Monday, March 2, 2009

My "Genealogical" Schedule - Part II

Saturday, I finished writing my "genealogical" schedule for March, and I posted the frist part for you to read. Now is the second part, and maybe you will be able to join me in some of the events I will attend or read some of the happenings that I will write about.

March 21st - The Beginners Course in Genealogy — held at the Library and Archives Canada and sponsored by BIFHSGO and the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS) — will be held from 9:00 a.m. until noon. There are four great speakers -

- John D. Reid (of Anglo-Celtic Connections fame) will talk about the Seven Great Rules

- Glen Wright will talk about Census Records

- Allison Hare will talk about Civil Registrations

- Terry Findley will talk about Local Resources

Afterwards, I plan to go to Lansdowne Park to the Green Conference and do a couple of interviews for magazine articles.

March 27th - The opening night of this year's Gene-O-Rama!

Registration will open at 7:00 p.m., and the official opening will take place at 7:30. Like last year, it will be held at Ben Franklin Place in Nepean.

The speaker at the Pat Horan Memorial Lecture will be Dr. Bruce Curtis, and he will talk about "Locating, Identifying, Knowing: Census Making in Canada to 1871".

March 28th - The second day of Gene-O-Rama, with nine lectures, a banquet, a marketplace, and genealogy computing. Phew!

It sounds like a lot of thing to go to, but Mike More, the Chairperson, has everything under control, and it should go off without a hitch.

I plan to attend a lecture on "The Canadian Genealogy Centre in 2009"; "Getting the Most from City Directories and Their Next of Kin"; and "Cold Cases: Hot Tips".

March 31st - I will send in another article to GenealogyToday.com for my column, "Canadian Connections". I hope you will drop by for a visit, and read some of my past articles.

Sunday, March 1, 2009

I'm-a "Twitter"

For those of you on Twitter - I'm on Twitter, too!

I went on last night between periods in the hockey game and came away with a few followers ... but no genealogists.

So I'm asking all those genealogists with Canadian family connections to follow my "comings and goings" on at http://twitter.com/GenealogyCanada, as I intend to use Twitter as a place to post the events I attend and the blogs I write.

So hop on over to Twitter, or to the blog, and get your genealogical fix for the day!

Saturday, February 28, 2009

My "Genealogical" Schedule - Part I

I just finished doing my "genealogical" schedule for March, and here is the first part of it - maybe you will be able to join me in some of the events I will attend or read some of the happenings that I will write about.

e-Newsleaf - The e-NewsLeaf celebrates its first anniversary this month!

It is a publication of the Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS) for which I am the editor. It is sent out to the members by email for the months that the print edition, NewsLeaf, is not published. This means that it is sent to OGS members every month except February, May, August, and October.

It usually comes out on the 15th of the month in which it is published. This month, the topics include:

• Establishment of Irish Special Interest Group at the OGS

• Simcoe 25th Anniversary

• Online Obituary Index

• Other news items

Ancestry.ca - This is the first month that I will appear on the Ancestry.ca blog with two articles.

The first one will be about tracking down surnames that have a different spelling in the 1891 Canadian Census, and how I solved a problem of my own.

March 14th - This will be the meeting of the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO), and will feature speaker Sharon Moor. It will start at 10:00 a.m. at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa.

She will talk about all the different resources that helped her crash through three (3) walls in different branches of her family history.

I am excited already! Sounds like an interesting topic!

March 17th - St. Patrick's Day! In honour of this day, I will attend a meeting of the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society to hear Larry Cotton's talk, "Whiskey & Wickedness".

Larry, a retired teacher, is going to tell us stories about the Temperance Movement and the licensing of taverns in the Ottawa Valley.

The talk starts at 7:30 p.m. in Room 156 of the Library and Archives Canada.

I will be back with Part II tomorrow.

Friday, February 27, 2009

Ancestry.ca Posts 1916 Canadian Census Online

Ancestry.ca really surprised me by releasing the 1916 Census for Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta.

More than 1.7-million names and over 38,000 images are in this census, and is well worth the look if you suspect, or know of, anyone there in 1916.

From 1906 to 1950, a separate census was taken of the Prairie Provinces five years after every national census, and according to the law, 92 years had to pass before the census would be released.

If you look at the census, you will find the name of the person, their gender, and marital status.

You will also find their age, birthdate, and place where that person was born.

The place of residence will be given as it was in 1916, and also provide a list of members of the family.

You can also see the image of the actual census return. I learned that a person I had been following from New Brunswick to Manitoba, and to Alberta, listed his wife as being from Manitoba.

But when I checked, her father — who now lived with them — was originally from New Brunswick, as was her husband, the head of the household. Question - answered!

The 1916 Census is free with a 14-day trial from Ancestry.ca for those who wish to take a look at it.

