The Saskatchewan Genealogical Society

The Saskatchewan Genealogical Society <www.saskgenealogy.com> was founded in 1969, and today it is a society with 20 branches throughout the province.

It has done yeoman's work in providing genealogical information on Saskatchewan residents such as the Saskatchewan Residence Index, the Saskatchewan Homestead Index, and the Cemeteries Index.

The organization will be 40 years old in 2009, and as part of its anniversary, it plans to publish a book called the Women Pioneers of Saskatchewan.

But they need more people to submit write-ups of up to 2,000 words and two pictures on each of the women who will be included in the book. If you have Saskatchewan females, and have sent anything in to them - won't you consider sending in their life story, and have it published in a book? The deadline is January 2009.

The president of the society was in London this past spring at the Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS) Conference this spring to get an idea of how Ontario did its conference. She was very pleased with what she found, with the way it was organized, and in fact has invited some of the people who gave lectures in London to give talks in Saskatchewan.

The 2009 Conference will be held from April 23rd to April 26th, and this year they have invited Ian Wilson, Librarian and Archivist of Canada; Louise St. Denis, Managing Director of the National Institute for Genealogical Studies; and Dick Eastman of Dick Eastman's Online Genealogy Newsletter fame.

Fall Issue of The British Columbia "Genealogist"

It difficult to believe but fall is here already, and so is the "Genealogist". It arrived the other day from the British Columbia Genealogy Society <www.bcgs.ca>.

At 148 pages, it is a hefty publication with all sorts of topics covered - some of them being the Diary of Rev. Edward White (1822-1872); Cemeteries of Hope, BC; and the biography of Robert Grenville/Granville McKamey (1836-1896).

Intersersped with these articles are one such as British Columbia Mining Accidents (1878-1889 & 1896-1942); Daniel Stanley Masset; Queen Charlotte Islands, 1911; and the Vancouver Business Woman (1929, 1930).

There are BC's 150th Birthday Crossword; the Most Improved Contest; Book Reviews; BC Genealogical Events; and Activities and Queries.

Be sure to check the Images of Army Life; World War I - Baxter; Plumper Bay Petition, 1890; and Meet the Pioneers - Grenelle and Goupill.

And all of this celebrating "BC 150 Years - The Best Place on Earth".

Even though I do not now have any relatives living in BC right now (my aunt and uncle — Fred and Annie LEE — used to live in Golden and Kamloops), I found the journal to be a good read.

I especially liked the book reviews (they are always good) and this time they review three - The Family History Toolkit by Michael Hait; You Can Write Your Family History by Sharon DeBartolo; and In Search of Your German Roots by Angus Baxter.

Happy Thanksgiving!

This weekend, Canada celebrates Thanksgiving!

A holiday in which we give thanks for the year we have had, and in traditional terms - for the harvest of the field.

It is always on the second Monday of the month of October - having been decided in 1931. Before that, it had been observed on the same day as Armistice Day - both being on November 11th.

This weekend has been nice, sunny and warm. A lot different from that Thanksgiving in 1993 when it snowed and snowed, followed by the coldest winter that had been seen in these parts in years. I remember it well because it was the first year in our new house, and to see the grounds covered in snow was more like Christmas than Thanksgiving.

It has always been a family holiday with turkey, dressing, and all of those roots vegetables - potatoes, carrots, turnips, and a pumpkin or apple pie.

The dinner was usually eaten on Sunday or Monday (it was always on Sunday in my house), and the drive on Monday to my maternal grandparents (Blades) house, and to see my maternal aunts and uncles and cousins who all lived in the town of Barrington Passage, Nova Scotia.

Today, I am staying home to proof an article I have coming out on Chinese-Canadian Immigration in the early 1880s to 1900s, and then tomorrow I will go for a drive to the beautiful Gatineau Hills - which are so colourful this time of year.

So whichever way you celebrate your Thanksgiving weekend, may it be a pleasant one!

And to our American cousins, we wish you the same, just a bit earlier. Enjoy the playoffs!

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Voter's List at LAC

I can remember when I was but a youngster of voting age in the early '70s living on Olivet Street in Halifax, Nova Scotia, stopping on my way to work to read the Voter's List (a separate list was posted for each of the elections - municipal, provincial, and federal) stapled on the local telephone pole outside of the apartment.

I had to stop and check the list to see if I was there, and that they had spelled everyting correctly, and I was always there - and, yes, the information about me was true!

You will find information on the Voter's List held be the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) under <www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/022-911.006-e.html>.

You will find that the LAC holds the Federal General Elections Lists for the years 1935, 1940, 1945, 1949, 1953, 1957, 1958, 1962, 1963, 1965, 1968, 1972, 1974, 1979 and 1980 - only they are only available by microfilm.

