Canadian Families Database

Family events such as baptisms, marriages, and burials are key elements of genealogy and family history research.

From early times to the present, these events have been recorded in church records. Library and Archives Canada holds a small collection of church records, some of which are indexed by name.

To provide better access to those indexes, the information they contain has been entered in a database that will expand slowly over the next few years.

The records are in the Canadian Families database www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/whats-new/013-500-e.html

Although I am pretty certain that I do not have any direct descendants in Ontario on either side of my family (BARCLAY, BLADES), I just put the names in on the off-chance that there may have been something there.

And while no one directly related was discovered, at least I found out how it works.

However, the Barclay name yielded one entry on the database in Leeds County. There was nothing for Blades.

Name: Barclay family
Parish: Leeds County, Ontario
Fonds: Miller, W.J. (Bill) Collection
Volume: 2
Page: 67 - 68
Microfilm: H-1668
Reference: MG 25 G370

It should be noted that, at present, the Canadian Families database covers the St. Andrew's Presbyterian Church, Williamstown, Ontario; the Miller, W.J. (Bill) Collection; and the Kipling Collection: Card Index. Future databases will be added.

LAC has another database called That's My Family at www.thatsmyfamily.info/Metamoteur/explications_en.html.

It contains the Marriage Records Index for Canada, of which there are more than 3 million records for the Quebec population between 1621 and 2004.

Holiday Wishes

Merry Christmas to you and yours, our loyal readers!

Thank you for dropping by. We hope you take the time to explore all we have to offer. Use our search engine to go through over 200 blog postings to date.

Start now, and you might just be finished in time to read our new posting on Boxing Day!

All the best,

Elizabeth

LAC Launches 1916 Census of the Prairie Provinces

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is pleased to make the 1916 Census of the Prairie Provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta) available online at www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/census-1916/index-e.html.

In order to track the high rates of population growth in Western Canada during the early years of the 20th Century, the Canadian government called for a special census of the Prairie provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta). The first census was conducted in 1906, followed by another in 1916.

Access to the digitized images of the 1916 census is available online in two different ways:

* Through a database that is searchable by Province, District Name, District Number, and Sub-district Number. The database is available at: www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/census-1916/index-e.html

Please note that this is NOT a nominally-indexed database - it is not searchable by family name.

* Through the research tool "microform digitization," you can browse the microfilm reels page by page. The tool is available at:
www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/microform-digitization/index-e.html

One webpage which the LAC staff has published is "Column Headings and Interpretation", which gives an explanation of each of the fields of the census plus "Common Abbreviations".

On a personal note, I do have Webster ancestors (by marriage) who went out to Manitoba in 1904, and I can trace them up to the present day, due to the census and material that is at the LAC.

So while you are at the LAC website, be sure to put your ancestor's name in the search engine, and the results will be shown in the Archives, the Library, the Ancestor Database, and on the Websites at the LAC.

Bill C-568 - Gordon Watts Latest Census Report

As genealogists know, Canada has had a long battle with the government over the country's census - it's collection and release.

The latest battle has been over the dropping of the long term census, but Gordon A. Watts, in his latest newsletter issue, reports that it is coming to an end.

To see his report, go to http://globalgenealogy.com/globalgazette/gazgw/gazgw-0127.htm

Bill C-568 has been in the Senate, and Watts says "Debate on Second Reading of Bill C-568, that would restore the mandatory long-form Census and would remove imprisonment as a punishment for failure to complete the Census, took place on 5 November and 3 December 2010. The vote on a motion to pass second reading and to refer the Bill to the Standing Committee on Industry, Science and Technology took place on 8 December 2010. The motion was passed on a division of 147 to 136.

Following consideration by the Committee, the Bill will be reported back to the House of Commons, with or without recommendation. It may then be debated in Third Reading, and if passed there, would be referred to the Senate for consideration.

While this Bill may very well receive Third Reading in the House of Commons, I think it unlikely that it will pass through the Senate. There are currently 152 sitting Conservative members of the Senate. If all of these Senators voted against the Bill, and all non-Conservative Senators (151 in total) voted in favour of it, it would fail by one vote.

