CrowdSourcing: OGS and The Ontario Heritage Fairs Association

The OGS and the Ontario Heritage Fairs Association (OHFA) are teaming up to CrowdSource to see if they can continue to offer provincial heritage fairs for students in Grades 4 to 10.

“The OGS supports this initiative by providing a prize for the best genealogical project at each regional fair, with the aim of encouraging our future genealogists and historians.

This year’s Provincial Fair is in need of funding and to this end, the OHFS is running a CrowdSourcing campaign". 

If you wish to support the work of the Association and to fund another Provincial Heritage Fair in the spring of 2014, please visit them at https://chimp.net/groups/ontario-provincial-heritage-fair

Acadian Family Recipes Newsletter

Yvon Cyr has written to tell us that they will be “creating a newsletter to share Acadian Family Recipes. Get together with family members over the holidays and pick your favorite, and send it to us.

We are looking to have this newsletter out by February 2014.

Have a great Holiday!”

The website is www.acadian.org

Gwyneth Pearce, Secretary of the Toronto Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society, has sent the winter meeting schedule, and it is -

Tracing Your African Heritage in the British West Indies
Saturday, February 1, 2014, 1 – 5 p.m.
This half-day course will cover the basic principles of research, how to read and interpret slave registers, what to look for in vital records, church records, parish registers and much more.
Instructor: Pooran Bridgelal
Where: North York Central Library, 5120 Yonge Street, Toronto

The Social History of Medicine in 19th Century CanadaTuesdays, February 4 & 11, 2014, 2 – 4 pm
This two-part lecture series will examine life and death and the role of medicine in Canada in the nineteenth century, as well as the revolution in Canadian medical education from 1875 to 1920 that extended life span and professionalized medicine and medical training.
Instructor: Dr. Marianne Fedunkiw
Where: North York Central Library, 5120 Yonge Street, Toronto

Making the Internet Work for GenealogyWednesdays, February 12, 19 & 26 & March 5, 2014, 6:15 – 8:15 pm
This four-week course is aimed at those who have considerable experience already with using the Internet for genealogy, but who are interested in learning how to fine tune their search abilities and how to take advantage of the social networking opportunities the Internet provides.
Instructor: Marian Press
Where: Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street, Toronto

Tracing Your East Indian Heritage in the British West IndiesSaturday, February 15, 2014, 1 – 5 pm
This half-day course will cover the basic principles of research, how to understand indenture contracts, what to look for in vital records, church records, parish registers and much more.
Instructor: Pooran Bridgelal
Where: North York Central Library, 5120 Yonge Street, Toronto

The Social History of Dress in 19th Century CanadaTuesdays, February 18 & 25, 2014, 2 – 4 pm
This two-part lecture series is intended as a primer to the social history of dress seen in 19th century photographs, with a special emphasis on Canadian history. The course will cover the period from 1840 to 1910.
Instructor: Ingrid Mida
Where: North York Central Library, 5120 Yonge Street, Toronto

Introduction to Genealogy and Family History
Saturday, February 22, 2014, 10 am – 3 pm
A fast-paced one-day course that introduces some of the type of records and techniques needed for researching your family tree. It highlights vital records (civil and church), census records and probates (wills), showing how to extract and evaluate data.
Instructor: Linda Reid
Where: North York Central Library, 5120 Yonge Street, Toronto

They are parented by the OGS and the North York Central Library.

To learn more, you can go to http://torontofamilyhistory.org/

Annual general meeting at the Niagara Peninsula Branch

The area that is covered by the Niagara Peninsula Branch of the OGS

Tyler Stevens, the Membership Coordinator at Niagara Peninsula Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society write to tells us of a meeting that they will hold this Thursday at 7 pm.

They will feature a Genealogy Showcase, Branch Voting & the Holiday Gathering. Looking forward to seeing what folks have put together for their Showcase's.

So if you have a something to show or tell, email niagara@ogs.on.ca to book your time.

