Two Meetings in Ottawa

BIFHSGO Meeting

On Saturday, January 12, BIFHSGO presents their monthly meeting -

"What’s New in Genetic Genealogy" (Before BIFHSGO Education Talks) which starts at 9:00 am. It will be presented by John Reid.

"A Sense of Place: Following the A272 to My Sussex Ancestors"! (Monthly Meeting) 10:00 am to 11:30 am

The talk will be presented by Christine Jackson, and she will talk about a ‘sense of place’. It can relate to the outstanding geographic characteristics of a place. But it can also describe the feelings or perceptions we have about a landscape, arising from childhood experiences which in turn help form our personal identity.

Her favourite British road is a particular stretch of the A272 traversing the lush countryside of Sussex and climbing up and over the bare chalk downs of Eastern Hampshire to Winchester. That countryside exudes very positive vibes to Christine, as though she have always known that is where her deepest roots lie.

I listened to her interview with Brian Glenn, where she spoke about her presentation.

The interview is at the BIFGSGO podcast page at www.bifhsgo.ca/cpage.php?pt=59

Go to www.bifhsgo.ca/events.php to see the details.

Ukrainian Genealogy Group

Their monthly meeting will be held on Tuesday January 22 at 7:30 pm, and it will be held at Ukrainian Catholic Church Hall, Green Valley Crescent, Ottawa.

The topic of the talk will feature “FamilySearch.org Website” by Shirly-Ann Pyefinch, Director for the Ottawa Ont. Stake Family History Centre of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints.

For information, you can call 613.731.1870 in the evenings

Celebrating Our Scottish Roots Day

I just got this news from the Quebec Family History Society -

The Quebec Family History Society will hold “Celebrating Our Scottish Roots Day” on Wednesday, January 16, from 1:30 to 4:00 pm, at the QFHS Heritage Centre and Library, 173 Cartier Avenue, Pointe-Claire. This is part of a series of monthly “Roots Days,” created to bring together genealogists in a friendly setting.

Admission is free.

Even if you don’t have a dram of Scottish blood in your veins, members and the public are invited to drop by anytime during the afternoon to chat about family history.

Share your stories, learn from others, and browse books from the QFHS Scottish collection. Meet members who travelled to Scotland to research their ancestry at major archival centres and hear about their experience.

So, bring a coffee mug, your own favourite books or memorabilia on Scotland that have helped you in your research, a friend, or just bring yourself.

Visit www.qfhs.ca/events.php

Ontario Genealogical Society Conference 2013

The OGS has just opened their registration for their Conference 2013 to be held in Oshawa May 31, June 1 & 2 of this year. The theme of this year’s Conference will be “Pulling Up Stakes: Putting Down Roots”.

They have also put the program on the site and it does look interesting with a good mix of Ontario, and US speakers. Canadian such as Dave Obee, Marian Press, and Brian Gilchrist, and American such as Maureen Taylor, and Liza Also.

The Conference was held in 2006 at the same place, and at that time, they had a great Conference, so this one should be no different.

There are plenty of classes to chose from, early bird registration, lots of tours to take, and there will be a marketplace, so take a look at www.ogs.on.ca/conference2013/home

Canadian Blogger Joan Miller RIP

This came through on the OCAPG (Ontario Chapter of the APG) message board from Lorine McGinnis Schulze this morning. I am sure that you join me in saying that the genealogy community in Canada is sad today to hear this news -

"Hello everyone

I am not sure if the group has heard of the sad passing of fellow Canadian genealogist Joan Miller on Friday Jan.4, 2012. Joan was an avid genealogist, blogger and public speaker. One of Joan's passions was her blog Luxegen Genealogy and Family History. I met Joan at Rootstech 2011 and spent quite a bit of time with her and her husband Reg.

Joan's enthusiasm and cheerful spirit were contagious! She will be greatly missed. If any of you knew Joan you may wish to remember her.

