Friday, April 10, 2015

Ontario Jewish Archives


What a complete, and useful archives this is – full of records, and you can research the following topics at the archives -

marriage records

family histories

newspapers and periodicals

cemetery records

synagogue and Jewish fraternal society records

immigration case files created by the Jewish Immigrant Aid Society (JIAS) and the Canadian Jewish Congress (CJC)

ledgers from Jewish shipping agents

military records

Who's Who of Toronto Jewry

Go to their wesite at http://www.ontariojewisharchives.org/

Their Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/OntarioJewishArchives

They have put on another Talbot Times!



The Elgin County Genealogical Society has put another article from the Talbot Times, the society newsletter, on it’s blog at http://elgincountyogs.blogspot.com/

The first article is Scots Coming to Canada, and it can be found at http://www.elginogs.ca/Home/talbot-times-newsletters/talbot-times-1987-september

The second article is Travels of Moses Bevans in the Talbot Times 1988 March and can be found at
http://www.elginogs.ca/Home/talbot-times-newsletters/talbot-times-1988-march

The third article is from the 1988 June of the Talbot Times, and it is entitled A Tragic Accident: The Blacks of Sparta – Buried Alive and tells us about the Black family and a well in a nearby quick sand pit that was on the property, three miles east of Port Stanley.

There are also two articles entitled St. Thomas - The Railway City, and Hodgkinson's Corners to Troy to Aylmer in the newsletter.

As I have written before, this is an excellent idea to get people interested in your society.Treat it as a “lost leader’, like milk in a grocery store. Think of your webpage as a store, and put these articles your front page, so that people can see what you can offer them.

And don’t leave the same articles there, change them around to make it interesting to people.

The website for the June 1988 article is http://www.elginogs.ca/Home/talbot-times-newsletters/talbot-times-1988-june


Thursday, April 9, 2015

April 9 - Vimy Ridge Day in Canada


Vimy Ridge was a battle in which Canadians fought in the First World War. It was part of a larger battle of Arras in northern France. It began on Easter Monday, and about 30,000 Canadians fought at Vimy Ridge and claimed victory. 3,600 Canadians were killed, with many wounded.

There is a special exhibit in London right now until September 2015, and then will travel across the country, and it is called the Souterraine Impression.

This exhibition illuminates the lives of Canadian veterans through the deeply personal carvings and drawings made by soldiers concealed in the allied caves and trenches near Vimy Ridge, France.

Organized by Zenon Andrusyszyn, Souterraine Impressions “will bring reproductions of site-specific artifacts to Canada through contemporary 3-dimensional printing, allowing audiences a rare glimpse at these personal documents created while Canadian soldiers awaited orders to join the now legendary Battle for Vimy Ridge. While not a great military success, the battle has subsequently become for Canada a symbol of national unity, achievement and tremendous sacrifice”.

Visitors will see “a series of "tableaus” containing one of the reproduced carvings, a photograph of the soldier who created it and a short biography. While many of the carvings feature regimental or battalion badges, there are also carvings of hearts, animals and names’.

You can go to the museum in London at http://www.museumlondon.ca/exhibitions:115 to get particulars on the exhibit.

Meanwhile, there are news articles today in the papers, and some of them are -

Honouring the memory of Vimy Ridge
http://www.melfortjournal.com/2015/04/07/honouring-the-memory-of-vimy-ridge

New Vimy Foundation poll reveals majority of Canadians believe 100th anniversary of Vimy Ridge in 2017 should be focus of Canada's Sesquicentennial
http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1514029/new-vimy-foundation-poll-reveals-majority-of-canadians-believe-100th-anniversary-of-vimy-ridge-in-2017-should-be-focus-of-canada-s-sesquicentennial

Three Quarters of Canadians (74%) Believe 100th Anniversary of Vimy Ridge in 2017 Should Be One of Canada’s Most Important Celebrations During Sesquicentennial 
http://www.northumberlandview.ca/index.php?module=news&type=user&func=display&sid=33787

Ninety-eight years later, historian finds ‘missing’ soldiers from the Battle of Vimy Ridge 
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/ninety-eight-years-later-historian-finds-missing-soldiers-from-the-battle-of-vimy-ridge