UPDATE: Ancestry is FREE

In addition to searching for your Irish ancestors as posted in yesterday’s blog, you can now do it for FREE until midnight March 17, 2013.

Whether they began in Ireland or Italy, you can explore your roots with FREE ACCESS to select immigration collections — including some just-added records.

Fascinating immigration stories are here for you to discover. Start now

Go to www.ancestry.com/cs/us/passengerlists

Go to their Facebook page where they have a recipe for Irish stew at http:www.facebook.com/Ancestry.ca

Ancestry.ca UPDATE: Discover your Irish Ancestors

St. Patrick’s Day is right around the corner, and now is a good time to go to Ancestry.ca and discover what records they have for Irish immigrants to Canada.

They even have an excellent video for you to watch, and it gives good tips on how to find your Irish immigrants to Canada. It is very good.

So have fun as you look through the records to find Irish people who came to Canada.

The video is at www.ancestry.ca/cs/ca/canadianirish

Ancestry.ca UPDATE: Canada, City and Area Directories, 1819-1906

As of 12 March, 2013, Ancestry.ca has 8,299,563 people in their database of Canadian directories.

TherThere are directories for Kentville, Nova Scotia, and Henry B. Webster is listed there as a barrister in 1867, in the Hutchinson’s Nova Scotia Directory, 1866-1867, and in 1869 in the  McAlpine’s Nova Scotia Directory, 1868-1869.

Henry B. Webster was the son of Henry Webster of Kentville, Nova Scotia, and Edwardiana Barclay, Shelburne, Nova Scotia, who was the only daughter of James Barclay and Catherine Bingay, the brother to my g-g-g-g-grandfather George Barclay.

So go to www.ancestry.ca/search/db.aspx?dbid=3789, put in the name of yout ancestor, and see what come up – you may be surprised.

BCGS Publication The Offspring

The e-newsletter of the British Columbia Genealogical Society The Offspring is back in production again, and it is full of news. 

The BCGS Offspring was previously published on-line from 2006 to 2008. 

The most recent issue is at www.bcgs.ca/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/The-Offspring-final_4.1_Spring_20131.pdf

The BCGS Website is at www.bcgs.ca

Celebrating Our Irish Roots Day

On Wednesday, March 20, 2013, there will be a meeting of the Quebec Family History Society from 1:30 pm to 4:00 pm at the QFHS Heritage Centre and Library, 173 Cartier Avenue, Pointe-Claire (Montreal), and you are asked to come and celebrate your Irish roots.

Join QFHS members Sharon Callaghan and Kelley O'Rourke for coffee, tea, and informal conversation to talk about Ireland and our ancestors who came from there.

Sharon is a lecturer and author of the book, Paths of Opportunity, a portrayal of the Irish Montreal experience of one family who arrived in Quebec in the 1840s at the start of The Famine. Kelley was a member of a small group of dedicated volunteers who played a significant role in restoring the St. Columban Cemetery, a predominantly Irish cemetery in the Lower Laurentians.

Come browse the books from our Irish collection. If you are new to genealogy, talk to our members about how to start researching your family history.

Bring a coffee mug, a friend, your own favourite books and resources on Ireland that have helped you in your research, or just bring yourself.

Everyone is Irish on Irish Roots Day, so join us.

Open to our members and the public. Admission is free.  Visit  www.qfhs.ca/events.php

GATINEAU VALLEY HISTORICAL SOCIETY

Please join the Gatineau Valley Historical Society for an evening of poetry, song and images celebrating the Gatineau River as Phil Jenkins talks and sings about The Babbling River: The Gatineau Valley in Verse and Song

Apart from spending his teenage years in Liverpool, England during Beatlemania, Phil has been thinking about Ottawa and the Gatineaus for more than 40 years. He has written for a variety of magazines and is weekly local history columnist for the

Ottawa Citizen. 

He is the author Fields of Vision and An Acre of Time: The Enduring Value of Place, as well as River Song: Sailing the History of the St. Lawrence, and Beneath My Feet: The Memoirs of George Mercer Dawson.

He is also a singer/songwriter who performs solo, or with the group "Riverbend." He currently lives in the Gatineau Hills. 

Everyone welcome, and there are refreshments!

The meeting will be held Monday, March 18, 7:30 pm, at the Wakefield Library, Wakefield Community Centre, 38 Valley Drive, La Pêche – just north of Ottawa.

The website of the GVHS is www.gvhs.ca

Digging for Gold in Toronto’s Libraries and Archives

On Saturday the 4 May 2013 from 10:00 am to 4:30 pm, there will be a  Workshop given by various members of the Toronto Branch OGS at the North York Memorial Community Hall, 5110 Yonge St., Toronto entitled Digging for Gold in Toronto’s Libraries and Archives.

It will be a one-day workshop with sessions for all skill levels – full of great reasons to visit Toronto's wonderful cluster of archives and libraries in person.

For more information, contact info is available at www.torontofamilyhistory.org

For more information on libraries and archives, you can go to

Toronto Public Library www.torontopubliclibrary.ca

Archives of Ontario (located in Toronto) www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/index.aspx