Vote for OurDigitalWorld

We have received this news from the OurDigitalWorld people -

“Recently, ODW has applied for the EMC Heritage Trust Project grant and were informed this weekend that we are finalists in the grant process!

The proposal we put forward is to develop and enhance our newspaper portal which will be a one-stop search and free access to the largest collection of online Ontario newspapers and newspaper index records.

The Heritage Trust Project will select three winners from the list of finalists through a Facebook voting campaign available here: www.facebook.com/emccorp?v=app_222471081145150

I was wondering if you could ask your readership to vote for the OurDigitalWorld proposal and support the promise of more, free, easily searchable newspaper pages and index records to improve their research.

Many thanks for your consideration”.

Jess

Pioneer History of Anderdon Township, Ontario

A new book Anderdon; Some Folks Down the Road has been published about the pioneer history of Anderdon Township 1790-1920. Samples of the book are online at www.anderdon1812.com.

The township is in the southwest corner of Ontario, generally in the Amherstburg and Windsor area.

The author Mark Warren says that “The book itself is 429 pages of adventures, disasters, heartbreak and stories of great courage and determination. Images are from many local and international archives, including the Smithsonian Institution and Library of Congress in Washington, the Museum of Civilization in Ottawa, the Stark Museum in Texas, and the Archives of Ontario. These are matched by intriguing photos from family albums… over 100 of them! There are many newspaper clippings from (among others) the Essex Free Press, the Amherstburg Echo, the Windsor Evening Record and the Canadian Emigrant and Western Advertiser.

This is history, as well as genealogy. Anderdon had been a First Nations Reserve, so its gradual demise and the enfranchisement of its band members receive special treatment. The War of 1812 is covered, along with the Patriot Rebellions, and the American Civil War. Seventy-four immigrant families are traced in detail, and hundreds of surnames are mentioned in the text. The appendices contain official government documents, personal letters, accounts of land auctions, a list of homesteaders, crown patents that were issued and census information. There is a strong 32-page index”.

You can look at the surnames mentioned in the book, there are area maps available for viewing, as well as samples from the book itself.

Bay of Quinte UEL Genealogy Workshop

Brian Tackaberry UE, President of the Bay of Quinte UEL Branch, has informed us of an up-coming workshop -

“The Bay of Quinte Branch will be presenting a workshop to help people find their Loyalist Roots on Saturday April 21st, 2012 at the Adolphustown Township Hall in Adolphustown, located on old Highway #33, the Loyalist Parkway. 

We invite anyone doing research on their Quinte area ancestors to come out for help with their Loyalist links, and to bring along any other individuals who may be interested to discover their Loyalist connections.

The program begins at 10:00AM and runs throughout the day until 3:00PM.  People may feel free to come at any time throughout the day.  Those in attendance will receive several handouts, including application forms and tips for Loyalist Lineage, a list of UEL names for the Bay of Quinte area, examples of acceptable proofs and where to find them, and a certificate of participation.  There will also be tours of the UEL Museum, research library and the park including a visit to the UEL Cemetery and site of the original Loyalist Landing.

There will also be a series of short talks on researching your links during the morning by Linda Corupe, Peter and Angela Johnson, and Brian Tackaberry.  We will also have them available later to give you one-on-one assistance with your family search.  There will also be books for sale to help with your Loyalist research.

 The cost for the day is $10 which will include the handouts, coffee/tea/water and certificate.  You are asked to bring along a bag lunch for the day.  If you wish to attend the workshop, please complete the registration form and send to Angela Johnson, or email myself  btackaberry@trytel.com or Angela johnsonue@xplornet.com. To find the registration form, go to the Bay of Quinte website, www.uel.ca.

Brian Tackaberry UE, President, Bay of Quinte Branch”

 

Ancestry.ca Offers FREE Access to French-Canadian Records

Ancestry.ca is offering FREE access to more than 14.5 million records of millions of people in Quebec, and France, and they will be available free from April 17-22.

Among the free collections is the Drouin database. This database spans 346 years from 1621 to 1967,  and includes  37 million names in baptism, marriage and burial records, plus a summary of church records from Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and various New England states.

The free access also includes the Tanguay collection. This large, seven-volume collection was published by the French-Canadian priest and genealogist Father Cyprien Tanguay from 1871 to 1890.

