Wednesday, November 12, 2014

Norfolk County Branch of the OGS Moves to Inactive Status


Alan Campbell, the president of the Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS), wishes to let everybody know that the Norfolk Genealogical Society has transferred all of its work that it has done on local records will "remain in the community via the loan of the Branch Library collection to a local repository. " 

Campbell goes on to say that "Although this is a sad occasion, I must celebrate the numerous volunteer hours put in by Norfolk County Branch volunteers which have resulted in this permanent legacy for present and future researchers. Also, consider the number of hours Norfolk County Branch volunteers must have spent in helping local and distance researchers with their family history research. Thank you Norfolk County Branch volunteers!"

You can still visit their two websites - 



Their Charlotteville, Houghton, Middleton, Townsend, North Walsingham, South Walsinsham, and Windham Township publications are still on the website under the heading of Published Resources. 

Apparently, they will be available from the provincial office of the OGS at www.ogs.on.ca/

Tuesday, November 11, 2014

Canadian War Museum to webcast the illumination in Memorial Hall


For the fourth year in a row, the Canadian War Museum is webcasting the illumination of the headstone representing Canada's Unknown Soldier. 

To view the illumination, go to http://www.warmuseum.ca/remember#webcast

While you are at the site, listen to Tim Cook, Canadian War Museum historian, talk about the lasting impact of the First World War on Canada.

CBC will live broadcast the event from the National War Memorial in Ottawa.

Monday, November 10, 2014

Canadian Week in Review - 10 November 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.


Social Media

(Blog) 120th birthday of William George Barker, Canadian flying ace and Victoria Cross recipient
   November 3rd marked the 120th anniversary of the birth of William George Barker, Canadian First World War flying ace and Victoria Cross recipient.
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(Photos) From trenches and beyond: Six books illuminate Canadian military history
   Six books have been released by Canadian authors detailing Canada’s role in military conflicts from the War of 1812 to the First World War.
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(Video) WATCH: Former Canadian senator donates piece of WWI history to Okanagan Military Museum
   It was a momentous day for the Okanagan Military Museum Thursday as they welcomed a new piece of history into their collection.
   Just days before Remembrance Day, Senator Ross Fitzpatrick and his family donated a set of World War I medals to the museum.
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(Photos) Letters from First World War soldiers posted online through U of M project
   One Manitoba soldier named Fred Baragar was particularly prolific in his writing. He had studied English at the University of Manitoba, and wrote hundreds and hundreds of pages to home, most addressed “from the somewhere.”

Newfoundland

Author traces Newfoundland regiment's path 100 years later
   Michael Winter takes us along the winding path the men of the Newfoundland Regiment followed during the First World War. Winter's book, Into the Blizzard: Walking with the Newfoundland Dead, is part history, part travelogue, and part author's musings on how our modern minds contemplate the past.

Quebec

Half of Canadians learned 'a lot' about WW2 in high school: poll 
   The results of the Leger survey contradict longstanding concerns that we've largely forgotten our military history.

Ontario

Conservatives support NDP bill to make Remembrance Day a national holiday
   The Conservative government is throwing its support behind an NDP private member’s bill that would make Remembrance Day a national statutory holiday, as Canadians mourn the death of two Canadian soldiers killed in separate attacks on home soil.

Fighting in Flanders - Gas. Mud. Memory: New exhibition explores Canadian experience in Belgium during First World War
   This exhibition examines the challenges Canadian soldiers encountered while serving in the last region of Belgium still in Allied hands. It also delves into the memories that remain and highlights the iconic poem In Flanders Fields.

Untold 'story of ‘bravery': Heritage Minute chronicles Winnipeg Falcons, torn apart by WWI and reunited in pursuit of Olympic gold 
   Heritage Minute has created more than 70 short films on moments and characters taken from history. Many vignettes have become ingrained in memory — either from their content or from the frequency with which they run on Canadian television — and have emerged as a sort of national history teacher.

Honouring heroes with a history 
   The Montreal native and Brockville resident has a basement full of books and other information, scores of photographs and other memorabilia, documenting the Second World War and Korean War. 
   He is currently assisting in providing information for a revised history for his Second World War regiment, the Royal Regiment of Canada.

The Alton Mill’s contribution to Canada's efforts during the Second World War 
   During the Second World War, Canada contributed nearly $10 billion in manufactured goods towards the Allied effort.

