Parish registers have been put online

 

Irene Schofield just sent a notice that the registers of St. Ann Roman Catholic Church, Guyborough, Nova Scotia has just been transcribed and have been put on http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~saintann/Records/home.html

The parish was established in 1819. A team transcribed these records, all entries were proofread and sent back to the original transcriber for review. Every record went through several rounds of review and comments until they all agree that it was the best that they could do. 

Book 1 contains the birth, marriage, and death registers for the years 1819 to 1838, and Book 2 contains the birth, marriage, and death registers for the years 1839 to 1890.

Here is a sample taken from Burials Book 1 

Patrick Walsh 

age [blank], burial date 20 Aug 1821, death date [blank],

parents: [blank]; spouse [blank];

witnesses [blank]; clergyman John Loughnan.

Notes: Buried in Goose Harbour Church. From County Kilkinny Ireland.

Scan: 001_01_X1_0166, pg. 336 item no. 1 

From reading the website, it look like there will be other books added when they are transcribed in the future. 

Say "thank you" to the volunteers who transcribed these records.

Mennonite Migration to Ontario

The Oxford County Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society will meet on Monday April 14th at 6:45 pm at the Woodstock Public Library, 445 Hunter St., Woodstock, and the speaker will be Laureen Harder-Gissing. 

Her topic will be Mennonite Migration to Ontario and Resources available in the Mennonite Archives. Ms. Harder-Gissing is the Historian of the Mennonite Church of Eastern Canada and is currently Archivist at the Mennonite Archives at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo.

Contact information is available at http://oxford.ogs.on.ca/eventspg.html

The Mennonite Archives is online at https://uwaterloo.ca/mennonite-archives-ontario

The Mennonite Historical Society of Ontario http://www.mhso.org/index.shtml

Give a VIMY for Vimy Campaign

The 100th anniversary of the Canadian victory at the Battle of Vimy Ridge in France will take place in 2017. 

A foundation called The Vimy Foundation was started in 2006 to honor the remembrance of the battle. They have been involved in producing education resources for thousands of teachers and schools across Canada and been involved in more than 10,000 student ‘pilgrimages’ to Vimy. They also have plans to build a state- of-the-art Education Centre to be unveiled in France on April 9, 2017 on the grounds adjacent to the Canadian National Vimy Memorial. 

The Government of Canada has committed $5 million to the project, but The Vimy Foundation is committed to match that commitment through the generosity of Canadians, and they have come up with a rather unique was that this can be accomplished.

The back of a $20.00 dollar bill has an image of the towering Vimy Ridge battlefield memorial in France, so the foundation is asking Canadians to donate $20 to the VIMY for Vimy Campaign. 

In exchange for your donation, you will receive a Vimy Pin and your name will be added to the list of Vimy 2017 supporters. 

To go to their site, please click https://vimyfoundation.ca/vimy2017

The Sinking of the Empress of Ireland

The Empress of Ireland was in a collision with the Norwegian collier SS Storstad in the early hours of 29 May 1914. Of the 1,477 persons on board the ship, 1,012 died. 

The Beaurepaire-Beaconsfield Historical Society will meet on Thursday April 17th at 7:30 p.m. at the Centennial Hall, 288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield (Montreal). The lecture will be in English, but there will be a bilingual question period. 

The lecture will be on the RMS Empress of Ireland, and the speaker will be Derek Grout who has written a book on the ill-fated liner Empress of Ireland which sank in the Gulf of St Lawrence, in front of Pointe-au-Père, in a collision in 1914. 

The hundredth anniversary of the sinking is May 29 and the book's release in Canada is scheduled for early April, in advance of the anniversary. Canada Post is supposed to be issuing two stamps to commemorate the event, and various museums across the country have scheduled special exhibitions, most notably the Canadian Museum of History (formerly Canadian Museum of Civilization) in Gatineau, across from Ottawa. 

At this lecture, you will be able to buy the book RMS Empress of Ireland, Pride of the Canadian Pacific's Atlantic Fleet by Derek Grout, at the price of $35.00. 

Everyone welcome. Free for members and $2 for non-member. You can become a member for just $5 per year. 

