Seafarers of the Atlantic Provinces, 1787 - 1936

This is an interesting index to me on a personal notes, because my ggg uncle James Barclay is in the database as well as his son Andrew from Shelburne, Nova Scotia. They owned ships - James owned a schooner called the Superb in 1842, and Andrew owned three ships – a brigantine called the Argus in 1837, a brigantine called the Ina in 1851, and a schooner called the Surprise in 1862. They were in the trading business and carried lumber and fish from Shelburne to the Caribbean, and fruit from the Caribbean back to such eastern American ports as New York, then back to Shelburne for more lumber and fish.

They were descendant from the Loyalist Andrew Barclay (1738-1823) from Scotland, Boston and New York. This was rewarding to me because I had looked for these records for years, and had not expected to find them, although I knew about the records at the Maritime History Archives in St. John’s Newfoundland. So this time Ancestry.ca brought them to me! Thank you, Ancestry for putting this index online!

Here is the announcement -

“This is a fully searchable database containing data on the vessels, captains and crews of Great Britain and Atlantic Canada, 1787-1936. This index-only collection contains records of crew members, masters, and ship owners for vessels registered in Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. The collection comprises several sources from the Maritime History Archive in Newfoundland & Labrador. It is fully searchable by name, and other particulars and the records include a wealth of information including birth and residence, rank, voyage departure and arrival places and dates, vessel name and registration, and even wages and deaths at sea.

Records for the following ports are included:

· Miramichi, New Brunswick (1828–1914)

· Richibucto, New Brunswick (1880–1914)

· Saint John, New Brunswick (1820–1914)

· St. John’s, Newfoundland (1820–1936)

· Halifax, Nova Scotia (1812–1889)

· Sydney, Nova Scotia (1820–1914)

· Pictou, Nova Scotia (1820–1914)

· Windsor, Nova Scotia (1849–1914)

· Yarmouth, Nova Scotia (1840–1914)

· Charlottetown, Prince Edward Island (1787–1914)

Details you may find in the records include:

· name

· age

· birth year

· birthplace

· residence place

· voyage departure date & port

· voyage arrival date & port

· date joined present ship

· discharge date

· rank

· wages

· discharge description

· vessel name, type, registration place, year constructed

The Maritime History Archive will research some of the records in its custody and provide reports and/or copies of documents on request for a fee. For more information on this collection and the Archives’ research services, visit the MHA website.

The database is on http://search.ancestry.ca/search/db.aspx?dbid=9275

Genealogies at FamilySearch

Have you seen the latest improvement to FamilySearch.org?

On Dec 13th, they launched Genealogies which is a “set of lineage linked conclusion trees provided to FamilySearch by users. This data comes from the Ancestral File, the Pedigree Resource File and other user submissions”.

So I put in the name of one of my favorite ancestors, my 4th great grandfather Andrew BARCLAY, and his parents, and where he lived  – but I didn’t find anything new about him, or his grandson by the same name.

But the information submitted is correct according to my genealogy. And it’s so much easier than before, when you had to put in the information in each file in order to get the result.

Our thanks should go to those people who have and still are spending hours of their time checking this type of work to make sure that it is as correct as possible.

So give it a try, and see how it works for you..

To go to FamilySearch, the website is https://familysearch.org/family-trees

© Elizabeth Lapointe All Rights Reserved

"Classic FamilySeach.org" No Longer Exists

They have finally closed the Classic FamilySearch.org, which to many of us was where we cut our teeth on doing Internet genealogy research.

I know there were many problems with the information that the Classical FamilySearch.org had, and some of it was downright incorrect – but one can say it was an admirable first attempt to put the information online.

I started my research on my ancestor Andrew Barclay on the site, and became a regular visitor, and user when I first went on the Internet in the mid-1990s.

One fellow who continues to write about FamilySearch.org is The Ancestor Insider at  http://ancestryinsider.blogspot.com/2012/06/classic-familysearch-is-no-more.html?utm_source=feedburner&utm_medium=feed&utm_campaign=Feed%3A+AncestryInsider+%28The+Ancestry+Insider%29.

Read his posting “Classic FamilySearch is NoMore” posted on June 25, 2012.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This weekend, Canada celebrates Thanksgiving!

A holiday in which we give thanks for the year we have had, and in traditional terms - for the harvest of the field.

It is always on the second Monday of the month of October - having been decided in 1931. Before that, it had been observed on the same day as Armistice Day - both being on November 11th.

This weekend has been nice, sunny and warm. A lot different from that Thanksgiving in 1993 when it snowed and snowed, followed by the coldest winter that had been seen in these parts in years. I remember it well because it was the first year in our new house, and to see the grounds covered in snow was more like Christmas than Thanksgiving.

It has always been a family holiday with turkey, dressing, and all of those roots vegetables - potatoes, carrots, turnips, and a pumpkin or apple pie.

The dinner was usually eaten on Sunday or Monday (it was always on Sunday in my house), and the drive on Monday to my maternal grandparents (Blades) house, and to see my maternal aunts and uncles and cousins who all lived in the town of Barrington Passage, Nova Scotia.

Today, I am staying home to proof an article I have coming out on Chinese-Canadian Immigration in the early 1880s to 1900s, and then tomorrow I will go for a drive to the beautiful Gatineau Hills - which are so colourful this time of year.

So whichever way you celebrate your Thanksgiving weekend, may it be a pleasant one!

And to our American cousins, we wish you the same, just a bit earlier. Enjoy the playoffs!

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Yesterday was my birthday!

I have survived another year!

This seemed like it has been a long year, with many twists and turns, numerous genealogical conferences, much travel, and much work - I have had 24 articles published this year, and started this blog.

I renewed old friendships from all over, and made new ones. And I value each one.

It is my dream to write many more articles, and to get the blog rolling out every day, and to go to as many conferences as possible. Mighty big order - let's see if I'm up to it.

I had one big genealogy find this year, and that was of my great-great-great-uncle Andrew BARCLAY.

My cousin Charles BARCLAY and I have searched high and low for him, and he always seemed to slip through our fingers - until just by happenstance I "Googled" one of his daughters this past spring while I was waiting for a drive one day, and there it was - she had written a diary!

And one part of it was on the Town of Argyle (Archives) website. I rushed a note off to them and in no time flat I had the entire diary that had been donated to them by her family (HALEY from Alemeda County, California), and I found the story about her father and his death.

How he died of yellow fever in San Domingo after going there from Shelburne, Nova Scotia on ship to trade the town's fish for rum and sugar.

And then this summer in August, a query I put on the Internet six years ago bore fruit because I was sent a picture of who else? Andrew Barclay!

So the research is complete, and I am happy! Now I will see if I can get the book completed (on Andrew BARCLAY, Loyalist), and published.

See my posting on him in this blog, under "Let Cousins Find You" at <http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2008/08/let-cousins-find-you.html>.

So I have had a wonderful year as far as the business of genealogy is concerned.

I try to remember that it's not the idea that we are given another day to live, but it is what do we do with that day that counts.

May you have your own Happpy Birthday!