Joan's family has requested that anyone wishing to donate in Joan's memory please do so on Kiva. Joan was a co-founder of the group Genealogists for Families which is a team on Kiva. If you are not familiar with Kiva:

Kiva connects thousands of people to borrowers and partner institutions around the world, working together to create opportunity and alleviate poverty. It only takes $25 to get started.

I made a loan to Delia, a pig farmer in the Philippines, in Joan's name. If you wish to participate you can choose who you wish to help by going to http://www.kiva.org/invitedby/lorine5773

I chose to make a commerative loan, dedicated to Joan. When the loan is repaid, the money will go directly back to Kiva instead of to me and another person will be given a loan”.

Lorine

Thank you for this news, Lorine.

You can follow genealogy news on her blog at http://olivetreegenealogy.blogspot.com

New/Updated Websites, Blogs, and Newspaper Articles - 07 January 2013

I have come across the following websites, blogs, and newspaper articles this past week that were of interest to me, and I thought you might be interested in them, too –

Name Our Newsletter!
The Saskatoon Heritage Society wants you to send in names for their newsletter. Their website is at www.saskatoonheritage.ca

Former Bay boy has tenuous claim to non-existent Irish throne 
http://www.capebretonpost.com/Opinion/Columns/2012-12-29/article-3148319/Former-Bay-boy-has-tenuous-claim-to-nonexistent-Irish-throne/1 A delightful story about a newspaper man from Cape Breton (Nova Scotia) who previously had no interest in family history, until ...

Long-time Whitby archivist Brian Winter retires www.durhamregion.com/news/article/1555787--long-time-whitby-archivist-brian-winter-retires A reporter for the Durham Region.com online newspaper sat down with the now retired Archivist Brian Winter and talks about the Whitby Archives.

Crossfield library becomes part of Marigold Library System www.rockyviewweekly.com/article/20121231/RVW0302/312319993/crossfield-library-becomes-part-of-marigold-library-system The Crossfield Library just joined the Marigold Library System after they heard from their patrons who wanted more access to electronic resources, eg e-Books on genealogy, heritage, and history.

Southwestern Quebec Genealogical Resources Huntingdon County and the Seigniories of Chateauguay and Beauharnois www.swquebec.ca/default.html I just came across this site the other day, and it includes “a growing database containing the detailed content of over 57,000 19th century birth, marriage and death records from the Protestant churches in the region; current and outdated maps and place-names; an index to our complete copy of Sellar's Notes of Conversations with First Settlers; some 100 descendant trees of 19th century settlers as detailed by your distant cousins; many other resources, and links to web-sites all focused upon this unusual Anglo-Quebec region in Southwestern Quebec”. A very good site!

© Elizabeth Lapointe All Rights Reserved

Canadian War Graves in Wales Get QR Codes

Jean-Yves BAXTER at Geneanet tells us that the Canadian War Graves at St Margaret's Church, Bodelwyddan, Wales now have been given QR (Quick Response) codes which can be scanned by using smart phones. The codes were created by community-based information project called HistoryPoints.org.
Their website is at www.historypoints.org

It is believed that the soldiers died of the flu epidemic that raged around the world at the end of the First World War.

You can read the story at www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-wales-north-east-wales-20881406

Five Top Canadian Sites for 2012

GenealogyInTime has put out the top five genealogy sites in Canada in 2012, and they are in order -

Ancestry.ca

GenealogyInTime Magazine

Automated Genealogy

Ontario Genealogical Society

Anglo-Celtic Connections

Congratulation to everyone!

If you want to see the full list, and the explanation as to why these sites were chosen, go to www.genealogyintime.com/articles/top%20100%20genealogy%20websites%202013%20page2.html

Township Papers of the Province of Ontario

Mike More, the vice president of the OGS wrote this notice in the OGS e-Weekly Digest yesterday -

"The Township Papers (Archives of Ontario RG 1-58) are a large collection of documents that date from c1783 to c1870.

