New/Updated Websites, Blogs, and Articles – 26 November 2012

Here are some websites, blogs, and articles that I have come across the past week that were of interest to me, and I thought you might be interested in them, too –

Family History Facilitated http://familyhistoryfacilitated.ca Wayne Shepheard at Family History Facilitated can help you trace your family’s history. He has experience with records of England and Scotland, and Canada. This is a pay site.

Our Ontario www.ourontario.ca/demo/News.html There are over 200 historical newspapers online at this site!

Raised Icelandic www.winnipegfreepress.com/opinion/westview/raised-icelandic-180668621.html The Winnipeg Free Press has an article on Icelanders and Canadians of Icelandic descent who want to know each other's genealogy and where they are from in Iceland.

Library and archives interlibrary loans soon eliminated www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/story/2012/11/06/ottawa-library-and-archives-canada-interlibrary-loans-cancelled.html The CBC has another news report on the Library and Archives Canada stopping interlibrary loans on December 11th. Special Note: Read the first two comments at the end of the report.

Still seeking lost at sea names www.thevanguard.ca/Arts/Cultural-activities/2012-11-18/article-3122683/Still-seeking-lost-at-sea-names/1 The Yarmouth County Vanguard reports that the town is constructing a memorial wall to those people who have lost at sea.

Plotting history’s future www.nelsonstar.com/community/177975161.html Anne DeGrace has a column in The Nelson Star on the Library and Archive Canada where she writes about the 'not so accessible records', for example.

© Elizabeth Lapointe All Rights Reserved

FREE Shipping On My Booklets Until Nov 29th!

FREE Shipping Until Nov 29th!

Family Roots Publishing www.familyrootspublishing.com writes to say that they are offering FREE U.S.A. shipping on all orders totaling $25 or more at their website over the Black Friday – Cyber Monday weekend – and that includes my two resource booklets – The War of 1812: Canada and the United States, and Migration: Canada and the United States.

The site now boasts thousands of genealogy books, maps and supplies, with new items being posted daily. Everything from genealogy dictionaries to Flip-Pal mobile scanners are now available for immediate shipment. The FREE U.S.A. SHIPPING promotion runs through midnight, MST Thursday, November 29, 2012.

It sounds like a good deal to me! While you shop at the store, say “Hello!” to my friend, Leland.

Keeping History Alive

The Herald News has an interesting story this morning in the online paper that could be of interest to genealogical societies across the country..

John Ashton, a historian, has helped to design a number of kiosks in Pictou County (Nova Scotia). They have been placed in the rural parts of the county, and they tell the stories of the communities from the time they were founded to times that are more recent.

To read more about keeping their history alive at http://thechronicleherald.ca/novascotia/193540-kiosks-help-keep-past-alive

The Man Behind the Grey Cup

The annual Grey Cup Football Trophy will be played for between the Western Davison Champions, the Calgary Stampeders, and the Eastern Division Champions, the Toronto Argonauts, on Sunday in Toronto.

The trophy is 100 years old this year. It was Earl Grey, who served as Governor General of Canada from 1904 to 1911, who commissioned and donated the trophy, which bears his name. 

In the spirit of promoting Canadian sports and culture, Lord Grey first intended to donate a trophy for the senior amateur hockey championship in Canada. But Sir Hugh Andrew Montagu Allan beat him to it, and today the Allan Cup continues to serve that role. Not to be deterred from making a name for himself in Canadian sports, Lord Grey donated the Grey Cup as an annual award for the senior amateur football champions, in 1909.

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) holds many resources relating to the history of the Grey Cup. To learn more about the life and activities of Grey himself, you can consult the Albert Henry George Grey, 4th Earl Grey fonds.

LAC is also pleased to feature footage of the first Grey Cup game in 1909 between two Toronto teams, the 1931 final; and the legendary “Mud Bowl” from 1950, on its YouTube channel.

Don’t forget to browse LAC’s football Flickr set at www.flickr.com/photos/lac-bac/sets/72157631613788649

You can visit the Canadian Hall of Fame and Museum at http://www.cfhof.ca

While there, you can visit the following websites –

Football Hall of Famers www.cfhof.ca/page/players

Grey Cup Winners www.cfhof.ca/page/grey_cup_winners

Research at the Museum www.cfhof.ca/page/researchrequest

Irish Protestant Benevolent Society

The 5th Annual Lecture of the Irish Protestant Benevolent Society will take place on Friday, January 18, 7:00 p.m.at the Hall Building, 1455 de Maisonneuve W., Room 1001.01 (10th floor) in Montreal.

