Tuesday, December 3, 2013

OGS Conference - Hank Jones Jr interview

Steve Fulton, the Chair of the 2014 Ontario Genealogical Society Conference that will be held. May 1 to May 4, 2014 at Brock University in the Niagara region of Ontario, has posted an interview he had had with the keynote speaker – Hank Jones Jr.

His speech which is entitled How "Psychic Roots" became an "Unsolved Mystery" will be presented on Saturday evening at conference banquet.

The interview is about 8 minutes long, and is interesting to listen to at http://www.ogs.on.ca/conference2014/hank_jones_interview.mp3

Two things which struck me was that he said “Genealogists are story tellers”, and “Document everything”. Family history is a series of family stories and we must document everything we write - that should be our mantra as genealogists.


Postscript: Conferences are held every year in Ontario, and as a member of the OGS you are entitled to special discounts for the conference. December is membership month at the OGS. For the yearly rate of $61.20, you can join the provincial society.

Monday, December 2, 2013

Canadian Week in Review 02 December 2013


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

Websites

Souvenir of Toronto: Announcing the Robert MacIntosh Collection on the History of Toronto http://library.ryerson.ca/asc/2013/11/souvenir-of-toronto-announcing-the-robert-macintosh-historical-toronto-collection/ Ryerson Polytechnic University Archives has just acquired the personal collection of 141 books of long time Toronto resident, Robert M. MacIntosh.

They rang from the date 1807 to 1988 and the topics include  “historical accounts, biographies of notable Torontonians (including John Toronto himself, Bishop Strachan), tourist keepsakes through the years, maps, centennial publications, and TTC brochures”.

FamilySearch Wiki - Category:Charts and Forms FamilySearch has forms of the following -


1861 Canada Census

1871 Canada Census

1881 Canada Census

1891 Canada Census

Social Media

Membership Renewal

http://saskgenealogy.blogspot.com/2013/11/membership-renewal_23.html Membership fees will be increasing for all membership renewals in 2014

News Articles

Oil-industry money won’t influence exhibits, museum of civilization  CEO vows http://www.ottawacitizen.com/travel/Canadian+Museum+Civilization+gets+sponsorship+deal+from+Canadian+Association+Petroleum/9210141/story.html Because of this investment, the Museum of History will be able to mount a special exhibit called 1867 which will show how  the new country called the Dominion of Canada evolved from the colonies of British North America. The exhibit will be on from November 2014 to September 2015, and then it will tour the country.

Record $15-million donation to Calgary Stampede Foundation http://www.calgaryherald.com/business/Stampede+Foundation+create+heritage+centre+with+record+donation/9214611/story.html A new western heritage centre will be built with the donation by Don Taylor and it will be the future home of the Stampede Archives.

Discover the Humanity in History with New Novel http://www.choosecornwall.ca/eng/news/743/57/Discover-the-Humanity-in-History-with-New-Novel/The novel Shadows in the Tree,  tells the story of Maria Catrina Eamer who came with her children over the Adirondack Mountains as they fled to Canada to escape the American Revolution.

737 takes off from City Centre Airport, lands safely at new home http://globalnews.ca/news/999859/737-takes-off-from-city-centre-airport-lands-safely-at-new-home/The Alberta Aviation Museum will be the new home for the Boeing 737. It was with the Pacific Western Airlines, and was retired from Air Canada’s service in 2005.

Story of the Week

There are many website staring to appear celebrating Canada 150th anniversary in 2017.

If you want background information on Canada’s 150 Birthday, you can read about it at the PARLIAMENT of CANADA site at  http://www.parl.gc.ca/HousePublications/Publication.aspx?DocId=5614610&File=84

2017 starts now The CBC has started the celebrating Canada’s 150 birthday already on their website http://www.2017startsnow.ca/


Local app celebrates Canadian heritage

http://www.castanet.net/news/Kelowna/103621/Local-app-celebrates-Canadian-heritage Well a Kelowna company has developed a new app that is all about having fun and learning about our amazing country at the same time.


Reminder: Check the Canadian Week in Review next Monday for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada. It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in country! The next post will be on 09 December 2013.

Sunday, December 1, 2013

November 2013 Families Part II



The Ontario Genealogy Society journal Families has issued its November issue, and here are the papers included in Part II.

The first paper More Than Dates: Lives Revealed Through Ecclesiastical Records by Ellen Paul, the 2nd place Keffer Writing Contest winner.

In addition to the story she tells of Jean Baptiste Cotton, she demonstrates how to use the Drouin Collection when proving genealogy.

The surname keywords are Archambault, Beaudry, Cotton, DeGuay, Débussat, Dussault, Gauthier, Gauthier dit Landreville

“Up to Rawdon” Explained is a paper by Daniel B. Parkinson in which he explains how he came to write his 2-volume set of genealogies about the people from Rawdon, Quebec and their migration to such Ontario counties as Wellington, Huron, Grey, Bruce and Simcoe Counties.

