Canadian Week in Review 22 July 2013

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

Websites

No new website this week.

Blogs

No new blogs this week.

Facebook, Videos, You Tube

Perth County Branch Facebook https://www.facebook.com/PerthCountyBranchOGS

This is a current page, with up-to-date news items. 

Newspapers Articles of  the Week

ReviewWinnipeg walking tours offer insight into city's history and culture www.cbc.ca/manitoba/scene/other/2013/07/19/walking-tours Walk through the city’s financial district called The Exchange District. The banks the use to line the street have now been turned into nightclubs and bars.  

Nova Scotia, Canada: as bonny as the homeland www.telegraph.co.uk/travel/destinations/northamerica/canada/10191234/Nova-Scotia-Canada-as-bonny-as-the-homeland.html Travel with Nigel Richardson as he tours Nova Scotia.

Ag Museum hopes to hold on to history www.portagedailygraphic.com/2013/07/19/ag-museum-hopes-to-hold-on-to-history The Manitoba Agricultural Museum hopes to save a Canadian Pacific Railway water tower and Manitoba Pool grain elevator. Both building require new roofs.

Get out of the city and get in touch with history www.leaderpost.com/travel/city+touch+with+history/8671470/story.html

Read about the historical town of Gravelbourg, Saskatchewan. Its motto is ‘a touch of Europe in the Prairies’.

New smartphone app to help users explore Canadian history htto://www.calgaryherald.com/technology/smartphone+help+users+explore+Canadian+history/8667239/story.htmlNational online voting is underway as Canadians help choose the content for a new smartphone app.  

Story of the Week

Who is Shelly Glover?

So who is Shelly Glover, the new Minister of Heritage in the cabinet of Prime Minister Stephen Harper.

Well, she is from Manitoba, and she has served as Parliamentary Secretary for Finance, Indian and Northern Affairs, and Official Languages. She has also been an Associate Member on the Standing Committee on Canadian Heritage.

So, she should have a grasp on the problems with the 1921 Canadian Census, and the state of the Library and Archives Canada. To date, I haven’t seen anything that she has said about either the census or the LAC. .

In fact, she has said that her first order of business is “learning her portfolio, immersing herself in briefings, meeting stakeholders and hiring staff. It’s a lot of work – but the first words out of her mouth over the phone from Ottawa involve her excitement over the tremendous opportunity”.

That is what the Globe and Mail reported in an article in the July 20^th edition of the paper - www.theglobeandmail.com/arts/shelly-glover-cultures-new-cop/article13319750/?page=2

There is a very, very short video on the Internet with Minister Glover on www.cbc.ca/news/canada/manitoba/story/2013/07/15/mb-glover-bergen-harper-government-cabinet-manitoba.html

Maybe the first question that she will have to answer in Question Period, once parliament resumes in the fall, will be about the 1921 census!

Reminder: Check out Canadian Week in Review every Monday for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada. It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada! The next post will be 29 July, 2013

UPDATE: 1842 Census of Canada East and Canada West

On Friday, I posted that the LAC had released the 1842 Census of Canada East (Quebec) and Canada West (Ontario), but I did not say that only certain areas (districts and sub-districts) were enumerated.

The following districts are available in Canada West -

Bathurst

Gore

Johnstown

London

Newcastle

Niagara

Ottawa

Toronto (City)

1842 Census for Canada West: Districts and Sub-districts is at www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1842-canada-west/Pages/census-districts-sub-districts.aspx

The following areas are complete in Canada East -

Beauharnois

Berthier

Chambly

Champlain

Deux-Montagnes

Dorchester

Dorchester-Bellechasse

Drummond

Huntingdon

Huntingdon-Chambly

Lotbinière

Missisquoi

Montréal

Ottawa

Portneuf

Québec

Richelieu

Rimouski

Rouville

Saguenay

Shefford

Sherbrooke

Terrebonne

1842 Census for Canada East Districts and Sub-districts is at www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1842-canada-east/Pages/census-districts-sub-districts.aspx

Muskoka Parry Sound Genealogy Group

On Thursday August the 15, 2013, there will be a meeting held by the Muskoka Parry Sound Genealogy Group from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the Huntsville Public Library, Huntsville, Ontario.

The topic will be British Home Children, and the speakers will be Bernardo Homes by Carol Black and Quarrier Homes by Dona Crawford.

The Muskoka Parry Sound Genealogy Group was formed in 1985, and it covers  both the Muskoka and Parry Sound Districts of Ontario, Canada .

On their site they have maps of Muskoka Townships, and Parry Sound Townships,

Cemetery Databases online.

Their website is www.mpsgg.com

Censuses of Canada West and Canada East, 1842

In this notice received yesterday, here are the 1842 Canadian Census for Canada West and Canada West -

“Library and Archives Canada is pleased to announce that Canadians can now access the Census of Canada West, 1842 as well as the Census of Canada East, 1842 online. In 1841, Upper Canada was renamed Canada West, whereas Lower Canada became Canada East. These two jurisdictions are now known as the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.

Each census is partly nominal and contains the names of heads of family, their occupation and the number of residents for each family.