Bill C-583, dealing with the method of appointment of the Chief Statistician and some of the responsibilities of that position, received First Reading in the House of Commons on 30 September 2010. As of this writing, it has not yet been placed in the order of precedence, and so debate on Second Reading has not yet begun."

And Wells tells us that there is to be a second court action being taken on long-form Census.

He says that "Media reports indicate that a coalition of aboriginal organizations and chiefs from Atlantic Canada were in Halifax Federal Court Monday 13 December to argue that the removal of the mandatory long-form Census questionnaire violates their Charter rights. Lawyers for the Native Council of Nova Scotia, the New Brunswick Aboriginal Peoples Council, the Native Council of Prince Edward Island, the Maritime Aboriginal Peoples Council, and three Atlantic chiefs claim that the changes to questions about ethnicity and ancestry will make it difficult for the government to discharge its constitutional duties to aboriginal peoples.

This is the second group to take the government to court over the government's decision to do away with the mandatory long-form Census. The first was a Francophone organization in Quebec that argued the long-form Census was the only reliable source of information about minority French-speaking communities. A Federal Court judge ruled against that argument.

The federal government has stated that they will be introducing legislation to remove the imprisonment penalties for failing to complete the Census from the Statistics Act, but to date I have seen no indications of any such legislation being presented to the House of Commons."

So, there is the latest news on the census.

Hopefully, some comprise can be found which would satisfy everyone, but I think that time has passed, and we will get whatever the government decides.

Ancestry.ca Digitizes Records from the Lest We Forget Workshops

Today, Ancestry.ca released a press release saying that they have taken the records from the Lest We Forget Workshops of the Library and Archives website, and have put them online.

This program was run through the Library and Archives for a number of years through their Education Centre, but it was closed this year (March 30, 2010), because of lack of funds.

In part, the press release says, "The collections, Selected Service Records of Soldiers, 1914-1918 and Selected Service Records of War Dead, 1939-1945, are fully-searchable by the soldier's name, birth and death date, and keyword, and provide unprecedented information about soldiers' lives during their time serving in the military."

Individual soldiers' records in the collections contain up to three dozen forms detailing their enlistment, training, medical and dental history, hospitalization, discipline, pay, and discharge or notification of death, painting a rich picture of their lives and often tragic experiences.

Selected Service Records of Soldiers, 1914-1918 contains a sampling of approximately 100 individuals who served in the First World War. Amongst these documents is personal correspondence from the few surviving complete service files which have been recently released by LAC.

Selected Service Records of War Dead, 1939-1945 includes the enlistment records, medical and dental charts, evaluation reports, medal and promotion entitlements, letters (personal, military and recommendations), wills, and inventory of personal effects of approximately 100 soldiers from the Second World War Service Files.

These new records add to what is already the largest online collection of Canadian military records found anywhere in the world, one that includes the Soldiers of the First World War, a collection of attestation papers for nearly 600,000 Canadian soldiers who fought in the 'War to End All Wars'.

Ancestry.ca genealogist Lesley Anderson comments: "There are so many Canadians with ancestors who fought in the two world wars - many of whom made the ultimate sacrifice - and so it is important that new generations continue to learn about their stories through workshops such as Lest We Forget".

Ontario Chapter, APG Presents Elizabeth Shown Mills

On Saturday April 2nd, 2011, I will be in Toronto to see one of the eminent genealogists of our time - Elizabeth Shown Mills!

The Ontario Chapter of the Association of Professional Genealogists and the Canadiana Department, North York Central Library (Toronto Public Library) are pleased to present this opportunity to hear one of the foremost genealogical educators of our day. We promise a full day of stimulation for your personal or professional genealogical pursuits.

