Canadian Funeral Home Records Online

Steve Fulton, Chairperson of the Niagara Peninsula Branch of the OGS, writes that the Morse & Sons Funeral Home Records Index is now online.

He would like to thanks the volunteers who have spent countless hours working on this project. You can visit their website http://ogs.on.ca/niagara. Please click on the Index Button to do a search.

Finally, he would like to reintroduce the Surname Index on our website as well, and he says you will find it under the Index Button also. Over the next month, the Surname Index will be changed over to work and appear like the Morse & Sons Funeral Home Records Index.

So please visit their website often, as many things will be changing over the next couple of months relating to various indexes.

OGS Conference 2012 - Update

This year's OGS Conference — entitled Borders & Bridges: 1812-2012, and to be held in Kingston, Ontario from June 1-3 — celebrates the War of 1812, fought between Britain, Canada, and the United States.

The conference website, www.ogs.on.ca/conference2012, offers info on accommodations, registration, the program, and Kingston-area research facilities.

On the "Program" page, check out the speakers - their bios, and which lectures they are giving at the conference.

On the "Conference News" page are podcasts featuring interviews with the speakers, and the latest news on Conference events and happenings.

There is still time to register, so if you have been thinking about going but haven't decided as yet, take a moment to read about all the goings-on planned for Conference, and make your decision to join us. You won't be disappointed!

My booklet, Canada and the United States: War of 1812, will be on sale at the Marketplace. Divided into Canada and United States resources, it is full of quick facts, lists of battles fought, timelines, links to informative websites, and includes a guide of must-have books and suggested readings for both sides of the War. Available from vendors Rick and Sandra Roberts of Global Genealogy, and Louise St. Denis of the National Institute for Genealogical Studies, drop in and see for yourself why this booklet should be in every researcher's toolkit.

If the War of 1812 is too specific for your family research, try my booklet on Canada/US migration, Migration: Canada and the United States, also available from Global and NIGS. And if you can't wait until Conference to buy a copy of these booklets, visit them online. Booklets are also available from our American vendor, Leland Meitzler of Family Roots Publishing Company.
See you at Conference 2012!

New/Improved Canadian Websites and Blogs Week 22

Tack My Kin: Tracking the Past in the Present for Posterity http://trackmykin.blogspot.com/ A new blog about American genealogy, it covers the Smets - Smiths, and how they came from Quebec down to Lowell, Massachusetts.

Fiddles & Folklore: Our Acadian-French Heritage http://cajuncharlie.blogspot.com/ Started in April of this year, this blog covers the families of Bourgoyne, Ferbos, Frioux or Fryoux, Landry, Marson, Roccaforte, Smith, Tullier, and others from Iberville, Quebec and the West Baton Rouge Parishes in Louisiana.

Anne Brooke's Ancestry http://www.annebrooks.ca/ The name of Noseworthty in Canada, and the Brooks and Beck families in Prince Edward Island.

Beck, Keffer, Moore & Puterbaugh families from Germany, USA, and Ontario. Also, Kratochvil Ondrejov, Bohemia; Secor/Sicard families from Quebec, Canada. www.cyndislist.com/openurl/?url=310138, http://ks-gt.blogspot.com

Calhoun-McKnight Genealogy http://calhoun-mcknight.blogspot.com/ A blog of narratives and charts concerning the names of Calhoun, McKnight, McGraw, and Bombard; ancestors from Ireland, Scotland, England, and Quebec who settled in the northeastern US, mainly New England.

Harrison Family History http://harrisonfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/ History of the Harrison family of Egton, Glaisdale, and Lyth, North Yorkshire and Toronto Gore Township, Peel County, Ontario, Canada.

Hewgill Family History http://hewgillfamilyhistory.blogspot.com/ A history of the Hewgill Family of Glaisedale, North Yorkshire and Toronto Gore Township, Peel County, Ontario, Canada.

The Blaney Family - Birmingham to Canada http://birminghamtocanada.blogspot.ca/ A history of the Blaney family as well as the Elcocks, Cheffins, Langley, Bellingham, Welch, Lewis and Barnes families across Canada.

