Showing posts with label family history. Show all posts
Showing posts with label family history. Show all posts

Sunday, March 23, 2014

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

Saturday, March 22, 2014

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.

Friday, March 21, 2014

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”.


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

Wednesday, March 19, 2014

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

Tuesday, March 18, 2014

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

Monday, March 17, 2014

Preserving Ireland's Genealogy

This was just sent out from FamilySearch.org on St. Partick’s Day.

Website Gathers St. Patrick's Day and Other Irish Family Stories and Photos by Glen Greener

“St. Patrick died on March 17, 481, but St. Patrick's Day lives on all over the world demonstrating how prolific Irish roots have permeated cultures globally over the years. A sampling of the many areas St. Patrick's day is celebrated in includes: Argentina, Canada, Great Britain, Japan, Malaysia, Montserrat, Russia, South Korea, Switzerland, and the United States. 

FamilySearch.org is celebrating St. Patrick's day by encouraging descendants of Irish immigrants to preserve and share their Irish family memories online through photos and stories. Family historians can also freely search over 30 million historic Irish records online or begin building their Irish family trees.

Ireland provides one of the most interesting and challenging genealogies for family researchers, and there are a lot of them. Over 100 million people worldwide claim some Irish heritage. 

A loss of records by fire and problems recording Irish emigrants who boarded ships after the original departure can seem like barriers to genealogists trying to "get back across the pond." The family histories are often available in the emigrant's new country, but finding the lines back in Ireland can be difficult.

Chris Paton, a former BBC television producer, author, and a professional genealogist, says, "Ireland has probably experienced more tragedy when it comes to the preservation of resources for family historians than any other region of the British Isles. Many of the nation's primary records were lost during the civil war in 1922 and through other equally tragic means." 

There is good news, says David Rencher, Chief Genealogical Officer at FamilySearch. "The government of Ireland now considers genealogy an economic resource. It is one of the main reasons for tourism. In the past five years, more resources have been made available than were in the previous 15 years."

Rencher comes by his love of Irish ancestry naturally. Both sides of his family hail from the Emerald Isle. And he's always fascinated by the traditions of celebrating St. Patrick's Day all over the world.

There are good resources online: FamilySearch.org, findmypast.com, ancestry.com, the public records office of Northern Ireland, and the national archives of Ireland. Counties are coming forward with quality publications of local histories, and the Irish government wants to help those with Irish roots to plan their search. 

Rencher says, "People need to find out specifically where their Irish ancestors hail from. County records are important. Parish records are becoming more available." 

Finding the home town and county of your ancestors is helped by surnames which are often good indicators of where in Ireland someone is from. Employment records in America can contain a birthplace in Ireland. Cemeteries in Ireland are valuable because it was not uncommon for relatives to have a tombstone erected in Ireland although the deceased was buried in another country.

The names of neighbors and friends in a possible village of origin could open up help and hospitality. "The Irish are very generous with their time when people are searching for their Irish roots. Most towns have someone who people regard as the local historian who wants to help. Local libraries are also valuable resources. In any case, people on a pilgrimage to find their family's history in Ireland are welcomed with open arms," Rencher said.

According to Rencher, the best method is to, "Start with what you know and branch out to what you don't know. What artifacts do you have in your home? A Presbyterian Church token has a mark that can tell what congregation in Ireland it's from. Other members of a family might have naturalization certificates or church records. Irish families are so large that artifacts could be with any number of cousins."

It's also important to document the ancestors you find along with any stories or pictures. With 100 million Irish descendants around the world, it's a strong possibility someone you don't know can add details to your history if they can find your photos and stories on free preservation sites likeFamilySearch.org. DNA results can also help identify where others in your family line are located. 

Because of death and emigration to other countries, the population of Ireland was the same in 1900 as in 1800. Irish emigrants went all over the world for many reasons—mostly looking for new opportunity and a new life. Many had to leave when their landlords moved a tenant off the property so a new tenant could pay higher rents. Others went into military service or worked as indentured servants, working for seven years to pay off their costs of emigrating. Many moved to England, Canada, and America to work as miners and laborers. 

