Halifax Explosion

Although I have no ancestors who died in the Halifax Explosion (December 6, 1917), I have heard enough people talk about it over the years to know what a horrible time it was for the city.

I lived in the North End at one time, and I used to go for walks in Fort Needham Park in which the bells are located (from a church that was destroyed in the explosion), and in doing so, passed the famous Hydrostone houses that were just down the street from me - http://wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Hydrostone.

Born a Haligonian, I was made very much aware of what had happened in Halifax on that fateful day in 92 years ago.

If you would like to visit Halifax through the Internet, go to www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/explosion/explosion.asp. There, you will find the list of those who died, a film about the explosion, personal narratives, and other interesting items all related to the explosion.

One more point of note is that the City of Boston in Massachusetts receives a Christmas tree from the citizens of Nova Scotia for all the help they provided in the aftermath of that catastrophe. Please visit www.gov.ns.ca/natr/extension/Christmastrees/bostontree.htm and
www.boston.com/news/globe/living/articles/2005/11/29/trees_roots_get_lost_in_this_flap
for more on this special relationship.

Petworth Emigration Project

Brenda Dougall Merriman, my friend and fellow genealogy blogger at brendadougallmerriman.blogspot.com, has sent the latest news on the Petworth Emigrants.

Be sure to drop by her blog because she has good and interesting reports on there - from cemeteries, to burial practices in India, to camels in Egypt.

Well-worth the read, even if your don't have ancestors in those areas.

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Colonel George Wyndham, the son of the third Earl of Egremont, was instrumental in the large Petworth Emigration of 1832-1837 to Canada from southeast England.

Wyndham also sponsored emigrations from his estates in Ireland, but only the first was conducted under similar care and conditions as those of his father.

Now, historian Wendy Cameron has uncovered a list of that first group sent from Ireland in 1839 on the ship Waterloo. The list includes names, ages, family members, and their locations in January 1840. The names of most towns and townships are in the old Newcastle District of Upper Canada, but some went on to the United States.

For more information, please visit our Petworth Emigrations website at www.petworthemigrations.com.

We also have a group presence on Facebook called "Petworth Emigrants" at www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=49248715727

Brenda Dougall Merriman, CG

Overland Immigration Records

Before 1908, people were free to move back and forth over the border with the United States.

Beginning in 1908, entry ports were set up along the border in established towns and villages, and records were beginning to be kept. Please remember that there are no records for people whose parents were either born in Canada or had previously resided in Canada - they were considered to be "returning Canadians".

The entry form used was called Form 30 (as opposed to Form 30A, which were Ocean Arrivals), and it was used from 1919 to 1924 for each person crossing the border.

There is one reel of microfilm for people who were rejected entry into Canada: Reel T-15345.

Form 30 was discontinued in 1935, and the large passenger form was reinstated.

Usually the following information was filled out in them -

- Port and Date of Entry

- Name

- Age

- Occupation

- Birthplace

- Race

- Citizenship

- Religion

- Last Permanent Address

- Destination

The records can be browsed online at http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/microform-digitization/006003-110.02-e.php?&q2=1&interval=30&sk=0&&PHPSESSID=ul87it31netclt1vokqiu1i4p5

Ocean Arrivals

Some of you may remember when Ancestry.ca became a partner with the Library and Archives Canada back in 2007, and at the time, they said they would tackle the Canadian Passenger Lists first.

They have done that over the past two years, and the last bit of the puzzle—the Ocean Arrivals (1919-1924)—have now been added to the database.

The Ocean Arrivals is Form 30A, which took the place of those huge passenger lists that we were in various states of "hard-to-use" microfilm at the LAC. And now, they are all online at http://landing.ancestry.ca/intl/canada/passenger/lists.aspx.

So I took a look at the Ocean Arrivals.

First of all, they are individual passenger lists rather than ships' manifests, as the passenger lists were before 1919.

Since they were individual passenger manifests, they are in a semi-alphabteical order, and the following information is included on the form -

- the name of the ship

- the name of port of departure. The most popular ports of departure were Liverpool, England; London, England; Glasgow, Scotland; Antwerp, Belgium; and Southampton, England.

- arrival date in Canada

- the name of port of arrival in Canada. The five most popular ports were Quebec City, Quebec; Saint John, New Brunswick; Halifax, Nova Scotia; Vancouver, British COlumbia; and Victoria, British Columbia

- the name of the passenger

- his or her age at the time of arrival

- gender

- name of the birthplace

- marital status

- present occupation

- intended occupation

- race

- citizenship

- religion

- object of going to Canada

- whether intend to live permanently in Canada

- destination

- name of the nearest relative in the country from which they came

- passport information

These original records are from the Library and Archives Canada, where the microfilm is kept.