Dear Myrt’s Beginning Genealogy - Session 3

As previously promised in my blog on 06 January 2015 at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/beginning-genealogy-study-group.html, I am reporting on Dear Myrt’s Beginning Genealogy study group as it proceeds. I watched Session 3 yesterday, and the two top things that were discussed were -

1. The records that we first use to study our family. 

In particular, marriage records were looked at, and we were reminded to study them carefully so as to not to make the common mistake of misinterpreting the information and dates. Remember, these records should always be transcribed.

2. Getting a Research Log set up to follow as we start to research our family.

Cousin Russ, Dear Myrt’s production man at the Google Hangouts, has prepared an outline of a Research Log at https://docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1CXE1JFJ9HJaaGsbUPe7y0iPUX6_xnakSVL7S9XBIqUo/edit#gid=632923855

The first page shows the research process, and the second and third pages encourage us to keep records of links we use to conduct research.

Next week, we will examine more about the Research Log. Dear Myrt has asked us to have our own Research Log ready to share with people on the panel.

To review my two previous summaries, go to

Session 1 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-1.html

Session 2 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-2.html

Remember to make yourself a member of Dear Myrt’s Genealogy Community before watching the YouTube Google+ Hangout on Air at https://plus.google.com/communities/104382659430904043232

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If you haven’t done so already, remember to check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

If you missed this week’s edition, it is at
http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/canadian-week-in-review-19-january-2015.html

It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada!

It has been a regular post every Monday morning since April 23, 2012.

Saskatchewan Historic Newspapers Online

The Saskatchewan Archives, in partnership with Saskatchewan History Online, is pleased to announce the launch of a new online tool called ‘Saskatchewan Historic Newspapers Online’ (SHNO).

This is the beginning of a new multi-year project which, once completed, will provide online access to all weekly newspapers from 1878–1964 held within the Saskatchewan Archives Collection. The current release focuses on the early years of the First World War, featuring local weekly newspapers from English, French, German, and Ukrainian communities across Saskatchewan.

During the first installation of the Saskatchewan newspaper online program, it will focus on the period from 1878 through to the mid-1960s. The first stage of the project will focus upon Saskatchewan newspapers published during the Great War period, from January 1914 through to the end of hostilities in 1918.

This sounds exciting!

Be sure to drop by their website at http://sabnewspapers.usask.ca

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Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/canadian-week-in-review-19-january-2015.html

It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada!

It has been a regular post every Monday morning since April 23, 2012.

The Courage to Remember: The Holocaust 1933-1945

In recognition of International Holocaust Remembrance Day on January 27th—and the 70th anniversary of the liberation of Auschwitz—the Atlantic Jewish Council, in partnership with the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21, presents the Simon Wiensenthal Center exhibition, "The Courage to Remember" http://novascotia.ca/archives/chase

This exhibition features 200 Holocaust photos that cannot be seen anywhere else in the world. They are at the Chase Exhibit Room of the Nova Scotia Archives in Halifax until the end of January 2015.

The Nova Scotia Archives is at http://novascotia.ca/archives

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Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/canadian-week-in-review-19-january-2015.html

It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada!

It has been a regular post every Monday morning since April 23, 2012.

Calling all Commonwealth Genealogists

Jill Ball, the GeniAus blogger, http://geniaus.blogspot.com, is calling on all genealogists from Canada who are going to RootsTech 2015 in Salt Lake City to meet her for supper Tuesday evening on February 10th. 

She, along with other genealogists, will be at The California Pizza Kitchen in The Gateway Center. Jill has provided a map to show you where it is at http://geniaus.blogspot.com/2015/01/aussies-and-commonwealth-cousins-at.html.

Jill is asking that if you are able to join her, to please drop her an email at jillballau@gmail.com (or to message her via the Rootstech App) so she can get an approximate idea of numbers.

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Check the Canadian Week in Review Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/canadian-week-in-review-19-january-2015.html

It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada!

It has been a regular post every Monday morning since April 23, 2012.

Those pesky nicknames ...

