Showing posts with label Air Force. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Air Force. Show all posts

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Canada's Parliament Opens

Canada's Parliament opened today, and in the Honour Guard was my husband (he has gone on lots of parades this year) as part of the Air Force Guard, amidst the Army Guard, the Naval Flag Party, the Canadian Forces Band, the Artillery (as it performed a 21 gun salute) and a small but brave and hearty contingent of civilian onlookers.

(He found it a "bit chilly"—there was snow on our lawn this morning with a temperature of -10 Celsius or so—as they stood at attention waiting for Her Excellency the Right Honourable Michaëlle Jean, Governor General of Canada, to inspect them. But other than that, he said the parade was a big success, topped off by a delicious lunch at the West Memorial Block.)

The Library and Archives Canada has put on the Canada Gazette - "the official newspaper of the Government of Canada" - all of the issues since 1998. However, all of the issues since 1841 will be made available soon on the same website <http://canadagazette.gc.ca/index-e.html>.

The digitization project—which began in 2007—is still underway, and by the end of this year, full access to all issues of the Canada Gazetter (1841-1998) will be available to the researcher.

I will be excited to see if Barclay WEBSTER—a first cousin 4 times removed by marraige of Edwardina Mary (Ina Mary) BARCLAY, daughter of James of Shelburne, Nova Scotia to Dr. Henry Bently WEBSTER of Kentville, Nova Scotia—who had a very succesful law practice in Kentville, Nova Scotia, and was the Conservative member of Parliament in November 1900, is mentioned.

Monday, November 10, 2008

Virtual War Memorials

With news this weekend that they have found the remains of another unknown solider in Europe—and that he has been buried at a Remembrance Day Ceremony at Vimy this past weekend—brought home the fact that the wars in which they have fought will never die. It is our duty to remember them.

Canada now has 5,890 Vitual War Memorials that you can visit online on the Canada's Veteran Affairs website. Go to <www.vac-acc.gc.ca/remembers/sub.cfm?source=memorials/memcan>.

On a personal note, Mario Lapointe, my husband and a full-time reservist in the Air Force, will be in the Remembrance Day Parade tomorrow at the National War Memorial in Ottawa.

I will be there, too, and afterwards we will go to a reception at the Fairmont Chateau Laurier Hotel to mingle with the veterans and with fellow sailors, soldiers, and airmen/airwomen who marched in the ceremony that morning.

There also won't be a blog on Wednesday because it will be Mario's birthday! I've got a full day and evening of activities planned for him, so I won't be home at all on that day.

If you wish, you can go to the Juno Beach Parade article that both of us wrote for that day five years ago <www.genealogycanada.com/Juno%20Beach.htm>.

So I'll see you Thursday when I will talk about the "partnership" between the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) and Ancestry.ca!

Monday, September 8, 2008

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) Releases Second World War Service Files

I have been waiting patiently for the LAC to release the Second World War Service Files of the Canadian Armed War (1939-1945) Dead.

I first found out about the database in the spring of this year, and last week, Sylvie Tremblay, Chief Project Head of the Canada Genealogy Centre, said that they were finally on the website.

Of the 1,159,000 men and women who served in the war, 44,093 died.

If you go to the site at <www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/war-dead/index-e.html> and put in a last name, you will get the date of birth, date on death, and the service number of the member.

If that is not enough information, you can press on the name and — in addition to the information already given — also get their rank, the unit in which they served, what force they were in (army, navy, air force), and the reference and volume numbers of the reference.

There has been some criticism of the database because you won't see the person's address on the record - so if there are two people with the same name, you will need to know the date of death of the person you are researching.

I had two uncles on my father's side (BARCLAY) who were in the war. Luckily, they made it through. My father did go to the depot in Yarmouth, Nova Scotia to join, but was refused because of his knees, and so didn't go to war.

John (Johnnie) was in the Canadian Navy and sailed on the convoy ships during the war, and Perley was in the Canadian Army and fought in Sicily.

I also had two brothers on my mother's side (BLADES) who were in the war. Walter and Arthur were in the Canadian Army in Europe.