The website of the Niagara Peninsula Branch is http://www.ogs.on.ca/niagara/

Global Genealogy makes an announcement

Global Genealogy has just made the announcement that they have almost completed work on a book and CD called Genealogical Extracts from the Perth Courier Newspaper 1834-1929. Global Genealogy says that "It will be an 8 volume set of genealogical extracts from the Perth Courier newspaper that were published between 1834 and 1929 (known as the Bathurst Courier in its early years). They say that the series will be available in a coil-bound printed edition, and as books on CD (searchable pdf). Buy individual volumes (sorted by year of publication) or save by purchasing a complete set. The series includes 3618 pages of extracts of births, marriages, deaths, silver and golden anniversaries and other information of genealogical interest - about 40,000 extracts in all. All are extensively indexed including cross referencing and females listed by both maiden and married names when known. They say that they will announce the release date in an early January newsletter. A complete online index will be provided at that time . This collection will be a valuable addition to every genealogical reference library that has a Canadian section". Global Genealogy website is http://globalgenealogy.com/

Connections Journal Autumn 2013 Issue

The fall issue of the Connections journal has been sent out by the Quebec Family History Society located in Montreal.

There are many short articles in this issue, and they are –

The Farnsworth/Phaneuf Connections by Rene E. Peron in which the author writes about the connections between the two families going back 300 years.

Captives Carried to Canada During the French and Indian Wars by Dawn Miller Quellette in which she talks about the Farnsworth family as it is related in the book New England Captives Carried to Canada – 1677 – 1760 by author Emma Lewis Coleman.

Pilgrimage for Bert: Remembering the 1^st Anti-Tank Regiment, 1^st Canadian Divison by Shelia Snow Wilkins in which Wilkins writes about the trip she and her husband took to Sicily this past summer to visit the places where her father fought in the Second World War.

Filles du Roi: Brides of New France by Dawn Miller Ouellette writes about the young women who came to New France looking for a husband. One thing new I learned that if they did not find a suitable suitor in Quebec City, they would travel on to Three Rivers, and then to Montreal, if they did not find a man to marry.

Ouellette also has written an article on The Battle of Chateauguay (the cover has the photo of the painting of the battle) as it has been 200 years since the Canadians fought the Americans on the shores of the Chateauguay River in October 1813.

 If you want to see what else the QFHS offers, you can go to http://www.qfhs.ca/ http://www.qfhs.ca/          

IMPORTANT: Ontario Genealogy Society Open Forum

This notice has just come into the office –

The Ontario Genealogical Society invites members and non-members to join in an online discussion with President, Shirley Sturdevant. Ask questions and make comments about the changing face of OGS and volunteer opportunities with the Society.

Date: Wednesday, Jan. 8, 2014

Time: 7:00 p.m.

More information will follow.

This forum is open to anyone who is interested but you may express your interest and receive a reminder and your own copy of the login information by contacting the OGS provincial office at provoffice@ogs.on.ca.

Please use the subject line “GS Open Forum.”

I will be there. Will you?

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

The Nova Scotia Genealogist

The Spring 2013 edition of The Nova Scotia Genealogist with the lovely photo of the painting of the West Hants Historical Society Museum in Windsor, Nova Scotia is on the cover.

An article entitled Visit to West Hants Historical Society by J. Fralic-Brown on page 19 of the edition tells you all that you want to know what the museum holds on its shelves and in filing cabinets.

The main article is The Putman Family of Massachusetts and Nova Scotia by D. Armauda. 

The author says that the complete Putman family history has never been written to his knowledge, and we just get a glimpse of his work in this article.

He has everything sourced, and a very good genealogy explained in very easy to understand terms as he traces them from England, to Massachusetts to Nova Scotia.

They have included the latest books in the Reference Department of the Spring Garden Road Memorial Library, at the GANS Office Library, and the Scotiabank Family History, Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 in Halifax.

To see more about GANS, visit http://www.novascotiaancestors.ca/ and their Facebook page at

https://www.facebook.com/NovaScotiaAncestors

Halifax Regional Municipality Archives

One of our readers recently sent me information about the Conversion List from the old street numbering system to the new street numbering system on the Halifax Regional Archives.  

Already the reader says that he has found it very useful and have already looked at several ancestors' houses on Google Street View using the modern address.

He continues on to say that “A lot of my family research focuses on Halifax. Whether using City directories, deed indexes, or death certificates, the civic address of my research subject is often listed and can be used for many helpful purposes. Between 1958-1965 however, the City of Halifax renumbered all civic addresses from a 2-digit to a 4-digit number, so if you're interested in locating the current site of a pre-1958 ancestor's residence you were out of luck”. 

So take a look at the site and the list.  