You may want to check the Provincial and Territoral Archives who hold Voter's List for provincial elections, and there are many municipal archives who also hold voter's lists.

Canadian Census of Industrial Establishments - 1871

After 25 years of studying and working with the 1871 Canada Census, Elizabeth and Gerald Bloomfield of Guelph, Ontario have released the Canadian Census of Industrial Establishments.

They have digitized the industrial census from the 1871 Census of Canada - the only detailed industrial census returns to survive so completely from the nineteenth century. More than 45, 000 industrial establishments are put into databases on the website <http://www.canind71.uoguelph.ca>.

The website provides information for the four provinces - New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Quebec, and Ontario - covered in the 1871 Canadian Census.

I have checked the website and thre are the divisions which cover the businesses themselves, the people who were involved with the business, power (whether it be water, etc.), and the places where the businesses were located.

I discovered that a number of business in Shelburne and Kentville, Nova Scotia where my ancestors are from are mentioned, and I doubt that I would have ever taken the time to look them up on my own - now they are indexed by the Bloomfields!

There are barrel makers and shipbuilding companies that one would expect to find in a seaside town like Shelburne and businesses like agriculture in Kentville, a farming town in 1871. What this census does is that it presents a picture of the town that can help you place your relatives within the industrial mieu of the time.

And it can also provide material for the study of the technology, business and work organization of industrial activity, and the history of families, businesses and communities in 19th century Canada.

Well worth the visit, since it is the first time it has been done on such a large scale, and it does give a snapshot of industrial development in Canada in 1871.

The Island Register

I first came across "The Island Register" when I originally started to research the United Empire Loyalists, and had found a number going from Nova Scotia over to Prince Edward Island to settle in 1783 onward.

It is an email newsletter sent out every Friday by Dave Hunter from Prince Edward Island, and he started it in 2001 when he found that so many people could trace their ancestry back to the island.

About a couple of years ago he added the "Death Notices From Local Newspapers and Other Source" ending for the week, and he gives the link to them onsite.

He also gives the weather for the week just ending, and the "News on the Island Register" which is always an interesting read, and letters from his readers.

I was particularly interested in the article on "Michael Ambrose McInnis and 'The Maple Leaf'" because I have relatives in California, and I am sure that they are in the publication. Now all I have to do is find the "Maple Leaf" which has just become easier because the article was written by his granddaughter - so there is my first lead in a long and anxious trail looking for 'The Maple Leaf'.

He also has the "Phone Report" in his newsletter and a weekly report on the phone museum on his property and "Laptops for Kids" where he pick up laptops on the Island for less than fortunate children. He has fixed and given away 20 laptops so far.

If you want to sign up for this particular newsletter, the address is <dhunter@islandregister.com>.

Quebec Family History Society "Connections" Arrive

The Quebec Family History Society has issued its Autumn 2008 issue of "Connections" today, and it is very interesting, as usual.

In this issue, they have articles on David THOMPSON and his last years in Quebec; the history of John METAGE, a Huguenot settler in Quebec; and the Artists Rifle Association and its 100th anniversary.

There is also the second report on "The Land Register of Quebec" written by Sharon Callaghan, and she points out that it pays to search the land register to see if your ancestor is there because you might think they did own land and it turns out they did - so check the records.

There is also "Seminar and Excursions"; "Seminars"; "Library Acquitions"; and many short articles and pieces of research.

At the September conference of BIFHSGO in Ottawa, I met up again with Derek Hopkins—Vice President of the organization, and whom I have known since 1996—and he gave me a demonstration of the society's new database where he and Bob Dunn are adding birth, marriage, and death records in Quebec.

This is definitely a database you should check if your have ancestors that have come from Quebec. You must be a member of the society for you to check the database, but at $60.00 a year, it is a price well worth the investment.

The website is <www.qfhs.ca> and the address is: P.O. Box 1026, Pte. Claire, Quebec H9S 4H9.

New Website

Every American blog you see today has news from Illya d'Addezio <www.GenealogyToday.com> saying that he will have a new webpage on the free Live Roots website which will be launched October 10th. The site will list the various genealogy databases and publishers' catalogs.

But we already have a free website which highlights some Canadian sites, and it is the Canadian Genealogy Projects Registry!

It was started in the late 1990s and is a part of the Alberta Family Histories Society <www.afhs.ab.ca/registry/index.html>.

There is births, marriages and deaths already online from church records, civil records, newspaper announcements, bibliographies, and directories - to name but a few resources from all over the country.

Immigration, passenger lists, land-related records, and lineages are some other records that are included.

I have used the registry in looking for my Webster ancestry in Kentville, Nova Scotia (and I found their deaths in newspaper listings) and one branch of the family that went to Winnipeg, Manitoba, and I also found them there.

