Muskoka Parry Sound Genealogy Group

On Thursday August the 15, 2013, there will be a meeting held by the Muskoka Parry Sound Genealogy Group from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. at the Huntsville Public Library, Huntsville, Ontario.

The topic will be British Home Children, and the speakers will be Bernardo Homes by Carol Black and Quarrier Homes by Dona Crawford.

The Muskoka Parry Sound Genealogy Group was formed in 1985, and it covers  both the Muskoka and Parry Sound Districts of Ontario, Canada .

On their site they have maps of Muskoka Townships, and Parry Sound Townships,

Cemetery Databases online.

Their website is www.mpsgg.com

Censuses of Canada West and Canada East, 1842

In this notice received yesterday, here are the 1842 Canadian Census for Canada West and Canada West -

“Library and Archives Canada is pleased to announce that Canadians can now access the Census of Canada West, 1842 as well as the Census of Canada East, 1842 online. In 1841, Upper Canada was renamed Canada West, whereas Lower Canada became Canada East. These two jurisdictions are now known as the provinces of Ontario and Quebec.

Each census is partly nominal and contains the names of heads of family, their occupation and the number of residents for each family.

For the Canada West (Ontario) Census, go to

www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1842-canada-west/Pages/1842-canada-west.aspx

For the Canada East (Quebec) census, go to www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/census/1842-Canada-East/Pages/about-census.aspx

Special Interest Groups

The Ontario Genealogical Society has, at present, four Special Interest Groups (SIGs).

A SIG is a permanent group of OGS Members with an interest in some other topic, such as a geographic location outside Ontario (e.g. immigrants from a particular country), an ethnic or cultural group (e.g. natives or a particular fraternal organization), or an event (e.g. a particular emigration scheme).

Currently, the Special Interest Groups (SIGs) are

Irish Palatines - http://www.ogs.on.ca/ip-sig

Ireland - www.ireland.ogs.on.ca

Scottish  - Currently, there isn’t a website for the Scottish SIG, but you can contact scottishsig@ogs.on.ca

British Home Child - www.ogs.on.ca/SIG-BHC/index.htm

If you are interested in joining this SIG or taking on a role of responsibility, please contact OGS President, Shirley Sturdevant president@ogs.on.ca.

There is an interest in establishing a Huguenot SIG and a Métis SIG; both are currently seeking the necessary 25 Members.

E-mail the Provincial Office http://provoffice@ogs.on.ca if you would like to see one of these formed.

The website is www.ogs.on.ca/branches/sig.php

Toronto Star Obituaries 1999 - April 2000, February 2001

The obituaries from the Toronto Star have recently been updated on Ancestry.ca.

Over 17,000 images have been added to the database, and the database contains more than 98,500 names

Go to http://search.ancestry.ca/search/db.aspx?dbid=3888

Call for papers

From a post on the Regina Public Library blog, comes this news - 

Readers are invited to submit an article about any aspect of Saskatchewan’s history for possible inclusion in the Spring-Summer 2014 issue of Saskatchewan History, a publication from the Saskatchewan Archives Board.

The deadline for submission of articles for our Spring-Summer 2014 issue is December 13, 2013.

At this time, we seek submissions including: scholarly papers that may be peer-reviewed; feature articles of varying lengths; photo essays; and book reviews about literature related to the history of Saskatchewan and the prairie provinces.

A copy of the magazine’s submission guidelines can be viewed on our website at www.saskarchives.com.

Submissions can be forwarded electronically to saskhistory@archives.gov.sk.ca.

For more information, contact Nadine Charabin, Publication Coordinator, by phone at 306-933-5832, or by email at saskhistory@archives.gov.sk.ca.

New Minister for Department of Heritage

The now-former Heritage Minister, James Moore, was replaced with Shelly Glover as the new Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages during yesterday’s federal government cabinet shuffle.

Minister Glover, a Métis, is the Member of Parliament for the riding of Saint-Boniface in Manitoba.

Her profile says that “Prior to entering federal politics, Mrs. Glover served as a member of the Winnipeg Police Service for almost 19 years. She had a diverse career in a variety of positions including undercover work, child abuse investigations, youth crime and gang investigations, and general patrol. Mrs. Glover has a high level of proficiency in the French language and was the first female and bilingual spokesperson appointed by her department”.

While we welcome Minister Glover to her new post, you will notice that there is nothing in her profile which would lead anyone to believe that she will be sympathetic to the genealogy community, the Library and Archives Canada, or the 1921 Canadian Census (and its release), as was the impression given by her predecessor Minister Moore, who is now the new Minister of Industry.

But time will tell ...

Toronto Heritage Lecture

The 2013 Toronto History Lecture, titled Mary Mink: The Making of a Myth, will explore the sometimes blurred line between historical fact and historical fiction. James Mink was a successful Black businessman in Toronto in the 1840s and 1850s. His story is one of the best known tales of Black Torontonians in the 19th century, told and retold many times in newspapers and books.

In the 1990s, his story was made into a TV movie, Captive Heart: the James Mink Story, which was broadcast in Canada and the United States. In the screen version of events, Mink arranges for a white man to marry his daughter Mary and then stages a daring rescue when her husband whisks her off to the American South and sells her into slavery. The movie is said to be “based on historical records”, but as Guylaine Pétrin found out through her research, records can lie.

Admission is free, but reservation is required.

Please join us again this year in spreading the word about the Toronto History Lecture. It will be held on August 7th at 7:30 pm at the City of Toronto Archives and is presented jointly by the Archives and the Toronto Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society.

For further details, including a map and driving directions to the Archives at 255 Spadina Road, visit http://conta.cc/187ZUcY. Questions may be directed to info@torontofamilyhistory.org  or Paul Sharkey (City of Toronto Archives) at 416-392-5561.

We look forward to unravelling the true story of Mary Mink with you on August 7th.