Gwyneth Pearce, Secretary of the Toronto Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society tells us that they will be holding an all-day workshop Scotland and its People, at the North York Central Library on Saturday 12 April 2014. .

There will be 11 sessions, and they will be on Scottish history, patterns of migration, records and repositories, planning your research both here and in Scotland, and adding “flesh to the bones” of your Scottish ancestors.

The workshop will be led by two principal speakers: UK-based genealogist Sheena Tait, who specializes in Scottish research, and historian Kevin James, a faculty member in the Scottish Studies Program at the University of Guelph. Krista Barclay, Christine Woodcock, and three of our own Toronto Branch experts – Marian Press, Linda Reid and James F.S. Thomson – will also bring their knowledge and enthusiasm to the day’s program..Whether you’re a seasoned researcher or just beginning your family history journey, this is a day you won’t want to miss!

Full program details and speaker biographies can be found on the Branch website at http://torontofamilyhistory.org/learn/workshops/scottish-workshop-2014/

The early-bird registration deadline for this event is 15 March. OGS members enjoy additional discounts.

Library and Archives Canada and Canadiana.org partnership starting to appear online

This notice came from the LAC this morning - "The partnership between Library and Archives Canada and Canadiana.org over the next ten years involves the digitization, indexing and description of millions of personal, administrative and government documents. It will triple the LAC's digital content on the Web, and allow Canadians to access tens of millions of additional images regardless of where they live, at no charge". They have divided the holdings into Genealogy, Aboriginal History, Military History, and Landmark Papers. Be forewarned before you start working with these fonds though, I have found with the ones that I have worked with, they ARE NOT INDEXED. And it has can cause headaches to me – a researcher. So has anyone used these online digitization fonds yet? How have you found them? And some of them are dark - almost too dark to read. `1q So if you can deal with that all that, they are great research material to have online, and combined with the report s

NEWS FLASH!!Global RootsTech Conference Announces Free Online Broadcast Schedule

Paul Nauta from RootsTech Media Relations, has just sent us this notice -

SALT LAKE CITY-RootsTech, the world's largest family history and technology conference held in Salt Lake City, Utah, February 6-8, 2014, announced today that 15 of its popular sessions will be broadcast live and complimentary over the Internet. The live broadcasts will give those unable to attend in-person worldwide a sample of this year's conference content. Interested viewers can watch the live presentations at RootsTech.org. The fourth-year conference has attracted over 10,000 registered attendees in-person, and leaders expect over 20,000 additional viewers online.

The streamed sessions include a sampling of technology and family history presentations. Following are the broadcasted sessions and speakers. All times are in mountain standard time (MST):

Thursday, February 6

10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Top 10 Things I Learned About My Family from My Couch by Tammy Hepps

1 p.m. to 2 p.m., FamilySearch Family Tree: What's New and What's Next by Ron Tanner

2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Intro to DNA for Genealogists by James Rader

4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Genealogy in the Cloud by Randy Hoffman

5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Sharing Your Family with Multimedia by Michael LeClerc

Friday, February 7

10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Storytelling Super Powers: How to Come Off as Your Family's Genealogy Hero by David Adelman

1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., Tweets, Links, Pins, and Posts: Break Down Genealogical Brick Walls with Social Media by Lisa Alzo

2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Getting the Most Out of Ancestry.com by Crista Cowen

4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Finding Family and Ancestors Outside the USA with New Technologies by Daniel Horowitz

5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Do It Yourself Photo Restoration by Ancestry Insider

Saturday, February 8

10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Become an iPad Power User by Lisa Louise Cooke

1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., Information Overload: Managing Online Searches and Their Resultsby Josh Taylor

2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., A Beginner's Guide to Going Paperless by Randy Whited

4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., How to Interview Yourself for a Personal History by Tom Taylor

5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Five Ways to Do Genealogy in Your Sleep by Deborah Gamble

About RootsTech

RootsTech is a global family history event where people of all ages learn to discover and share their family stories and connections through technology. The first annual conference was held in 2011, in Salt Lake City, Utah. Hosted by FamilySearch and sponsored by leading genealogical organizations, the conference includes hands-on demonstrations and forums to provide a highly interactive environment and accelerate learning. Content is geared to young and old, beginner to advanced levels.

To visit their website, go to https://rootstech.org/

The National Gallery of Canada

There will be a summer exhibit called The Great War: The Persuasive Power of Photography, and it will begin June 27, coinciding with Canada History Week, which starts July the 1st, and will run until the 17th of November. 

This exhibit brings together a diverse and remarkable selection of photographs drawn from national and international collections in an effort to illustrate the many important roles that photography played in the First World War.

The website for that National Gallery of Canada is http://www.gallery.ca/en/

NEWS FLASH! Library and Archives Canada to Digitize 640,000 First World War Service Files

As part of the commemoration of the centennial of the First World War, Library and Archives Canada (LAC) announced in its News section that it is undertaking the digitization of 640,000 personnel service files of the First World War’s Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF) members with a view to ensuring the long-term preservation of these frail paper documents.

