Canadian Week in Review 05 November 2013

© Her Majesty the Queen in Right of Canada, represented by the Minister of Veterans Affairs, 2013

Veterans Week November 5 - 11

Today is the beginning of Veterans Week in Canada. This year’s theme is I Remember – Canada's Veterans, Brave and Proud.

They have an Honour Roll at their page at
http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/collections/virtualmem/honour-roll

Yesterday, they honoured 281 people who died in war on that date, and each person has burial information, a photo of the soldier if it is available, and a summary of their military service.

Some of the stories that have caught my eye this week were –

‘Give a Vimy for Vimy:’ Fundraising campaign highlights battlefield image on $20 bill http://www.canada.com/Give+Vimy+Vimy+Fundraising+campaign+highlights+battlefield+image+bill/9119175/story.html Montreal-based Vimy Foundation is launching “a centennial campaign to convince the country to adopt the nickname “Vimy” for the new polymer $20 bills, which feature an image of the towering Vimy Ridge battlefield memorial in France”.

Libraries and Legion work together for literacy this Remembrance Day http://www.ngnews.ca/News/Local/2013-10-01/article-3413507/Libraries-and-Legion-work-together-for-literacy-this-Remembrance-Day/1In order to promote Remembrance Day this year, the Legion and the libraries in Nova Scotia are giving away 6,000 copies of Norman Leach’s award winning book Passchendaele,an illustrated history.

`Victory in Europe's 70th anniversary and the liberation of the Netherlands http://www.prnewswire.com/news-releases/canadian-students-and-teachers-to-join-dutch-citizens-in-celebrating-victory-in-europes-70th-anniversary-and-the-liberation-of-the-netherlands-229744371.html Students from Canada will go to the Netherlands May 2015 to celebrate the 70th anniversary of the end of World War II in Europe and the liberation of the Netherlands.

New Updates to the Family History Library Catalogue

FamilySearch has made long awaited changes, here and there, to the Family History Library Catalogue, and has incorporated the “old” and “new” catalogue into one entity.

For example, the catalogue does a title search that includes subtitles and inclusive dates, the main author in bold type, and it displays additional places.

And the names of the catalogue searches are now the same as they were in the old catalogue, which s good to hear.

As someone who uses FamilySearch on a regular basis to search for those books and periodicals (some of which can be found in no other place on the Internet), I depend on their being a good useable catalogue at my disposal.

Postscript: The Canadian Week in Review will be published tomorrow as a special military issue as Canada begins its Veterans Week from November 5th to the 11th.

Ontario GenWeb's Q&A!

Did you know that the Ontario GenWeb offers questions and answers on genealogy research in Ontario, Upper Canada and Canada West – free of charge!

This has been going on since 1998!

Go to http://ontariogenwebqa.blogspot.com/

Mini-biographies of the pioneers of York County, Ontario

York County GenWeb, under the leadership of Sherri Pettit and Fred Appleton, started a place last year to put mini-biographies of early settlers in York County on the website at http://www.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~onyork/early-residents.html

So far, the settlers who have been placed there are

Pioneer Residents of Georgina Township

EZRA SHERWOOD

ROBERT RIDDELL

ARCHIBALD RIDDELL

Pioneer Residents of Markham Township

William Robson

Pioneer Residents of Whitchurch-Stouffville Township

In the Whitchurch Township, there is a list of records of the land patents issued in the earlier years of the settlement, and there are mini-biographies of

CHRISTOPHER SMITH

CHARLES APPLETON

Although these are not in-depth biographical studies, there may be information there that could be treated as a clue, and it could lead to a new discovery in your family history.

OGS is seeking an individual for Publishing Committee

For many years, the OGS has had a publishing committee, and part of its mandate has been publishing genealogy resource books.

The Publishing Committee is now looking for “an energetic individual interested in the world of Canadian genealogy to chair the OGS Publishing Committee. We are looking for someone with an understanding of the publication process, and a vision for the future of OGS publishing”.

The volunteer would help to

- determine current needs with regards to genealogical publications and work to develop publications to fulfill these needs,

- receive and develop publication proposals with possible authors,

- establish and follow budgets for the titles being published,

- develop marketing plans for titles

If you are interested, please contact the OGS Executive Director at ed@ogs.on.ca to discuss your skills and ideas.

Voices of the Past

Merv Scott, Project Director of the Victoria Genealogical Society has sent this notice to me. It sounds like a good idea. Are there any other societies doing a program like this?

“Our not for profit and volunteer run society is proud to announce the
launch of a new and free community service called "Voices of the Past"
and we hope that you will help us to get the word out to seniors in
our community.

The website is http://www.victoriags.org/voices

These recordings are then published/posted on our new website for
Voices of the Past at www.victoriags.org/voices where family members,friends and others can enjoy them now and in the future, and from
anywhere in the world.

The first few stories have been recorded by our volunteers and are now available on the Voices of the Past webpages. Other upcoming recording sessions are scheduled at the Greater Victoria Public Library on November 15 and December 10 (see GVPL programs website) and at the Victoria Genealogical Society Resource Centre on November 21. Recordings are free but advance registrations is required by email to projects@victoriags.org

We hope seniors don't miss this limited time opportunity to have their story, or their loved one's story, recorded for posterity.

For more info check out our fhs website at http://www.victoriags.org
and if any fhs out there wants to know how we did this please email
direct”.

1921 Canadian Census

The every name index to the 1921 Canadian Census is now on Ancestry.ca at http://www.ancestry.ca/census