Some got a new start in a developing country. If you had to guess the name of a founder and first president of a newly independent nation in South America, would you guess O'Higgins? If you did, you'd be right. Bernardo O'Higgins became the Supreme Director of Chile in 1817.

On St. Patrick's Day, the saying is, "Everybody is Irish for one day," and that might be literally true. Irish is the second most common ancestry in the United States. It's the fourth largest in Canada. Mexico has 600,000 Irish descendants. And this just names a few. 

Whether you're marching in a St. Patrick's Day parade, helping turn the Chicago River green, wearing garish green socks, or just having some corned beef and cabbage at home, take the time to share your favorite Irish family photos and stories online at FamilySearch.org. So even if you don't think you have any Irish in you, it's now a lot easier to double check”.

Friday, March 14, 2014

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 - 

Tuesday, March 11, 2014

FamilySearch Online Training is NOW a Click Away

Kudos to FamilySearch because now you can now get training through the use of  their online manuals. 

Some of the manuals which are available are - 

The Family Tree Reference Manual 

The FamilySearch Learning Center (on this site is the 2014 RootsTech live streaming talks) plus other videos – and they are all FREE)

The Training Link

The Family Tree Quick Start Guide

Sunday, March 9, 2014

British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa September 2014 Conference

 
Here are the speakers who will appear at the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa Conference this fall in Ottawa -

OTTAWA, 8 March 2014 — The British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO) has announced the speakers for the annual conference, to be held 19-21 September, at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa.

For its 20th anniversary year, the society will celebrate with an ambitious program which will help family historians delve into their British Isles roots.

The society expects to welcome more than 250 attendees at the event, which has three special themes:
  •  English family history; 
  •  Immigration from the British Isles, including Home Children; and 
  •  Genetic genealogy. 
“Our nation’s capital is also its family history capital. Every year we have welcomed folks from far and near, researching their ancestors in collections at Library and Archives Canada and learning about resources for discovering their British and Irish roots at our conference ” said BIFHSGO President Glenn Wright.

This year’s conference speakers will include:

Dr. Lucille Campey — emigration historian, author of numerous books on British Isles emigration to Canada who will launch her latest book Ignored but not forgotten - Canada's English Immigrants at the conference.

Gail Dever — BIFHSGO webmaster, social media expert and blogger at Genealogy à la carte

John Dickenson — a former professor at Liverpool University who now researches Canada’s Home Children, especially their involvement in the First World War.

Dr. Janet Few — freelance researcher and prize-winning author specializing in the south-west of England who will give a streamed-in presentation on North Devon immigrants to Canada.

Paul Jones — retired publisher, “Roots” columnist for Canada’s History magazine who speaks frequently on offbeat topics at family history events.

Debbie Kennett — an avid genetic genealogist, author of DNA and Social Networking (2011) and The Surnames Handbook (2012). Debbie is Honorary Research Associate in the Department of Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London.

Paul Milner — an internationally recognized speaker specializing in British Isles research, author of Discover English Parish Records and Genealogy at a Glance: English Research.

Gary Schroder — long-time President of the Quebec Family History Society and a frequent guest on Quebec radio and television promoting family history research.

In addition, speakers at pre-conference seminars on September 19 will include, from Library and Archives Canada, Paul Marsden and Sylvie Tremblay.

BIFHSGO looks forward to welcoming you at its 20th anniversary conference. Reserve 19-21 September in your agenda now and look for more details coming soon on the society website at www.bifhsgo.ca.

BIFHSGO Contacts: John D. Reid, Conference Program Chair, conference@bifhsgo.ca or Mary-Lou Simac, Publicity Director, MLMSIMAC@gmail.com

Saturday, March 8, 2014

Free Conference: The Art of Biography

 
There will be a freeday-long conference on The Art of Biography in Toronto this March. This conference is going to be an excellent opportunity to hear four prominent authors and historians discuss their approach to writing biography, with a focus on Canadian history. It is being presented by the Dictionary of Canadian Biography and Department of History, University of Toronto.

