Drouin Collection – Quebec Records

The people at the Drouin Collection have put together a 16-page user guide and it’s free to everyone. 

It is divided according to the time periods - 17th century to the 21st century, as well as baptisms/births, marriages, deaths. There is even a 250,000 postcard collection from the personal collection of Jean-Pierre Pepin that covers the years from 1980 and 2002! 

There are also collections from the United States and Canada (outside of Quebec), and they have hundreds of genealogies, and it includes Protestant baptisms/births, marriages, deaths, as well.

The finding aid is here https://www.genealogiequebec.com/documents/keywords.pdf

This is a subscription site, and it is bilingual – French/English. 

Go to https://www.genealogiequebec.com

Site Launch: new version of the IslandNewspapers.ca

A message from Mark Leggott, University Librarian/Privacy and Copyright Officer, University of Prince Edward Island, will launch a new version of the IslandNewspapers.ca site, which features a new interface and all of The Charlottetown Guardian issues from 1892-1957.

The launch will take place on Tuesday February 11th in the Art Gallery at the Confederation Centre Art Galley and Museum (Grafton Street Entrance) in downtown Charlottetown, with a start time of 2:00 PM.

You can get a sneak peek at http://islandnewspapers.ca/

Regina Saskatchewan Family History Centre (FHC) News

John Williams, FHC Director, has sent us the following news story -

The Family History Centre at 550 Sangster Blvd. in Regina has recently undergone a “high-tech barn raising” to help individuals and groups succeed in their genealogical research efforts. Here are some of the changes we have made:

• New Computers: We recently set up four new Dell Optiplex 9010 AIO computers. With 4 GB of RAM and i5 processors, these machines offer considerably more speed and shorter processing times than their predecessors.

• New Printers: We have installed two new printers: a Lexmark E460dn and a Lexmark X466de. The X466de is a multifunction unit with copy, scan, fax and printing capabilities.

• New Software: Every Family History Centre computer now has a large selection of genealogy software including Roots Magic, PAF Companion, Ancestral Quest and Legacy Family Tree. For more details, see www.familysearch.org/products and the attached spreadsheet. The software provides new ways of organizing family information and enables the generation of a wide variety of reports including pedigree charts, family group sheets, relationship charts, wall charts and timeline charts.

• New Inventory List: For the first time, the FHC has published an electronic catalogue of its inventory including more than 1500 in-stock microfilms, 100 books and 150 maps.

• Premium Websites: The Family History Centre provides researchers with free access to a wide range of genealogy research websites that make it possible to search for an ancestor by typing in a name. Available sites include Ancestry, Find My Past, Heritage Quest and World Vital Records.

• Family Tree Training: In conjunction with the recent release of the New FamilySearch and Family Tree to the public, the Family History Centre offers its patrons free training on the use of these websites.

• Microfilm Ordering: Family History Centre patrons have access to the world’s largest collection of microfilms and microfiche. Films can be ordered online at https://familysearch.org/catalog-search Both 60 day & permanent loans are available.

The Family History Centre is open on Tuesdays from 6:30 PM to 9:00 PM and on Thursdays from 9:30 AM to 3:30 PM. The Centre closes at 12:00 PM on Thursdays in July and August.

As always, Family History Centre staff offer one-on-one assistance to individuals pursuing their own genealogical research.

If you have any questions regarding the Family History Centre, please do not hesitate to contact me at http://inbox463@hotmail.com

Check your Family History Centre on a regular basis because there is always something new. You can get the address of your local FHC by going to https://familysearch.org/locations

LAC Update: The Home Children — Harold Mornington

In the third article in the LAC series called The Home Children, the LAC looks at Harold Mornington, who served in the British Army in the Second World War.

As the LAC says “the process begins with a search of our main online resource on Home Children. Entering the family name Mornington and the given name Harold into the database yields a single reference; it indicates that Harold was 14 years old when he left Liverpool on March 11, 1932 aboard the SS Montclare, and arrived in Halifax on March 19, 1932. He was part of the last group of 36 children sent to Canada by the Barnardo agency.