You can call 514-695-2502 for information, or you can go to http://www.shbbhs.ca 

For more information about the Empress of Ireland, you can go to
RMS Empress of Ireland http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/RMS_Empress_of_Ireland 

Although this is a pay site, there is the passenger and crew list (FREE) at http://www.sea-viewdiving.com/shipwreck_info/empress_home/passengerindex.htm

From Aberdeen to Albany: How Our Scott Family Ancestors Became United Empire Loyalists in Canada

The British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO) will be holding its monthly meeting next Saturday at the Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa. 

The meeting will start at 9:00 a.m. with the Before BIFHSGO Education Talk which will be given by Ken McKinlay and he will talk about Using Evernote for Genealogy Research. He will provide an overview of the online tool and how it can help with genealogy tasks.

From 9:30 until 10:00 a.m. you will be able to browse the Discovery Tables and talk to Ken McKinlay about the online tool Evernote. (Since I am a recent covert to Evernote, I will be interested to hear what Ken thinks about this newer research tool for genealogy.)

At 10:00 a.m.. Ken Harley will give a talk in which he will build on an earlier presentation he made to BIFHSGO in December 2009 during which he established how his wife Maxine's family arrived in Manitoba as original homesteaders. The first presentation traced the Scott family roots back to UEL settlers in Prince Edward County. Ontario. 

This talk will track Maxine's GGGG-grandfather's emigration from Inverurie, in Aberdeenshire Scotland through Ireland and on to the American Colonies in the early 1700s. In addition to how William Scott followed his dream, Ken tries to establish why our ancestors would emigrate to what was essentially an unsettled wilderness. 

Dave Cross’s interview with Ken Harley has been added to the BIFHSGO Podcast page. Through this interview, Ken provides you with the structure of his upcoming presentation, a bit about the research he has done with the Scott family and some of the interesting stories which might yet be uncovered.

The podcast is available at http://www.bifhsgo.ca/cpage.php?pt=106 

All monthly meetings are open to the general public, and they are free of charge.

The website is at http://www.bifhsgo.ca 

Free Exhibit - Kids! – Children of the Eastern Townships between 1890 -1930

The Eastern Townships Resource Centre (ETRC) cordially invites you to attend its first photo exhibition Uplands Cultural and Heritage Centre, Lennoxville.

For the first time, the ETRC is opening its archives to share the treasures of several fonds and collections with the broader public. The exhibition showcases a small selection of the thousands of remarkable photographs in the ETRC’s collection. 

Kids! – Children of the Eastern Townships between 1890 -1930 is a photograph exhibition that displays the life of children in the Eastern Townships of Quebec and takes you on a journey back in time. 

The ETRC is thankful for the cooperation with the Lennoxville-Ascot Historical and Museum Society (LAHMS) for giving us the opportunity to display our photographs in this beautiful building. 

The exhibit will be open until June 30, 2014, and it will be held at the Uplands Cultural and Heritage Centre, 9 Speid St., Lennoxville.

The event is free to everyone. 

Also, visit their exhibit online at http://www.historypin.com/collections/view/4010/title/KIDS!%20Children%20of%20the%20Eastern%20Townships%20between%201890%20and%201930/#.Uu-cGQvJS0Q.facebook

LAC to outsource national catalogue

From an article in the Ottawa Citizen by Don Butler comes the news that the Library and Archives Canada is going to outsource its library catalogue called AMICUS to an American company – Computer Library Centre Inc. (OCLC). This also involves 1,300 other libraries across Canada. 

To read the article, go to http://www.ottawacitizen.com/Library+Archives+Canada+moves+outsource+national+catalogue/9687461/story.html

So what do you think? Is this a good or bad move for the LAC? Does it change your opinion of the future of the LAC, or are you not surprised by this move?

La Grande Vague ou la mémoire de l’eau salée (The Great Wave : Or the Memory of Salt Water)

At the Musée des beaux-arts de Sherbrooke located at 241, Dufferin Street, there is an exhibit called La Grande Vague ou la mémoire de l’eau salée which is a monument to the memory of the early Québec pioneers. 

This is an installation of two meters by ten meters representing a wave which symbolizes the crossing of our ancestors from France to America. Constructed from 400 books arranged to show the names of 400 pioneer families sculpted in bas relief -- names still belonging to 3.4 million Québecers -- it is the illustration of a grand voyage integral to the history of Québec and its cultural heritage as well as to that of the individuals who were part of it.