The collection includes Quebec, the Maritimes, Ontario and old French settlements in the United States and France. Tanguay traced ancestors of many early French-Canadian colonists back to Normandy, and other parts of France.

Entries in this collection details family pedigrees with baptism, marriage, and burial dates, and places.

Go to http://www.ancestry.ca/

Genealogy Association of Nova Scotia Events

This note comes to us from GANS - 

"Since we don't have a monthly lecture planned for April, we've been busy
planning a number of other ventures that will take us out into the community.

Tomorrow, Bob Davison, VP; Dawn Josey, Membership and Correspondence Secretary
and I will be attending the Kings County Genealogy and Family History
Committee meeting at the Kings County Museum in Kentville at 1:30 pm to
promote the August 25 30th Anniversary event.

As well, we will be at the West Hants Historical Society monthly meeting in
Windsor at 7:30 tomorrow night.  We will again provide information about the
30th Anniversary event and Dawn Josey will be giving her "Research to Artwork"
presentation.  If you missed Dawn's presentation in January, come and join us
tomorrow night.  Here is a little bit about the presentation and Dawn:

  Dawn Josey, a visual artist, has taken her family research from paper to
works of art telling the story for generations to come. Come hear how your
story can be told visually.

  Dawn Josey is a mixed media artist living in Enfield, Nova Scotia. For 17
years she practiced Biomedical photography first in Life Science then Biology
at Dalhousie University. She is an elected member of the Society of Canadian
Artists and a board member of Visual Arts Nova Scotia who exhibits her work in
group and solo shows throughout the province. She is currently continuing
studies at NSCAD.

On Saturday, April 14 and Sunday, April 15, GANS will have a table at the
Shearwater Spring Hobby Show held at the Aviation Museum in Shearwater outside
of Dartmouth.  You'll be able to purchase our publications, register for the
30th Anniversary event or pick up some handouts.  We could use some help
during those two days.  The show is open from 10:00 to 4:00 both days.  So
far, four members of the executive have volunteered, but it would be nice to
have at least two people at the table at all times.  If you'd like to spend a
half day with one of us, it would help us immensely.  Send me a quick email
and let me know which half day you are available. As a bonus, the company is
pretty good too! :)

If you can't help out, please consider coming to the show - drop by to
introduce yourself and say hello.  The show is wonderful entertainment and at
$3.00 per person/$10 per family, is an excellent bargain.  Proceeds are
donated to the Aviation Museum."

Hope to see you at any or all of the above events!

Regards,

Pamela Wile
Programme Convener
https://www.facebook.com/NovaScotiaAncestors

Ancestry.com Has Canadian Titanic Records

As a lead in to the 100th Anniversary of the sinking of the Titanic on April 15th, Ancestry.com has added more than 200,000 records to the collection at www.ancestry.com.

Among the records are two collections from Nova Scotia, and they are – headstone photographs of 121 victims buried at Fairview Cemetery in Halifax, N.S. and coroner inquest files and 330 records about bodies that were recovered from the wreck The collection includes the vessel's passenger list of the Titanic, information about crew members, and coroner files, and records about recovered bodies. Access to the records is FREE until May 31.

95th Anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge

One just has to say "Vimy Ridge" to any Canadian, and we think of the sacrifices that our fellow countrymen have made in the First World War. And this year. Major Arthur William Currie, grandson of  famed Canadian commander, General Arthur Currie, will lead Ottawa-area cadets on a pilgrimage to Vimy Ridge.

The cadets are from the Ottawa unit of the Royal Canadian Dragoons Cadet Corps, and they will see Vimy Ridge today. They will participate in a Remembrance Ceremony organized by the government.

To find out more about the Memorial, please visit http://veterans.gc.ca/eng/feature/vimy-ridge/history.

To learn more about Vimy Ridge, visit the following websites –

Canadian National Vimy Memorial Stone Display www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/memorials/cbmr/wall_stone_display See if your ancestor is on the Memorial.

Canadian War Museum www.warmuseum.ca/home See the events and displays at the museum on Vimy Day.

If you want to find out more about your ancestor in the First World War, Glenn Wright has written an excellent book, Canadians at War 1914-1919: A Research Guide to World War One Service Records. I have used this book many times to help me answer the questions that my clients have about their ancestors in the First World War.

