Canadian Week in Review 11 November 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

This is an abbreviated edition of the Canadian Week in Review.

Newspapers Articles of the Week

UPDATED: Huge exhibition of Greek artifacts coming to Gatineau http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2013/11/01/huge-exhibition-of-greek-artifacts-coming-to-gatineau/ The exhibit - The Greeks — From Agamemnon to Alexander the Great - will be at the Canadian Museum of Civilization (by then it will be known as the Canadian Museum of History) from June 5th to October 15th. It will be the largest exhibit of ancient Greece that has ever visited North America.

Plans to mark 250th anniversary of Samuel Holland’s survey of P.E.I. http://www.theguardian.pe.ca/Living/2013-10-31/article-3456631/Plans-to-mark-250th-anniversary-of-Samuel-Holland%26rsquo%3Bs-survey-of-P.E.I./1 This year marks the 250th year that Samuel Holland surveyed Prince Edward Island as the first surveyor general of British North America.

New Canada Post stamp series will feature Africville http://thechronicleherald.ca/metro/1164190-new-canada-post-stamp-series-will-feature-africville Africville, a former community in the north end Halifax, and Hogan’s Alley in Vancouver will be featured on Canada Post’s 2014 Black History Series.

Bill to create new Canadian Museum of History passes http://www.ottawacitizen.com/travel/Conservative+government+used+closure+Wednesday+push+through/9134544/story.html The government has passed the bill that will change the name of the Museum of Civilization to the Canadian Museum of History. Now it has to go to the Senate, and receive royal assent (sometime in 2014, it is believed), and there will be a new museum in the country!

Historical society fights to save remaining Alberta Provincial Gaol building http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Historical+society+fights+save+remaining+Alberta/9133505/story.html The Fort Saskatchewan Historical Society is seeking signatures on an online petition to convince Fort Saskatchewan city councillors to preserve and restore the 99-year-old jail’s facility shop.

Story of the Week

Here are three more articles about the Canadian military -

Ottawa casualties from the First World War: CBC Ottawa has mapped the local addresses of soldiers who died overseas http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/ottawa/ottawa-casualties-from-the-first-world-war-1.2418617 Read how the original Ottawa Senators Hockey team was impacted by the First World War.

Caribou war memorial returns to Bowring Park
http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/newfoundland-labrador/caribou-war-memorial-returns-to-bowring-park-1.2421664 The famous Caribou monument was returned home to Bowring Park on Saturday, after undergoing repairs for damages caused by vandals.

How to Find the Military Heroes in Your Family http://www.huffingtonpost.ca/iman-sheikh/military-ancestry_b_4242270.html Do you know that almost one-third of Canadians do not know if any of their ancestors fought in either the First or Second World Wars. There is lot of work for genealogists to do!

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! The next post will be on 18 November 2013.

Remembering the Fallen in Canada

A new app for the iPad has been created for Remembrance Day as an interactive experience, giving Canadians a way to remember those who have given their lives in service to our country.

Click on the red poppy (I clicked on the poppy on Halifax, and discovered the story of The Sisters of Mercy – the Canadian Nursing Sisters, part of the Canadian Army Medical Corps of the First World War), but they have graves from the Boer War, through the World Wars, Korean War, our Peacekeeping Missions and Afghanistan.

The website is http://www.thefallen.org/

Canada Remembers – 30 Ways to Remember

A fellow Canadian blogger has started a new blog called The Rising Village and it’s about her family – John and Lizzie McCluskey who settled in the St. Andrews East area of Quebec in the 1800s. Today the area is known as Saint-André-d'Argenteuil - just south of Lachute.

And she has started a new project to coincide with Canada Remembers – 30 Ways to Remember, and she is taking one person per day who is listed on the Honour Roll at Veterans Affairs Canada and is telling their story.

She is asking anyone who has more information on the people she has put on the blog to write her, and if you have information on her family to do the same – she would like to hear from you.

The address is http://therisingvillage.blogspot.ca/

Contribution of Aboriginal Peoples in the First World War (1914-1918)

Above is the Attestation Paper of Private Henry Norwest, a Métis from Fort Saskatchewan, Alberta, was one of the most famous snipers.

The Library and Archives Canada has sent this email to me so that I could alert my readers that they have a new post called the Contribution of Aboriginal Peoples in the First World War (1914-1918).

In part, the post says that “Aboriginal peoples have a long tradition of military service in Canada dating back several centuries. Although not legally required to participate in the war, an estimated 4,000 Status Indians, and an unrecorded number of Métis and Inuit enlisted voluntarily and served with the Canadian Corps in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF).

