UPDATE: Niagara Peninsula Branch OGS

Steve Fulton U.E, the Chair of the Niagara Peninsula Branch OGS, brings us up-to-date about happenings at the local branch of the Chair of the Niagara Peninsula -

“First of all, I would like to share about our upcoming General Meeting: Thursday May 9th – this meeting will be streamed to the internet if you are unable to make it. See the firestions of the main page.

Renee Tetreault is a founding member of the Welland Branch of the Franco Ontarien Society of History and Genealogy now known as the Resau Du Patrimoine Franco Ontarien. Renee has served for more than thirty years as the expert who assists researchers at their Centre for Research in the Welland Public Library. She will describe the extensive holdings of their library in and offer suggestions for researching in Quebec. Meeting starts at 7 pm.

Now for some other updates from Niagara.

The Morse and Sons index on our website has been recently updated. We've added three more years to it, from 1960 to Sept 1963. There are now names in this index. Year Range: 1828 to 1963 - don't miss the index and the possibility of finding a connection.

The Canadian Headstones Project - the Welland Historical Society has joined forces with the branch and has taken the Welland Cemeteries on and is in the process of placing them on line starting with Woodlawn. Please visit the site often as St Andrews in St Catharines and Pelham Hickside Quaker Cemeteries have been photographed this weekend and should be on the site soon. Other volunteers have stepped forward to help and we thank them for their effort. We need help with photographing cemeteries if you are interested please contact the branch directly.

**This just in - All volunteers for Canadian Headstones Niagara Project: Today we passed 20,000 names in the Niagara Index. Great going! Thanks for all your dedication!** Thanks to Robert Halfyard for his hard work!!

The Welland Historical Society and myself had the opportunity to be interview on Brock University Radio – The interview talk about the Branch and all the good things we are doing as well the Canadian Headstones Project – click on the link to listen too:
http://www.ogs.on.ca/niagara/radio_interview_2013.mp3

Finally if you are on Facebook and have not been on our page, you are missing all the great things going on there”.

For the Niagara Peninsula Branch, go to www.ogs.on.ca/niagara

BIFHSGO Conference registration is now online

Brian Glenn tells us that the 2013 British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO) Conference registration is now open. Both the mail-in form and the online application are now online.

The conference theme this year will be Ireland, and there will be many speakers there, such as, Eileen Ó Dúill (an international probate genealogical researcher from Ireland), Linda Reid (a Canadian genealogists), and Lisa Louise Cooke (an American genealogist with knowledge of new technology is outstanding). There will be many topics presented which should be of interest to those whose research area is Ireland.

For information about the 2013 Conference to be held from Sept 20 to 22, you can go to www.bifhsgo.ca/cpage.php?pt=22

Canadian Week in Review

06 May 2013

I have come across the following Canadian websites, blogs, Facebook, and newspaper articles this past week that were of interest to me, and I thought you might be interested in them, too

Websites

Heritage Ships www.heritage-ships.com $$ While researching various immigrant routes from Europe to Canada, I came across this site which has photos of different Canadian (and others ports) ports.

Blogs

PEI Heritage Buildings http://peiheritagebuildings.blogspot.com/2013/05/springtime-on-prince-edward-island.html I have written about this blog before, and it bears mentioning again, because Carter has been out taking more pictures of buildings (houses, factories, barns) in Canada’s smallest province - Prince Edward Island.

Climbing Greenwood http://climbinggreenwood.wordpress.com This blog covers the surname of GREENWOOD in Quebec (1638-1860s), and New Brunswick (17th and 18th centuries). I am sure that you will be taken, as I was, by the account of cholera in Quebec, where the province lost “3,800 people dead in the three and a half months after the first victim fell in June, 1832.”

Facebook- YouTube – Video

There is a short 30 second video called Celebrate Canada’s Asian Heritage www.cic.gc.ca/english/department/media/multimedia/video/celebrate-asian-heritage/celebrate-asian-heritage.asp with transcript.

Newspapers

Chignecto-Central Regional Heritage Fair www.ccrsb.ednet.ns.ca/node/493 To see who won this year’s Heritage Fair, go to www.trurodaily.com/News/Local/2013-05-03/article-3233910/ChignectoCentral-Regional-Heritage-Fair/1

Calgary author Tyler Trafford traces an unlikely family history full of loss, secrets and the famous wartime great escape www.calgaryherald.com/Calgary+author+Tyler+Trafford+traces+unlikely+family+history+full+loss+secrets+famous+wartime+great/8316599/story.html#ixzz2S3j2i87a Gail from Montreal just recently read this book and here is what she had to say “I read this terrific book in two short days. A great read, especially for genealogists who are thinking about writing their family history. It is wonderful to read how the author uncovers a love story in 99 letters and telegrams written during WWII”.

Bruce Cockburn donates archives to McMaster University http://www.cbc.ca/news/arts/story/2013/05/02/hamilton-mcmaster-bruce-cockburn-archives.html He will donate notebooks, musical arrangements, gold records, letters, scrapbooks, nearly 1,000 recordings and even three guitars

A man on a mission across Canada http://www.northernlife.ca/news/localNews/2013/05/04-kevin-mccormick-sudbury.aspx Kevin McCormick is on an 18-month mission to mark the 100th anniversary of the start of the First World War by ensuring that the sacrifices made by the men and women of the Canadian Armed Forces are not forgotten.

D.V. Currie Armoury marks centennial anniversary www.mjtimes.sk.ca/News/Local/2013-05-04/article-3234237/D.V.-Currie-Armoury-marks-centennial-anniversary/1 Many of Canada’s armouries are celebrating their 100th year anniversary this year, and D.W. Currie Armoury in Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan is celebrating theirs this year.