The documents include copies of orders-in-council, location certificates and tickets, assignments, certificates of settlement duties, correspondence and some wills. The records are arranged by township, town, or village and, within each township, by concession and then lot number. When a document dealt specifically with a particular piece of property and did not appear to fit within another records series, it was placed within the Township Papers. Once you know the particular lot of land the settler was granted, it is worth looking at the Township Papers since there may be information about the settler.

There are 540 reels of Township Papers with 528,000 pages of information, held by the Archives of Ontario in Toronto. An index to these would be a tremendous resource for Ontario genealogists but it is a HUGE job. The best indexers would be people who know the township and have an interest in the people therein. Since most of the material is hand written, everything has to be proofed, i.e. two people have to read the whole file looking for names.

OGS is considering a project to index the Township Papers of Ontario. We will need a number of volunteers to do the work but first we somebody to lead the Ontario Township Indexing Project. Are you up to the challenge? Would you like to be part of the team that brings these resources to light"?

On a personal note, this indexing project would be a great help to us who use these papers on a regular basis. I urge you to consider this as a worthwhile project.

For more information or to offer your services, contact Mike More at vp@ogs.on.ca

Conference 2014 Call for Speakers

The committee for Conference 2014 has launched their Call For Speakers. If you would like to speak at this Conference, please follow the instructions below for making your application.

The Niagara Peninsula Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society will host the Society's annual conference, May 1-4, 2014 at Brock University. The conference theme is GENEALOGY WITHOUT BORDERS.

Although borders are an important aspect in defining a country, they also often delineate an area of genealogical study. In the past, genealogists often had to travel across borders to complete family histories in their genealogical area. Today's genealogist can often cross these borders while sitting at a desk. We can trace the movement of settlers from European countries from the American states and other provinces to Ontario.

Our Saturday and Sunday, May 3rd and 4th seminar sessions are generally fifty minutes in length with ten minutes for discussion. We also have workshops on Friday, May 2nd, which are of three hours duration. We invite lecture and workshop submissions on a broad range of genealogical topics which will help to solve family history problems by any of the following methods.

1. Use of technology in genealogy (DNA, internet, software etc.)

2. Records at a distance (especially Eastern USA and European)

3. War records, 1812, W.W. 1

4. Land records, census, directories,

5. Early Ontario records, prior to 1869 and their repositories

6. Proposals are also solicited for the broader genealogical categories including the histories associated with the War of 1812, methodology, analysis and problem solving used in genealogy

If your proposal is accepted, you will be notified in early summer and we will request that you provide a 4 page summary of your talk or workshop for our syllabus by Dec. 31st, 2013. This should include references and web addresses mentioned, sample screen images etc. It will be submitted electronically (in Word, RTF or PDF format).

Please include your approximate travel costs, economy class to St. Catharines, Ont. Canada. Besides remuneration, food and lodging will be based upon the number of lectures given and transportation expenses will depend upon the speaker's home address. Workshop fees may be negotiated. Questions can be directed to conference2014@ogs.on.ca

OMT to Present Homechild the Musical

The Orangeville Citizen reports that the Orangeville Musical Theatre is going to stage the musical Homechild the Musical on January the 12t.


And there will be an exhibition installed at the Orangeville Library. It will be brought there by the Shining Light on the Forgotten – the British Homechildren Traveling Display. The exhibit will include the 2010 Memorial Quilts from Ontario and Alberta, as well as books, pictures, trunks, etc.

Genealogical researcher and advocate, Lori Oschefski is bringing the exhibition to Orangeville’s Library.

The opening date for the exhibit is January 10. The musical opens at the Opera House on January 12, with performances on the 13,18, 19, 20, 25 and 26.

For tickets and more information, contact the box office at the Opera House at 519-942-3423 or online for OMT at www.orangevillemusictheatre.com

Ancestry.ca Puts On The Ottawa Journal, 1885-1980

If you are researching for your ancestor in Ottawa, Ancestry.ca has just added more issues of The Ottawa Journal newspaper to their site.

