Monthly Meeting OR Speaker Series?

This question has been answered by the Victoria Genealogy Society (VGS), They have decided to change the title of their Monthly Meetings to the Speaker Series – and they seemed to have struck on a winning title. 

They say that they are ‘more about presentations and less about VGS business’ – therefore the change.

So the first participant in the Speaker Series will be John Azar and he will talk about LEST WE FORGET WHERE THEY LIE: Remembering War Dead and Veterans Buried in Victoria Region Cemeteries.

John Azar, President of the CEF 100 Commemoration Society, will provide an overview of the South Vancouver Island cemeteries where veterans are buried. After telling stories about a few of those veterans, John will invite the audience to indicate the research they are conducting on ancestors who served in the First World War or other conflicts.

He is also inviting people to the annual Old Cemeteries tour of the Veterans Cemetery in Esquimalt on April 19th.

Doors open at 7pm at Gordon Head United Church, 4201 Tyndall Avenue. Admission is free for VGS members and by donation for visitors.

Come early to view the displays and the sales table, and to network with other genealogy enthusiasts.

So the business of the group will not be discussed at this meeting, and the emphasis will be changed to the speaker, displays, and networking between the attendees.

What do you think about changing the emphasis of Monthly Meetings to the Speaker Series? Does it make any difference what you call a meeting? Would it help to attract new members to have a new nomenclature? Notice that the speaker will 'invite' the attendees to talk about their research. He won't be there just to talk, and answer a few questions - it will be an exchange of research. Is this what people want in their meetings? Interesting, isn’t it?

To go to their website, it is at http://www.victoriags.org

To go their  Facebook page, it is at https://www.facebook.com/vicgs



Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

If you missed last week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/canadian-week-in-review-16-march-2015.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. 

Meeting in Halifax - The House on Refugee Hill

Om Tuesday March 24th at 7:00 pm, the Genealogical Association of Nova Scotia (GANS) will hold a meeting at 33 Ochterloney Street, Suite 100, Dartmouth, NS, and it will be called The House on Refugee Hill: An Archaeological Time Capsule.

The talk will be given by Dr. Jonathan Fowler, and he will address his recent archeological work in Beechville, an historic Black refugee community located in the area.

Dr. Jonathan Fowler is an historical archaeologist who teaches at Saint Mary’s University. He holds degrees from Saint Mary’s, Acadia University, the University of Sheffield, and the University of Oxford and has wide-ranging interests in the fields of archaeology, anthropology and history. For the past decade, Jonathan has directed archaeological excavations at Grand-Pre National Historic Site. He is the co-author, with Paul Erickson, of two popular books on regional archaeology, Underground Nova Scotia and Underground New Brunswick.

GANS lectures are open to the public. Light refreshments will be served.

Their website is at http://www.novascotiaancestors.ca

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



Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

If you missed last week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/canadian-week-in-review-16-march-2015.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.

Canadian genealogy conference features Thomas MacEntee

Every year, there are a number of American who come ‘north of the border’ to take in the Ontario Genealogical Conference (OGS), and to learn about their Canadian ancestors, but this year there are a number of added incentives:

• The American dollar is worth more this year! It’s currently about $1.25 Canadian. Think of how much you will save while learning more about the hobby that we all enjoy!
• The Conference will not be far from the US border, as it's being held in Barrie, a city about an hour north of  the Toronto airport. 
• The conference will also feature Thomas MacEntee from Chicago, who will be the moderator on the Panel Discussion: Tracks through Time on Saturday morning, and on Sunday, will present Tracing Your New York Ancestors.

The OGS Conference 2015, Tracks through Time, will be held at Georgian College in Barrie, Ontario from May 29 to 31, 2015. Early-bird registration continues until the end of March. Accommodation remains available at either the Georgian College Barrie Residence or the Holiday Inn Barrie Hotel & Conference Centre. More information on Conference 2015, as well as on-line registration, can be found at http://www.ogs.on.ca/conference/

There are interviews with the various speakers, and I have covered them in the following blogs -

Interview No. 1 with Thomas MacEntee and Dr.Janet Few at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/02/update-ogs-conference-interviews.html

Interview No. 2 with Dr. Maurice Gleeson at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/02/another-ogs-interview.html

Interview No. 3 with Kirsty Gray http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/02/update-ogs-conference-interview-no-3.html

Interview No. 4 with Dave Obee http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/update-ogs-conference-interview-no-4.html

Come join us for all this, and more.

Barrie is not only a lovely place to visit at that time of the year, but it is also—relatively-speaking—a short drive away from some of Ontario's historic pioneer settlements, as found around Lake Simcoe; the cottage country of the Kawarthas (home to the Peter Robinson Settlers, near Peterborough); the Penetang region, including Penetanguishene; some of the older parts of (now, since amalgamation) the City of Toronto; scenic Georgian Bay; and the gateway to beautiful Northern Ontario.

Are you looking for photos of Mennonite life in Canada?