For the Canada West (Ontario) Census, go to

www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1842-canada-west/Pages/1842-canada-west.aspx

For the Canada East (Quebec) census, go to www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1842-Canada-East/Pages/about-census.aspx

Special Interest Groups

The Ontario Genealogical Society has, at present, four Special Interest Groups (SIGs).

A SIG is a permanent group of OGS Members with an interest in some other topic, such as a geographic location outside Ontario (e.g. immigrants from a particular country), an ethnic or cultural group (e.g. natives or a particular fraternal organization), or an event (e.g. a particular emigration scheme).

Currently, the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are

Irish Palatines - http://www.ogs.on.ca/ip-sig

Ireland - www.ireland.ogs.on.ca

Scottish  - Currently, there isn’t a website for the Scottish SIG, but you can contact scottishsig@ogs.on.ca

British Home Child - www.ogs.on.ca/SIG-BHC/index.htm

If you are interested in joining this SIG or taking on a role of responsibility, please contact OGS President, Shirley Sturdevant president@ogs.on.ca.

There is an interest in establishing a Huguenot SIG and a Métis SIG; both are currently seeking the necessary 25 Members.

E-mail the Provincial Office http://provoffice@ogs.on.ca if you would like to see one of these formed.

The website is www.ogs.on.ca/branches/sig.php

Toronto Star Obituaries 1999 - April 2000, February 2001

The obituaries from the Toronto Star have recently been updated on Ancestry.ca.

Over 17,000 images have been added to the database, and the database contains more than 98,500 names

Go to http://search.ancestry.ca/search/db.aspx?dbid=3888

Call for papers

From a post on the Regina Public Library blog, comes this news - 

Readers are invited to submit an article about any aspect of Saskatchewan’s history for possible inclusion in the Spring-Summer 2014 issue of Saskatchewan History, a publication from the Saskatchewan Archives Board.

The deadline for submission of articles for our Spring-Summer 2014 issue is December 13, 2013.

At this time, we seek submissions including: scholarly papers that may be peer-reviewed; feature articles of varying lengths; photo essays; and book reviews about literature related to the history of Saskatchewan and the prairie provinces.

A copy of the magazine’s submission guidelines can be viewed on our website at www.saskarchives.com.

Submissions can be forwarded electronically to saskhistory@archives.gov.sk.ca.

For more information, contact Nadine Charabin, Publication Coordinator, by phone at 306-933-5832, or by email at saskhistory@archives.gov.sk.ca.

New Minister for Department of Heritage

The now-former Heritage Minister, James Moore, was replaced with Shelly Glover as the new Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages during yesterday’s federal government cabinet shuffle.

Minister Glover, a Métis, is the Member of Parliament for the riding of Saint-Boniface in Manitoba.

Her profile says that “Prior to entering federal politics, Mrs. Glover served as a member of the Winnipeg Police Service for almost 19 years. She had a diverse career in a variety of positions including undercover work, child abuse investigations, youth crime and gang investigations, and general patrol. Mrs. Glover has a high level of proficiency in the French language and was the first female and bilingual spokesperson appointed by her department”.

While we welcome Minister Glover to her new post, you will notice that there is nothing in her profile which would lead anyone to believe that she will be sympathetic to the genealogy community, the Library and Archives Canada, or the 1921 Canadian Census (and its release), as was the impression given by her predecessor Minister Moore, who is now the new Minister of Industry.

But time will tell ...

Toronto Heritage Lecture

The 2013 Toronto History Lecture, titled Mary Mink: The Making of a Myth, will explore the sometimes blurred line between historical fact and historical fiction. James Mink was a successful Black businessman in Toronto in the 1840s and 1850s. His story is one of the best known tales of Black Torontonians in the 19th century, told and retold many times in newspapers and books.

In the 1990s, his story was made into a TV movie, Captive Heart: the James Mink Story, which was broadcast in Canada and the United States. In the screen version of events, Mink arranges for a white man to marry his daughter Mary and then stages a daring rescue when her husband whisks her off to the American South and sells her into slavery. The movie is said to be “based on historical records”, but as Guylaine Pétrin found out through her research, records can lie.

Admission is free, but reservation is required.

Please join us again this year in spreading the word about the Toronto History Lecture. It will be held on August 7th at 7:30 pm at the City of Toronto Archives and is presented jointly by the Archives and the Toronto Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society.

For further details, including a map and driving directions to the Archives at 255 Spadina Road, visit http://conta.cc/187ZUcY. Questions may be directed to info@torontofamilyhistory.org  or Paul Sharkey (City of Toronto Archives) at 416-392-5561.

We look forward to unravelling the true story of Mary Mink with you on August 7th.

Canadian Week in Review 15 July 2013

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

Websites

No new web sites this week.

Blogs

Doukhobor Photos http://doukhoborphotos.blogspot.ca  Yvonne Demoskoff , a  Canadian blogger, has a new blog which is “ showcasing vintage "orphan" photographs of Doukhobor people in Canada”.

Facebook, Videos, You Tube

Conference 2014 is being hosted by Niagara Peninsula Branch of the OGS and will run from May 1-4, 2014 at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario.

