Sir John A. Macdonald Dinner

Wednesday, January 11 is the 196^th birthday of Sir John A. Macdonald in Scotland – Canada's first prime minister.

The Kinston Hisorical Society http://kingstonhistoricalsociety.ca/index.html has held, for the past 12 years, the dinner on his birthday at the Royal Military College's Senior Staff Mess.

The dinner's guest speaker this year is Mr. Peter Milliken, retired MP for Kingston and The Islands, and former Speaker of the House of Commons. His talk will be "Sir John A. Macdonald and the Kingston Heritage".

To find out more about Sir John A. (as he is called in Canada), here are some informative websites -  

Sir John A. Macdonald: Canada's Patriot Statesman www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/sir-john-a-macdonald/index-e.html

Sir John A. Macdonald www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/primeministers/h4-3025-e.html

Bellevue House National Historic Site of Canada  www.pc.gc.ca/eng/lhn-nhs/on/bellevue/index.aspx

The Street Arab – The Story of a British Home Child

On January the 12th there will be a meeting of the Waterloo Genealogical Society at the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, 10 Lorraine Ave (corner of River Road) Kitchener, Ontario at 7:00 p.m.

Sandra Joyce will give a talk on her novel called The Street Arab – the Story of a British Home Child which is about a boy from a small mining town in Scotland, whose family is torn apart by the First World War, and resulting poverty.  

On her website http://www.sandrajoyce.com it says that "The after foraging for food one day, Robbie returns home to find his family missing and suffers a horrific accident. With strength and determination, he forges ahead and is sent, along with countless other British Home Children, to Canada to begin a new life".

To check meetings at Waterloo Genealogical Society, their website is at http://www.waterlooogs.ca/upcoming_meetings.htm

New/Improved Canadian Websites and Blogs Week 16

^{Here are some of the websites and blogs that I have come across the week ending January 8, 2012.} 

Toronto 1861 http://toronto1861.blogspot.com The "Old Census Scribe" continues her work in transcribing the 1861 Census, but she does more than that, she includes her "method and organization, and the social and geographical details of the area at that time". She started the blog on January 9^th, 2009.

Christopher Moore's History News http://christophermoorehistory.blogspot.com If you want an interesting view of Canada's history, then read Moore's blog.

Toronto Public Library http://torontopubliclibrary.typepad.com/local-history-genealogy/2012/01/jewish-genealogy.html The blog has been online since 2011, and it discovers "the history of your family, your Toronto neighbourhood, or places in Ontario and across Canada".

Diane Lynn Tibert – Handling Over the Reins http://dianetibert.com/2012/01/02/handing-over-the-reins This blog discusses history and genealogy of Nova Scotia.

Kent County GenWeb http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~onkent As the site says "Kent County is located near the South-Western tip of Ontario, between London and Windsor. It was created in 1792 and from 1792 to 1849 was part of the Western District". There are lots of resources here for you to use.

Anglo-Celtic Roots - Winter 2011

The first article in the Winter 2011 edition of Anglo-Celtic Roots, the newsletter of the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO) www.bifhsgo.ca, belongs to Sharon Callaghan.

While reading through "Genealogy Clues – Know Your Sources", I discovered that it is the first time I have seen Quebec records explained in this way. (This is important to me. Although my husband has had his genealogy done as far as BMDs are concerned, the article goes way beyond that, with additional records).

She divides records into four distinct categories – Most Common Searches, which includes directories, censuses, and BMDs; Less Common Searches, which includes obituaries, coroner's reports, and wills; Uncommon Searches, which includes groups, institutions, and photographers; and Most Uncommon Searches, which includes newspapers, and notaries.

I will be taking this copy of Anglo-Celtic Roots with me when I go to Quebec City later this year to do more research on my husband's genealogy.

Other articles include "What Happened to the Hodge Home Children?" by Bryan D. Cook; "'Hugh' Wouldn't Thought It?" by Christine Jackson; "The Cream of the Crop" by John D. Reid; and "The Bookworm" by Betty Warburton.

As usual, another great issue!

Newspaper Vital Statistics Indexing Project - GANS

I see where the Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia (GANS) www.chebucto.ns.ca/Recreation/GANS has put out a call for volunteers for the Newspaper Vital Statistics Indexing Project.

They have already indexed vital statistics from 1769 to 1856, and now they need help to index and proofread the years up to 1864 because that is when the provincial government required that vital statistics be kept.

If you can help, please contact them at gans@chebucto.ns.ca.

They have published their Fall 2011 Newsletter, and some of the stories highlighted in this issue are "Between the Lines: The Story of Harry G. Cooke in World War I" by H. Day; "The Private Log of William Ackhurst, Jr., 1867-1868" by K. Lamb; "The Braines of Queens County, Nova Scotia" by D. Cochrane; and "Collins Family Bible, Digby County" by J. Fralic-Brown.

World War I Veterans of Guysborough County, Nova Scotia

A retired Social Studies teacher in Nova Scotia has started collecting the personal history of people from Guysborough County, Nova Scotia who were in World War One.

He says that his "goal is to compile a biographical sketch of each veteran who was born and/or lived in Guysborough County"

He has had the blog since November,2011, and so far he has posted "Pte. Arthur Ellsworth Armsworthy: A Wounded Soldier's Story", "A Soldier's Wage", and "Pte. Robert Burns: KIA November 25, 1915."

He says he hopes to collect this material so that it will be available to commemorate the 100th anniversary of the war from 2014 to 2018.

The blog is at http://guysboroughgreatwarveterans.blogspot.com, and if have any information, please contact him brucefrancismacdonald@gmail.com.

March Workshop in Toronto – Finding Your Great War Ancestors

Registration is now open for what may be the most authoritative Great War workshop during your genealogical lifetime!

Don’t miss "Finding Your Great War Ancestors", a packed full-day workshop to be held in March 2012 in Toronto, co-sponsored by the Toronto Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society and the Canadiana Department of North York Central Library.

Choose one of three concurrent lecture streams – British Research, Canadian Research and “Case Studies and Curios” – or mix and match the topics that interest you the most.

Where: North York Memorial Community Hall, 5110 Yonge Street, Toronto (at North York Centre subway station)

When: Saturday 31 March 2012

Early registration rates apply until 22 February 2012, and special discounts are available for OGS members.

Simon Fowler, Glenn Wright, Linda Reid, and Brenda Dougall Merriman are some of the people who will lead the workshops.

I have just read the program, and I wish I could be there. Hopefully, some people who will attend will be able to blog about it.

For full programs details, speaker biographies and registration information, visit
http://www.torontofamilyhistory.org/GreatWarWorkshop2012.html