Genealogy Canada

Thursday, April 16, 2015

BRAVO! The LAC has listened …

Attestation Paper for Thomas Cussons, regimental no. 675270, Canadian Expeditionary Force personnel files, RG 150, accession number Accession 1992-93/166, Box 2057 – 51; (http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/first-world-war-1914-1918-cef/Pages/image.aspx?Image=073302a&URLjpg=http%3a%2f%2fdata2.archives.ca%2fcef%2fgat1%2f073302a.gif&Ecopy=073302a); accessed 15 April 2015); Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Canada.

The Library and Archives Canada (LAC) today released the latest news on digitizing the First World War Service files. Not only did they say that 143,613 of 640,000 files are available online via their Soldiers of the First World War: 1914-1918 website, but for the first time, they have released the surnames of the soldiers that they have digitized.

Thank heavens! It was a never-ending guessing game whether I should go ahead and request a file, and go to the LAC and take photos of the record, or view it online. I never knew which I should do.

But I had written to them a month ago and asked them if they would tell us where they are on the digitizing scheme of things, and now they have. So bravo to the LAC!

The latest digitized box is #2057, which corresponds to the surname Thomas Cussons. I looked up the name, and it is there – the full service record!

So, hopefully, this little addition to the LAC blog will make a difference to researchers out there. Now I must write a letter of “Thanks” to the people who are working on the boxes.

The website for the First World War Service files is http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/military-heritage/first-world-war/first-world-war-1914-1918-cef/Pages/canadian-expeditionary-force.aspx

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/2015/04/canadian-week-in-review-13-april-2015_13.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/

Wednesday, April 15, 2015

Durham Region Branch is expanding the scope of their meetings

The Durham Region Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society is adding more to their meeting, and they are expanding in a good way.

According to their website, they are going to have, in addition to their standard meetings, the following new items are being added before the meetings -

TONI Tidbits from this huge database of over 3 million genealogical entries

Brick Wall Bomb - a 15 minute brainstorming session on a problem from the audience, and a 10-minute Mini-Talk on a variety of subjects.

This sounds exciting!

Their website is at http://durham.ogs.on.ca/

They have a blog at http://durham-branch.blogspot.com/

You can join their Facebook page by going to https://www.facebook.com/groups/durhamogs/

There is so much genealogy here

The Oshawa Public Library in Oshawa, Ontario just have oodles of information which have been digitized and are online at http://localhistory.oshawalibrary.ca/

They have been categorized into the following subject areas -

Clubs and Associations

Education in Oshawa

**Directories**

Entertainment in Oshawa

**General Local History**

Military

**Oshawa Families**

**Religious Life in Oshawa**

This is a prized collection (especially the Directories) that the library has put together.

Their website is at http://www.oshawalibrary.on.ca/

Their Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/oshawapubliclibrary

Extra news items

Here are some news items which have come across the desk this week -

For those people who regularly follow the Dear Myrt's Beginning Genealogy posts here every week, there will not be a regular post today. Dear Myrt is attending the New England Regional Genealogical Consortium Conference in Providence, Rhode Island this week. She will return to her desk next week.

If you have not been following my posts, all of the posts are here at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/04/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-sessions_9.html

Also, the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society usually has their yearly Conference in the spring of the year. But they have found it impossible to plan one for this year, so they have postponed it until next year – 2016. So keep posted for news as it comes to us.

You have to listen to this!

Essex County Genealogical Society now hold their meeting on a YouTube channel, and the first presentation that they had this week was given by George Pitfield and called Do You Know Your Family?

George always thought that he was English (even had the genealogy to prove it), but a surprising turn in his search that he is full blood Aboriginal – on both sides of his family. All of that English genealogy was wrong. Since then, he has been made an Elder, and has leaned the language of his people. Truly fascinating story!

The YouTube presentation is at http://www.ogs.on.ca/essex/?page_id=165#Apr2015Speaker

Tuesday, April 14, 2015

National Volunteer Week in Canada

National Volunteer Week (NVW) is from April 12 to 18, 2015.

Annually, we spent close to two billion hours a year – the equivalent of approximately one million full-time jobs – in an effort to help out family, friends, and those in need to better our neighbourhoods and communities.

The call for the 2015 nominations for the Prime Minister’s Volunteer Awards was launched on April 13, 2015, and will run until June 30, 2015.

We, at Genealogy Canada, salute all of volunteers of the Canada genealogy community. We have volunteers who take photos of gravestones, who work on the The Ontario Name Index (TONI), who put together our monthly meetings, workshops, and conferences, and who work in our libraries, museum, and archives.

We appreciate what you do for us so that we have records to search, and encouragement to us when we feel that there is nothing left to search to find that elusive ancestors.

A big thank you to everyone. We appreciate all the work that you do.

The website for the National Volunteer Week is at http://volunteer.ca/

35th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy

35th IAJGS International Conference on Jewish Genealogy will be held in Jerusalem this year from July 6 to the 10th.

The conference will be a truly international "Promised Event". Speakers and registrants hail from around the globe representing 20 nations to date including New Zealand, American Samoa, the Americas, Africa and all of Europe.

Their Preliminary Program is now listed in the website Program & Schedule in the "Program" tab of www.iajgs2015.org . You will see why they are boasting that this will be "A Conference Like No Other". The schedule will become interactive ...shortly.

As announced, the *keynote speaker will be Rabbi Israel Meir Lau,* one of the most prominent figures in Israeli society today. Rabbi Lau, a child survivor of the Holocaust, is an outstanding activist and orator. He will bring a message to genealogists reinforcing the value of their work researching individuals and families.

And Dick Eastman will be there!

They have announced that the *master genealogist Dick Eastman* will be speaking at the closing Banquet. In the mid-1980s, at the dawn of the World Wide Web, Eastman pioneered one of the first online Genealogy Forums. By 1996, he created a weekly online newsletter called "Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter" which has grown from a circulation of 100 to more than 60,000 genealogists.

Registration is now available on the Registration Form for the Shabbaton, Exploration Sunday, Breakfast with the Experts, SIG Luncheons and Banquet, and when you join them for the conference, don't miss the **pre-conference festivities:**

Their Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/IAJGSConference

Beginning Genealogy classes in Winnipeg start today

There will be a two part genealogy Beginning Genealogy class in Winnipeg, Manitoba during the month of April, and the classes will be given by Bill Curtis of the Manitoba Genealogical Society.

The first class will be tonight from 6-8 pm, and the second class will be Tuesday April 21 and it also be from 6-8 pm. Bill will introduce the basics of genealogical research.

In Part 1, you will be a family history detective and find clues in a case study.

In Part 2, you will learn where to find personal information about individual ancestors both on and off the Internet.

These courses will be given at the HENDERSON LIBRARY in Winnipeg, and you can phone 204-986-4314 to register.

The webpage for the Manitoba Genealogical Society is at http://www.mbgenealogy.com/

Their Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Manitoba-Genealogical-Society-Inc/7054423205

And they are also thinking about doing a possible group trip to Salt Lake City.

Anyone who is reading this and are interested in a possible trip for the week of May 17 to 24, 2015, are asked to please email Jayne Paradis. Rooms are $85US single/double and $92US triple/quad.

Jayne is looking into the costs of bussing and flying. Please email jparadis@mts.net if you are interested or if you have any questions.