Dick Eastman’s Blog: Finding Acadian Resources in Books and Online

In Dick's blog this morning, there is news about a newspaper column written by Roxanne Moore Saucier in which she tells us about a great way to discover and read about our Acadian ancestors – through books and online.

As he says, “the term French Canadian describes those with Quebec ancestry, while Acadian refers to the French who occupied what is now Nova Scotia and parts of New Brunswick until the British deported them in Le Grand Derangement of 1755”.

You can read Dick’s full article at http://blog.eogn.com/eastmans_online_genealogy/2013/03/finding-acadian-resources-in-books-and-online.html

To read Roxanne Moore Saucier column, see the Living Section of the Bngor Daily News at http://bangordailynews.com/community/finding-acadian-resources-in-books-and-online

And don’t forget the more than 100 family reunions scheduled for Aug. 8-24, 2014, during the World Acadian Congress, visit http://cma2014.com/rencontres-de-familles-prog.

Lucille Campey at BIFHSGO Conference

On Saturday and Sunday, September 15th and 16th, I attended the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa's Conference, and heard Ottawa native, Dr. Lucille Campey, give three talks about emigration from the British Isles to Canada.

Since I am deeply interested in emigration, I had waited impatiently since first hearing that she was coming to speak at the conference, so I had to make sure that I did not miss any of her talks.

The first talk was “Lord Selkirk and the Settlement of Scottish Highlanders in Canada”, and Lucille says that he is a favorite of hers to write about because he had such a strong personality, and such a commitment to bring Scottish Highlanders to Canada to settle in Red River, Manitoba; Baldoon (Wallaceburg), Ontario; and Belfast in Prince Edward Island.

Her next talk on Sunday was “Seeking a Better Future: The English Pioneers of Ontario and Quebec” in which she challenged the commonly-held idea that people were running from poverty in the homeland. She found out in her research that the English came to Canada seeking greater freedoms and a more attractive style of life than they could find at home.

Her third talk, “The Scots in Ontario – a New Look at the Data”, looked at Ontario census data to explain why Scottish people settled in the area where they settled. She showed genealogists why people such as weavers and kelp farmers settled in particular areas in Ontario. It was an interesting talk for me because it showed the patterns of settlement, and the reasons why people settled in one area, and not in another.

You should check out her books on emigration at Dundurn Press http://www.dundurn.com/authors/lucille_h_campey, and the interviews that were done with her by BIFHSGO at www.bifhsgo.ca/upload/files/Conference%202012/Campey.mp3 In addition, there is an interview with Lucille Campey, Chris Paton, and Patricia Whatley by Ottawa's Austin Comerton on his radio show, The Gaelic Hour (CJLL 97.9 FM) www.thegaelichour.ca. To listen to the interview, click here - www.thegaelichour.ca/20120916.m3u

You can visit her Scottish website at www.scotstocanada.com, and her English website at www.englishtocanada.com

Canadian PoW's of War of 1812

Michael Dun has has a website on which he accounts for the British, Canadian, and American PoW's of the War of 1812.

There are some 15,000+ names covered on this website.

For example, in the Canadian section, he takes the book by C.H.J.Snider, Under the Red Jack: privateers of the Maritime Provinces of Canada in the War of 1812, and he gives a brief history of the ship, and lots of names, so it is worth a read.

In the bibliography, beside listing books which may interest you, there is also the Niles Weekly Register from Baltimore which gives an account of the American side of the war, and the Lloyd’s List, which covers the British part of the war.

The site is located at http://www.1812privateers.org/index.html

Canadian Emigration: Parliamentary Papers of 1826

The following press releases was received from FindMyPast, and it says, in part -

“This parliamentary paper publishes the correspondence and extensive supporting documents of the British government with the Governor-General of Canada concerning the settlement of poor Irish in the Newcastle District in 1826, or 'Mr. Robinson’s Emigrants' as they became known. This was the result of a Commons request to be furnished information on the settlement as it had been publicly funded.

The official title of this parliamentary travel and migration record is:

Return of the Assessed Value of the Townships in the Newcastle District in Western Canada, which were settled by Pauper Emigrants from Ireland, between the years 1825 and 1828 at the public expense: Of the number of various Emigration Societies formed in Canada in 1840, by Canadian Proprietors desirous of Settling Emigrants from Great Britain and Ireland upon their Estates. (1848)”.

