Genealogists Helping Genealogists

There will be free research assistance given by the members of the Elgin County OGS to experienced genealogists, and beginners at the Elgin OGS on Saturday, January 19, 2013, from 1 to 3 p.m.

The location is at the George Thomas Room (upstairs), at the St. Thomas Public Library in St. Thomas, Ontario.

If you cannot get to the meeting on January the 19th, but you have ancestors in the Elgin County Region, they have a number of indexes online - free, including

Cemetery Indexes - The Elgin OGS has transcribed the inscriptions of all the current gravestones in Elgin County,

Census Indexes - The 1842 Township censuses indexes are online free

Funeral Home Records - Several of the Elgin County Funeral Homes have records that have been indexed

Land Records - The Elgin County Township papers have been indexed for ancestor names.

Newspaper Indexes - Many Elgin County Newspapers issues have been indexed and are available here free online.

Online Publications - miscellaneous collection of indexes to other sources; be sure to take a look!

Vital Records - the Elgin County Marriage abstracts of names from 1853 - 1873, plus some church records

Places of Worship - an inventory of church records available

Military - 1828 Militia men, War of 1812 veterans, Civil War veterans, World War 1 veterans, Cenotaphs of Elgin County

So there is a good selection, and should get you started in the right direction when searching your ancestor.

The website for the Elgin County website is www.elginogs.ca

© Elizabeth Lapointe All Rights Reserved

Access to 15 Databases in One Stop!

The Library and Archives Canada has just issued a blog where they say the following -

Within the next few weeks, Library and Archives Canada (LAC) will begin to deploy a series of 15 databases on Canadian census returns.

Note: This will be the only website where free online nominal indexes can be accessed for census returns from 1825 to 1916, comprising more than 32 million records.

LAC will be offering:

new databases such as those for census returns from 1851 and 1861

nominal indexes (instead of geographical indexes) for census returns from 1901, 1906, 1911 and 1916 revamped and updated versions of the indexes for census returns from 1871, 1881 and 1891and much more…

Stay tuned to learn when these databases will be available and be sure to visit our census page to discover these incredible resources for tracing your family history!

The website for the LAC is at www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Pages/home.aspx

© Elizabeth Lapointe All Rights Reserved

Office Closure during Holiday Season

I have received a couple of office and library closings during the Holiday Season, and they are -

Quebec Family History Society - The library and office of the Quebec Family History Society will be closed for the holiday's from Friday December 21, 2012 until and including Wednesday January 2, 2013.

The library and office will re-open Thursday, January 3, 2013 at 10:00 a.m.

Please check their website at www.qfhs.ca. And if you are a member, refer to the winter copy of "Connections" for a complete list of upcoming activities hosted by the Quebec Family History Society.

Société de généalogie de l'Outaouais (The Genealogical Society of the Outaouais) in Gatineau, Quebec will have its office and research room closed from the 22 December 2012 to the 2 January 2013 for the Holidays. They will reopen the 3 January 2013.

Their website is at http://genealogieoutaouais.com

© Elizabeth Lapointe All Rights Reserved