Almost all of the young men on many reserves enlisted for service. For example, approximately half of the eligible Mi’kmaq and Maliseet from New Brunswick and Nova Scotia volunteered for overseas duty. In other provinces, the number was even higher. In the small Saskatchewan community of File Hills, nearly all of the eligible men signed up to fight.

The exact number of Aboriginal soldiers who lost their lives during the First World War is not known. It is estimated that at least 300 men were killed during battles or died from illness, such as tuberculosis”.

Read the full blog post at http://thediscoverblog.com/tag/aboriginal/

Postscript: Am I correct in thinking that the LAC is changing the design of its website again? I am starting to get frustrated as I flip back and forth between the old-old site and the new site. Some records are still at the old-old site, and then some are on the new site, and …

Military Great Moments in Genealogy

The British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO) is having a special monthly meeting in honour of Remembrance Day on Saturday November 9th, when they will feature seven 15-minute talks.

The meeting will take place at Library and Archives Canada, 395 Wellington Street, Ottawa.

Come early and browse the Discovery Tables, and meet with family history experts.

9:00 to 9:15 am
Over the Top: Researching our First War Ancestors in Fifteen Minutes Glenn Wright

9:15 to 9:30 am
Finding a Family Member on the Western Front Jane Down

9:30 to 10:00 am
Discovery Tables — Military Memorabilia Helen Garson

10:00 to 10:15 am
BIFHSGO Monthly Business Meeting Glenn Wright

10:15 to 10:30 am
Sam Cromie: Canadian Private to British Officer Wendy Croome

10:30 to 10:45 am
A Family in Service Mark Lloyd

10:45 to 11:00 am
Slipping Backward: A Canadian Prisoner of War, 1915-18 Brian Watson

11:00 to 11:15 am
William Sterling Lamb (1894-1918): A Promising Life Cut Short Anne Sterling

11:15 to 11:30 am
What Did He Do for Armistice? By Brian Glenn

If you want to hear speakers Glenn Wright, and Anne Sterling as they are interviewed by Dave Cross about the subjects of their talks, go to http://www.bifhsgo.ca/cpage.php?pt=106


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

Discover your family’s hero this Remembrance Day,

Ancestry.ca is offering free access to their Canadian military records in honour of Remembrance Day.

They say that “In honour of Remembrance Day, Ancestry.ca, Canada’s leading family history website, is giving Canadians the chance to discover the military hero in their family by providing free access from November 7 to 12 to more than 4.4 million online military records from some of its most popular collections, some of which are available free for the first time.

Our Canadian Military records include details such as rank, home address, salary and more, and can connect your family to the front lines of Canada’s most historic wartime battles. With these records that date back to as early as 1710, you may follow an ancestor’s journey from enlistment, to their post overseas, to awards received and, in some cases, to their final resting place".

The records are

Canada, Military Honours and Award Citation Cards, 1900-1961, containing almost 70,000 records

Canada, Nominal Rolls and Paylists for the Volunteer Militia, 1857-1922, contains more than 1.6 million records

Canada, War Graves Registers: Circumstances of Casualty, 1914-1948, contains almost 30,000 records

Canada, CEF Commonwealth War Graves Registers, 1914-1919, contains over 56,000 records.

Canadians looking for information about their ancestors, or for those who want to start their family tree for free can visit www.ancestry.ca.

Those who want to explore the military heroes in their family tree can do so by visiting www.ancestry.ca/honouryourheros.

Veterans Week - Cape Bretoners in World War Two

Wayne Macvicar, from Cape Breton (Nova Scotia), has emailed that
his site - Cape Bretoners in World War Two has just gone through an update.

The site contains an additional 16 individuals for a total of 16, 077 and 261 new pages for fatal casualties in the period Jan-Jul 1944, with photos for 19 individuals that are not on the Canadian Virtual War Memorial site.

He says that “Although I feel I'm getting close to completing the number of individuals that served I only have the bare information for many of them, including those that died in service. I invite everyone to have a look at my site and if they have any information they would like to share to fill out the form I have provided on my general Cape Bretoners at War https://sites.google.com/site/cbatwar/ site”.

To visit his sites, go to Cape Bretoners at War: https://sites.google.com/site/cbatwar/ and

Cape Bretoners in World War Two: https://sites.google.com/site/cbinww2/

Wayne thanks you for your input. It is very much appreciated.

(C) Veterans Affairs Canada

Postscript: This year during Veterans Week (November 5 – 11th), we remember Canada's Veterans - Brave and Proud.

Thank a Veteran by sending a Postcard for Peace at http://www.veterans.gc.ca/eng/remembrance/veterans-week/postpeace