Queen Victoria's Journals

The Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has issued a very important announcement this morning, and it is about Queen Victoria's Dairy -

“At the age of 13, Queen Victoria became an avid journal writer when her mother gave her a diary to document an upcoming trip to Wales. Her last entry was written more than six decades later, on January 13, 1901, only nine days before her death.

This year, in honour of Queen Victoria’s birth (May 24, 1819) and the Diamond Jubilee of Queen Elizabeth II, all 141 journal volumes (comprised of 43,765 pages) have been digitized and are now available through a courtesy subscription obtained by Library and Archives Canada (LAC), through The Royal Household, and with the assistance of ProQuest.

The project’s website says that “ As well as detailing household and family matters, the journals reflect affairs of state, describe meetings with statesmen and other eminent figures, and comment on the literature of the day. They represent a valuable primary source for scholars of nineteenth century British political and social history and for those working on gender and autobiographical writing.”

Not only have the diaries been digitized, they have been (and will continue to be) transcribed to allow for a keyword search. In fact, The Queen, as Head of State for Canada, did not leave us unmentioned. A keyword search for “canad*” (without the quotation marks) currently retrieves more than 150 results up to 1839!

As the project continues and more years are transcribed and become searchable, this resource will become more valuable.

To access the journals, use any of the public workstations located at 395 Wellington Street in Ottawa or our Wi-Fi connection and visit the website Queen Victoria's Journals www.queenvictoriasjournals.org. You may browse the journals by date or search for keywords”.

The website for the LAC is www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/Pages/home.aspx

The Waterdown East-Flamborough Heritage Society’s Book Fair and Seminar

The 22nd annual Book Fair and Seminar is being held Saturday, November 10th, 2012 from 9:30 am – 3:00 pm, with the Seminar beginning at 10: 30 am. at the Waterdown East-Flamborough Heritage Society. 

The seminar topic will be “The Importance of the Battle of Stoney Creek,” and the speaker will be James E. Elliott, author of “Strange Fatality: The Battle of Stoney Creek”.

Admission for the seminar is $5.00. Reservations will be taken up to November 5th. Fee is payable at the door.

For more information on the Book Sale, Seminar, and placing your reservation, you may contact them by phone at 905.540.5161. They are located at Fellowship Hall, St. James United Church, 306 Parkside Drive, Waterdown

The website is at www.wefhs.myhamilton.ca

Note: If you go on to their site, they have biographies of the Flamborough Nursing Sisters, C.E.F. Honour Roll for the Flamborough Area, Ypres (Menin Gate) Memorial, Leper, West-Vlaanderen, Belgium, and Flamborough Home Children.

They also have the history about The Railway in Waterdown, Postcards of the area, "Let It Snow" (a very well done vignette), and the McGregor family and their impact on the Waterdown area.

They have vertical files, photographs and histories of numerous other local families in the Waterdown Flamborough area.

A Toronto Genealogy Hero

A genealogy hero, Henry Wellisch, Past President Jewish Genealogical Society of Canada (JGS Canada), turned 90 years old on Sept. 22, 2012, and he will be honoured at the meeting tonigh at the Temple Sinai in Toronto at 8 pm (doors open 7:30 pm).

All members and friends are encouraged to attend this event as well as the presentation that follows called “Travelling Over the Pond” with Harvey Glasner and Les Kelman.

To read about this event, go to www.jgstoronto.ca

Breaking Down the Barriers – Hands-On Genealogy Workshop

Heritage Mississauga and the Halton Peel Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society are pleased to present Breaking Down the Barriers, on Saturday November 3rd, 10 am-4 pm, the fourth in their series of Genealogy Days.

This session is a hands-on workshop for those who have hit brick walls in their research. An esteemed panel of three professional workshop facilitators with over 80 years combined experience in genealogy research will provide personal consultations to participants.

Fawne Stratford-Devai, Dorothy Kew, and Jane Watt will be the special speakers.

This is the exciting part of the announcement - For just $10 per ½ hour session participants will meet personally with a consultant who will help them break down barriers to finding their ancestor. Call to reserve your seat today, space is limited. Reservations must be prepaid

The workshop will be held at Historic Robinson Adamson House, located at 1921 Dundas St. W., Mississauga, ON L5K 1R2. You must call 905.828.8411 ext. "0" to reserve your seat. Space is limited.

For more information, please go to www.heritagemississauga.com for Heritage Mississauga, or the Halton-Peel Branch of the OGS at www.halinet.on.ca/sigs/ogshp

Brant County Branch Fall Workshop

On Saturday, October 27, 2012 there will be a fall workshop from 9:30 am to 4:00 pm at the Brant County Branch Library of the OGS at 114-118 Powerline Road, Brantford.

Morning session speaker will be Zig Misiak, and he will talk about “ Six Nations in the War of 1812” from 1- 4 pm, and John Sietsma will talk about “ Using Computers in Your Research”.

It will be $25.00 with lunch if registered by October 24th, and $30.00 at the door + $5.00 for lunch.

To find out more about the workshop, go to the Brant County Branch www.ogs.on.ca/brant/index.html

Perth County Branch Holds October Meeting

Perth County Branch of the OGS in Stratford, Ontario is having their annual meeting on Saturday, 27 October 2012 from 1-4 pm.

The meeting will take place on the Upper Level at the Stratford Public Library, 19 St. Andrew Street, Stratford, and the speaker will be Lynn Matthison. She will talk about family members who fought in the Boer War, India, WWI, WWII and Bosnia, including a picture board and artifacts.

If you have war stories and memorabilia, bring them along as well.

The website is at www.ogs.on.ca/perth

New/Updated Websites, Blogs, and Newspaper Articles - 22 October 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 –

Welland Public Library www.welland.library.on.ca/e-services/local-history-genealogy They have a Genealogy Database (which has family names in Welland , and you can search this database), as well as the Welland Canal History in the Local History Section of the library.

Ancient village along B.C. river reveals 1,300 years of First Nations history www.globalsaskatoon.com/canada/ancient+village+along+bc+river+reveals+1300+years+of+first+nations+history/6442736678/story.html
The Canadian Press has reported that “While the Babine Lake First Nation knew their ancestors' village was there, it's untilled ground for archeologists” until they discover how large, and important the village was in First Nations history. ..

Trans Canada Trail to be completed by 2017
www.sackvilletribunepost.com/Provincial/2012-10-19/article-3103334/Trans-Canada-Trail-to-be-completed-by-2017/1 The Sackville Tribune reports that the people of the Trans Canada Trail that the goal is to have the remaining 6,200 kilometres open in time for Canada's 150th birthday on July 1, 2017.

You can go to the website of the Trans Canada Trail at http://tctrail.ca

Harvesting local history at the library
www.frontenacthisweek.com/2012/10/05/harvesting-local-history-at-the-library Canada is starting to collect stories for the 150th birthday of Canada in 2017, as they are doing in Kingston, Ontario. Read about the story in the Local News Section in the online newspaper.

Tracing women's history www.royalcityrecord.com/technology/Tracing+women+history/7415110/story.html An article by Archie & Dale Miller in The Record, an online newspaper in New Westminster, B.C., shows that genealogy of women is in local groups such as churches, hospitals, and women’s auxiliary history.

History on rails: Royal Canadian Pacific stops in Minot www.minotdailynews.com/page/content.detail/id/569895/History-on-rails--Royal-Canadian---.html Read about the history of the Canadian Pacific Railway in Minot, North Dakota.

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