I had fun this afternoon looking at their Virtual Exhibit which featured photographs, maps, and anniversary events that have taken place in Halifax-Dartmouth over the years.

Thanks to Neal for sending me information on this site.

The website is at 

http://www.halifax.ca/archives/CivicAddressHistory.html

Global Genealogy Bookstore has put out their Holiday newsletter full of new products for you to check out.

To subscribe to their FREE newsletter, go to http://globalgenealogy.us6.list-manage1.com/subscribe?u=559c438b50304777bf726446b&id=1b3ab7d22a

Kingston Penitentiary: Home to Canada’s most notorious criminals

The four men are Albert McKeowan, James McDonald, Philip Benoit, and George Marles. These photos were taken in 1915.  Credit: Library and Archives Canada, RG73-C-6 

The Library and Archives Canada has just released the ledgers from the Kingston Penitentiary for you to research if your ancestor spent time there when it opened in 1835.   

Located in Portsmouth, now part of Kingston, this institution was designated for the incarceration of prisoners from both Upper Canada and Lower Canada.

Kingston Pen, as it is commonly known, closed its doors on September 30, 2013.

These ledgers, which have been digitized and can be viewed on the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) website at http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/pam_archives/index.php?fuseaction=genitem.displayItem&lang=eng&rec_nbr=4292048

You will have to know the name of the person you are looking for in this instant.    

The ledgers provide photographs (mug shots) of inmates and information such as name; alias; age; place of birth; physical description; occupation; crime committed; and date, place and length of sentence.

Special Holiday Season Membership Gift

The Museum of Civilization and the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa are offering a special Holiday Season Membership Gift to you.

If you sign up for a standard membership, you will receive an extended Membership Level Membership, and your membership will be extended by one extra month. If you purchase a Plus Level Membership, your membership will be extended by two extra months.

Put in the promotional code AC138 in the printed copy of the sign-up form, and bring it to the box office, or you can call the box office at 819.776.7100.

To see the levels of membership, you can go to http://www.civilization.ca/about-us/get-involved/membership-program

OGS Conference - Hank Jones Jr interview

Steve Fulton, the Chair of the 2014 Ontario Genealogical Society Conference that will be held. May 1 to May 4, 2014 at Brock University in the Niagara region of Ontario, has posted an interview he had had with the keynote speaker – Hank Jones Jr.

His speech which is entitled How "Psychic Roots" became an "Unsolved Mystery" will be presented on Saturday evening at conference banquet.

The interview is about 8 minutes long, and is interesting to listen to at http://www.ogs.on.ca/conference2014/hank_jones_interview.mp3

Two things which struck me was that he said “Genealogists are story tellers”, and “Document everything”. Family history is a series of family stories and we must document everything we write - that should be our mantra as genealogists.

You can go to their Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/NiagaraPeninsulaBranchOgsConference2014, and their website http://www.ogs.on.ca/conference2014/index.php.

Postscript: Conferences are held every year in Ontario, and as a member of the OGS you are entitled to special discounts for the conference. December is membership month at the OGS. For the yearly rate of $61.20, you can join the provincial society.

November 2013 Families Part I

 The Ontario Genealogy Society issued its journal Families for November, and here are the papers included in Part I this issue. Part II will continue tomorrow.   

With 2014 being the 100^th anniversary of the First World War, the papers about the people who fought in that war are starting to come into Families to be published.

The two papers are

Hart Leech: “A dog-gone good soldier … doing hid blooming job” by Catherine Whiteley tells the story of Hart Leech from Winnipeg, who, like so many others, went off to war as a young man, and like so many others died because of the war.  

But while he was fighting in the war, he earned the praise of his superiors, and when he died helping his fellow soldiers, he was given a burial in the Oville British Cemetery in France.

His mother received the Memorial Cross.

The keywords in the paper is Leech.

The ship on the front cover of Families and is the SS Olympic. It is shown in Halifax as it disembarked Canadian soldiers coming back from the First World War.

Blacks in the Great War by Jerry Hind is a paper which recounts the role that Blacks played in the First World War.

The men from the Chatham-Kent area who entered the 1^st Contingent of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and the discrimination that they faced.

To go with the Families paper, there is a website called    

Gathering our Heroes at http://www.gatheringourheroes.ca/ at which there are bios of many of the Blacks who were in the No. 2 Construction Battalion.