The first quarter, beginning with the letter A through D, will be closed as of March 2014 and will be available on-line as of Summer 2014.

At the end of the project, expected in 2015, Canadians will be able to research high-quality digital copies of the 640,000 newly digitized service files from the comfort of their own home.

To read more about the project, go to http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/Pages/digitization-cef-service-files.aspx

Old Family Photo Workshop

On Saturday March 22, 2014, the Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia will present a Photo Workshop as part of the monthly meeting to be held from 12:30 pm to 4:30 pm at the Akins A/V Room, Nova Scotia Archives, 6016 University Ave, Halifax.

The workshop will be lead by Jenny Milligan, MEd, Socio-Costumologist, and will cover -

• Learn to date old photo
• Place people in your family tree
• Help identify faces from your past
• Browse & study a collection of historic photo & costume reference books

Bring your old photos!

Cost: $25 ($20 for GANS Members)

Register by email to info@NovaScotiaAncestors.ca

You may email 1-2 photos with your registration.

Please note that only 20 places are available for this workshop.

The website of GANS is http://www.novascotiaancestors.ca/

Canadian Week in Review 27 January 2014

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

The Eastern Townships of Quebec http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~qceastwn/ Its is almost 20 years since this site has been on the Internet. This area was a place where many Loyalists settlers, and immigrants from the British Isles settled.

Immigrants to Canada 1930-1950 $  http://www.orderincouncillists.com/205496156 This site has the surnames of immigrants online who came to Canada between 1930 and 1950, listed on the Orders in Council of the Privy Council of Canada. If you wish to receive the record, a fee will be charged.

Social Media

From Mowat and Beyond http://beyondmowat.wordpress.com/ This blogger researches in Winnipeg, Manitoba, and is researching the surnames such as Allary, Basham, Ellis, Galbraith, Goodson, Holt, Johnston, Kotlarchuk, Masiowski, Moxam, Munro, Pascal, Pelletier, Reader, Ritchie, Storrar, and White.

News Articles 

Rideau Canal faces $104M maintenance and repair backlog http://www.ottawacitizen.com/travel/Rideau+Canal+faces+104M+maintenance+repair+backlog/9414058/story.html The Ottawa Citizen newspaper has calculated that Rideau Canal faces a huge amount of repairs that is not being done. This includes repairs to the canal locks, canal walls, dams, weirs, dams and so on. 

Canadian school official pushes for new history curriculum http://www.ecns.cn/2014/01-22/98125.shtml A Vancouver School Board trustee has a motion to be voted on that British Columbia change the high school curriculum to include content on the contributions and discrimination experienced by early Chinese settlers.

Exhibit brings to light Italian Canadian strife during WWII
http://www.baytoday.ca/content/news/details.asp?c=57317 'Ordinary Lives, Extraordinary Times: Italian Canadian Experiences During World War II', is the title of a new touring exhibit by the Columbus Centre of Toronto.

Right now, it’s in North Bay where people can see about the time when Italian Canadians were put in internment camps during the 2nd World War. The exhibit will be open to the public from January 15th to April 18th of 2014, and there is a Video onsite. 

Acadian Museum marks 50th anniversary Sunday http://www.journalpioneer.com/News/Local/2014-01-24/article-3590011/Acadian-Museum-marks-50th-anniversary-Sunday/1 Visit the Acadian Museum and see how it evolved into what it is today – a world class museum on Prince Edward Island. This exhibit will be open until May 2014. 

Sikh museum in Canada to mark Komagata Maru centennial http://www.baytoday.ca/content/news/details.asp?c=57317 The Abbotsford’s Sikh Heritage Museum will host a special year long exhibit which will commemorate the 100th Anniversary of the Komagata Maru incident, during which 352 Punjabi immigrants on a ship from India were denied entry into Canada.

Story of the Week

City of Toronto Archives

The City of Toronto Archives has a new site, and true to its word, it is better organized than the previous site.

The first thing you see when you go to the City of Toronto Archives is the Search the Archives window, and if you press on that site, you will be taken to a search box where you can enter your search term. You can find out where it is located in the archives, and then you can locate it easily when you visit the archives in the future.

You can also see what’s available at the archives for example - city directories, assessment rolls, court proceedings, fire insurance maps, and you can go online and look at their maps, view web exhibits, and photos.

You can look at This month in Toronto’s history, and Find out the history of your house, and Canada’s First Subway.

Plus, you can supplement your research at the Archives of Ontario and the Toronto family History Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society with the City of Toronto Archives.

The site is at http://www1.toronto.ca/wps/portal/contentonly?vgnextoid=7cb4ba2ae8b1e310VgnVCM10000071d60f89RCRD&vgnextfmt=defaultt

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 03 February 2014.