April 9 - Vimy Ridge Day in Canada

Vimy Ridge was a battle in which Canadians fought in the First World War. It was part of a larger battle of Arras in northern France. It began on Easter Monday, and about 30,000 Canadians fought at Vimy Ridge and claimed victory. 3,600 Canadians were killed, with many wounded.

There is a special exhibit in London right now until September 2015, and then will travel across the country, and it is called the Souterraine Impression.

This exhibition illuminates the lives of Canadian veterans through the deeply personal carvings and drawings made by soldiers concealed in the allied caves and trenches near Vimy Ridge, France.

Organized by Zenon Andrusyszyn, Souterraine Impressions “will bring reproductions of site-specific artifacts to Canada through contemporary 3-dimensional printing, allowing audiences a rare glimpse at these personal documents created while Canadian soldiers awaited orders to join the now legendary Battle for Vimy Ridge. While not a great military success, the battle has subsequently become for Canada a symbol of national unity, achievement and tremendous sacrifice”.

Visitors will see “a series of "tableaus” containing one of the reproduced carvings, a photograph of the soldier who created it and a short biography. While many of the carvings feature regimental or battalion badges, there are also carvings of hearts, animals and names’.

You can go to the museum in London at http://www.museumlondon.ca/exhibitions:115 to get particulars on the exhibit.

Meanwhile, there are news articles today in the papers, and some of them are -

Honouring the memory of Vimy Ridge
http://www.melfortjournal.com/2015/04/07/honouring-the-memory-of-vimy-ridge

New Vimy Foundation poll reveals majority of Canadians believe 100th anniversary of Vimy Ridge in 2017 should be focus of Canada's Sesquicentennial
http://www.newswire.ca/en/story/1514029/new-vimy-foundation-poll-reveals-majority-of-canadians-believe-100th-anniversary-of-vimy-ridge-in-2017-should-be-focus-of-canada-s-sesquicentennial

Three Quarters of Canadians (74%) Believe 100th Anniversary of Vimy Ridge in 2017 Should Be One of Canada’s Most Important Celebrations During Sesquicentennial 
http://www.northumberlandview.ca/index.php?module=news&type=user&func=display&sid=33787

Ninety-eight years later, historian finds ‘missing’ soldiers from the Battle of Vimy Ridge 
http://news.nationalpost.com/news/world/ninety-eight-years-later-historian-finds-missing-soldiers-from-the-battle-of-vimy-ridge

Dear Myrt’s Beginning Genealogy - Sessions 11

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 11 on Wednesday. I will continue to watch the rest of the study group as it proceeds.

The major topic which was discussed in Sessions 11 was a subject which was easy to discuss because Dear Myrt has researched in these records before – American Military Records – Revolutionary and Civil War Military Records.

I, of course, research in both Canadian and American records, and I notice there is a difference. The Canadian records are based on the British system (ranks, for example), and the American are strictly American (my grandfather Lester John BLADES enlisted in the American Army in the First World War although he was from Barrington, Nova Scotia, but was living in Boston, Massachusetts at the time).

If you wish to refresh yourself on American Military Records, you can go to https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/United_States_Military_Records

If you wish to refresh yourself on Canadian Military Records, you can go to https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Canada_Military_Records

If you want to refresh yourself on British Military Records, you can go to https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/England_Military_Records 

The website for Session 11 is at https://plus.google.com/communities/104382659430904043232

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

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

Session 9 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-sessions_20.html

Session 10 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session.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

Its time for the 4th Annual Genealogy Fair!!!

The 4th Annual Genealogy Fair will be held at the Kitchener Public Library, 85 Queen St N on Saturday, April 25, 2015 from 9:00 am to 3:30 pm.

It will be an all-day affair, beginners and experts alike are invited to Kitchener Public Library’s 4th Annual Genealogy Fair. Attend workshops and lectures, speak with experts, browse exhibits, and connect with vendors.

The keynote speaker will be Lynn Palermo of the blog The Armchair Genealogist at http://www.thearmchairgenealogist.com/, and she will offer attendees down-to-earth advice on researching and writing their family history.

For a full-day of speaker, go to http://www.kpl.org/ref/gsr/genealogyfair.html

FREE ADMISSION! Just simply drop by. There is no registration required.

Brant County Branch of OGS will hold a Spring Workshop

On Saturday April 18, 2015, the Brant County Branch of OGS will hold a SPRING WORKSHOP from 9:30 am to 4 pm at the site at 14-118 Powerline Road in Brantford, Ontario. There is a map on the homepage at http://www.ogs.on.ca/brant/index.html

The morning Guest Speaker will be Geoffrey Moyer, a librarian and local historian who has long held a passionate interest in the World Wars and their impact on his hometown. His topic will be the First World War World.

The afternoon speaker will be Terri Hunter, who is an expert on how the Facebook works , and she can tell you how to use it for personal and genealogy research.

The cost to hear these two speakers is $30.00 with lunch, or $35.00 at the door plus $5.00 for lunch.

Please pre-register for the workshop by April 11, 2015.

For your convenience you can pay through Paypal. 

Do you know that its National Archives Week in Canada?

Although it is National Archives Week in Canada, there some archives which celebrate it at other times during the year.

But one archives which celebrates it is the Grimsby Historical Society Archives in Grimbsy, Ontario.

This little archives has as its logo “We preserve Grimsby’s past for the future”.

Yet the little archives which is acting way beyond its weight, has inputted 525 entries onto www.OurOntario.ca, a huge province-wide database. They have also researched and added more than 1,500 pieces of information to the archives’ First World War file. And they have added more than 2,000 newspaper clippings to the collection, as well as scanning thousands of photos and documents for the collection. The database of obituaries – very important especially for family history researchers – now has 7,800 entries. And all of this work has been done by volunteers!

So if you are in the area, drop in and say ‘Hello’.

The website is at http://www.grimsbyhistoricalsociety.com/

What is Canada's largest non-governmental archives?

The Glenbow Archives in Calgary, Alberta is Canada's largest non-governmental archival repository. It has extensive holdings of unpublished documents and photographs related to the history of Western Canada.

The website says that it “houses a wide-ranging collection of unpublished archival records (such as diaries, letters, minute books, photographs, scrapbooks, speeches, membership lists, films, and sound recordings) for over 3,000 individuals, families, clubs, businesses, schools, and organizations in Calgary, southern Alberta and Western Canada.

The records, date from the 1860s to the 1990s, and the areas of specialty include First Nations (especially Blackfoot), Mounted Police, pioneer life, ranching and agriculture, the petroleum industry, politics (especially the farmers' movement), labour and unions, women, the arts (especially theatre), and businesses”.

To visit the Glenbow Museum, go to http://www.glenbow.org/collections/archives/highlights.cfm

The Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/glenbowmuseum

There’s a new look to an older website

 

The Sudbury Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society has a new look to its website!

I knew that they were working on one, and today I took a visit.

It is a very clear design, an inviting way to present genealogy, in a non-glitzy
(is that a word?) manner. I am very impressed.

Under Reference Information drop down menu, they have put their library holdings that you can download onto your site; Our Projects – where you can download cemetery updates, and the 1921 census data; Maps - which show the District and the Townships in 1841 – Baldwin, Chapleau, Killarney, Nairn and Hyman, Sables-Spanish Rivers, and Surnames List from various publications - cemeteries, registers, funeral home data, wills, land registry documents and miscellaneous books.

So if you have ancestors in the Sudbury area, this is a place that you should check at http://www.sudburyogs.com/

They also have a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/groups/sudburyogs/