The speakers will be -

CECILIA MORGAN - An (Almost) Accidental Biographer: Finding Lives in the Archives

SUZANNE MORTON - The Exploration of a ‘Hidden Life’ Performing ‘Unhistoric Acts’: Jane B. Wisdom and the Development of Social Work in Canada

JOHN ENGLISH - Writing the Biography of Pierre Elliott Trudeau

CHARLIE FORAN - Richler Was Funny, Why Can’t You Be? On Writing the Biography of Mordecai Richler

The conference is taking place at the Jackman Humanities Building (corner of Bloor and St. George) in Toronto on Saturday March 22, 2014.

If you would like further information about this event or would like to confirm your attendance, please contact Michael Wilcox at 416-946-8593 or by email at: michael.wilcox@mail.utoronto.ca

The website is at http://www.biographi.ca/en/article/art_of_biography.html

Note: If anyone is going to this conference, I would be interested to hear how it went.

Friday, March 7, 2014

Family History Library: Orders for Microfilm and Fiche Will Be Restricted During April, 2014


FamilySearch posted this notice on their blog Mar 6th –

“The Granite Mountain Vault will be shifting a large amount of films into their newly renovated space. This entails moving half a million rolls of film, and numerous cabinets of fiche and digital media. Since it will be risky to pull items during this time, the Family History Library will not be able to order microfiche or any microfilms above 1,881, 705. Film and fiche with numbers less than 1,881,704 and lower can still be ordered.

This move is scheduled for early April of 2014 and will last about two weeks. Another update will be posted as soon as we have more information.

We are sorry for the inconvenience”.

Thursday, March 6, 2014

The Times are A-Changing!


Sunday, March 9, the GANS Office Open from 1:00 pm to 5:00 pm located at 3258 Isleville Street, Halifax, NS

The time is changing this weekend, but don't be sad! If you're tired on Sunday because you lost an hour's sleep, you can just come into the GANS office in your PJs. We don't mind!

The Office is open to everyone. Stop by to chat, do some internet research, check out our library or buy a publication or membership. Bring a friend!

Web: http://www.NovaScotiaAncestors.ca
Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/NovaScotiaAncestors
Twitter: @NSAncestors

The book catalogue of the OGS is on VITA

The Book Catalogue and the Cemetery Locator of the OGS has been moved to VITA, a division of OurOntario (a site which tells the story of Ontario) at http://vitacollections.ca/ogscollections/search

Some feature are –

Family Histories

You can now search our Family History Collection at VITA

Periodicals

The entire Periodical Collection is easier to search. They have now been able to provide more info for their Branch Newsletters, i.e., location information for branch libraries and contact information.

Mystery Photos

They have had the Mystery Photos site on their OGS Old Photos flickr site for a while, and now they have moved them over to the new VITA site and have them all accessible in one place.

WWI Memorial Wall

I know that the OGS has wanted to do something like this for a number of years. If you have a WWI vet in your family and you would like to share their photo and a bit about their life, the OGS would be honoured to include your WWI vet on our Memorial Wall.

Where are your Ontario Roots?

This is brand new for OGS, an interactive feature where you can share a bit of history about your family and your Ontario roots! You will find this located on the top right hand corner of the page.

Contact librarian@ogs.on.ca if you have any questions.

Editor’s Note: Your editor has used this new service and has found it to be very good. I had a series of surnames, and place names that I wanted to check, and the search feature worked very fast and was complete. Have you tried it yet? How did you find it? Was it a good finding research tool, or could it be improved?

Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Was your ancestors buried in Ottawa between 1828 and 1845?

I first became aware of this story at the end of last year, while doing the Canadian Week in Review, my weekly online newspaper summary.