The Blog of Russian Genealogist ~ The Only English Blog about Genealogy in Russia and ex-USSR http://russianmemory.org/ Semionoff Vitaly lives in Moscow, and he can provide you with first-class genealogy research if you speak English, French, German, Spanish, or Polish.

Booklets
 
I have just published two booklets - The War of 1812: Canada and the United States, and Migration: Canada and the United States.

They are available for purchase through Global Genealogy at http://globalgenealogy.com, the National Institute of Genealogical Studies at http://www.genealogicalstudies.com/, and now, in the U.S., from the Family Roots Publishing Company at http://www.familyrootspublishing.com/.

For more on the booklets, go to http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2012/01/booklet-1-war-of-1812-canada-and-united.html and http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2012/01/booklet-2-migration-canada-and-united.html

OGS "Families" – February 2012 Issue

Photo – A cover photo by Janet Iles of the Greenwood Cemetery in Owen Sound, which was once known as the “People's Cemetery”. Read more about its history in “On the Cover” on page 34 of this issue.

The Ontario Genealogical Society's journal, Families (of which I am the editor) was released in February of this year.

As usual, there were two themes to this issue – Ontario Cemeteries, and Ontario Heritage.

Cemeteries

The excerpt was from the book, A Better Place: Death and Burial in Nineteenth-Century Ontario, by Susan Smart in which Chapter 6: The Establishment of Cemeteries in Three Towns (the three towns were Peterborough, Kingston, and Niagara-on-the-Lake) was reprinted in full. Plus, a book review was written about the book on page 32.

To continue the cemetery theme, two more articles about Ontario - Rambles Around Some Halton-Peel Cemeteries by Dorothy Kew, in which she gives an excellent review (with photos) of cemeteries of Halton-Peel, and an article, Changing Gravestone Motifs in Quinte and Beyond by Peter Johnson, in which he describes the “changing motif” on gravestones through the centuries – and there are fourteen photos in the paper!

Ontario Heritage

Three papers were published in acknowledgement of Ontario Heritage Day in February, and they were - Family History of a Caribbean Canadian by Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh, in which he traces the life of Tom Ashby; Why and When Had Mary Ann and Joseph Whiteley Moved to Grey County by Catherine Whiteley, in which she traces the life of George Forbes; and Hunting for Hidden History: How Slavery Came to the Town of York by Hilary Dawson, in which she write an account of slavery in York Township.

One other paper, Letters Home: Upper Canada to England by Dr. Bill Mills, give a very gripping account of a homesick Christopher Stokes writing home to his family in Nottinghamshire, England.

Families is available only to members of the Ontario Genealogical Society. There are two membership packages available – a six month term for $35.00, or a full year for $60.00. Memberships are available at www.ogs.on.ca/membership.php

Full issues of Families, including an index, is also available for the years 1962 to 2006 through the “Members Only” portal at

www.ogs.on.ca/membersonly/mem_sign_in.php.

Chris Paton is Coming to Ottawa!

When Chris Paton came to Toronto last year to speaker at a full day workshop, my plans didn't allow me to attend the meeting, but I will be at the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa in Ottawa at their conference this fall because Chris will be the featured speaker!

I can hardly wait since my maiden name is BARCLAY from Cleish, Kinrossshire, Scotland, and I have been doing research on the Barclay's in the area for 20 years.

I must say a few words about the BIFHSGO conference – I believe it is the best Anglo-Celtic conference held in North America today.

I have attended every conference for the past 6 years, and I have come away from every conference with a new way to look at doing research on a particular subject, I have had delightful talks with fellow genealogists, and the size, and variety in their marketplace is outstanding!

If you are able to come to the conference, it will be held from Sept 14 to the 16 of September, 2012 at the Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa.

Go to http://bifhsgo.ca/

Dunnville Heritage Day

Dunville, Ontario will hold it's heritage day on Saturday, April 28, at the Dunnville Public Library. The theme of the day will be the area's railroads!

Dunville was important because not only did people travel by rail for business, and pleasure, but some of them migrated from sounthern Ontario to the United States Midwestern cities in the 19th and 29th centuries.

Special exhibits will be presented by the Hamilton and Buffalo (TH&B) Railway Historical Society, the Haldimand Museums and Archives, the No. 6 RCAF Dunnville Museum, and the Haldimand Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society.

For more information, email genealogydpl@yahoo.ca.

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