 

If you are looking for photos of Mennonites in Canada, there is a new online photo archive that is making thousands of images of Mennonite life from across Canada and around the world easily available to the public. It is located in the Mennonite Archival Image Database (MAID) at Mennonite Archives of Ontario at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo, Ontario. 

 

The images, some over 100 years old, chronicle everything from weddings to barn-raisings, and is the product of the work of seven Mennonite archives across the country - one each in Alberta, British Columbia, Saskatchewan, and Ontario and three in Manitoba. 

 

There are 80,000 photos with descriptions in the database, but at this point only 10,000 of the photos are scanned and are currently available from the archives. 

 

As an added bonus, people who browse the archives and spot family members or other photos that interest them, they can easily buy and download digital copies of the photos online. 

 

The website of the Mennonite Archives of Ontario at Conrad Grebel University College in Waterloo is at https://uwaterloo.ca/mennonite-archives-ontario/photograph-and-slide-collections 

 

Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

If you missed last week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/canadian-week-in-review-16-march-2015.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.

Dear Myrt’s Beginning Genealogy - Sessions 9

 

As I promised my blog on 06 January 2014 at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/beginning-genealogy-study-group.html, I watched Dear Myrt’s Beginning Genealogy Session 9 yesterday. I will continue to watch the rest of the study group as it proceeds.

The major topic which was discussed in Sessions 9 was -

Emigration/Immigration/Naturalization/Migration – All of these subjects were touched on by Dear Myrt in the latest Beginning Genealogy Study Group online meeting.

Although people who did have ancestor's who came to the United States, and therefore may not be interested in these records, they can still find something of interest to them.

She mentioned Steve Morse’s site (which I have used quite often, and he does have Canadian records) called One-Step Webpages, which contains ‘tools for finding immigration records, census records, vital records, and for dealing with calendars, maps, foreign alphabets’. It is quite a good site, and is at http://www.stevemorse.org/

She also talked about P. William Filby, one of the editors of the multi-book indexes used by people who are researching on passenger and immigration lists index. This is something that you should look at if your ancestor came to North America in the 16th to the 18th centuries.

She ended by talking about Tracing Immigrants Origins at FamilySearch at https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Tracing_Immigrant_Origins

It gives you a good idea of where to search, and there are three parts to this lesson, and it should be something that you should read.

The sessions so far are -

Session 1 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-1.html

Session 2 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-2.html

Session 3 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-3.html

Session 4 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-4.html

Session 5 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/02/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-5.htm

Session 6 & 7 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-sessions_5.html

Session 8 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-sessions_13.html

Remember to make yourself a member of Dear Myrt’s Genealogy Community before watching the YouTube Google+ Hangout on Air at https://plus.google.com/communities/104382659430904043232

Women's World Cup Canada 2015

There will soon be a series of collector coins commemorating the FIFA Women's World Cup Canada 2015™ produced by the Royal Canadian Mint. The coins will be available approximately two months before this summer's opening match, with fine silver and pure gold coins included in the collection.

 

The coin collection will include - 

 

•  “$20 for $20” fine silver coin, sold at face value (designed by artist Joel Kimmel) 

 

• Four $10 fine silver coins (designed by artist Greg Banning) featuring the themes of “The Kicker”, “Heading the Ball”, “The Goalie” and “Celebration” 

 

• Two Greg Banning-designed coloured $10 fine silver coins: “Canada Welcomes the World” and “Go Canada Go!” 

 

• Three $75 pure gold coins: “The Soccer Ball” and “The Championship Game” (designed by Tony Bianco) and “The Trophy” (designed by Glen Green). 

 

This summer's FIFA Women’s World Cup Canada 2015 commences on 6 June with the opening match in Edmonton, Alberta. The 52-match finals will be played from coast to coast across Canada, with matches in: Vancouver, British Columbia; Edmonton, Alberta; Winnipeg, Manitoba; Ottawa, Ontario; Montreal, Quebec; and Moncton, New Brunswick.

 

To go to the Royal Canadian Mint, go to  http://www.mint.ca/store/template/home.jsp

 

Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

If you missed last week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/canadian-week-in-review-16-march-2015.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.

 

 

 

Ireland Canada Monument Society

Over the past few years, I have been following the process that has been involved with the Ireland Canada Monument Society, which will erect a monument to the Irish-Canadian connection in Vancouver, British Columbia.

The organizers have been working with the Vancouver Parks Board staff to get confirmation of the design. Guess what? They got word that the design was confirmed yesterday - St Patrick’s Day -  of all days!!! The monument will be erected in the George Wainbourn and David Lam Park sites at False Creek, Vancouver.

When the drawings are complete, they will be submitted to Vancouver Parks Board for the Public Process to notify local residents and businesses living near both parks to see the design. This process will take about three weeks.

They will hold a meeting in the near future, and if you would like to attend, please email them at irelandmonumentvancouver@gmail.com

Their website is at www.irelandmonumentvancouver.com




Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

If you missed last week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/canadian-week-in-review-16-march-2015.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.