The surname keywords are Burton, Bourne, Copping, Corcoran, Dugas, Eveleigh, Gray, Hamilton, Holiday, Holtby, Jefferies, Johnston, Keo, Mason, Norrish, Parkinson, Pearson, Scroggie, Rourke, Sadler, Smiley, Tiffin, Turner, Wade

“Feathers in the Family”: The Story of Magdeleine Pewadjiwonokwe by Lynne Duigou is the story of a ‘county marriage’ between Charles Denys de Laronde Thibaudiere and Magdeleine.   

The surname keywords are  Croteau, Pewadjiwonokwe, Laronde, Gaucher, piot, Langevin, Missosikwe, Tessepatikokwe, Gradmotagne, Okajagaw, MacFie, Douglas, Robinson

I Am a GOON: The Willox Search by Cathie Blackburn is the influence that the Guild of One-Name Studies has had on her study of her family name – the Willox.  

The surname keywords are Willox, Cole, Harper, Legge
  

Postscrpt:  December is the yearly membership drive by the OGS. This year the basic membership is $61.20 which is a deal for all the benefits that you can receive from the Members Only pages at http://www.ogs.on.ca/index.php                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                                   


Saturday, November 30, 2013

November 2013 Families Part I


 The Ontario Genealogy Society issued its journal Families for November, and here are the papers included in Part I this issue. Part II will continue tomorrow.   

With 2014 being the 100th anniversary of the First World War, the papers about the people who fought in that war are starting to come into Families to be published.

The two papers are

Hart Leech: “A dog-gone good soldier … doing hid blooming job” by Catherine Whiteley tells the story of Hart Leech from Winnipeg, who, like so many others, went off to war as a young man, and like so many others died because of the war.  

But while he was fighting in the war, he earned the praise of his superiors, and when he died helping his fellow soldiers, he was given a burial in the Oville British Cemetery in France.

His mother received the Memorial Cross.

The keywords in the paper is Leech.

The ship on the front cover of Families and is the SS Olympic. It is shown in Halifax as it disembarked Canadian soldiers coming back from the First World War.

Blacks in the Great War by Jerry Hind is a paper which recounts the role that Blacks played in the First World War.

The men from the Chatham-Kent area who entered the 1st Contingent of the Canadian Expeditionary Force and the discrimination that they faced.

To go with the Families paper, there is a website called    
Gathering our Heroes at http://www.gatheringourheroes.ca/ at which there are bios of many of the Blacks who were in the No. 2 Construction Battalion.

The keywords are Jones, Hosey, Lucas, and Mills.   


Postscrpt:  December is the yearly membership drive by the OGS. This year the basic membership is $61.20 which is a deal for all the benefits that you can receive from the Members Only pages at http://www.ogs.on.ca/index.php

Friday, November 29, 2013

Niagara Branch of the OGS is host this year to the 2014 Conference whose theme is Genealogy Without Borders . It will be held May 1 to May 4, 2014 at Brock University, St. Catharines, Ontario.

They have just released who they will have as speakers and the schedule, and it is quite an impressive group, such as - 

Chris Paton, the Scottish Genealogist will conduct workshops, and will give the Houston Lecture Genealogy Without Borders-Technology on Friday evening.

Hank Jones will be the keynote speaker on Saturday evening  when he gives the talk
How "Psychic Roots" became an "Unsolved Mystery".




Like the organizers say "Genealogy Without Borders" is genealogy research that does not require a passport!

Thursday, November 28, 2013

Location! Location! Location!

Have you been involved in doing Ontario research lately, and have come across a town, and you are having a hard time to find what county it is in - where it is located?

Now, you can go to the Ontario location website at http://www.ogs.on.ca/branches/ontariolocator.php It lists every municipality in Ontario (city, town, village, township, regional municipality) and all of the geographic townships which have belonged to a municipality.

You can find the township, and there are two types of townships –

1.     A geographic township (G Twp) is a piece of land. You need to know this to find land records and to find where people lived.

2.     An administrative township (A Twp) is a form of government, often administering several geographic townships. You need this to find local records.

And you can find out what county you are in, and the Ontario Genealogical Society Branch the municipality is in.

Wednesday, November 27, 2013

Snow!

We are in the middle of the first major snowstorm of the season here in Ottawa today, and the Museum of Civilization will soon open its exhibit about snow which will run from December 6, 2013 to September the 28th 2014.

The exhibit will feature some 300 articles, and more than 400 photos that Canadians have taken of snow.

To find out more about the exhibit, go to http://www.civilization.ca/event/snow/