The Ottawa Genealogist

The January-March 2013 issue of The Ottawa Genealogist has just been released, and I received my copy the other day.

Here are some articles of interest –

Sarah Belding/Beldin/Belden (alais Belvin or Dekdubsa) wife of Benjamin Burt is an article byEditor Ed Kipp, and these people are his 6th Great-Grandparents.

And Early Bytown (Ottawa) Settlers Index by Jim Stanzell in which he, in this issue, features surnames the start with “C”.

There is an Information column where it says, for example, that James Cuthertson “Work. Rideau Canal”, Patrick Costello has the information that says that he has a “brother in Ireland”, and William Calder is “age 30”. This could prove very helpful in your research. It is almost like reading a city directory of sorts, and it is fully sourced!

It pays to go through the two pages of Branch Library Additions on pages 42 and 43 because they may have some books in the library that may interest you. They have some books that interest me, and the next time that I am down to the Ottawa City Archives, I am going to look them up because some of the titles interest me, and the research that I do.

The web site of the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society is http://ogsottawa.on.ca

Also, don’t forget the Genealogy Fair that they will be having at City of Ottawa Archives on May 4, 2013.

The website for this is at http://ogsottawa.on.ca/ottawa-genealogy-2013

Genealogy Fair

There will be a Genealogy Fair at the London Public Library, Westmount Branch, 3200 Wonderland Rd. S. London from Saturday, 16 Feb 2013 from 9:00 am to 5:00 pm.

The Westmount Branch is planning a Genealogy Fair in honour of Heritage Week. For details, please check with staff .

No Registration Required

Feel free to drop in anytime during the day.

The web site for information is at www.londonpubliclibrary.ca/research/genealogy

New Brunswick Genealogy Society Has a New Website

This bit of news slipped by me, and I hadn’t noticed that the New Brunswick Genealogical Society has a new web site.

They offer FREQUENTLY ASKED QUESTIONS (FAQ's) which answers all the questions that you have about the NBGS.

They also have some interesting online indexes like the First Families Index.

The daughter of my 4x great grandfather Andrew BARCLAY (a Loyalist in Shelburne, Nova Scotia), whose name was Jane BARCLAY, married Dr. John Boyd, and they moved to Saint John, New Bruswick shortly after they were married. Both of their name are included in the “First Families Index" of surnames containing 104,626 entries. What a resourse!

They also have area death records online, surname research that is being conducted, information about their newsletter Generations, and a Forum that covers Home Children.

Go to the new web site at www.nbgs.ca

If you want to do some research in New Brunswick records, I would suggest that you combine this site with the New Brunswick Archives web site at http://archives.gnb.ca/Archives/Default.aspx?culture=en-CA where you can search 3,048,551 names from 30 databases!

Summer Day Camps

We are starting to think of summer already, and summer camps.

There will be a summer camp for children ages 6 to 10, and the Canadian Museum of Civilization will challenge your child’s imagination with a week of fun and learning — in a bilingual environment.

The camp will be held from

July 15 to 19, 2013

July 22 to 26, 2013

August 12 to 16, 2013

August 19 to 23, 2013

The fee is $250 for non-members, and $225 for museum members.

Registration starts on February 18 at 9 a.m

For information, you can call 819-776-7014, or you can go to information@civilization.ca

UPDATE! FREE Ancestry.ca

Ancestry.ca is offering FREE access to the Canadian Marriage Collections from Feb. 14 to 18th in honour of Valentine’s Day!

The press release says –

“No matter what your relationship status, Valentine’s Day is a time to reflect on the love shared by our ancestors, without whom we wouldn’t exist today. To celebrate Valentine’s Day, Ancestry.ca, Canada’s leading family history website, has dug deep into its vast collection of historical documents and discovered that Canada has long been a nation of serial romantics.

For some, Valentine’s Day involves a candle-lit dinner, but that isn’t enough for some! Yet records show that many Canadians honoured the holiday in a more committed fashion, with over 13,000 couples between 1608 and 1948 affirming their love with a February 14th wedding.

To commemorate this special day, Ancestry.ca is offering free access to its collection of historical Canadian Marriage records. Records in this collection date as far back as 1621 and contain key information about the newlyweds and their parents; information that can help expand an existing family tree and allow you to better understand the love birds in your family’s history”.

Go to http://search.ancestry.ca/search/group/Canada_Marriages?o_iid=54249&o_lid=54249&o_sch=Web+Property

UELAC Conduct Online Survey

Robert C. McBride UE, Editor of The Loyalist Gazette and UELAC Dominion President has sent this press release out last evening -

“As every organization should do, the UELAC is reviewing its communications with members and others. Please take this short survey to tell us how we are reaching you and for those who receive it, in more detail, your thoughts about The Loyalist Gazette.

Those who took the test version said it took about five minutes, but we would appreciate you taking a little longer to add a comment or three. For those who already took the survey as part of the test group, there is no need to take it again. Once you have taken the survey, if you wish to change any of your answers, use the same computer and just click on the survey link again to reenter the survey and make changes.

The world around us changes. We need to be mindful of those changes, and to move with them, but in a way that can best serve your interests.

The survey will be open until end of day Sunday March 3, 2013. Please help us by telling us what you think”.

To take the survey now, go to www.surveymonkey.com/s/MSR7QVZ

LAC Postcast: Home Children

The Library and Archives Canada has just released its sixth podcast episode, and this time it’s on the Home Children.

The the press release say “LAC Project Manager and Genealogist Marthe Séguin-Muntz along with John Sayers of the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa talk about the lives of Canada’s Home Children. They discuss some of the incredible stories of hardship and prosperity in early Canada, share a wealth of resources available at LAC and provide helpful research tips and tools to discover your family history”.

Subscribe to the podcast episodes using RSS or iTunes, or just tune in at: Podcast – Discover Library and Archives Canada: Your History, Your Documentary Heritage.

To go to the postcasts, click on www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/news/podcasts/Pages/home-children.aspx

If you choose not to listen to the postcasts, there is a transcript of the talk on the same page as the postcast.