It’s really a hometown story': John McCrae honoured in Guelph 
   Every year on Nov. 11, Lt. Col. John McCrae’s poem “In Flanders Fields” is recited as Canadians remember those lost in the line of duty and honour those who continue to serve. 
   The poem continues to resonate in Canada and Britain on Remembrance Day. On Thursday, a ceremony took place to honour McCrae in his hometown of Guelph, Ontario.

Manitoba

Manitoba soldier’s remains identified 96 years after WWI death
   Private Sidney Halliday, who lived on a farm near Minto, Manitoba before shipping off, has been identified as one of the soldiers whose remains were found in Hallu, France, in 2006.

Saskatchewan

Saskatoon to unveil war memorial honouring WWI soldiers 
   On Thursday at the City Archives, Saskatoon Mayor Donald Atchison will be unveiling a World War Book of Remembrance that documents every solider from Saskatoon and student at the University of Saskatchewan who enlisted and died while engaged in combat from 1914 to 1918.

Alberta

Flags of Remembrance fly in central Alberta 
   In the brisk October air of early morning on a dark highway in central Alberta, a quiet group of men and women stood sentinel alongside 116 Canadian flags waving in the breeze in remembrance of 116,000 Canadian war dead from 1900 to 2014.

11 Days of Remembrance: A salute to the history of salutes 
   Showing the public your palm in a salute goes all the way back to knights.
   “It started with knights raising their visor and saying ‘I have no weapons in my hand’,” said Capt. (retired) Jason Watt, South Alberta Light Horse regiment.

11 Days of Remembrance: Citizens of Burdett fought hard in First World War
   When the call came to fight for King and Country, small rural communities in Alberta were on side, perhaps accounting for proportionately more soldiers than larger towns and cities, because of their close ties to Britain, says a historian.

Story of the Week


The Archives of Ontario is offering a New WWI Speakers Series

The first speaker, Jane E. MacNamara from the Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS), will talk about Inheritance Interrupted: WWI reflected in Ontario Estate Files. The date of her talk will be Thursday, November 13, 2014.

The Great War cut short many lives and disrupted the expected passing of property and goods to the next generation. Laws were changed, society changed, the world changed. Drawing from estate files from across the province; this presentation will show examples of these changes and demonstrate how reading between the lines and understanding the process and implications of inheritance records can enhance family and local history—in any era.

The second speaker will be Stewart Boden, Outreach Officer & Exhibit Curator, Archives of Ontario, and the title of the talk will be Curating Dear Sadie: Love, Lives and Remembrance from Ontario’s First World War, from the current AO's onsite exhibit of the same name, which he researched and curated.

 The date of the talk will be Thursday, February 5, 2015, 6:30 pm - 7:45 pm.

Through Stewart’s presentation, the audience will hear about challenges that came from researching the Archives records, and taking different paths while curating the exhibit.

The series will be held in the George Spragge Classroom at the Archives of Ontario.

Admission is free, and a tour will be given of the new exhibit.

You can register online at http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/about/speaker_series.aspx

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 the country!

The next post will be on 17 November 2014.

Sunday, November 9, 2014

Part I: The Canadian War Record Office

The Canadian Light Horse going into action at Vimy Ridge, April 1917
Reference Number: IKAN 3194785, 3624863
Credit: William Ivor Castle. Canada. Department of National Defence. Library and Archives Canada, PA-001111

The Library and Archives Canada recently sent out this press release, stating that its people have been busy cleaning up some famous photos taken of the First World War, for instance, the two most famous one photos that we all know as “Going over the Top” and the “29th Battalion advancing over No Man’s Land during the Battle of Vimy Ridge.”
“They have been made more accessible to Canadians by enhancing their descriptions through thematic organization in the online database. This has been part of a much larger project to organize and describe the entire Department of National Defence’s photograph collection at LAC to ensure that the records are accurate, complete and accessible to the public. When the war began in 1914, most photographers and journalists were ordered away from the front. The First Canadian Division entered the European war theatre the following year. Finally, in 1916, millionaire press baron Max Aitken was granted permission to start the Canadian War Records Office (CWRO) and it became Canada’s ‘eyewitness to war’ sending reports home from the front. Soon, these reports were also accompanied by photographs and paintings.”
To see LAC’s Flickr photo set entitled “Canada and the First World War”, go to https://www.flickr.com/photos/lac-bac/sets/72157622565188207/

Saturday, November 8, 2014

FREE Access to Ancestry.ca and FindMyPast


Recently, Ancestry.ca took a survey, with the results showing that 36% of Canadians didn’t know if they had ancestors who fought in either the First or Second World War.