This exhibit will be at the 241 Dufferin, Sherbrooke until May 18, 2014.

For more information, call 819.821.2115 or visit http://mbas.qc.ca/en/la-grande-vague-ou-la-memoire-de-leau-salee

MyHeritage and a Billion Graves start to digitally preserve the world’s cemeteries

Both MyHeritage and its partner a Billion Graves is undertaking a huge project – they want to digitally preserve the world’s cemeteries. 

They say that “The effort is being conducted by both companies free of charge. The hope is to "crowdsource" an effort to digitally preserve every cemetery and gravestone in the world. The companies are working together to providing the content online for everyone to see, free of charge. This project is important and beneficial for genealogists everywhere”.

They have produced a short video at the MyHeritage blog 

http://blog.myheritage.com/2014/03/video-myheritage-team-digitizes-cemetery/

The a Billion Graves blog describing the project at http://blog.billiongraves.com/2014/03/all-billiongraves-users-be-part-of-your-own-success-story-myheritage-shows-you-how

Family History/Genealogy at The Canadian Jewish Heritage Network (CJHN)

If you have Jewish ancestors, have you checked the latest addition to the genealogical database at http://www.cjhn.ca/en/family-history.aspx

You can search in the following databases -

· Jewish Colonization Association individual farm settler reports from Western Canada and Quebec (1906-1951) This includes a scanned form describing each individual farming family at various points in time.

· Yiddish obituaries from the Keneder Adler (1908-1932) This Montreal-based daily newspaper has been translated and indexed.

· Hebrew Sick Benefit Association of Montreal membership listings from 1897-1945. These records have been transcribed from the membership books, translated from Yiddish.

· Canadian Jewish Casualties in the Canadian Armed Forces These listings include servicemen who died while serving in World War I, World War II, and the Korean War. These records often include additional details such as war stories and photographs. 

· Saint John, New Brunswick Jewish Residents, Businesses, Burials & Obituaries These records contain burial information dating back to 1873, hundreds of full text obituaries, detailed photographs of tombstones, and business and residential directory details about all the known Jewish residents of Saint John from 1863-1999.

· Jewish Immigrant Aid Services client name lists from 1922-1952 The CJHN) say that “The JIAS listings are the only records in this database which do not present all the available data online. Access to this information is restricted to the persons named in the file or, if deceased, their direct descendants. The archival records associated with these listings can contain a single index card to more than a dozen pages. Fees for copying and delivery apply; payment can be made to the CJCCC National Archives via Paypal or Canadian funds cheque”. 

White you are at the site, do not miss their extensive archival materials, digital images, and education material at http://www.cjhn.ca/en 

Hommage à Lac-Mégantic exhibit

There will be an exhibit called Hommage à Lac-Mégantic from March 30th to May 25th, 2014 at the  Uplands Cultural and Heritage Centre, 9 Speid Street, Sherbrooke.

“Following the tragic events in the town of Lac-Mégantic last summer, the Uplands exhibition committee has decided to honour Mégantic artists by mounting an exhibit which will bring together eleven artists of this region. 

The public is cordially invited to come and meet the participants at a vernissage to take place Sunday, March 30, from 2:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m.. 

In addition, two “slam” poets, Marie-Pier Landry and Kyra Shaughnessy, will be present at the vernissage to share their poems inspired by the disaster.

Throughout the course of the exhibit, there will be an opportunity to make donations, which will be given to a cultural organization of the Lac-Mégantic region, selected by the participating artists”.

Remember, the Hommage à Lac-Mégantic exhibit will continue until May 25, 2014.

The website of the Uplands Cultural and Heritage Centre is http://uplands.ca

Service Disruptions at the Archives of Manitoba

During the next few months, the Archives of Manitoba, including the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives, will be replacing mechanical equipment and building components in several of the archival storage vaults at 200 Vaughan Street, Winnipeg causing service disruptions. And this disruption will continue over the next one to two years. 

The nature of this work requires the temporary relocation of records stored within the vaults during each phase of the project. This project is necessary to ensure that the environment of the vaults continues to be acceptable for the preservation of archival records.

