Recently,
Ancestry.ca took a survey, with the results showing that 36% of Canadians
didn’t know if they had ancestors who fought in either the First or Second
World War.
In
an effort to help rectify this, from November 8 to 11, Ancestry is giving
Canadians the chance to discover the military heroes in their family by
providing free access to more than 3.6 million online military records at
This
year, Remembrance Day is especially poignant for those with ancestors who
fought during the First World War, as 2014 marks the 100th Anniversary of the
start of the conflict.
And
if your Canadian ancestor was from Britain, which many were, FindMyPast is also
offering free access to you this weekend.
“To commemorate Veterans weekend, from today until 7am on Monday (EST) our records are FREE to access. If you’ve already got a World subscription, we’ll credit your account with 3 extra days.
There’s never been a better time to explore your family history and bring your past to life.”
The
link is at www.findmypast.com/freeweekend
Postscript: Wayne Macvicar from Cape Breton has written
to say that he has just completed an update to his Cape Bretoners in World War
One website at https://sites.google.com/site/cbinww1/.
“The site now includes enlistments to the end of 1915. It contains an additional 557 individuals for a total of 2732. The time between updates this time has been exceptionally long due to the increasing amount of information going online, in particular Library and Archives Canada, which I am trying to include in my database. Hopefully the next update will come much sooner. The website is still limited to a nominal roll and chronology but in time I hope to include as much detail as I can find on each individual. I invite everyone to have a look at my site and if they have any information they would like to share to fill out the form I have provided on my general Cape Bretoners at War site <https://sites.google.com/site/cbatwar/>.”
If
you have additional information, you can write to Wayne at cbww2@seaside.ns.ca
Reminder:
Each year, GenealogyCanada sponsors a contest, and this year in honour of the
100th anniversary of the First World War, the question is – Which province in
Canada sent the largest number of men and women to fight in the First World
War?
Send
your answer to genealogyresearch@aol.com
Hint:
You will find the answer in this week’s Canadian Week in Review post at
http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2014/11/canadian-week-in-review-03-november-2014.html
I
am offering the winner of the contest a detailed research consultation report
on an ancestor who fought for Canada in the Great War, or who was involved in
the war effort.
The
winner will be announced November 12th.