Prepare for your visit by checking out their video at www.ogs.on.ca/conference2014/index.php

Newspapers Articles of the Week

A couple of weeks ago, I made note of a bylaw in Brant County (Ontario) which did not allow etchings on the back of gravestones, this is the way that Koreans mark their genealogy of the departed.  

News has come now that the Brant councillors have approved a revised cemetery bylaw that will allow genealogical writing on the reverse of headstones.

The story is covered in the newspaper www.brantfordexpositor.ca/2013/07/02/new-bylaw-allows-etchings-on-back-of-monuments

New Maryland Historical Trust sign to recognize Acadian heritage on the shore http://maryland.newszap.com/crisfieldsomerset/123293-92/new-maryland-historical-trust-sign-to-recognize-acadian-heritage-on-the-shore?printerfriendly=true  Nearly 260 years ago, a small group of Acadians

refugees landed on the shores of Maryland.  On Sunday, July 28 at 3:00 p.m, in the Manokin River Park, a Maryland Historical Trust Sign will be unveiled to recognize this fact.

One woman’s passion for genealogy www.gulfnews.ca/Community/2013-06-26/article-3293227/One-woman&rsquos-passion-for-genealogy/1  See how Claudia Lawrence from Port aux Basques, Newfoundland has put her family history together back to her great-great-grandfather. 

Story of the Week

Museums, library and archives facilities in Canada have been having a hard time lately.

First was the flood in Alberta which completely wiped out the Museum of the Highwood in High River. Now I hear that the people of High River are getting first class help from the conservation people from Calgary. They have come down to help the staff at the High River museum decide what to keep and what to throw away, and to get the museum back on its feet again.

Go to the www.museumofthehighwood.com to read the latest update on the Museum of the Highwood.

Then we had the news of the terrible disaster at Lac Megantic, in the Eastern Townships in Quebec, with the runaway train accident that occurred early Saturday morning last week. In addition to the astounding loss of life, there has been the fact that the town’s library and archives has been lost in the fire which engulfed the town. 

Read the story at http://metronews.ca/news/canada/737250/library-archives-destroyed-in-train-disaster

And then just yesterday, I heard that the Thistalalh Memorial Library at Bella Bella, a British Columbia remote First Nations village on the province’s northwest coast, has been destroyed by fire. The library was housed in a building which also was home to the village’s general store, Alexa's restaurant, and the Koeye Cafe.

It is covered by the CBC in their story at www.cbc.ca/news/canada/british-columbia/story/2013/07/12/bc-bella-bella-fire.html?cmp=rss

Reminder: Check out Canadian Week in Review every Monday for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada. The next post will be posted 22 July, 2013

OGS Conference 2014

The OGS Conference 2014 will be held at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario (near Niagara Falls) May 1^st to May 4^th. It will be sponsored by the Niagara  Peninsula Branch OGS.

And already there is a video on the site www.ogs.on.ca/conference2014/index.php, and you can see what is available in the immediate area.

Watch for more news on the conference. It sounds as if it is going to be exciting! 

Canadian Week in Review

Reminder: Check out Canadian Week in Review every Monday for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada. The next post will be Monday 15 July, 2013

First military draft of the Second World War

On July 13, 1940, the Canadian government announced the first conscription of the Second World War for 40 days' compulsory military training on or before September 15 by the first draft under the National Mobilization Bill.

The National Mobilization Bill arose because of the stunning German victories in Belgium and France, and we felt, that as a nation, we should get ready to repel the German Forces, if they ever decided to invade out shores. The act enabled the government to requisition the property and services of Canadians for home defence.

Single men between 21 and 34 would be called up first for training. This would affect approximately 800,000 Canadians.

It was modified in August 1942 to permit the government to send conscripts overseas via an order in council after a plebiscite in April 1942. In 1944, the government passed such an order.

To read about the National Mobilization Bill in the newspapers of the day, go to www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/newspapers/canadawar/conscription_e.shtml

The individual forms are available but they cannot be released until the person has been dead for 20 years. It will cost $40.00 to get access to the record. You also need a death certificate, or an obituary notice can be accepted.

You can send inquiries to Census Pension Searches Unit, Census Operation  Division, Statistics Canada, B1E-34 Jean Talon Bldg, Tunney’s Pasture, Ottawa, ON K1A 0T6  

Bayfield Library Grand Opening

A press release was just received by this office -

Bluewater, Ontario - Please join the Municipality of Bluewater and the Huron County Library in celebrating the Grand Opening of the new Bayfield Library. This event will take place on Saturday, July 13, 2013, with ribbon cutting taking place at 11 AM.

The new library, located at 18 Main Street, was designed by Skinner & Skinner Architects, and build by D&G Construction. A large program room, comfortable reading space with a fireplace, and computer stations are features included to make this an inviting space for the community.

Friends of the Bayfield Library will be providing FREE hot dogs and refreshments during the day. They will also be unveiling their plans for a new reading garden for the library.

For further information please contact: Jennifer Zoethout, Branch Services Librarian, Huron County Library at 519.482.5457 ext. 3

To go to their Facebook page, go to www.facebook.com/pages/Friends-of-Bayfield-Library/346776925360848