Thursday, February 26, 2009

Ancestry.ca and the World Archives Project

Ancestry.ca let us know yesterday that the World Archives Project has already started in Canada with the soon to be released "Ontario, Canada Marriage Registers by Clergy, 1896-1948."

If you go on Ancestry.ca, a mnetion is made that the project is 80% done already, so I guess they are trying to make sure that people know about it and will help them make it over the top.

They have said that it will be free when completed, and will include approximately 24,000 names as registered by the clergy under the Resignation Act of 1896.

No where do they say that this is already available at the Ontario Archives by microfilm (it is) and is also available by the Mormons - but it will be available on the Internet for the first time when it is completed by Ancestry.ca.

You can go to the site to access the download page and for instructions on how to use the indexing tool.

As Karen Peterson, Marketing Director of Ancestry.ca says, "Historical record preservation and access go hand-in-hand so it is important that institutions, business and individuals all play an active role to ensure that as many Canadian records are preserved for future generations as possible."

Wednesday, February 25, 2009

Quebec Family History Spring Meetings

I just received an email from Jackie Billingham of the Quebec Family History Society www.qfhs.ca telling me about the free spring programe of events to be held at St. Andrew's United Church, 75-15th Avenue in Lachine (near Montreal), Quebec.

The meetings will be held every second Saturday of the month at 10:30 a.m., with the first one on March 14th when QFHS members will host "Show & Tell: Photos", and will give themselves an opportunity to display and talk about their genealogical research collection.

At the second meeting on April 18th, QFHS members will host "Show & Tell: Items of Interest" and discuss what they have collected in their genealogical research.

And finally, the last meeting in their spring series, entitled "Meet the Experts Panel", will be held on May 9th, where you will be able to question them about your own research.

Anyone wishing to participate in either of these events, contact Raye Fraser at ruthrays@total.net.

Monday, February 23, 2009

Some Blogs that Elizabeth Follows ...

Since Diane named my blog for the Kreativ Blogger Award, I have agreed to list some of my favorite blogs. They are on my list to read every morning to see "what's what" and who has been doing what genealogical things since I last checked the day before.

As Diane knows, I can't let anything pass without a comment. I have put my comments beside the blogs I have picked here, too. Some, but not all, of the blogs have Canadian content as the main focus, and aren't in any particular order.

(In the December 2008 article on GenealogyToday.com, I wrote an article on Canadian genealogy blogs called "All-Canadian Blogs of 2008")

1. Dick Eastman's Blog (blog.eogn.com) - This was the first blog that I had followed, and I think (although I am not sure) he was the first to change from an electronic newsletter to a blog.

It has posting of genealogical significance from all over the world, and I do find Canadian information on there most of the time. I even wrote an article for him many moons ago.

He was at Conference '08 (for the Ontario Genealogy Society) and I had a sit-down interview with him. I found that he was a very nice man, and knew his genealogical "stuff" to the letter.

2. John Reid's Anglo-Celtic Connections (anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com)- John is a fellow Ottawa blogger (he has been at it longer than I) , although he blogs mostly about Anglo-Celtic genealogical news, with news about the Library and Archives Canada thrown in for good measure.

3. Leland Meitzler Genealogy Blog (www.genealogyblog.com) I have followed Leland's blog since he first started it a few years ago.

I write on a annual basis for Everton's Genealogical Helper (Leland is the editor) and I'm always interested in what he has found on a daily basis.

He was off of the blogs for a couple of months, but is now back on, and I always check his writings because he always has a personal take on things genealogical.

4. Jane's Your Aunt (canadagenealogy.blogspot.com) I consider Diane a friend. I read her blog every day and although I do not blog as much as she does, we do our best to cover Canada (she on the West Coast and me in the middle of the country), and I think we do a pretty good job.

I met Diane last summer and we had a lovely time together. We went out one Friday night and showed her some of Ottawa's treasures.

5. Dear Myrtle (blog.dearmyrtle.com) I did a radio interview with her about five years ago, and have kept up with her genealogical happenings ever since.

I listen to what she says, as she has been doing this for a long time and know her genealogy to a "T".

6. Olive Tree Genealogy (http://olivetreegenealogy.blogspot.com) - Like many others, Laura started her blog after she had been on the Internet for a number of years.

She has a great interest in Loyalist, Canadian, and Palatine history, and you can find it on her site.

7. Randy's Genealogical Musings (http://www.geneamusings.com) - I like Randy's blog for two reasons - one, I've got relatives in the San Francisco area of California (and Randy lives in Chula Vista, California), and second - he writes about going on genealogy cruises/conferences and about his own genealogical club, which I love to read.

8. And the last one is a blog that I will write twice a month for Ancestry.ca, starting March 1st.

The blog will cover things I have discovered in doing my own blog or from what people have asked me in my genealogical career that now covers 15 years.

The first blog will appear March 1st.