This collection contains the full published run of the paper from 1885-1980. Images in this database can be browsed and perused much like the physical version of the paper.

There are some parts missing from the collection, and they are not available. The parts that are missing are -

•1909, July-December is entirely missing.

•1963, October, the original film was damaged and certain days or pages may be missing or illegible.

•1970, January and May, the original film was damaged and certain days or pages may be missing or illegible.

You can go to http://search.ancestry.ca/search/db.aspx?dbid=50019 to read about The Ottawa Journal.

Halton/Peel Branch Meeting

On Sunday, January 27, 2013 at 2:00 pm, the OGS Branch of Halton-Peel will hold its monthly meeting, and will feature a talk given by Douglas Hill called “Tripping over Tombstones: Searching Ontario Cemeteries.”

OGS member and cemetery researcher Douglas Hill, will speak about how to search Ontario cemeteries on-line, in print and on foot. Trends in burial practices, cemetery ownership, and cemetery recording will also be discussed.

The meeting will take place at the Four Corners Public Library (Auditorium), 65 Queen St. E., Brampton.

For more information, you can go to www.halinet.on.ca/sigs/ogshp

Niagara Peninsula Hopes to "Live Stream" Conference 2014

Words has reached me that Niagara Peninsula Branch hope to live stream Conference 2014.

This is great news for the people who can’t travel to the area to take in the three day conference. They can stay at home and view the conference from their favorite chair. I image that it will cost to view the live streaming, but still it is a great way to see the talks that will be given.

Stay tuned for developments.

The website for the Niagara Peninsula Branch is www.ogs.on.ca/niagara

GenealogyCanada's Blog - 5 Years Old Today

Today is the fifth blogiversary of GenealogyCanada!

Although I didn’t hit the 1,000th blog posting today, I still managed well over 900 of them. I am pleased to have seen so many visitors dropping in for a visit - coming from every continent, and representing a wide variety of countries and regions. I sincerely hope that this blog has helped many of you find your Canadian connections, no matter where they came from.

I would like to thank all who read my posts, the comments they left, and those who sent me their press releases and notes about Canadian genealogy.

For your interest, the 10 most popular posts of the past five years are -

1. Ancestry.ca Offers FREE Access to Records
2. 1921 Canadian Census
3. The Canadian Census of 1891
4. FREE Ancestry.ca
5. Passing of John Becker, Editor, OGS Families
6. Attestation Papers of Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF)
7. Easter Treats from Ancestry.ca 
8. Historical Online Newspapers in Canada
9. The Eastern Ontario Countryside
10. Genealogy Courses in Toronto

As promised, five copies of my resource booklet – Migration: Canada and the United States – will be given away today as part of the blog's fifth anniversary celebrations.

All you have to do is correctly answer the following question, send it to me at genealogycanada@aol.com, and the winning results will be announced after the five lucky winners are picked by random draw from all correct entries.

The question is: Before GenealogyCanada became a blog, it started its life as a newsletter on the GenealogyCanada.com website. In what month and year did the online GenealogyCanada Newsletter start, leading  to the blog?

Please don't forget to bookmark the site - each month features Genealogy, Heritage, and History news, with lots of links to interesting websites, and tons of useful information to glean from its many webpages, including the famous Website Pick of the Month.

Thank you for dropping by to help celebrate the past five years, and for making GenealogyCanada.blogspot.com a part of your genealogical life.

Happy New Year!

New/Updated Websites, Blogs, and Newspaper Articles – 31 December 2012

I have come across the following websites, blogs, and newspaper articles this past week that were of interest to me, and I thought you might be interested in them, too –

Main Index: Native American Names of Quebec and Ontario (Marriage Documents) http://acanadianfamily.com/2012/01/06/main-index-native-american-names-of-quebec-and-ontario-marriage-documents Anyone who has tried to research Native American ancestry in their genealogy knows how difficult it can be to trace. Here is a site that may help you.