The passenger lists from 1925 to 1935 have been digitized and can be consulted online. The digital image of the list of passengers aboard the SS Montclare can be examined as well, which confirms the information found in the home children database. It also contains other information, such as the name and address of Harold’s mother, Mrs. Mornington, who lived at 16 Orlando Street, in Caldmore, Walsall, England. More information about Harold Mornington’s family history can be found by contacting the Barnardo’s Family History Service.

Beginning in the 1920s, immigration inspectors drafted Juvenile Inspection Reports when conducting periodic evaluations of children brought to Canada by different agencies. These files are available only on microfilm. A search on reel T-15424 shows that between 1932 and 1936, Harold Mornington worked for five different employers in the Ontario districts of Durham, Brant, Oxford and Hastings.

A reference found on the site of the Commonwealth War Graves Commission reveals that sometime between 1936 and the beginning of the Second World War, Harold Mornington returned to England. He joined the British Army and died on May 23, 1941, while still a member of the Royal Artillery. He was the son of William Joseph and Elizabeth Mornington.

Lastly, Harold Mornington’s military service record is kept at The National Archives in the United Kingdom”.

If you suspect that your ancestor was a Home Child, or would like to check the databasdes mentioned here, click www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/022-908.009-e.html

Leeds and Grenville OGS Involved with Marking Lost Cemetery

A long-neglected cemetery connected to the House of Industry that is now Maple View Lodge near Athens, Ontario will be cordoned off this spring with a fence surrounding approximately 150 gravesites.

The facility was built in 1895, it was the first house for the poor east of Toronto, and it could hold 90 'inmates'. Among the first inmates were 38 Canadians, 15 Irish, nine English, two French and two Americans.

Leeds and Grenville Branch of the OGS has been busy with the project, and if you want to know more about it, you can go to the Brockville Recorder newspaper site at http://www.recorder.ca/2013/01/15/project-marks-lost-cemetery
The Leeds and Grenville ranch of the OGS websuite is at www.leedsandgrenvillegenealogy.com

© Elizabeth Lapointe All Rights Reserved

The PEIGS Plans “A Paternal Party”

The PEI Guardian reports that the Prince Edward Island Genealogical Society is getting ready for the 150th anniversary of the Prince Edward Island Fathers of Confederation who met for the Charlottetown Conference in 1864

The research that they are doing now will mean that they will have a variety of custom-made activities over a three-day period in September 2014. Those activities will include celebrations and tours of the places where the fathers would have lived, their burial spaces and more.

People who have done genealogical work on George Coles, John Hamilton Gray, Andrew Archibald MacDonald, Thomas Heath Havilland, Edward Palmer and William Henry Pope are encouraged to contact peigs_queries@yahoo.ca.

Read the story in the newspaper at www.theguardian.pe.ca/Arts/Entertainment/2013-01-24/article-3163156/A-paternal-party/1

The website of the PEIGS is www.peigs.ca

© Elizabeth Lapointe All Rights Reserved

Barkerville National Historic Site of Canada

The federal and British Columbia governments have announced that they will fund the conservation of two heritage buildings at Barkerville National Historic Site of Canada in British Columbia.

The press release says that “Barkerville is a provincially, nationally and internationally recognized historic site located 80 kilometres east of Quesnel. This year Barkerville is celebrating the 150th anniversary of the Cariboo Gold Rush. Barkerville was the terminus of the great wagon road from Yale in 1865 and the centre of the Cariboo gold fields which were the catalyst for economic and political development in British Columbia.”

If you go on to the site, you will find that among other things, that Barkerville’s Chinatown is the largest collection of pre-railway Chinese buildings in North America and Barkerville has one of the largest Chinese archival collections in Canada.

They do have a search feature of their collection, where you can search the archives, artifacts, library, maps, and photographs.

The website is at www.barkerville.ca

Release of a New Version of the Census of the Northwest Provinces, 1906 Database

This notice was just received by me from the LAC –

“Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is pleased to announce the release of a new version of the Census of the Northwest Provinces, 1906 database.

In 1906, the Canadian government called for a special census of the Prairie Provinces (Manitoba, and the two newly created provinces of Saskatchewan and Alberta) in order to track the high rates of population growth in Western Canada.

Previously, users could search only by geographical information such as province, district and sub-district. It is now possible to also search by nominal information such as name, given name (s) and age for an individual.

This research tool contains 802,442 records that are searchable by name”.

You can go to www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1906/Pages/1906.aspx