Town of Plympton-Wyoming, Ontario to establish a museum

The Lambton County Branch of the OGS is helping the Town of Plympton-Wyoming to establish a museum in the lower level of the Camlachie Library [former Camlachie United Church].

One way they are doing this, is publishing the fact that the people of Plympton-Wyoming are looking for information about World War I and World War II Soldiers.

The names on the Camlachie Cenotaph are -

World War I                                                       

Sam Norwood                                                      

Thomas Powell                                                    

George Richie                                                      

George Gray

World War II

Martin Anderson

Leslie Collinson

John Stewart

Editor’s Note: A George Ritchie, who claimed Mrs. Thomas Maloney of Camlachie as his next of kin, was born 16 June 1881 at Point Edward, Ontario and died 15 August 1917. His name is on the Vimy Memorial. Does this information connect with anyone’s family tree?

Are any of these people your ancestors?

If you wish to help form the local historical society and museum contact Mayor Lonny Napper at 226-307-0523 or Don Poland at 519-869-4909 or dpoland1@cogeco.ca

Malpeque Historical Society, Prince Edward Island

Once again the Malpeque Historical Society is pleased to offer a roster of speakers for the 13th season of summer talks at Keir Museum.

The presenters will cover a variety of topics which are generally about the history of Malpeque and the surrounding area.

The talks will be held each Wednesday at 10:00 a.m. on the dates listed below.

There is no admission but donations are gratefully accepted. Come join them and bring a friend!

The events will be as follows -  

July 10 - Streetscapes of Princetown/Malpeque by Sally Hooff

July 17 - Growing up in Princetown by Olive Bryanton

July 24 - Tales from the Dead by Linda Jean Nicholson

July 31 - Horse Magic by Marian Bruce

Aug.7 - Stories of the Past by Friends of Keir Museum

Aug.14 - The Sad Tale of Maggie MacGee by Dutch Thompson

Contact Ruby Cousins for more information - rcousins@isnhighspeed.ca

The website is www.malpequebay.ca/keirmuseum.htm

Arthur Child Heritage Museum, Gananoque, Ontario

They have a lot of things going on this summer at the Arthur Child Heritage Museum, in Gananoque, Ontario, right next to St. Lawrence River. 

On Canada Day, the museum will start serving cake at noon on July 1, and they will continue as long as cake is available.

On July 3, 17 and 31 the featured treat at the museum will be an old-fashioned lemonade stand with fresh made lemonade at one dollar per glass.

The museum will offer heritage teas on July 10 and 24 from 2 to 3 p.m., and they hope to offer alternating tea and lemonade events in August.

They are redesigning the website and it will be called Our Story Preserved. The website will hopefully be available soon.

To visit the website, go to www.1000islandsheritagemuseum.com

Dick Eastman is coming to Nova Scotia

There is word out that Dick Eastman is coming to Halifax, Nova Scotia to give a full day of talks at the Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia (GANS) on Saturday, October 19, 2013.

Enjoy a day with Dick Eastman, as he present four lectures -

The Organized Genealogist

A look at various methods of organizing record keeping by use of digital techniques. The talk focuses on converting paper based record keeping to all digital records.

Cloudy, with a Chance of Genealogy

A simple and down to earth explanation of what the cloud is and how genealogists can use cloud computing to simplify their own computer usage.

Putting the Genes in Genealogy

A look at the possibility that today’s genealogists may become the lifesavers of family and loved ones in the near future.

Conservation: Keeping up with Technology

How to make sure that your genealogy data is still readable by future generations.

Cost for the Eastman Lectures:

$45.00 for members   includes lunch

$75.00 for nonmembers   includes lunch

Email info@novascotiaancestors.ca to sign up and arrange payment.

The website of GANS is www.novascotiaancestors.ca

The website of Dick Eastman is http://blog.eogn.com

Lower Canada Census 1831

The Library and Archives Canada has just sent this notice out –

“The LAC is pleased to announce that the Census for Lower Canada, 1831 database is now available online. The Census for Lower Canada, 1831 is partly nominal and therefore only contains the names of heads of family, their occupation, and the number of residents for each family.

Users can search this new database by the name of heads of family, as well as by geographical information such as district and sub-district names”.

It is available at www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1831/Pages/1831.aspx

Free Access to Ancestry.ca

This just came across my desk this afternoon from Ancestry.ca –

TORONTO (June 25, 2013) – Ancestry.ca, Canada’s largest family history resource, is celebrating Canada Day with the launch of a collection of historical records that pre-date Confederation. Dating back to 1743, these are some of the oldest records ever to become available and be fully searchable online. In addition, Ancestry.ca is offering free access, from June 27 through July 2, to more than 40 million Canadian historical records from some of its most popular collections

Among the records being made available for free from June 27 through July 2 are some of the most popular collections on Ancestry.ca, including:

·         Canadian Passenger Lists and Ocean Arrivals – These collections consist of all records of immigration to Canada by ship or overland from the United States between 1865 and 1935, a period of 70 years that saw the largest influx of immigration into Canada ever, from all parts of the world.

·         The 1871 Census of Canada – the first census Canada conducted as a nation, which gives a snapshot of the lives of the people living at the time, including their ages, their jobs, the birthplaces of their parents, their neighbours and more.

·         Soldiers of the First World War – This collection contains the Attestation papers of all 600,000+ men enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force and includes information about the soldier’s birthplace, next of kin, regiment number and more.

To check out the new Pre-Confederation records please visit www.ancestry.ca/150years and to search the records being made accessible for free in time for Canada Day, visit www.ancestry.ca/canadaday.

Happy Canada Day!

UPDATE: Petition for 1921 Canadian Census

Today, I offer two new items related to the 1921 Canadian Census. One is an editorial by Canadian genealogist (www.cangenealogy.com) Dave Obee, and the other is a new online petition by blogger Bill Robinson.

First, there has been further clarification on the release of the census, as well as other news from the Library and Archives Canada, compliments of Dave Obee in his editorial in the Times Colonist newspaper in Victoria, British Columbia entitled, "Don’t let politics interfere with data access" at

www.timescolonist.com/news/b-c/dave-obee-don-t-let-politics-interfere-with-data-access-1.325155

I noticed that he said, “Back to the 1921 census. Volunteers are lined up, ready to start indexing the 8.8 million names as soon as the images are placed online. Last year, after the 1940 United States census was put on the Internet, volunteers compiled an index of its 132 million names in just four months”.

Have you been approached to be a volunteer?

In the meantime, we await the release of the census so that the LAC can put it online.

According to my sources, there might be something happening in about two weeks’ time.

It seems that the pressure has been felt.

From the comments on my blog and emails, and from other blogs, websites, and listservs I follow, your continued individual and collective efforts put forth in the "trenches" in letting the Heritage Minister and others know how genealogists everywhere feel about the current stance on the non-release of the 1921 Canadian Census ARE being noticed!

In the meantime, fellow blogger, Bill Robinson, http://robinsonb.blogspot.com, has started an online petition, and you are encouraged to read it and add your name to it at https://www.change.org/en-CA/petitions/the-honourable-james-moore-release-the-1921-census-now

Thank you, Bill, for this initiative.

Where this will lead is anyone’s guess, but I suspect that we will find out sooner rather than later.

As for the Heritage Minister, the Honourable James Moore, he can be contacted through his constituency office at www.jamesmoore.ca/EN/contact_us

To look at my past posts on the 1921 Canadian Census, just type in “1921 Census” in the search box on the right-hand side of the main page. Here are screenshots of the search and results boxes, below.

And please take a moment to check out the comments – they are interesting, supportive, and informative. Thanks to all who have written.

_______________________________________________