Changes Coming to Archives of Ontario Reading Room

They are calling it an “enhancement” to their Reading Room, as they will be greening their print services and adding internet access to all public computer stations in the Rotunda.

They will be

reducing the number of printers in the Reading Room and placing a 20 page limit on printing. Patrons are asked to support the Green Initiative by emailing the materials to a personal email or saving the research materials to a USB stick

But, all printing charges will remain the same. All printing will be picked up and paid for at reception.

Enhanced Internet Access:

With internet access available at all computer stations in the Reading Room, researchers will now be able to

•access the new Vital Statistics data base for 1915 Birth Records, 1940 Death Records and 1930 Marriage Records (in-house only)

•send research material via email attachments (e.g., VS database images, microfilm images, and information from webpages and web documents)

•save large size images and other research materials to an USB stick - free of charge. (You must supply your own USB stick.)

*Size limits may apply

The Archives of Ontario website is at www.archives.gov.on.ca/en

35e anniversaire de la Société de généalogie de l'Outaouais

There will be a day of celebration of the 35th anniversary de la Société de généalogie de l'Outaouais on Saturday, April 27, 2013 at the Limbour Community Centre, 288 Lebaudy, Gatineau, Quebec right across the river from Ottawa.

The schedule of the day includes –

9 am The address by Honorary President, Mr. Aurelius La Madeleine

9:15 am Launch of the DVD version of L'Outaouais généalogique, and the CD Release of the Recueil des ascendances de nos membres

9: 30 pm Opening of Exhibit Hall

10 pm Lecture: The ancestor of the family by Denis Bussieres Bussieres

12 pm Lunch

1 pm Lecture: From Quebec to Sidi Bel Abbes through Tours - The unlikely offspring Geneviève Lépine said Lalime by Raymond Ouimet

2:30 pm Tales and Legends of the Ottawa Storytellers Circle of Gatineau

3:39 pm Closing of the exhibition hall

There will be a Gala Dinner at 7:00 pm

We wish everyone of the society a Happy Anniversary!

The website is at www.genealogieoutaouais.com

Call for Speakers – OGS Conference 2014

The Conference 2014 at Niagara Branch are looking ahead to line up speakers for Conference 2014 in St. Catharines at Brock Universit. The conference will be held May 1st to 4th, 2014.

The conference theme will be GENEALOGY WITHOUT BORDERS.

They say, in part, that “Although borders are an important aspect in defining a country, they also often delineate an area of genealogical study. In the past, genealogists often had to travel across borders to complete family histories in their genealogical area. Today's genealogist can often cross these borders while sitting at a desk. We can trace the movement of settlers from European countries and from the American states and other provinces to Ontario. We invite seminar proposals with this theme in mind.

Our Saturday and Sunday, May 3rd and 4th seminar sessions are generally fifty minutes length with ten minutes for discussion. We also have workshops on Friday, May 2nd, which are of three hours duration. We invite lecture and workshop submissions on a broad range of genealogical topics which will help to solve family history problems by any of the following methods

Use of technology in genealogy (DNA, internet, software etc.)

Records at a distance (especially Eastern USA and European)

War records, 1812, W.W. 1

Land Records, census, directories

Early Ontario records, prior to 1869 and their repositories

Proposals are also solicited for the broader genealogical categories including the histories associated with the War of 1812, methodology, analysis and problem solving used in genealogy

If your proposal is accepted, you will be notified early summer and we will request that you provide a 4 page summary of your talk or workshop for our syllabus by Dec. 31st, 2013. This should include references and web addresses mentioned, sample screen images etc. It will be submitted electronically (in Word, RTF or PDF format).

Please include your approximate travel costs, economy class to St. Catharines, Ont. Canada. Besides remuneration, food and lodging will be based upon the number of lectures given and transportation expenses will depend upon the speaker's home address. Workshop fees may be negotiated.

We are looking for speakers who would be open to being streamed out from the conference to those members who cannot travel but still wish to join us. As well we are looking for speakers who may be interested in speaking but cannot travel as we can stream you in to the conference”.

Questions can be directed to conference2014@ogs.on.ca

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

UPDATE: Ancestry.com has FREE Marriage Records

I usually don’t write about Ancestry.com (I just concentrate on Ancestry.ca), but if you want to find marriage records of your immigrant ancestors (especially if they were married in the United States before they came to Canada), you have free access until the 21st.

The site is at www.ancestry.com/cs/us/family-marriages

GENWEB UPDATE: Alberta, Quebec, and Ontario Cemeteries

The Canadian GenWeb has issued an update to the Alberta, Quebec, and Ontario cemeteries as follows -

ALBERTA

Lacombe:

-  Bentley Cemetery

QUEBEC

Huntingdon County:

- Tallen Family Burial Ground

ONTARIO

Brant County:

- Farringdon Cemetery

- Mount Hope Cemetery

Bruce County:

- Douglas Hill Cemetery

- Queen Hill Cemetery

Elgin County:

- St Thomas Cemetery

Essex County:

- Victoria Memorial Gardens

Grey County:

- Cookes Presbyterian / Orange Valley Presbyterian / Old Presbyterian Cemetery

- Mennonite Brethren In Christ Cemetery

Lambton County:

- Hillsdale Cemetery

- Point Edward Veterans Memorial Park

Manitoulin District:

- Michael Bay Cemetery

Norfolk County:

- Barton Family Cemetery

- Bethel Brethern in Christ / Tunkard Cemetery

Peel County:

- Brampton Pioneer / Harrison-Hewgill Pioneer Cemetery

- Cheyne Cemetery

Simcoe County:

- St Mary's Catholic Cemetery

Wellington County:

- Abandoned / Old Anglican Cemetery

The Canada GenWeb have given it thanks to Alison Mitchell-Reid, Anne Chamberlain, Bonnie Lee Breadner, Brenda Marchese, Giselle Loder, Jim Anderson, Joanne Krywko, Kate Ford, Marilyn Whiting, Nancy Ross-Hill, Sharon Mattiuz, Tom Thompson, and William Cooke for help indexing, and to Alison Mitchell-Reid, Anne Chamberlain, Bonnie Lee Breadner, Carolyn Bechtel, Doug Tracey, Joanne Krywko, Kate Ford, Linda Doran, Marilyn Mallet, Nancy Ross-Hill, Penny Gallagher, Pete Carell, Sharon Mattiuz, Thomas Rowe, and William Cooke for photos of the cemeteries.

To view the site, go to http://canadacems.blogspot.com/2013/04/alberta-quebec-ontario-update.html

FTM's Top 40 Genealogy Blogs in 2013

Thank you Family Tree Magazine for picking this blog as one of the Top 40 in this year’s list.

They say that –

“This daily blog about Canadian genealogy, heritage and history is crafted by Elizabeth Lapointe, a member of the Ontario Genealogical Society and editor of its newsletter. Though not technically an official blog of the society, this newsy and tip-filled site reads like a lively one”.

And we must not forget the other Canadian blogs that were mentioned –

• The Armchair Genealogist

• Olive Tree Genealogy

My congratulations to all of the bloggers who made and didn’t make the list.

The NEW FamilySearch is FINALLY Here!

The new FamilySearch has just gone online!

The website is much “cleaner” than it was before, much more organized, and more “user friendly" than it was before.
There has been over 85,000 visitors per day to the site, and they view over 5 million records per day.

Try the site out at www.familysearch.org, to see how it works for you.