In an effort to help rectify this, from November 8 to 11, Ancestry is giving Canadians the chance to discover the military heroes in their family by providing free access to more than 3.6 million online military records at http://www.ancestry.ca/cs/ca/world-war-1?o_iid=63120&o_lid=63120&o_sch=Web+Property.

This year, Remembrance Day is especially poignant for those with ancestors who fought during the First World War, as 2014 marks the 100th Anniversary of the start of the conflict.

And if your Canadian ancestor was from Britain, which many were, FindMyPast is also offering free access to you this weekend.
“To commemorate Veterans weekend, from today until 7am on Monday (EST) our records are FREE to access. If you’ve already got a World subscription, we’ll credit your account with 3 extra days. 
There’s never been a better time to explore your family history and bring your past to life.”

Postscript:  Wayne Macvicar from Cape Breton has written to say that he has just completed an update to his Cape Bretoners in World War One website at https://sites.google.com/site/cbinww1/.
“The site now includes enlistments to the end of 1915. It contains an additional 557 individuals for a total of 2732. The time between updates this time has been exceptionally long due to the increasing amount of information going online, in particular Library and Archives Canada, which I am trying to include in my database. Hopefully the next update will come much sooner. The website is still limited to a nominal roll and chronology but in time I hope to include as much detail as I can find on each individual. I invite everyone to have a look at my site and if they have any information they would like to share to fill out the form I have provided on my general Cape Bretoners at War site <https://sites.google.com/site/cbatwar/>.”
If you have additional information, you can write to Wayne at cbww2@seaside.ns.ca

Reminder: Each year, GenealogyCanada sponsors a contest, and this year in honour of the 100th anniversary of the First World War, the question is – Which province in Canada sent the largest number of men and women to fight in the First World War?

Send your answer to genealogyresearch@aol.com

Hint: You will find the answer in this week’s Canadian Week in Review post at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2014/11/canadian-week-in-review-03-november-2014.html

I am offering the winner of the contest a detailed research consultation report on an ancestor who fought for Canada in the Great War, or who was involved in the war effort.

The winner will be announced November 12th.

    Friday, November 7, 2014

    OGS First World War Heritage Society

    Credit: Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. 1983-28-826

    To commemorate the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War, OGS has launched a new Heritage Society. The First World War Society is a lineage Society open to anyone who can show direct descent from a person who served in a documented capacity on the Allied side of the First World War.

    To qualify for this Society, your research must show that your named ancestor(s) fits in the category above, and then show the line of descent from that ancestor(s) to you or the person you wish named on the certificate.

    For more information and an application form, visit the Heritage Societies area on the OGS website http://www.ogs.on.ca/heritage_societies.php#WW1

    And here is a heartwarming story —

    It is how social media is being used so that Canadian flags can be placed on soldier’s graves in Italy.


    And they have a Facebook page called Flag from Home at

    Reminder: Each year, GenealogyCanada sponsors a contest, and this year in honour of the 100th anniversary of the First World War, the question is – Which province in Canada sent the largest number of men and women to fight in the First World War?

    Send your answer to genealogyresearch@aol.com

    Hint: You will find the answer in this week’s Canadian Week in Review http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2014/11/canadian-week-in-review-03-november-2014.html

    I am offering the winner of the contest a detailed research consultation report on an ancestor who fought for Canada in the Great War, or who was involved in the war effort.

    The winner will be announced November 12th.

    Thursday, November 6, 2014

    Canada - Strong, Proud and Free!


    From November 5 to November 11th, and for the fourth year running, GenealogyCanada is showcasing Veterans’ Week.

    It is an opportunity for all Canadians to recognize the contribution that our veterans have made, and to honour those who made the ultimate sacrifice on behalf of Canada.

    Here are some ways to mark your remembrance -

    • You can buy and wear a poppy
    • You can attend a local Remembrance Day ceremony on November 11th
    • You can talk to a friend or relative who served with the Canadian Armed Forces in Afghanistan or in other areas of conflict.

    You can watch the Heroes Remember videos and listen to veterans talk about their experiences at http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/those-who-served/heroes-remember

    Each year, GenealogyCanada sponsors a contest, and this year in honour of the 100th anniversary of the First World War, the question is – Which province in Canada sent the largest number of men and women to fight in the First World War?

    Hint: You will find the answer in this week’s Canadian Week in Review http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2014/11/canadian-week-in-review-03-november-2014.html

    I am offering the winner of the contest a detailed research consultation report on an ancestor who fought for Canada in the Great War, or who was involved in the war effort.

    The winner will be announced November 12th.

    Good luck to all!