As it turned out, the construction crew with the Light Rail Tunnel who has been digging beneath Queen Street in downtown Ottawa, came upon burials in the area.

Subsequently, it was determined that they were the remains in the Barrack’s Hill Cemetery, and that they would have to be removed and reburied elsewhere.

So Ontario's Registry of Cemeteries is looking for descendants of persons buried in the Barrack’s Hill Cemetery which existed near Elgin & Queen Streets in Ottawa between 1828 and 1845.

Descendants will have a say in where the remains are placed if they contact the Registrar by March 21, 2014.

You can contact the registry by going to http://www.omba.com/contact_government.php

For a history of the Barrack’s Hill Cemetery, you can go to the http://www.ottawagraphy.ca/bayfkeyword/cemeteries

Tuesday, March 4, 2014

A Kensington Market Childhood

There will be an upcoming event at the Lillian H. Smith Library at 239 College Street Toronto called A Kensington Market Childhood on March 20th, 2014 at 6:30 pm.

Leslie McGrath, Head, Osborne Collection of Early Children’s Books will present a talk on the programs for children run by the Toronto Public Library from Boys and Girls House on St. George St., and Lillian Butovsky will talk about growing up above the family grocery store at 45 Bellevue Avenue, the youngest child and only daughter of Joe and Sadie Winemaker. Lillian will share memories of growing up in Kensington Market with her five older brothers in the 1940s.

Information is available at http://www.kmhs.ca

The Toronto Public Library has an on-going series of lectures Finding Your Roots at the Library, as well as Grace: A Teacher’s Life, One Room Schools, and a Century of Change in Ontario on March 19th, 2014 at 7:30 p.m. at the North York Central Library, Room 1.

Join Millie Morton as she talks about her book. Hear about how it was to grow up on a farm, teach in one-room schools, and live in small rural Ontario communities

Go to the Toronto Public Library genealogy website at http://www.torontopubliclibrary.ca/programs-and-classes/categories/history-genealogy.jsp

Friday, February 28, 2014

RootsTech 2014 Wrap-up


FamilySearch has put on a wrap-up of the Roots Tech Conference 2014 on their blog at https://familysearch.org/blog/en/rootstech-2014-wrapup.

They say that nearly 13,000 people attended this year’s conference, and there will be another 130,000 people are expected to attend local history fairs as they are held throughout the world in the months ahead.

I was interested to read that Dennis Brimhall, CEO of FamilySearch, talked about “the dash,” - the line between the date of birth and the date of death on a person’s tombstone or genealogical record. 

The blog says that “He described how traditionally genealogy tends to focus on names, dates, and places in a family tree. However, the expanding interest in family history today, where the vast majority of people are drawn into their ancestors’ lives, focuses on the countless stories represented by the dash”. 

I have been working on a column for an online magazine in which I discuss the question Is Family History morphing into Life Stories? I layout the process which I think has spurred the subject forward from genealogy, to family history (social history) and finally to life stories (personal history). It is now a combination of all three disciplines – ending with the life story of an ancestor. 

I will let you know when the column is published.

Thursday, February 27, 2014

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.

Tuesday, February 25, 2014

Newfoundland Index of Birth, Marriage & Death Notices from Newspapers, 1810–1890

Ancestry.ca has announced a new database –

“This collection from the Maritime History Archive in St. John’s, Newfoundland & Labrador, includes an index to birth, marriage, and death notices from 42 Newfoundland newspapers. Entries from 1825 through 1890 were originally compiled in 13 volumes by Gertrude (Murray) Crosbie and then added to by the Maritime History Archive from newspapers dating back to 1810.

Almost all the entries are for eastern Newfoundland since the newspapers are primarily from St. John's, Newfoundland. The Newspaper notices collection can corroborate what you already know, or adds new names and/or details. It is an easy source to use to search for a family name or an individual. The database can also include disasters such as fire, outbreaks of disease and death by suspicious circumstances as well as trace the careers for members of the clergy, coroners, justices of the peace, surveyors and other government officials. People had to pay for an entry in the BMD column, so they may not include those individuals of lesser means”.