I listened to Legacy’s 200th Webinar last week called "Expanding Your Research from a Single Fact" given by Marian Pierre-Louis. The Webinar is FREE until 23 January 2015 at http://www.familytreewebinars.com/download.php?webinar_id=280

One thing she said which caught my ear was that people went by names other than their given name in the 19th century. It was the century of ‘nicknames’, although that is a modern interpretation - most people recognized them as their ‘family name’.

In fact, there are whole sections devoted to these names on the Internet that you may find helpful in breaking down those brick walls, because today we may know a person by their “nickname”, but they will still use their given name when asked for it on an official document.

In fact, when I was growing up, I was known as ‘Beth’ and not Elizabeth, because there were two other Elizabeth’s in the neighbourhood, and one of them lived directly across the street from me. I wasn’t known as Elizabeth until I went away to university.

There are two site that I use quite frequently, and they are -

Useful English: Women's Names and Nicknames
http://usefulenglish.ru/vocabulary/womens-names

Useful English: Men’s Names and Nicknames
http://usefulenglish.ru/vocabulary/mens-names

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Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/canadian-week-in-review-19-january-2015.html

It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada!

It has been a regular post every Monday morning since April 23, 2012.

Canadian Week in Review - 19 January 2015

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.

History

In 1891, famed Montreal heart surgeon, Dr. Wilder Penfield, was born in Spokane, Washington, USA.
   Read about him and his work at http://osler.library.mcgill.ca/archives/index.php/detail/?fondid=4661

In 1924, the Canadian Red Ensign was given official recognition as Canada’s official flag until the Maple Leaf was adopted in 1965.
   Read a chapter from the book, The Canadian Ensigns, at http://fraser.cc/FlagsCan/Nation/Ensigns.html

Social Media

Gnarly Roots
https://gnarlyroots.wordpress.com
   Mariana Pickering is transcribing from a 1927 diary that her 2x grandmother had written while living in Arlington, Massachusetts, outside Boston. She had been born in Nova Scotia.

Articles

Newfoundland

Database will recognize Mi’kmaq ancestry of soldiers who served in the First World War
http://www.thewesternstar.com/News/Local/2015-01-13/article-4004687/Database-will-recognize-Mi%26rsquo%3Bkmaq-ancestry-of-soldiers-who-served-in-the-First-World-War/1
   Maura Hanrahan, award-winning author, is putting together an online database of all the Mi’kmaq soldiers who served in the First World War.

Nova Scotia

MacNeil clan shocked as DNA checks force rewrite of history
http://www.heraldscotland.com/news/home-news/macneil-clan-shocked-as-dna-checks-force-rewrite-of-history.116231580
   Modern-day MacNeils have revealed their roots actually lie with the Vikings,and not the Irish.

Don Reid has been known as the ‘keeper of the cliffs.’
http://atlantic.ctvnews.ca/nova-scotia-s-keeper-of-the-cliffs-boasts-impressive-antique-bottle-collection-1.2184132#ixzz3OtU3kMp567
   Reid’s large collection of fossils helped make Joggins, Nova Scotia, a World Heritage Site, but Reid also boasts a collection of more than 2,000 antique bottles.

MORE ABOUT THIS LATER: The thread of a family
http://www.novanewsnow.com/Opinion/Columnists/2015-01-16/article-4010215/MORE-ABOUT-THIS-LATER%3A-The-thread-of-a-family/1
   Read about the Pratt family of Wolfville, Nova Scotia, and their influence on the cultural life in Canada.

Quebec

History students at Montreal university on strike
http://www.torontosun.com/2015/01/16/history-students-at-montreal-university-on-strike
   A history program at L'Université du Québec à Montréal is in limbo because the students went on strike, demanding full authority to determine the curriculum and pick their professors.

Ontario

Feds spend $50K on Canadian flag birthday celebration
http://www.ctvnews.ca/politics/feds-spend-50k-on-canadian-flag-birthday-celebration-1.2190708#ixzz3P60zZLeI

The federal government has allotted $50,000 for celebrations for the upcoming 50th birthday of the iconic Maple Leaf flag
http://news.nationalpost.com/201501/15/fifty-thousand-dollars-allotted-to-celebrate-50th-aniversary-of-the-iconic-maple-leaf-flag

Canadian MP offers excellent primer on the Canadian Flag, and its history

   For more on Canada's national flag, and to download a bilingual PDF poster on the history of the flag, visit Member of Parliament (for Ottawa-Vanier) Mauril Bélanger's webpage at http://www.mauril.ca/the-canadian-flag.