Also check the Brian W. Hutchinson Scholarship while you are there!

It is a scholarship open to all genealogists to Canadians and is worth $500.00 annually to the person to use for book(s) and the cost of tuition in a recognized educational or accrediation/certification program.

The deadline to submit is 31 December, 2008.

OGS has established SIG Irish Palatine Group

The Ontario Genealogical Society <www.ogs.on.ca> has established its first Special Interest Group (SIG) - the Irish Palatine Interest Group. It will be organized and have the same status as a branch but will not be tied to a specific geographical region. Because it is considered as a branch, the number of branches increases to 31 from 30, and you can get to it by going on the "Branches" section at the top of the first page of the OGS website.

The Palatines were Protestants who left the German Palatinate in 1709 (their 300th anniversary will be next year) at the invitation of Queen Anne of England. They settled in various British colonies, and 185 families settled in Ireland.

Beginning in the 1830s, many of the Irish Palatine moved to Canada, especially Ontario. Those people with surnames such as Heck, Embury, Dolmage, Switzer, Sparling, Fizzel, Teskey, Lawrence, Barkman, and Ruckle.

As the SIG-IP (Special Interest Group - Irish Palatine) is open to any person who sees value in exploring the common heritage of German language, Protestant religion, migration to Ireland, and many ties of marriage to other Irish Palatine families.

As a SIG-IP group within the OGS, the group will develop regular communications with its members - including a website*. It will offer opportunities for sessions at the annual OGS conference and will produce occasional publications to inform its members of Irish Palatine history and genealogy.

It has taken quite a while to set up the group because I first reported on this group in the July 2008 edition of the NewsLeaf (Vol 38, No 3 p. 52).

The OGS is interested in forming other SIGs and seeks suggestions. They hold the library of the now-defunct Huguenot Society of Canada, and they would like to form a Huguenot SIG. The Huguenots were French Protestants who were expelled from France.

For information on this or to suggest other SIGs, email the office at <provoffice@ogs.on.ca>.

* They currently have a website "Irish Palantines" which celebrates their 300th Anniversary at <http://web.mac.com/bobfizzell/iWeb/Bob%27sHome/IrishPalatinesHome.html>. But they will have a new website which will reflect their statue as the new SIG-IP.

Irish Studies Symposium

The Library and Archives Canada will host the second Irish Studies Symposium at the LAC, 395 Wellington Street, on November 3 and 4th. The general public is invited - free of charge.

The first symposium was held in September 23, 2006 and, since then, much activity has taken place between the LAC and the National Archives of Ireland e.g. certain counties have been put on to date from the Irish Census of 1901 and 1911. It has been put on the Internet with the LAC's help.

There will be six sessions and one round-table panel, and they will cover

- The Irish in Quebec

- Famine and Commemoration

- Politics: Shifting Attitudes and Political Impact

- The 1911 Census of Ireland

- Irish Culture: Print, Music, Food, and Film

- Irish Culture and Modern Media

- Directions in Irish Canadian Studies (Round-Table)

There is also an exhibit called "The Dubliners: Photographs from the National Library of Ireland" which is, as the website says "a unique photographic record of life in Dublin at the turn of the last century."

The exhibit is on until Jan 5, 2009 from 9:00 a.m. to 10:00 p.m. daily, and is in Exhibition Room C. It is free.

For questions about the upcoming symposium, please contact <webservices@lac-bac.gc.ca>.

BIFHSGO Conference is a success!

The conference was held this past weekend of September 19-21 in Ottawa, and was a success - the best I have felt about a conference in many a year!

This year's conference was the society's 14th annual one, and was entitled "Celebrate Your Anglo-Celtic Roots", which meant there was a special emphasis on England.

The keynote speaker was Sherry Irvine, a genealogist and one of the founders of Pharos Teaching and Tutoring from Victoria, British Columbia <www.pharostutors.com> who gave an outstanding Don Whiteside Memorial Lecture Friday evening when she talked about "Genealogy With Wings: Reflections of a Family Historian in an Age of Techno-enthusiasm."

Her speech truly did set the stage for the rest of the weekend because it advanced the setting of genealogy on the Internet to "Genealogy 2.0".

She explained that genealogists who are willing to go that one step further and get on the train going towards "techno-enthusiasm" by becoming involved with such Web 2.0 technologies as collaborative family history sites, blogs, wikis, and Facebook and other social networking websites, will find their genealogy expanding and taking on new meaning for those involved in it.

You and your cousins can go on the Internet and build your family tree together, bringing a new dimension to genealogy that I will look into because my cousins are all across Canada and in the United States, and this will bring us closer together! (I will look into putting the genealogy of Andrew BARCLAY, the progenitor of the United Empire Loyalist BARCLAYs of Boston, New York City, and Shelburne, Nova Scotia on such a site.)