Elizabeth Shown Mills, CG, CGL, FAGS, FNGS, FUGA, has been a leader in genealogical education for a quarter of a century, pushing the cutting edge of research methodology, standards, and quality, serving as president of both the Board for Certification of Genealogists and the American Society of Genealogists, as well as an officer or trustee of other major organizations. During her 16 years as editor of the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, Elizabeth made the journal into the leading forum for the teaching of research methods and principles. For even longer, her Advanced Methodology Track at the Samford University Institute of Genealogy & Historical Research has been a rite of passage for serious family historians.

Among Elizabeth's countless publications are the award-winning Evidence! Citation & Analysis for the Family Historian and Professional Genealogy: A Manual for Researchers, Writers, Editors, Lecturers, and Librarians. They are considered "absolute essentials" for both personal and professional genealogists. Her latest book, Evidence Explained: Citing History Sources from Artifacts to Cyberspace, earned Library Journal's Best Reference 2007 designation. She has also created a number of convenient QuickSheets as research aids.

The schedule has been posted at www.ocapg.org/shown_mills.html

Saturday, April 2, 2011
Advanced Genealogical Skills: A Seminar with Elizabeth Shown Mills

Program:
8:30 Doors open
9:00 Welcome
9:15 Genealogical Problem Solving: Professional Techniques for Everyday Success
11:00 Sources & Citations Simplified: From Memorabilia to Digital Data to DNA
12:15 Lunch break
1:30 Finding Females: Wives, Mothers, Daughters, Sisters & Paramours!
3:15 Dissecting Your Research Problem and Planning a Solution
4:30 Concluding Question & Answer Session

Place:
Auditorium, North York Central Library, 5120 Yonge Street, Toronto

Information:
Refreshments will be available; lunch is not included.

Lunch: Brown bag it, North York Centre food court, or restaurants on Yonge Street.

For accommodation, Novotel North York is part of the North York Centre (416-733-2929, www.novotel.com).

Books of interest will be available for purchase on the day of the event. See the registration site for titles and pre-ordering, when registration begins. Our speaker will be available during the afternoon break for book signing.

ONLINE REGISTRATION BEGINS HERE ON JANUARY 15, 2011
Cost: $45 public admission; $20 OCAPG members.
Space is limited.

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Launch of LAC "Medals, Honours and Awards" Database

Victory Medal, First World War
Courtesy: LAC

Ottawa, December 9, 2010 — Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is pleased to announce the launch of a new online database, "Medals, Honours and Awards".

Through this online database, researchers can access more than 113,000 references to medal registers, citation cards, and records of various military awards. In addition to archival references, this research tool includes digitized images of some medal registers.

The database is available at: www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/medals/index-e.html

I checked the database and found a Barclay Webster, s/o Henry Bentley Webster and Ina Mary Barclay (my gggg aunt) who joined the 2nd Canadian Queen's Regiment.

I did not know that he was in the militia, and that he had received the Canada General Service Medal as noted below www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/medals/001099-110.01-e.php?PHPSESSID=u8farn7vbbhl9hqp3oa83u73m5&q1=Webster&q2=Barclay&q3=&q4=&q5=&q6=&interval=2 -

Name: WEBSTER, Barclay
Rank: Private
Regiment: 2nd Queen's Regiment Nova Scotia Militia
Medal/Honour/Award: Canada General Service Medal
Event/Time Period: Fenian Raid (1866)
Volume: 8
Page: 113
Reference / Acession Number: RG 9 IIA5
Microfilm: C-1862

There is a very brief account of him and his life on Wikipedia, as follows -

Barclay Webster - from Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Barclay_Webster

Barclay Webster (September 16, 1849 – ) was a lawyer, judge and political figure in Nova Scotia, Canada. He represented King's County in the Nova Scotia House of Assembly from 1890 to 1894 as a Liberal-Conservative member.

He was born in Kentville, Nova Scotia, the son of Henry Bentley Webster, a lawyer, and Mary Ina Barclay. Webster was educated at Acadia College, Dalhousie University and Harvard University. He was called to the Nova Scotia bar in 1872 and set up practice in Kentville. He married Ethel, the daughter of Leverett de Veber Chipman, in 1877. In 1890, Webster was named King's Counsel.

His son, L. Beverley Webster, died in London after fighting in the Boer War.