There are more than 40,000 records in the collection, which can include:

· name

· newspaper title and date

· age

· gender

· residence

· event type, place, and date

· place of burial for some deaths

· church

· cause of death

· spouse’s name and residence

· parents’ names

· comments

The website is at http://search.ancestry.ca/search/db.aspx?dbid=9275

Sunday, February 23, 2014

MyHeritage and a BillionGraves Announcement



MyHeritage and a BillionGraves have a new imitative to announce  -

Dear friends

I'm delighted to share with you that MyHeritage has teamed up with BillionGraves to launch a global initiative to digitally preserve the world's cemeteries.

As we know, gravestones are very important for genealogy due to the rich information they contain, such as names, dates and biographical details. But there are thousands of cemeteries worldwide whose gravestones have never been documented nor has their information been made available or searchable online.

In addition, time is chipping away at the gravestones and many are becoming unreadable over the years.

Over the next few weeks, we’ll be working with our global community to preserve and document gravestones worldwide, for future generations, using the BillionGraves app. The app uses patent-pending technology to let users photograph and document gravestones, and, with the help of MyHeritage, the app will be available in 25 languages, and will support Gregorian, Hebrew and Julian dates. The app also records the GPS locations of gravestones to make them easy to find, and volunteers can easily see which areas of any cemetery remain undocumented, to maximize efficiency and avoid duplication.

The records will be available free on BillionGraves' website, and MyHeritage's search engine for historical records, SuperSearch. MyHeritage's Record Matching technologies will ensure that our users will receive notifications whenever a gravestone matches their family tree.

Best regards

Daniel Horowitz
Chief Genealogist and Translation Manager

At the same time they issued a news release in which they said –

“We’re thrilled to embark on this global initiative with BillionGraves", said Gilad Japhet, Founder and CEO of MyHeritage. “Gravestones are among the most valuable information sources for family history research, and although there are many thousands of cemeteries worldwide, most of them have never been documented, and their information is not available online. Time is chipping away at the gravestones and many are becoming unreadable over the years, so it’s up to our generation to preserve them.”

“We’re delighted to work with MyHeritage on digitizing the world’s cemeteries”, said Hudson Gunn, President of BillionGraves. “At BillionGraves we are working to provide a comprehensive family history database for records and images from the world’s cemeteries—but it’s not something we can do alone.With MyHeritage’s support in mobilizing its massive user community and working with us to launch in 25 languages, we’ll be able to provide incredible value for millions of families and preserve this valuable data for generations to come.”

Over the coming weeks, MyHeritage users will receive documentation about the project and will be able to download the application via a special website designed for this project.

MyHeritage is available at www.myheritage.com

Friday, February 21, 2014

THE BEAUREPAIRE-BEACONSFIELD HISTORICAL SOCIETY


 The Beaurepaire-Beaconsfield Historical Society meets for lectures each 3rd Thursday of the month. Everyone welcome. Free for members and $2 for non-member. Become a member for just $5 per year.

For 2014, our theme is The United Empire Loyalists

There will be a lecture entitled The United Empire Loyalists: an overview and it will be presented by Robert Wilkins.

A general overview of the United Empire Loyalists, what made them who they were, their diversity(religious, linguistic and racial), and their heritage in Canada today, with a couple of specific examples, just to illustrate what they lived through and experienced during the Revolutionary War and afterwards when getting re-established in what remained of British North America (now Canada).

Lecture in English, bilingual question period.

WHEN: Thursday, March 20, 2014, at 7:30 p.m.

WHERE: Centennial Hall, 288 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield, H9W 4A4 

Information: 514-695-2502 or http://www.hist-beaurepaire-beaconsfield.com

They have a very interesting website which tells the history of the BEAUREPAIRE-BEACONSFIELD area of Quebec. There are many on-going projects, exhibits, and histories of  people who use to live in the area.