French-Canadian Societies

Marc-Amable Girard (1822–1892) was the second Premier of the Western Canadian province of Manitoba, and the first Franco-Manitoban to hold that post.

There are lots of French-Canadian societies in Quebec, but did you know that there are French-Canadian societies in other parts of Canada? French-Canadians—as they expanded westward across Canada—settled in villages, towns, and cities in Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.

Ontario

In the 2006 Canadian census, there were 488,815 French-Canadians in Ontario. They make up 4.1 per cent of the province's total population.

They are mainly concentrated in Eastern Ontario (in the cities of Ottawa, Cornwall, and towns in-between), Northeastern Ontario (in the cities of Sudbury, North Bay, and Timmins), and in Toronto, Windsor, Penetanguishene, and Welland.

There is Le Réseau du patrimoine franco-ontarien (RPFO) at http://rpfo.ca. This is a collection of over 30 French-Canadian societies in Ontario. Some sites are bilingual(F/E), while others are strictly in French, but they all have good information.

Manotiba

The majority of Franco-Manitobans (about 90%) live in the Greater Winnipeg area. There are Franco-Manitoban centres in Notre-Dame-de-Lourdes, St. Claude, St. Pierre-Jolys, Ste. Anne, Ste. Rose du Lac, La Broquerie, Lorette, St. Laurent, Somerset, and St-Lazare.

The Manitoba Genealogical Society www.mbgenealogy.com covers all linguist groups in the province.

There is also The Manitoba Historical Society at www.mhs.mb.ca, and the Centre du patrimoine, Société historique de Saint-Boniface at http://shsb.mb.ca in which you can access the library database (in French), and the Voyageur contracts database (in French).

Saskatchewan

French-Canadians make up about 2 per cent of the population of Saskatchewan, and live in the cities of Regina, Saskatoon, Prince Albert, and Moose Jaw. They also live in small towns such as Gravelbourg, Albertville, Duck Lake, Ponteix, Zenon Park, and Bellegarde.

Saskatchewan Genealogical Society www.saskgenealogy.com This society has 20 branches throughout the province, and covers the many peoples (including the French-Canadians) who settled there. Also, check La Société historique de la Saskatchewan at www.societehisto.com They have many published books such as La trace des pionniers, and offer a quarterly journal.

Alberta

The French-Canadians are centered in the Bonnie Doon area of Edmonton, in the towns of Bonnyville, Plamondon, and St. Paul in the northeast, and in the settlements of St. Isidore and the Municipal District of Smoky River No. 130, including the towns of Falher, Donnelly, McLennan, and Girouxville, as well as in north-central Alberta.

La Société généalogique du Nord-Ouest www.sgno.ca is located in Edmonton, and they have been a society since 1991. They have a very inclusive research library.

Tomorrow Post: Canadian Archival Societies

The Leduc Genealogy Club

The Leduc Rep, the online newspaper which serves the town, has a story in it that the Leduc Genealogy Club is asking the city to preserve it's history by looking out for the cemeteries that are in the city.

the Group says that the cemeteries have trees and weeds growing out of -- in the summer, and now it is clear that the grave are stating to sick into the ground.

Read about what the city father's said when this was brought to their attention last month http://www.leducrep.com/ArticleDisplay.aspx?e=3290214

Camrose Founders Days Festival

Celebrations at Camrose Founders Days Festival, Camrose, Alberta, August 12th to the 14th. It will mark 100 year milestones for many Camrose organizations. Daily activities take place Downtown on Main Street, Camrose Centennial Museum and the Camrose Railway Station Museum & Park.

On Friday, August 12 at 12:30, a "promenade" down Camrose's Main Street will take place before arriving at Founders Square for the honouring ceremony of the three founders - Rev. Thomas Torger Carlson, Mr. M.A. Maxwell and Mrs. Carla Didrickson-Hoyme.

After the ceremony, the public is invited to the Bailey Theatre to take in a reception, "meet" the founders, tour the 100-year-old theatre and visit the City of Camrose historical inventory.

On Saturday evening there be a graveyard expedition through Poplar Grove cemetery. Following that, you can meet Glenys Smith at the Railway Station for a ghost tour through the city.

On Sunday, a display at the Camrose centennial museum will highlight another groundbreaking member of the Hoyme family, this time featuring the millinery of Miss Hoyme, a relative of Carla Didrickson-Hoyme. A Mad Hatters fashion show at 1 p.m. will be held to recognize her accomplishments.

If you wish to go to the website, the address is http://www.camrosefoundersdays.com/

Happy Thanksgiving!

So, please let me offer a "Happy Thanksgiving!" to our American Cousins! (I have first cousins in Maine, first cousins once removed in Texas, and first cousins three times removed in California).

Canada, in 2005, celebrated the 25th anniversary of the Canadian Society of Mayflower Descendants, and is still going strong <www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~canms/canada.html>.

There are four "colonies" in the country (in Toronto, British Columbia, Nova Scotia, and Alberta), with the Canadian society being the first formed outside of the United States.

They published a book for their 25th anniversary detailing their history, and it has many pictures which cover the events and meeting of their four colonies.

The site, which has had over 20,000 visitors since the website first started eight years ago, has an index on Mayflower Research Articles, Mayflower Families Corrections and Additions, and Upcoming Events & Society Meetings.

There is a List of Mayflower Passengers Who Left Descendants, Society Dues & Fees, and Application Procedure & Documentation Requirements.

They have also put online Reports of our Past Guest Speakers, Mayflower Research Articles (Index), and Mayflower DNA Projects.

For a change of pace, please read this interesting article entitled, "Were Cats and Dogs on the Mayflower?", at <http://www.petplace.com/cats/were-cats-and-dogs-on-the-mayflower/page1.aspx?utm_source=catcrazynews001et&utm_medium=email&utm_content=petplace_article&utm_campaign=dailynewsletter>.

And finally, for a bit of fun, knowing that watching football is paramount in any household this weekend (we watch it, too!), visit our Canadian Thanksgiving page at <http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2008/10/happy-thanksgiving.html> and check the graphic at the bottom.

FamilySearch Looking for Volunteers!

FamilySearch International is going to make the indexes to the 1861, 1871, and 1916 census available online for free with the help of online volunteer indexers, and an agreement with Ancestry.ca.

The press release says that "Online volunteers are needed to help transcribe select information from digital images of the historical documents into easily searchable indexes."

The completed indexes will be available for free at <www.familysearch.org>.

If you want to become a volunteer, you can start right away by registering online at <familysearchindexing.org>, by downloading the free indexing software, and selecting the 1916 Canada Census project.

It will take about 30 minutes to finish one page of the census, and the volunteer has one week to finish it, if need be.

"The 1916 census was selected first because it is the most recent and smallest of the three census targeted in the first place. It included three of the western provinces (Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alberta), and has about 1.7-million names - so it will not take long to complete," said Stephen Young, FamilySearch Project Manager.

It is interesting that they have picked three personalities known to people, that is; Arthur Gordon Kelly (Art Linkletter), Sir William Samuel Stephenson (real-life inspiration for James Bond), and Elvina Fay Wray (Fay Wray) who appeared in the 1916 census as example of people you can meet along the way to indexing the census - to make it more interesting to transcribe, I suppose.

The Library and Archives Canada (LAC) owns, and is providing the digital images for, the Canada Census Project.