It is available from Global Genealogy at http://globalgenealogy.com/countries/canada/military/resources/101160.htm

Richmond Hill Public Library

Richmond Hill Public Library located at the corner of Yonge Street, and Major Mackenzie Drive has a genealogy library on the library’s fourth floor (now known as the Mary-Lou Griffin Room) to house information about Richmond Hill.

They have had public lectures during the winter/spring season called "Finding Our Roots Online", and they have two sessions left -

Googling for Genealogy: How to Take Advantage of all Google has to Offer


Saturday, April 28, 2012, 10:30 - 11:30 AM

Most genealogists know that Google is a good place to start to find family information on the Internet but many don’t know how to get the best results from this search engine nor do they take full advantage of everything else Google has to offer. Author, librarian and genealogist Marian Press will guide you through Google alerts, image searching, Google Maps, Google Books, Google News Archives, Google Blogs, Google translation tools and more

Using Ancestry Library Edition to Find Your Family

Saturday, May 26, 2012, 10:30 - 11:30 AM

Working with the databases and creating a family tree online can make it easy to keep track of your family. We all know Ancestry has the Ontario births, marriages and deaths and some of the census returns but what else is available to help us find our family? Join author, historian and genealogist Ruth Burkholder and find out

Tickets for each program is $5.00 per person.

Interested people are asked to pre-register at the Central Library’s Full Service Desk

The website is at http://www.rhpl.richmondhill.on.ca/

OGS Receives Trillium Grant for Phase 2 of Digitization Project

The Ontario Genealogical Society is pleased to announce that we have been granted funding by the Ontario Trillium Foundation to begin Phase 2 of our Keeping and Valuing Ontario’s Heritage Project. The funding consists of $156,000 over two years and will allow us to continue to assist Ontario heritage organization in scanning their materials and making them available to researchers.

 Phase 1 began in Fall 2008 with the aim to do the following:

• provide a digitized version of one-of-a-kind records, increasing security
• allow small organizations access to digitizing services they otherwise could not afford
• increase access to records significant to Ontario's heritage
• allow an income stream to heritage organizations if they wish

Since then we have successfully joined with several Ontario heritage organizations to digitize their records and make them available online through a revenue generating program. We have launched a beta version of The Ontario Name Index (TONI) as the main access point to the Pay-Per-View database. The information available through Pay-Per-View allows access to the history of the people of this province.

Phase 2 seeks to continue to support the preservation of Ontario heritage materials through digitization by adding to the data available on this system and expanding our affiliations to include new heritage organizations. 

We will improve and expand on TONI while creating new indexing systems where necessary.

We will also create and launch a more user friendly search interface for TONI and Pay- Per-View to ensure that researchers can find and access their information with ease.

OGS gratefully acknowledges the Ontario Trillium Foundation for their strong support of this project and appreciates their ongoing efforts to support the growth and vitality of communities across the province of Ontario.


To go to the website of the Ontario Genealogical Society, click on www.ogs.on.ca

Sable Island Will Be a National Park Reserve

Sable Island was passed from the Canadian Coast Guard to Parks Canada this week, and the sandbar where so many ships went down (shipwrecked), and lives were lost, will be recognized as a National Park Reserve.

Over the recent years, more requests have been made by people wishing to visit the island, and it was believed that Parks Canada was best equipped to answer these requests.

The Honourable Peter Kent, Canada’s Minister of the Environment and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, the Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence and Regional Minister for Nova Scotia, and the Honourable Darrell Dexter, Premier of Nova Scotia, signed a landmark agreement in 2011.

“Today’s historic agreement will ensure that this iconic and valued Canadian landscape fabled for its wild horses, shipwrecks and one of the largest dune systems in Eastern Canada, will be protected as a national park reserve.

Located 290 kilometres offshore from Halifax, Sable Island is a windswept crescent-shaped sandbar 42 kilometres long that emerges from the Atlantic Ocean near the edge of the Continental Shelf. The island’s sand dunes and fresh water ponds are home to over 400 wild horses and numerous migrant and breeding birds, including the rare Ipswich Savannah sparrow", said Minister Kent in the press release.

Called the "Graveyard of the Atlantic”, there were over 350 shipwrecks recorded here since 1583 due to the fog and storms that beset the island from time to time.

Branches, Twigs, and Roots Newsletter

I received my first issue of the newsletter Branches, Twigs, and Roots this week.