Services which will be disrupted will be

• times when some records are not available for consultation. 

• delays in retrieval of records may occur. 

• there may be noisy times due to the renovation work. 

Please note that records stored offsite will not be affected by these renovations.

Updates will be posted at the website as the project progresses and you can contact them if you have questions at archives@gov.mb.ca

The website is http://www.gov.mb.ca/chc/archives

Old Stones - from Exploration to Preservation

The Nova Scotia Genealogical Society is having a two-day cemetery conference in Truro where there will be great speakers, all meals and breaks will be included, a networking social, and poster displays. 

The conference will be held May 24 and 25, 2014 at the Nova Scotia Agricultural College Campus, Truro, NS, and there will be six lectures given by Dr. Allan Marble, Gary Wright, Bill Curry, Kevin Bartlett & Sean McKeane, Heather Lawson, and Deborah Trask.

And there will be a field trip to the historic Onslow Cemetery. 

For more information about the conference and a registration packet, contact Dawn Josey at info@novascotiaancestors.ca 

The registration form is at http://www.novascotiaancestors.ca/upload/files/GANS_CemeteryConference2014_Registration.pdf 

The GANS website is at http://www.novascotiaancestors.ca 

The Onslow Cemetery is at www.onslowislandcemetery.ca 

The Onslow Island Cemetery holds the remains of Planters (settlers from New England who came to Nova Scotia in the 1700s), and as such, it is one of the oldest cemeteries in Nova Scotia. 

Last year, the 250th founding of the cemetery was highlighted, and celebrated. Some of the burials at the cemetery are on Find a Grave at http://www.findagrave.com/cgi-bin/fg.cgi?page=gsr&GScid=2297634 

Lost Landscapes: Up the Gatineau! with Google Earth

Join the Gatineau Valley Historical Society as they mark Earth Day with an historical virtual tour up the Gatineau River. Society President, Marc Cockburn, will take you on multi-media voyage from Hull up to Low and beyond, using Google Earth and archival photos and maps to reconstruct how the river’s landscape looked before much of its natural and built environment was flooded in 1927.

The meeting will be held on Tuesday, April 22, 2014 at 7:30 pm, at The Wakefield Centre, 38, ch. Valley, Wakefield, QC

The website of the society is at http://www.gvhs.ca

Wellington County OGS Region III Meeting - Ask the Experts

On Saturday, April 19, 2014, there will be a full-day meeting from 9:00 am to 4:00 pm at the Harriston Community Centre, 111 George Street South, Harriston, ON, and the title of it is Ask the Experts. 

The morning portion will feature three different genealogical professionals who will give presentations on their area of expertise. In the afternoon, the experts will sit on a panel and answer your research questions. 

To get your questions answered, please submit them ahead of time through the branch website, or in person. 

The Experts will be  

• Cindy Preece 

o Archives Administrator, Wilfrid Laurier University Archives & Special Collections

•  Karen Wagner

o Archivist at the Wellington County Museum and Archives

• Expert Panel

o A special presentation on “Preserving Your Family Heirlooms”

The cost will be $20.00 per person for pre-registration or $25 per person at the door, and there will be a $10.00 charge for lunch. 

The territory covered by Wellington Branch encompasses Guelph and Wellington County and its historical townships - Minto, Arthur, West Luther, Maryborough, Peel, Pilkington, Nichol, West Garafraxa, Eramosa, Erin, Guelph and Puslinch.

Their website is http://www.ogs.on.ca/wellington/index.html

Soldiers of Song

The Stirling Festival Theatre in Stirling, Ontario will present the play Soldiers of Song on Sunday April the 12th at 2 pm. 

The play will honour the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War with a special show that pays homage to one of the most distinctive musical acts in Canadian history – The Dumbells.

The Dumbells were a group of Canadians who were soldiers during the day and entertainers at night during the First World War. 

As the Library and Archives Canada site says “They were a makeshift stage of packing boxes in First World War France to become the toast of the nation for over a decade. They became arguably the most famous of the Canadian Army "concert parties," those entertainment units that were devoted to building the morale of the troops on the front lines”.