Cruise caters to genealogists http://commercial-news.com/local/x730868612/Cruise-caters-to-genealogists The ninth annual Wholly Genes Genealogy Conference and Cruise is being planned for Oct 17-25, with about 17 hours of genealogy and technology lectures offered on the ship.

The ship will depart from Baltimore, Md., and then visit Portland, Maine; Bar Harbor, Maine; St. John, New Brunswick; and Halifax, Nova Scotia before returning to Baltimore.

Pictures and Story of the Week

Asian Heritage Month

Asian Heritage Month has been celebrated in the United States since 1979, but in December 2001, the Senate adopted a motion proposed by Senator Vivienne Poy (a former OGS Patron) to officially designate May as Asian Heritage Month in Canada. In May 2002, the Government of Canada signed an official declaration to designate May as Asian Heritage Month

There is a Calendar of Events at www.asianheritagemonth.net/pages/events/2013.php

There is a game for the children at Asian Heritage Month Word Find www.cic.gc.ca/english/games/ahm/index.asp

The next Canadian Week in Review will be issued Monday May 13, 2013

Battle of the Atlantic

                          
The Battle of the Atlantic was Canada’s single longest continuous military engagement of the Second World War. It took place from September 1939 to May 1945.

Today is remembered as the Battle of the Atlantic Sunday in Canada, and there will be many ceremonies that will take place across the country.

For almost six years, the men and women of the Royal Canadian Navy, the Royal Canadian Air Force and the Canadian Merchant Navy fought the enemy in the North Atlantic to ensure vital supplies reached Europe.

After receiving more training, air cover, special intelligence and better equipment, the Battle of the Atlantic reached a turning point in May 1943

However, despite all efforts, enemy forces sunk over 70 merchant vessels, claiming the lives of over 1,600 Canadian crew members

Please visit the Flickr album that the Library and Archives Canada has put on to view the photos of the Battle of the Atlantic at www.flickr.com/photos/lac-bac/sets/72157633223398662

Canada’s Naval History www.warmuseum.ca/cwm/exhibitions/navy/home-e.aspx The Canadian war museum has an online historical exhibit.

70th Anniversary of the Battle of the Atlantic www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/feature/battle-atlantic
The Battle of the Atlantic was Canada's longest military engagement of the Second World War, lasting from September 1939 to May 1945

Remembering the Battle of the Atlantic www.sunnewsnetwork.ca/sunnews/straighttalk/archives/2013/05/20130504-160903.html The Sun News has a story of the Battle of the Atlantic "longest, largest, and most complex" naval battle in history

BIFHSGO Monthly Meeting

On Saturday, May 11, The Bitish Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa  (BIFGSGO) will hold a pre-meeting which will feature Comparing FTM, Legacy and Rootsmagic - An Overview which is a part of Before BIFHSGO Education Talks at 9:00 am, and it will be presented by Ken McKinlay.

The main presentation called Building a One-Name Study: The Influence of Computers, The Internet, and DNA will be held from 10:00 am to 11:30 am, and it will be presented by Bill Arthurs.

This presentation will feature the Titus One-Name Study from its inception before the era of computers, through its progression with the advent of the internet, construction of a website, and the use of DNA research.

You can go to and listen to Bill at http://bifhsgo.ca/cpage.php?pt=106 as he talks with Brooke Broadbent about his start in genealogy and One Name Studies.

If you are interested in certain surnames, you can check the surnames on http://bifhsgo.ca/surname.php. There are 1, 293 Internet pages onsite.

The website of BIFHSGO is http://bifhsgo.ca

The Ottawa Genealogist

The Spring/Summer 2013 edition of The Ottawa Genealogist has been released, and it contains an interesting article, and index. It is published by the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society.

The article is by John Patton and it is called the Ballad of Syd and Annie: A Genealogical Mystery, and it is a story of two people, whose story is totally unbelievable. Sydney Frank LEWER (1892- c.1925), is an Englishman who immigrated to Canada in 1909. He gave so many birthdates, it is difficult to understand exactly when he was born. And the plot thickens when he meets Annie HOSKO. There was apparent deception in an adoption process of a son, unusual evidence in a his First World War military record, prison sentence because of a bigamy charge, and on and on it goes. Their life together was turbulent, to say the least, ending with the fact that he possibly may have died in 1925 – at least his wife declared herself a widow at that time.

This article shows that good research can go a long way in resolving these genealogical mysteries such as this.

The index of Early Bytown Settlers Index in this issue go from the letter D to the I. It gives the name, reference and page number, and some information, such as where they lived, their occupation, their age.

The reminder of the journal is filled with news of the Ottawa Branch of the OGS, Interesting Web Sites, Branch Library Additions, and Gleanings from Newsletters in the Ottawa Branch Library.

To go to the website of the Ottawa Genealogical Society, the website is at http://ogsottawa.on.ca

No online access to some Ontario Vital Records

Ancestry.ca has Ontario, Canada Births, 1869-1913, Ontario, Canada, Marriages, 1801-1928, Ontario, Canada, Deaths, 1869-1938 and Deaths Overseas, 1939-1947 online.

But do you know that the Archives of Ontario extends these records to 1914 - 1915 for births, 1929 - 1930 for marriages and 1939 - 1940 for deaths – but they aren’t online.

But you can access them at the Ontario Archives in the Reading Room of the Ontario Archives at 134 Ian Macdonald Boulevard, Toronto, Ontario. Microfilm copies can also be accessed at that location. They can also be borrowed through their Microfilm Interloan Service.

You can go to the website at www.archives.gov.on.ca