Breaking the Silence: British Home Children in Canada

For immediate release

April 3, 2013

Breaking the Silence: British Home Children in Canada

Ottawa-Over 120,000 children came to Canada as domestic servants and agricultural labourers from the British Isles between the 1860’s and the 1940’s. Only now are many Canadians learning that a family member was a Home Child.

The Ottawa Public Library in partnership with Ontario East Home Child Family and the British Home Child Advocacy & Research Association will present information and provide assistance in finding their stories.

Date: Saturday, April 6, 2013

Time: 1:00-4:30 p.m.

Location: Main Library, 120 Metcalfe Street, Mezzanine and Auditorium

For more information, visit www.BiblioOttawaLibrary.ca or contact InfoService at 613-580-2940 or InfoService@BiblioOttawaLibrary.ca.

This program is free and registration is not required.

Ontario GenWeb UPDATE: Cemeteries

The following cemeteries have been updated on March 16, 2013 -

Brant County

- Farringdon Cemetery

- Harley Cemetery

- Mount Hope Cemetery

- St Abner's / Landon / Dickie's Corners Cemetery

Elgin County:

- St Thomas Cemetery

Essex County:

- St Mary's Roman Catholic Cemetery

Hastings County

- Mount Pleasant United Church Cemetery

Huron County

- Dungannon Cemetery Company

- Greenhill Cemetery

Leeds County

- Abandoned (Quaker) Cemetery

- Blanchard Cemetery

- Fulford Cemetery

- Greenbush / Smith's Cemetery

- Hanton Cemetery

- Holmes Cemetery

- Horton Cemetery

- Jelly Farm Cemetery

- Johns(t)on Cemetery

- Kincaid's Corners / Wiltse Pioneer Cemetery

Lincoln County

- St Anne's Church Cemetery

Middlesex County

- Strathroy Cemetery

- Woodland Cemetery

Northumberland County

- Centre Cemetery

- English Line / Tabernacle United Cemetery

Simcoe County

- Rich Hill United Church Cemetery

York County

- Hartman Cemetery

Anne Chamberlain, Deb Belcher, Alison Mitchell-Reid, Jim Anderson, Lorna Eggert, Marilyn Whiting, Sharon Mattiuz, and Tom Thompson shpuld be thanked for the indexing, and thanks should be given to Anne Chamberlain, Nancy Ross-Hill & Kevin Ross, Georgia Kovalik, Brian Smith, Joanne Bushell, Norma Falconer, W. Blanchard, Carol Ann Best, Dorcas Aunger, Sharon Burkhard, Sharon Mattiuz, John De Lange, Art Currie, and Ken Stephenson for photos of the cementeries.

Go to http://canadacems.blogspot.com/2013/03/ontario-update_16.html

Glace Bay Heritage Museum Society

The Old Town Hall of the Glace Bay Heritage Museum needs your help.

The Old Town Hall will mark its 110th anniversary this year, and the society will be starting phase three of the restoration project — the basement.

The foundation has seriously deteriorated resulting in mould, mildew and bad air quality, and the restoration will be cost nearly $400,000 to fix the foundation.

You may telephone the Old Town Hall at 842-5345 or send a donation to The Glace Bay Heritage Museum Society, PO Box 580, Glace Bay, N.S. B1A 6G4

Or you can go to the website, click http://home.seaside.ns.ca/~gbhms/gift.html

Ancestry.ca UPDATE: Free Access

The publicity department of Ancestry.ca has sent me the news that they will be offering FREE access to their collection of First World War historical records from April 9th to 12th.

This is in recognition of Canada's part in the defeat of the enemy in the Battle of Vimy which was highlighted by me in yesterday's post entitled Pictures and Story of the Week: The Battle of Vimy Ridge at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2013/04/newupdated-canadian-websites-blogs.html

Ancestry.ca UPDATE: Scottish Immigration in the USA and Canada, 1825-1875

Ancestry.ca has put on the database of the David Dobson book Scots in the USA and Canada. 1825-1875.

It records details about Scottish immigrants who came to the U.S. and Canada during the mid- to later-19th century. The information is taken mainly from newspaper accounts, as well as archival documents such as passenger records.

The database may include the following:

•name

•year or date of birth

•place of birth or residence

•father’s name

•spouse’s name

•year or date of death

•place of death

•occupation

There people were skilled workers who were educated, and many of them came from urban industrial backgrounds. They was a great demand for them in the rapidly industrializing cities of North America.

Go to http://search.ancestry.ca/search/db.aspx?dbid=4907

New/Updated CANADIAN Websites, Blogs, Facebook, and Newspaper Articles - 01 April 2013

I have come across the following Canadian websites, blogs, Facebook, and newspaper articles this past week that were of interest to me, and I thought you might be interested in them, too –

Websites

There were no new/improved websites this past week.