The speaker will be Professor Donald Akenson, Queen's University, Kingston, and he will talk about “Wicklow Protestants and the World of Evangelicalism”.

Dr. Donald Akenson is an internationally acclaimed scholar and author who is considered the world's foremost authority on the Irish Diaspora. Akenson received his B.A. from Yale University and his doctorate from Harvard University. He is Professor of History at Queen's University Kingston, Ontario and Beamish Research Professor at the Institute of Irish Studies, University of Liverpool, and Senior Editor of the McGill-Queen's University Press.

As of 2007 his work included eighteen non-fiction books, including more than a dozen about Irish history, and five novels. Akenson won the Grawemeyer Award for God's Peoples (1992) and the Trillium Book Award for Conor: The Biography of Conor Cruise O'Brien (1994). His book on the Bible, Surpassing Wonder (1998), was short-listed for the 1999 Governor General's Award for nonfiction. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Canada and of the Royal Historical Society (UK).

This event is FREE and open to the public.

The webpage is www.irishpbs.ca

New Resorces At Our Ontario

Jess Posgate has sent this news to us, and I thought that you may wish to know about it -

Newmarket Public Library has completed digitizing their newspaper collection, making 125 years of The Era available online with highlighted keyword searching, and it’s available at http://news.ourontario.ca/newmarket
Whitby Public Library digitized an index of vital statistics and have linked them to page images from 140 years of various newspaper titles from the Whitby area. The OCR full text search will be available before the end of the year at http://vitacollections.ca/whitbynews

Further to these, the City of Kawartha Lakes Public Library digitized a catalogue of WWII records, including clippings, photos and vital statistics, and have launched that collection online as well at http://vitacollections.ca/ckl-digitalcollection

The Multicultural History Society of Ontario (MHSO) is at the first stages of a major digitization project and marked the first year by launching a large portion of their oral history collection, including more than 100 interviews with Canadians from a diverse range of ethnic backgrounds, with ongoing transcription underway for full text searches.

The MHSO is working toward digitizing more oral histories as well as hundreds--even thousands--of photographs over the next year is available at http://vitacollections.ca/mhso

You an contact them at http://ourdigitalworld.org

CAUT Launches Canada’s Past Matters Campaign

For immediate release

(Ottawa: November 22, 2012) The Canadian Association of University Teachers (CAUT) has unveiled a national campaign exposing the threats to Canada’s cultural institutions and historic sites and proposing what must be done to reverse the damage.

The “Canada’s Past Matters” campaign will highlight how federal funding cuts and policy changes are putting the survival of libraries, archives, museums and historical sites across the country at risk.

“Our ability as Canadians to know, understand and appreciate our past is at stake because of the federal government’s short-sighted cuts and ill-advised changes to historical programs and services,” CAUT executive director James L. Turk said at a news conference in Ottawa today.

“We’ve launched this campaign because the changes we’re seeing affect not just our members, but all Canadians in very damaging ways,” added Turk. “We cannot chart our future properly unless we know and understand our past. Until government policy is changed, that will be less and less possible for our children and future generations.”

Turk said the five aspects of the campaign are:

Save Library & Archives Canada The federal institution responsible for preserving Canada’s history and cultural heritage is seriously threatened by major budget cuts, service reductions, and a narrowing of its mandate.

Preserve Canada’s Historical Sites A $29 million reduction in the budget for Parks Canada is threatening the future of Canada’s 167 historic and archaeological sites.

Protect Canada’s Public Libraries The inter-library loan program between Library & Archives Canada and regional public libraries is being eliminated along with public internet access in local libraries, making it more difficult for Canadians to access information and knowledge.

Restore Canada’s Local Archives The elimination of the National Archival Development Program has put at risk regional archives and their projects across Canada.

Retain the Canadian Museum of Civilization The government plans to end Canada’s largest and most popular museum – the only museum committed to promoting knowledge and critical understanding of, and appreciation and respect for, human cultural achievements and human behaviour.

For more information about the “Canada’s Past Matters” campaign, visit www.canadaspastmatters.ca


The Canadian Association of University Teachers is the national voice of more than 68,000 academic and general staff at 120 universities and colleges across the country.

You may contact Angela Regnier, Communications Officer at 613.726.5186 (o) or 613-601-6304 (cell), or by email at  regnier@caut.ca