The keywords are Jones, Hosey, Lucas, and Mills.   

Postscrpt:  December is the yearly membership drive by the OGS. This year the basic membership is $61.20 which is a deal for all the benefits that you can receive from the Members Only pages at http://www.ogs.on.ca/index.php

Niagara Branch of the OGS is host this year to the 2014 Conference whose theme is Genealogy Without Borders . It will be held May 1 to May 4, 2014 at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario.

They have just released who they will have as speakers and the schedule, and it is quite an impressive group, such as - 

Chris Paton, the Scottish Genealogist will conduct workshops, and will give the Houston Lecture Genealogy Without Borders-Technology on Friday evening.

Hank Jones will be the keynote speaker on Saturday evening  when he gives the talk

How "Psychic Roots" became an "Unsolved Mystery".

To see the rest of the speakers, go to http://www.ogs.on.ca/conference2014/speakers_info/Conference%202014%20Schedule.pdf

You can also go to the Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/NiagaraPeninsulaBranchOgsConference2014

Like the organizers say "Genealogy Without Borders" is genealogy research that does not require a passport!

Location! Location! Location!

Have you been involved in doing Ontario research lately, and have come across a town, and you are having a hard time to find what county it is in - where it is located?

Now, you can go to the Ontario location website at http://www.ogs.on.ca/branches/ontariolocator.php.  It lists every municipality in Ontario (city, town, village, township, regional municipality) and all of the geographic townships which have belonged to a municipality.

You can find the township, and there are two types of townships –

1.     A geographic township (G Twp) is a piece of land. You need to know this to find land records and to find where people lived.

2.     An administrative township (A Twp) is a form of government, often administering several geographic townships. You need this to find local records.

And you can find out what county you are in, and the Ontario Genealogical Society Branch the municipality is in.

Snow!

We are in the middle of the first major snowstorm of the season here in Ottawa today, and the Museum of Civilization will soon open its exhibit about snow which will run from December 6, 2013 to September the 28th 2014.

The exhibit will feature some 300 articles, and more than 400 photos that Canadians have taken of snow.

To find out more about the exhibit, go to http://www.civilization.ca/event/snow/

Share a Memory Contest

Thinking that you would like to go to RootsTech 2014 but don’t know quite how to do it?

Dear Myrt, America’s “Your Friend in Genealogy”, otherwise known as Pat Richley-Erickson, has a solution.

She and her daughter are offering a Share a Memory Contest and the grand prize is a fully paid registration fee to Rootstech 2014, and two other separate prizes from Amazon.

The deadline is November 30^th , so don’t delay!

It’s all on her blog of Nov 18^th at http://blog.dearmyrtle.com/2013/11/2nd-annual-share-memory-contest.html

Canadian Immigration Records

I see where FamilySearch has added Canada Immigration Records from (1881-1930) to their holdings.

It contains records for the parts of Quebec City (1900-1921), Halifax (1881-1922), Saint John (1900-1912), North Sydney (1906-1912), Vancouver (1905-1912), and Victoria (1905-1912).

There are also records from New York City (1906-1912), and Eastern US parts from 1905 to 1912.  These are records of those names of passengers who had the intention of going directly to Canada.

To go to FamilySearch Canada Immigration Records , go to https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1823240?ET_CID=45833734&ET_RID=genealogycanada@aol.com

York Region Ancestors Newsletter

The York Region Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS) has just issued its November newsletter, and in this issue they have an article A View of Markham Township in 1799 in which Surveyor Augustus Jones lists the people in the township and the land they held.

There is also an article on the Early Lutheran Deaths in the Twp of Markham (1834 – 1841), and Confirmations in the Lutheran Church 1834 and 1836.

There is the family tree of John Stiver and Mary Ann Shutz, and a list of
Tavern Licenses Granted from 1855 to 1860, and a list of innkeepers for Whitchurch Township from 1803 to 1841.

Please be reminded that they have all the back issues of Ancestors from 1996 to 2006 which includes a subject index for sale, in addition to over 150 cemetery transcripts on their publications page at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~onyrbogs/pub_001.htm

You can visit their webpage at www.rootsweb.com/onyrbogs

Postscript: December is the yearly membership drive by the OGS. This year the basic membership is $61.20 which is a deal for all the benefits that you can receive from the Members Only pages at http://www.ogs.on.ca/index.php