And it just continued through the next two days as it encompassed Marian Press in her talks about "Genealogy 2.0: What Do I Need To Know" and "The Past, Present and Future of Librarians for Family Histories", and Alison Hare and her talk about how to properly document your genealogy work called "Citations for Genealogists."

The rest of the time I spent in the Marketplace where I said my "Hellos" to everyone, including Ed Zapletal, the editor at Mooreshead Magazines Ltd. (Internet Genealogy, Family Chronicle); Derek Hopkins and John Reid of the Quebec Family History Society, who gave me a demonstration of the new Quebec database that the society owns, and which is only available only to members <www.qfhs.ca>; and Mike More from the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society <www.ogsottawa.on.ca> spent a hour or so on Friday afternoon talking about Canadian genealogy in general.

Doug Rimmer, Assistant Deputy Minister - Program and Services Sector, also gave a brief summary of the accomplishments of the Canadian Genealogy Centre of the LAC over the past year.

He touched on the hours that the LAC is open and how they were increased when they were reduced last fall, and this was because of the "public reaction", and he also discussed a few of the databases which have been put on last year - the North West Mounted Police; Black Loyalists; Chinese Immigration; the 1881 Census; and the Second World War - Killed in Action.

Congratulations should be given to all of the team who worked on this year's conference, especially the Program Co-Chair, John Reid, who put together a wonderful conference by bringing the speakers to us from Victoria, B.C., Toronto, and England, and Wills Burwell, who as Past President and Co-Chair (Administration) of the conference, helped to make everyone feel welcome. Their cadre of volunteers are also to be congratulated for their dedication and hard work in the face of the onslaught of the many harried and hurried genealogists who took over the LAC this past weekend!

Mark your calendar for next year's conference from September 18th to the 20th. Their website is <www.bifhsgo.ca>, and John Reid at his blog, Anglo-Celtic Connections, also has some comments on the conference.

Ancestry.ca Launches Online the "Canadian Passenger Lists 1865-1935"

At 10 o'clock this morning (on Tuesday, September 16, 2008), Josh Hanna — Ancestry.com's Senior Vice-President — announced in Toronto that it has put the Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935 online at <http://landing.ancestry.ca/intl/canada/passenger/lists.aspx> in both French and English (simply click the language link at the top of the page).

I have been on the site (even though all of my ancestors came to Canada pre-1865) to see what it is all about, and there is 1,441 BARCLAYs who came to Canada and 178 BLADES. (To those who don't know - my father's line is through the surname of BARCLAY, and my mother's name was BLADES - both of them descendent from United Empire Loyalists who came to Canada in 1783 and 1784, respectivly, from the United States.)

The passenger lists covers the provinces and cities of Quebec (Quebec Ports, May 1865-June 1908, June 1919-July 1921, April 1925-November 1935); Montreal (April 1925-November 1935); Halifax, Nova Scotia (1881-October 1922, 1925-1935); North Sydney, Nova Scotia (November 1906, August 1908-August 1922, 1925-1935); Saint John, New Brunswick ( 1900-September 1922, 1925-1935); Vancouver, British Columbia (1905-September 1922, 1925-1935); Victoria, British Columbia and Pacific Ports (April 1905-September 1922, 1925-1935) and some eastern U.S. Ports (July 1905-1919, 1925-1928) and New York City, which covers 1906 to 1921.

When you put the name into the search engine you may get their estimated year of birth, their birth country (although many of the immigrants did not mention their country of birth), date of arrival, name of the vessel, and port of departure. You can then view the image from which the information was taken.

It appears that the partnership that was forged between Ancestry.com and the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) in May, 2007 was not adhered to in this instance because nowhere is the LAC mentioned in the Ancestry.com press release.*

But it may be worth checking the LAC site <www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/immigrants> because they have some of the passenger lists onsite, too. They also have the Moving Here, Staying Here. The Canadian Immigrant Experience online, and it's worth looking at it because it can give you the background behind immigration.

This past August, Sylvie Tremblay, Chief Project Manager of the Canada Genealogy Centre, said that the LAC has embarked on a three to five year project where they hope to develop a family history site where you will go to get the "story behind the headlines". They will make the connections for you between the databases, and the history in family history, and they are looking towards wikis to do this - so watch for that.

In the meantime, you can look up your ancestor on Ancestry.ca, and decide if you want to spend the money to do a deeper search. Remember, you can also get a 14-day trial at <www.ancestry.ca>.

*The LAC is mentioned in the CNW News Release. It refers to the LAC in that the LAC holds the official records on microfilm.