Museum gets the royal treatment
http://www.winnipegfreepress.com/our-communities/metro/Museum-gets-the-royal-treatment-288692721.html
   Deanne Crothers recently had the opportunity to speak as the MLA of St. James to the designation that Queen Elizabeth II has given the Aviation Museum of Western Canada. The museum will now be known as the Royal Aviation Museum of Western Canada, an honour that is not given lightly.

Saskatchewan

Turning the Tide closing, owner fears demolition of historic Saskatoon buildings
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/saskatoon/turning-the-tide-closing-owner-fears-demolition-of-historic-saskatoon-buildings-1.2887448
   Turning the Tide has been located in a small, old house at 525 11th Street East, just off of Broadway Avenue, for the last 11 years. The shop, which sells books about social justice and environmental sustainability, was given until January 31 to vacate, store owner Peter Garden said.

Alberta

Alberta community loses piece of history in fire
http://globalnews.ca/news/1772718/alberta-community-loses-piece-of-history-in-fire/
   One of three old Alberta Wheat Pool grain elevators in the town of Sexsmith was destroyed by a blaze Tuesday evening. No one was hurt. Residents said the building wasn’t in use.

British Columbia

Historic church part of downtown’s heritage
http://www.timescolonist.com/opinion/letters/historic-church-part-of-downtown-s-heritage-1.1733290
   Ven. Ron Corcoran, co-rector of the Church of Our Lord, wonders why the church was not mentioned in an article about downtown Victoria, British Columbia.

Stories of the Week

There are free apps at FamilySearch.org now at the AppGallery.

There are 50 apps to find those that meet their specific need, platform, operating system, and price. For example, if a patron is looking for a highly-rated app that will help them find specific records in their family tree, the app gallery will allow them to filter and find several relevant partner apps to choose from.

Dennis Brimhall, FamilySearch CEO, says “We’ve had partners for many years, and now we want to make it easier for our patrons to know about them and to find the apps they need”.

So spend a few minutes and look around the site. It is very pleasantly arranged, and I found it easy to use.

The AppGallery is at https://familysearch.org/apps/?et_cid=48528295&et_rid=839174644&linkid=https%3a%2f%2ffamilysearch.org%2fapps%2f&cid=em-1830

Tim Sullivan, President and Chief Executive Officer of Ancestry.com, has recently published his “state of the Union” address to Ancestry.com users, about what has been accomplished in 2014, and what new databases are coming in 2015.

But as I read the letter to the users ― he says that we can “Look for exciting additions like 170 million searchable images of probate records and wills that might reveal your ancestor’s dying wishes, all vital records from Virginia since 1900, substantial releases from Germany, and a milestone collection of almost 80 million Mexico Civil Birth, Marriage and Death records spanning from 1860 to modern day”, ― I don’t see any mention of new collections for Canadians.

Ancestry.ca offered 26 new collections and four updated collections during 2014, but we are left wondering what will be added to the list this year.

To read the letter, go to http://home.ancestry.com

And that was the week in Canadian genealogy, history, and heritage news!

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!

If you missed last week's post on 12 January 2015, visit http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/canadian-week-in-review-12-january-2015.html

The next post will be published 26 January 2015.

The OGS wants to know...

Mike More, of the Ontario Genealogical Society and the OGS Conference Advisory Committee, has put on a survey about their yearly conference.

They are looking for your input.

This survey is open to members and non-members, as well as those who have not yet attended the annual Conference. Please take a few minutes and fill it out online.

The survey conference is at http://ogsottawa.blogspot.ca/2015/01/ontario-genealogical-society-conference.html

I just took the survey, and it seems pretty inclusive in what they want to know – meal prices, conference venues, tours, and accommodations. It looks like they are trying to keep up to the times to make the conference as relevant as possible.

So spend a few minutes and take the survey. I am sure that they would appreciate it.

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Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/canadian-week-in-review-12-january-2015.html

It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada!

It has been a regular post every Monday morning since April 23, 2012.