Canadian Christmas Books (and a few more ...) http://sd2cx1.webring.org/l/rd?ring=geneabloggersweb;id=17;url=http%3A%2F%2Fcanadagenealogy%2Eblogspot%2Eca%2F2012%2F12%2Fcanadian%2Dchristmas%2Dbooks%2Dand%2Dfew%2Dmore%2Ehtml Diane Rogers of the British Columbia Genealogical Society has posted a Christmas book list, that you may find helpful.

English Research From Canada http://kippeeb.blogspot.ca/2012/12/blake-newsletter-year-ii.html Elizabeth Kipp has the latest news about the Blake ancestry in preparation for the publication of the Blake Newsletter due 1 Jan 2013.

Ireland XO uses ‘reverse genealogy’ to link descendants to the Emerald Isle http://www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Ireland+uses+reverse+genealogy+link+descendants+Emerald+Isle/7743064/story.html Read about how Ottawa’s Phil Donnelly is helping to connect 70-million of people all over the world to the home county of Ireland in an article in the Ottawa Citizen. Goal is to connect over a million people by the end of 2013, and to create a database of 10 million members of the Irish Diaspora by 2016.

They have a website at www.irelandxo.com, and they have a newsletter onsite, a parish handbook to help you find the parish you are looking for, and a glossary which explains the terms used in Irish research eg townland, province, and so forth.

Our Town Waterford Pedestrian crossing light closer to completion www.brantfordexpositor.ca/2012/11/30/pedestrian-crossing-light-closer-to-completion What started out as a newspaper column by Carol Steedmen in which she talks about a pedestrian crossing light nearing completion in the town, turns into a column about a letter she received from a reader.
In the letter from Marilyn Nurse, Carol finds out that Marilyn is from the McMichael family from Waterford, and her father, Leamon Becker McMichael, was a first cousin to Dr. Hooker from Waterford, and recounts the genealogy.
© Elizabeth Lapointe All Rights Reserved

Archive CD Books (Canada) SALE!

I have just received a notice from Archive CD Books (Canada) that they are offering almost ALL of our CANADIAN topic books on CD at a discount for a limited time. And the sale prices are shown on each product - just above the "Regular Price" - so you can see your savings.

They give examples -

Gazetteer and Business Directory, Canada 1930, Cat.No. CA0035

ON SALE FOR: $18.75, Regular Price: $37.50

Commemorative Biographical Record of the County of York, Ontario - 1907 Cat.No. CA0254

ON SALE FOR: $13.13, Regular Price: $26.25

British Columbia from the Earliest Times to the Present, Historical & Biographical. 4 Vol. set. Cat.No. CA0361-S

ON SALE FOR: $24.50, Regular Price: $49.00

You are reminded that this sale won't last forever, so act now and you won't be disappointed.

Don't forget that they already give you free shipping if you live in Canada (flat rate elsewhere)

Sale prices are shown in the regular locations in the catalogue on each product on sale. To help you see ALL of the products on offer we have added a special "SALE" category in our online catalogue, and you can go straight there using this link www.archivecdbooks.ca/index.cfm?fuseaction=store.viewCategory&intCatalogID=29&intCategoryID=227

You are reminded that because of the complexity, and illogicality, of Canada Post's overseas shipping rates we check and, if possible, reduce our overseas rates for multiple purchases - we try to give you our best prices. Any shipping overcharge will be rebated on your credit card.

And while you are there on the website, you can subscribe to their very informative newsletter by subscribing to books@archivecdbooks.ca

FREE Access Ends Tonight!

The other day I posted about the free access at Ancestry.ca. Well, that free access ends tonight at midnight – December 29!

By taking advantage of this free access, you can explore their newest, as well as their most popular collections from Canada, the U.S., UK and around the world!

To go to the site for more information, go to http://search.ancestry.ca/search/grouplist.aspx?group=newyearoffer&o_xid=53405&o_lid=53405&o_sch=Email