Their website is www.stirlingfestivaltheatre.com 

For background information on the Dumbells, go to the Library and Archives Canada site at https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/gramophone/028011-1007.1-e.html

Canada’s worst mine disaster

There will be an exhibit at the Provincial Archives of Alberta from now until May 31, 2014 and the exhibit is about Canada’s worst mine disaster at Hillcrest Collieries in Hillcrest, Alberta.

On June 19, 1914, 189 miners lost their lives at Hillcrest Collieries in what is still Canada's worst mine disaster. One hundred years later, the Provincial Archives of Alberta reconstructs the events at Hillcrest and their impact on this coal mining community by highlighting important archival documents preserved within its holdings.

Visit the Provincial Archives of Alberta during regular facility hours to view this commemorative centennial exhibit, and the admission is free.

The Provincial Archives of Alberta is located at 8555 Roper Road, Edmonton, Alberta. 

They have a new website and it is at http://provincialarchives.alberta.ca 

Here is a report on the disaster in the Cranbook Herald at http://www.crowsnest.bc.ca/hillcrest.html

History Matters: Canada’s Aboriginal Peoples Past and Present

Heritage Toronto is pleased to present an exploration of the latest archaeological insights into the lives of Indigenous people in Southern Ontario prior to contact with Europeans.

A panel discussion called Before Ontario: Archaeology and the Province’s First Peoples will take place on Wed Apr 02, 2014 at 6:30 p.m. – 8:00 p.m. at the Toronto Reference Library Atrium, 789 Yonge Street, Toronto, ON Phone: 416-395-5577.

Join the editors and some of the contributors to Before Ontario: The Archaeology of a Province (2013) for a panel discussion. Panelists include:

· Dr. Marit Munson

· Dr. Susan Jamieson

· Dr. Anne Keenleyside (Trent)

· Dr. Ron Williamson of Archaeological Services Inc.

· Chief Kris Nahrgang of the Kawartha Nishnawbe First Nation

· Dr. Neal Ferris (Western Ontario)

· Dr. Andrew Stewart of Strata Consulting

The panel will be moderated by Shawn Micallef, a noted journalist and Toronto Public Library’s Writer-in-Residence in Fall 2013.

This panel discussion is presented in collaboration with http://activehistory.ca and Heritage Toronto at http://heritagetoronto.org

Mocavo offer free access

Cliff Shaw in his blog at Mocavo is offering all Mocavo Basic members free access to all of the premium Mocavo Gold features until Sunday at midnight. 

Over the past few months, he says, “we received so much positive feedback about our free access weekends is offering that we decided to do it again!

Back by popular demand, all Mocavo Basic members can now access all of the premium Mocavo Gold features for free until Sunday at Midnight. This means you can search our entire collection to your heart’s content, upload your tree to receive new discovery alerts, download and print any document you find, and much more”!

During their last free offer, I found a marriage notice of my g-g-aunt Aunt Louisa Barclay (daughter of Andrew Barclay from Shelburne, Nova Scotia) to Caleb Haley of California (formerly of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia) in a New York newspaper. I had been looking for a notice of her marriage for years, because I had been lead to believe they were married in Yarmouth, even though I had known she had taken frequent trip to New York. There is a lesson here - 

The details of the blog is at http://blog.mocavo.com/2014/03/open-access-mocavo-gold-sunday-midnight

OGS Conference 2014

Steve Fulton U.E., on behalf of the OGS Conference 2014 Committee, has sent out an invite and a reminder that the conference is almost most here! 

The Conference is between May 1 to 4th at Brock University in St Catharines, and here are some of the activities - 

• Hank Jones Jr - Banquet Speaker - Coming from California

• Chris Paton - Houston Lecture Speaker - Coming from Scotland

• Saturday Morning Plenary - International Panel on Social Media

• Thursday Board Meeting & Greet at Donnelly's Pub in Thorold

They are also providing an opportunity for those who can't come for whatever reason. They will be streaming 7 speakers onto the Internet so you can view them in your home. 

Three Speakers will be streamed in from their locations (England, Salt Lake City & British Columbia). 

Other amazing Speakers and opportunities to meet other genealogists!

The website is at http://www.ogs.on.ca/conference2014/index.php

The Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/NiagaraPeninsulaBranchOgsConference2014?ref=hl