ethos are maintained. The association engages in various projects in support of its mission. The oldest project is the Built Heritage Register. The purpose of this register is to document, recognize and, if possible, preserve Quaker-built heritage in Canada such as the John Moore House in Sparta, Ontario. Another project is the Family History Project which seeks to document the lives and experiences of the thousands of descendants of Quaker settlers from the 18th century onwards. A more recent project has been the Transcription of Minute books and Registers of the Nine Partners Meeting in

Millbrook, New York Millbrook is a Administrative divisions of New York#Village, village in Dutchess County, New York, United States. Millbrook is located in the Hudson Valley, on the east side of the Hudson River, north of New York City. Millbrook is near the cent ...

which contain many references to Canadian Friends. Other transcriptions such as the West Lake Meeting minutes have been posted online.http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~saylormowbray/quakbooks.html Another project is to openly identify people of Quaker heritage who have entries in Wikipedia such as

Timothy Rogers Timothy Rogers (1658–1728) was an English nonconformist minister, known as an author on depression as a sufferer. Life The son of John Rogers (1610–1680), he was born at Barnard Castle, County Durham on 24 May 1658. He was educated at Gla ...

, Samuel Moore and

Charles Ambrose Zavitz Charles Ambrose Zavitz (1863–1942) was a Canadian agronomist. He was born in 1863 in Coldstream, Canada West, into a family that was a combination of both Quakers and United Empire Loyalists. Upon graduation in 1886 from the Ontario Agricultur ...

. CFHA actively encourages and supports interest in Canadian Quaker history and research by providing open website access to hundreds of published articles and several monographs it has produced since 1972. The association also sponsors information booths at related conferences, such as the

Ontario Genealogical Society The Ontario Genealogical Society, operating as Ontario Ancestors since early 2019, is the largest organization devoted to research into family history in Ontario, Canada. Founded in 1961Harry, George, "Thrill of Tracing Your Own History", ''The Su ...

and the

Ontario Historical Society The Ontario Historical Society is a non-profit organization centred on the preservation of Ontario's history. It is governed by an all-volunteer board of directors, and its members include individuals as well as historical institutions from across t ...

. The association distributes literature that refers to the Quaker experience in Canada, and works with the Quaker Library and Archives of Canada which is housed in

Pickering College Pickering College is an independent, co-educational school for children in grades from Junior Kindergarten through grade 12. It is located in Newmarket, Ontario, Newmarket, Ontario in Canada on a 17-hectare (42 acre) property on Bayview Avenue. The ...

to assist people in search of their Quaker genealogy.

References

{{authority control Learned societies of Canada