Blogs

ActiveHistory.ca (History Matters) http://activehistory.ca This is a blog that has the latest news about people and places in Canadian history.

The Armchair Genealogist, Lynn Palermo, www.thearmchairgenealogist.com, has written an e-book called The Complete Guide to The Family History Interview, and she talks about it in a post entitled, “The Timid Family Historian”. This free e-book is available as a download on her site.

Facebook - Video – YouTube

Jill Ball, a genealogist from Australia, has over a dozen YouTube interviews with “the movers and shakers” at the RootsTech 2013 conference, including oneinterview with Dennis Brimhall, CEO of FamilySearch, at http://geniaus.blogspot.no/2013/03/what-opportunity.html

You can view my own blog posting of Jill’s interviews at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2013/03/jill-ball-and-dennis-brimhall-of.html

Newspaper Articles

A $50,000 project would create a virtual museum to preserve Saskatchewan military history.

The Regina Leader Post reports that the Honourable Kevin Doherty, Saskatchewan’s Minister of Parks, Culture and Sport, wants to create a "virtual" museum that preserves oral history - specifically, the recollections of Saskatchewanians who have served in Canada's military.
www.leaderpost.com/news/military+history+project/8135684/story.html

Grand Pré Renovation Wins Award www.novanewsnow.com/Living/Community/2013-03-23/article-3205318/Grand-Pre-renovation-wins-award/1The owners of the Rayski House in Grand Pré were recently declared winners in preserving Nova Scotia’s built heritage by Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia.

Editorial: Ottawa's muzzling of librarians' free speech is intolerable www.calgaryherald.com/opinion/editorials/Editorial+Ottawa+muzzling+librarians+free+speech+intolerable/8146848/story.html

Ottawa's deliberate muzzling of federal librarians and archivists—a move which comes complete with a new code of conduct, jargon about "high-risk" activities, threats of discipline, and a hotline to rat out miscreants—is truly chilling.

AND

To go along with this is a post called “The Library and Archives Canada 2013-2014 Report on Plans and Priorities” on John D. Reid’s blog, Anglo–Celtic Connections, http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com/2013/03/lac-rpp-2013-14.html.

Take note of his last sentence on the subject – “For the same period, they target 60% of clients being able to find what they are looking for online. As less than 1% of LAC material is online, that seems like a hugely ambitious target”.

Tracing your family tree: Websites open doors to the stories of our ancestors

Valerie Gibson of Ottawa tells of a story of how her direct ancestors – John and Jane German – died in a rowboat accident in the Hay Bay area near Napanee, Ontario, on their way to a Methodist revival meeting. www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Tracing+your+family+tree/8165562/story.html#ixzz2OvxGTKP7

On another similar note, I just finished editing a paper for the May 2013 edition of the Ontario Genealogical Society’s journal, Families, concerning the Bible Christian Connexion, which was founded in 1815 as an evangelical sect of the Methodist Church.

Pictures and Story of the Week

The Battle of Vimy Ridge

On April 9th, Canadians will commemorate the 96^th anniversary of Vimy Ridge, one of the battles in which Canadians gave of their lives for their country.

There will be many ceremonies that will take place across the country, and overseas in France. Visit http://veterans.gc.ca/eng/feature/vimy-ridge to get a history of the battle, and what it meant to Canada.

Vimy Ridge wall carvings focus of presentation at Eldon House in London, Ontario on April 7^th www.londoncommunitynews.com/whatson-story/2515373-vimy-ridge-wall-carvings-focus-of-presentation-at-eldon-house-april-7

Zenon Andrusyszyn, founder of the Canadian Historical Documentation & Imaging Group (CANADIGM), will provide digital documentation of WWI carvings near Vimy Ridge.

As of this posting, there were only 15 (free) tickets remaining. To register, go to http://vimytunnels.eventbrite.ca/#.

Look for more articles next Monday, April 8^th.

CANADIAN Newspaper Articles Every Monday Morning

Don’t forget to check my blog every Monday morning for my New/Updated CANADIAN Websites, Blogs, and Newspaper Articles.

This week I have put Pictures and Story of the Week on the 96th Anniversary of the Battle of Vimy Ridge, story of a couple who were on their way to a Methodist revival meeting and died in a boating accident, and a Canadian blogger, Lynn Palermo, who has written and published a FREE e-book on writing family history.

So don’t miss the New/Updated Websites, Blogs, and Newspaper Articles blog on Monday April 1st.

It has been a regular blog since April 23rd, 2012.

Elizabeth