I have come across the following Canadian websites, social media websites, and newspaper articles this past week that were of interest to me, and I thought you might be interested in them, too.
History
In 1727, James Wolfe, commander of the British expedition that captured Quebec in 1759, died of his wounds during the battle of the Plains of Abraham at Quebec.
To read more about James Wolfe, go to http://www.britannica.com/EBchecked/topic/646548/James-Wolfe
In 1872, Canada and the U.S. exchanged telegraphic weather reports for the first time.
For more on the history of telegraphy, go to http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Telegraphy
In 1884, a railway collision at the Humber River, just west of Toronto, took 31 lives.
To read more about the Toronto streetcar system, go to
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Toronto_streetcar_system#Early_history_.281861.E2.80.931945.29
Social Media
(Video) Quebec man on a mission to save barns
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/quebec-man-on-a-mission-to-save-barns-1.2167507#ixzz3NZhBY5Cq
Roger Brabant of Rigaud, Que, a town on the road from Ottawa to Montreal, has started to take apart barns which have been slated for demolition, and uses the wood for his products – like cupboards.
Articles
Nova Scotia
Memory Lane Heritage Village goes high tech to boost tourism
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/memory-lane-heritage-village-goes-high-tech-to-boost-tourism-1.2882752
The Heritage Village includes a dozen buildings set in the style of the 1940s and 1950s, and depicts the typical life of a coastal Nova Scotia community.
http://thechronicleherald.ca/artslife/1259921-nova-scotia-music-contest-honours-viola-desmond%E2%80%99s-legacy
The contest pays tribute to Viola Desmond and her contributions to Canada’s civil rights movement, and raises awareness of Nova Scotia’s Heritage Day
holiday honouring her on February 16th.
New Brunswick
Last official event held at Royal Canadian Legion Branch 28
http://www.chathamdailynews.ca/2015/01/01/last-official-event-held-at-royal-canadian-legion-branch-28
A long-time military tradition capped off the Royal Canadian Legion Branch 28's history on New Year's Day.
The branch hosted its stand-to levee, with more than 250 people in attendance. It was the last official event before it will merge with Branch 628 to create a new organization in February.
Ontario
Ross rifle maligned due to misinformation
http://www.mykawartha.com/opinion-story/5234631-ross-rifle-maligned-due-to-misinformation
Terry Wieland, from St. Louis, Missouri (formerly of Peterborough, Ontario), a professional gun writer, writes a letter to the editor, in which he defends Lt. Ross Ackerman, by saying that he did not die from rifle malfunction.
Remembering the dead at Huronia Regional Centre
http://www.thestar.com/news/gta/2014/12/29/remembering_the_dead_at_huronia_regional_centre.html
Remember Every Name, a committee of survivors and community members, is working on a plan to mark some 1,440 unmarked graves of former patients at the notorious centre for people with developmental disabilities.
Canada's history not always so 'strong, proud, free'
The federal government's recent ad campaign distorts history, say some critics of the process.
Saskatchewan
What will Saskatoon look like in the future?
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/entertainment/What+will+Saskatoon+look+like+future/10695207/story.html
Stories of the Year
One of the biggest stories of the year was the news that the Library and Archives Canada was going to digitize the service files of the First World War men and women, and put them online.
One suggestion that I would like to see as a
researcher, in addition to being kept up-to-date, is that the LAC tells us where they are - up to which letter have the files been digitized? It
would be easier to judge the rate at which they are doing the
scans.
Another story has been the realignment of the Ontario
Genealogical Society. They declared two branches “inactive”
- Haldimand and Norfolk - and there were financial concerns for the
organization, both due to lower levels of membership. It seems that they have stabilized themselves as a society, but time will tell.
The OGS has also transformed the
publication of their journal, Families, from one that is a high-quality, paper-based magazine, into an electronic format, starting with the February 2015 issue.
They will be starting a new eight-week course in February 2015 for
beginners.
And the third news story of the year was the Canadian societies that are going online with Webinars, Live
Streaming, and putting genealogy topics on YouTube.
And sites like
Ancestry.ca who have put on 24 new databases and have updated 5 more this past year, and FamilySearch.org, who has put on or updated their databases covering Canada
(thanks to the indexers).
So, it has been a good year.
And we just got word that Louis Kessler, a
genealogist from Winnipeg, Manitoba, has just released his
GenSoftReviews for 2014.
To read who won the best reviews of 2014, go to http://www.gensoftreviews.com.
In 2015, the big news, as Thomas MacEntee says, is
doing the Genealogy Do-Over.
It involves a 13-week exercise where you look at your
genealogy and decide if you need to go back and do parts or all of it
over again, because the first time, you may missed putting in sound
citations, or do exhaustive research, and now you have a chance to correct
it.
You can follow the progress at a Facebook page at
https://www.facebook.com/groups/genealogydoover
or add a comment at http://www.geneabloggers.com/tag/genealogy-do-over
Reminder: Check the Canadian Week in Review next Monday for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada. It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in country!
The next post will be on 12 January 2015.
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