Sue has an interesting topic this month in her newsletter, and it’s about how doing genealogy in different cultures can lead to brick walls.

She gives an account of a query she received by a reader in which she was asked to help find Edward Mayo/Maheux and his wife Ann Toose of Quebec. Were they of different cultures - or are they from the same culture? Is Edward French? Is he Irish? Are there any clues in their surnames?
Read about her case study, and what she has to say about taking culture into account in working through the problem.

To subscribe to the newsletter, go to http://www.familyhistoryalive.com/.

While you are there, look at the various topics which she has included to help you in your researh.

Researching Family History in Vermont (Free Lecture)

The lecture will be held on Saturday, April 14, 2012 at 10:30 a.m. at Briarwood Presbyterian Church Hall, 70 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield (Montreal) QC, H9W 3Z3.

The leacture will be given by Ed Maquire, President of the Vermont French-Canadian Genealogy Society.

Ed Maquire will discuss the long history shared by Quebec and Vermont. In the 1860s, about almost half of Vermont’s residents were French-Canadian, and many from Lower Canada in the Eastern Townships.

They were living close to the US border, and many married in Vermont. Mr. Maguire will talk about the type of records available, such as church, immigration, naturalization, court, and military records, and explain where to find them.

Members and guests are welcome to join us!

Visit http://www.qfhs.com/

Postscript: I will have a new booklet entitled French-Canadian in Canada/Franco-Americans in the United States available in June of this year.

Watch this blog for the date the booklet will be available.

Genealogy Courses in Toronto

Gwyneth Pearce of the Toronto Branch of the OGS has just written to GenealogyCanada to tell us that the previously scheduled March/April course, "Going Back to Basics – A Refresher", has been cancelled due to low enrolment.

In addition, their course on "Exploring the Baldwin Room’s Manuscript Collection", which was to be offered in March, has been postponed (new date TBA) due to the Toronto library strike.

The following are courses which are still offered by the Branch. They are -

DATE: 5-19 Apr 2012: 3 sessions, Thursdays (5:30-7:30 p.m.)
COURSE: Toronto Branch OGS
LOCATION: Archives of Ontario, 134 Ian MacDonald Blvd., Toronto
TITLE OF COURSE: "Hands-On Ontario Estate Records"
NAME OF INSTRUCTOR: Jane E. MacNamara
BRIEF INFO: Participants will follow assigned case histories to learn hands-on at the Archives of Ontario how to find estate files and land registry records. Basic course or equivalent experience is a pre-requisite. This course is now FULL.

DATE: 18-25 Apr, 2-9 May 2012: 4 sessions, Wednesdays (6:15-8:15 p.m.)
COURSE: Toronto Branch OGS
LOCATION: Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street, Toronto
TITLE OF COURSE: "Advanced English Family History"
NAME OF INSTRUCTOR: James F.S. Thomson & Joan Read
BRIEF INFO: This advanced course will focus on the 1700-1837 period – topics will include finding vital events, researching a parish, population listings, inheritance records, poor relief, apprenticeship records and land tenancy records.

DATE: 28 Apr 2012: Saturday (9:00-4:00 p.m.)
COURSE: Toronto Branch OGS
LOCATION: North York Central Library, 5120 Yonge Street, Toronto
TITLE OF COURSE: "A Day of Technology for Family Historians"
NAME OF INSTRUCTOR: Carol Nichols
BRIEF INFO: Learn how to harness the power of technology in your genealogy – find out how technology can assist family historians in finding and organizing information, and in editing and sharing photographs and other images.
CONTACT INFO: www.torontofamilyhistory.org/

The following is the monthly meeting -

DATE: 23 April 2012 (7:30 p.m.)
MEETING: Toronto Branch OGS
LOCATION: Burgundy Room, North York Memorial Community Hall, 5110 Yonge Street, Toronto
TITLE OF TALK: “Women, Bicycles and Animals: Humanizing the First World War”
NAME OF SPEAKER: Melissa Ellis
BRIEF INFO: A look at some databases of women's involvement in the war effort and the bicycle corps' work in reconnaissance gathering. Additional short presentation by Elayne Lockhart: “My DNA – the Genealogical Gift That Keeps on Giving”. $5 charge for non-members of OGS.

For more information, go to http://www.torontofamilyhistory.org/