Museum of Civilization Will Acquire the Empress of Ireland Collection

The museum will acquire the artifacts of the passenger ocean liner the Empress of Ireland which sank on May 29, 1914 in the St. Lawrence River just off of Quebec City. It had been broadsided by the Storstad, a Norwegian coal carrier.

It carried 1,477 passengers, and 1,012 died on that day.

The collection will include nearly 500 artifacts recovered from the site.

You can read the entire story at
www.ottawacitizen.com/Museum+Civilization+finally+acquires+Empress+Ireland+collection/7461001/story.html

The passenger and crew list is on this site at www.sea-viewdiving.com/shipwreck_info/empress_home/passengerindex.htm

Archives of Ontario - More Real Genealogy Stories Needed

The Archives of Ontario recently launched their first Real Genealogy Stories Display featuring OGS member Debbie Watt. The story of her ancestor is in the Reading Room.

Real Genealogy Stories, is a new initiative to promote genealogy research done by OGS members at the Archives of Ontario. Selected participants will be asked to fill two of our state-of-the-art, exhibition quality cases in the Reading Room for the purpose of highlighting their family history and records held by the Archives of Ontario.

Exhibitions will be on display for three months and will also be featured on the Archives of Ontario website, which is frequented by millions of visitors. This will allow further people to experience a family history who may not be able to visit in person.

This program is open to OGS members only and can be a chance for you to display your hard work and genealogical evidence.

If you are interested in participating, fill out the application form available in the Members Only area and mail back to the address on the form.

All questions about the Real Genealogy Stories project may be directed to the Archives of Ontario. Call 416.327.1600 or email reference@ontario.ca.

The next deadline is November 30th!

For more information, go to the Archives of Ontario website at www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/index.aspx, or to the Ontario Genealogical Sociey website at www.ogs.on.ca

Generous Genealogists

There is a new FREE service called Generous Genealogists.

It is being operated by Mark Rabideau, an Association of Professional Genealogists member. 

He is looking for volunteers to donate their time to provide research, networking, and coaching to the genealogy community at large. He is building on the work that use to be done by the now defunct Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness members.
Generous Genealogists is at http://generousgenealogists.com

All Souls Event at Vancouver’s Mountain View Ceme

A number of events will be held at Vancouver’s Mountain View Cemetery from October 27 to November 1, 2012, and they are –

Saturday, October 27 from 6:00 to 10:00 pm

Music, warming fires, and fragrant teas comfort the living, and public shrines remember the dead. Inside the Celebration Hall you will find space and materials to craft your own personal memorials.

Sunday, October 28 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

Threshold Choir performance in the Celebration Hall. The all-women Threshold Choir honours the ancient tradition of singing at the bedsides of people who are struggling, some with living, some with dying.

Tuesday, October 30 from 7:00 to 9:00 pm

Film screening of the 2006 documentary “Forever” about Pere-Lachaise Cemetery in Paris, France.

Thursday, November 1 from 7:00 pm to 9:00 pm

The Orkestar Slivovica Balkan Brass Band performance and procession through the shrines to honour the dead.

The Mountain View Cemetery is located at 5455 Fraser St, Vancouver, BC V5W 2Z3 (entrance at 39th Ave). Their phone number is 604.325.2646

An archived list of burials at Mountain View Cemetery is available here http://former.vancouver.ca/commsvcs/NONMARKETOPERATIONS/MOUNTAINVIEW/burials/index.htm
Follow this link to use the Mountain View Cemetery search on VanMap. If you use an iPad, iPhone, or iPod touch, you can download an app from the Cemetery website to search cemetery records by name and zoom in on the grave site. An Android app is coming soon.

You can go to these sites for more information -

Mountain View Cemetery (Vancouver)
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Mountain_View_Cemetery_(Vancouver)

Find a Grave - Mountain View Cemetery and Crematorium
www.findagrave.com/php/famous.php?page=cem&FScemeteryid=1968309

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