Initially the Governor-General just sent updated valuations of the relevant townships (Ashpodel, Douro, Dummer, Emily, Ennismore, Ops, Otonabee and Smith) which had since be designated as part of the District of Colbourne. But following further demands for information, he sent a detailed breakdown of every plot settled by Irish paupers in 1826 by Peter Robinson.

The details listed include:

- Name of the 1826 settler
- Number in the settler’s family
- Lot number
- Concession
- Acreage
- Number of acres cleared by 1847
- Number of horses and horned cattle on the plot
- Name of present occupants on lot
- Relationship of occupants to settler
- Other critical pieces of information

In total, around 260 plots are covered, giving details of over 700 people. While this is a short publication, it is an essential migration resource for those who became known as the Robinson Irish settlers, and indeed, for anyone in Southern Ontario with an Irish family history.

The information is at http://www.findmypast.ie/

BIFHSGO Conference is a success!

The conference was held this past weekend of September 19-21 in Ottawa, and was a success - the best I have felt about a conference in many a year!

This year's conference was the society's 14th annual one, and was entitled "Celebrate Your Anglo-Celtic Roots", which meant there was a special emphasis on England.

The keynote speaker was Sherry Irvine, a genealogist and one of the founders of Pharos Teaching and Tutoring from Victoria, British Columbia <www.pharostutors.com> who gave an outstanding Don Whiteside Memorial Lecture Friday evening when she talked about "Genealogy With Wings: Reflections of a Family Historian in an Age of Techno-enthusiasm."

Her speech truly did set the stage for the rest of the weekend because it advanced the setting of genealogy on the Internet to "Genealogy 2.0".

She explained that genealogists who are willing to go that one step further and get on the train going towards "techno-enthusiasm" by becoming involved with such Web 2.0 technologies as collaborative family history sites, blogs, wikis, and Facebook and other social networking websites, will find their genealogy expanding and taking on new meaning for those involved in it.

You and your cousins can go on the Internet and build your family tree together, bringing a new dimension to genealogy that I will look into because my cousins are all across Canada and in the United States, and this will bring us closer together! (I will look into putting the genealogy of Andrew BARCLAY, the progenitor of the United Empire Loyalist BARCLAYs of Boston, New York City, and Shelburne, Nova Scotia on such a site.)

And it just continued through the next two days as it encompassed Marian Press in her talks about "Genealogy 2.0: What Do I Need To Know" and "The Past, Present and Future of Librarians for Family Histories", and Alison Hare and her talk about how to properly document your genealogy work called "Citations for Genealogists."

The rest of the time I spent in the Marketplace where I said my "Hellos" to everyone, including Ed Zapletal, the editor at Mooreshead Magazines Ltd. (Internet Genealogy, Family Chronicle); Derek Hopkins and John Reid of the Quebec Family History Society, who gave me a demonstration of the new Quebec database that the society owns, and which is only available only to members <www.qfhs.ca>; and Mike More from the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society <www.ogsottawa.on.ca> spent a hour or so on Friday afternoon talking about Canadian genealogy in general.

Doug Rimmer, Assistant Deputy Minister - Program and Services Sector, also gave a brief summary of the accomplishments of the Canadian Genealogy Centre of the LAC over the past year.

He touched on the hours that the LAC is open and how they were increased when they were reduced last fall, and this was because of the "public reaction", and he also discussed a few of the databases which have been put on last year - the North West Mounted Police; Black Loyalists; Chinese Immigration; the 1881 Census; and the Second World War - Killed in Action.

Congratulations should be given to all of the team who worked on this year's conference, especially the Program Co-Chair, John Reid, who put together a wonderful conference by bringing the speakers to us from Victoria, B.C., Toronto, and England, and Wills Burwell, who as Past President and Co-Chair (Administration) of the conference, helped to make everyone feel welcome. Their cadre of volunteers are also to be congratulated for their dedication and hard work in the face of the onslaught of the many harried and hurried genealogists who took over the LAC this past weekend!

Mark your calendar for next year's conference from September 18th to the 20th. Their website is <www.bifhsgo.ca>, and John Reid at his blog, Anglo-Celtic Connections, also has some comments on the conference.