Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Manitoba Genealogical Society Website

The Manitoba Genealogical Society has a new website and a new url <www.mbgenealogy.com>.

In fact, it has had a website since March of this year, but I didn't use it until this past week when I was looking around for a Webster relative from Kentville, Nova Scotia who married a Rev. Joseph Hogg and moved to Winnipeg in c1901.

The design is quite nice and the colours are true to Manitoba - a brown as a base and a yellow to tell us that the province is at the beginning of the prairies.

They have three branches—which are also online—and MGS Cemetery Transcripts. and they have an Online Library Catalogue which is very useful in finding secondary sources.

They have the location of 1,400 cemeteries online and they are inexpensive to order one - and I will be doing that in order to see the record of Rev. and Mrs. Hogg.

They, at present, do not have any records online, which is a shame, but there is always hope for the future. Until then, we will have to do research the old way -

But they have a page on the FaceBook.com website at <http://www.facebook.com/pages/Manitoba-Genealogical-Society-Inc/7054423205>!

Tuesday, November 25, 2008

Canadian Census - 2006

There has been talk the last couple days in the media about the 2006 Canadian Census not counting nearly a million people that they should have counted.

It's true! If you check Wikipedia <en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_2006_Census>, you will see that the population count in 2006 was 31,612,897 and that was lower than actual count in 2006 - 32,623,490 people.

That is over a million short - someone didn't fill out their census return!

This is made even more odd by the fact that this was the first year that the form were offered online and you could fill it there. It will be interesting to see what Census Canada does with this problem!

Meanwhile, Question 53 is still up in the air and hasn't been resolved, according to genealogists. Statistics Canada agrees to release the Census information after 92 years, but it will only be information by those people who have checked the box.

The statistics show that there was a "yes" reponse by 55.50% of the population - the highest being in PEI, with 64.50%.

If you have't read the blog of Nov 16th where I talk about Ancestry.ca and FamilySearch partnering on indexing and digitizing the census from 1851 to 1916, go to the blog <http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2008/11/joint-initiative-provides-online-access.html> and take a look - it's interesting.

Monday, November 24, 2008

Ukraine Remembers - The World Acknowledges!

This past weekend, Canada——along with many other countries——honoured the 75th Anniversary of Ukrainians that were killed by Stalin - the Holodomor of the 1930s.

It is estimated that 2 to 10-million Ukrainians were killed by a famine because Stalin forced collectivization of grain and other foodstuff that left people starved for food.

The Ukrainian Canadian Congress launched the first National Holodomor Awareness Week from November 16th to the 23rd.

On the 22nd, they honoured the memory of the victims with a moment of silence at 9:00 a.m., and on Sunday, they held memorial services across the country in local churches.

Earlier this year, Canadian Prime Minister Harper supported a private member's bill that acknowledged the famine as a genocide.

"This is the bare minimum which we, as Ukrainians, should do not only for the millions of victims, but more importantly, for our descendants who must always remember the Holodomor," stated the Ukrainian Canadian Congress in a statement on their website.

Their website is <www.ucc.ca/holodomor/index.htm>.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

FamilySearch Looking for Volunteers!

FamilySearch International is going to make the indexes to the 1861, 1871, and 1916 census available online for free with the help of online volunteer indexers, and an agreement with Ancestry.ca.

The press release says that "Online volunteers are needed to help transcribe select information from digital images of the historical documents into easily searchable indexes."

The completed indexes will be available for free at <www.familysearch.org>.

If you want to become a volunteer, you can start right away by registering online at <familysearchindexing.org>, by downloading the free indexing software, and selecting the 1916 Canada Census project.

It will take about 30 minutes to finish one page of the census, and the volunteer has one week to finish it, if need be.

"The 1916 census was selected first because it is the most recent and smallest of the three census targeted in the first place. It included three of the western provinces (Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alberta), and has about 1.7-million names - so it will not take long to complete," said Stephen Young, FamilySearch Project Manager.

It is interesting that they have picked three personalities known to people, that is; Arthur Gordon Kelly (Art Linkletter), Sir William Samuel Stephenson (real-life inspiration for James Bond), and Elvina Fay Wray (Fay Wray) who appeared in the 1916 census as example of people you can meet along the way to indexing the census - to make it more interesting to transcribe, I suppose.

The Library and Archives Canada (LAC) owns, and is providing the digital images for, the Canada Census Project.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Publications

This fall, I have had a few articles published which you might find interesting to read -

Everton's Genealogical Helper
(Nov/Dec) - This article, "Canada Remembers the Arrival of American Loyalists in 1783", celebrates their 225th anniversary, which was commemorated throughout Canada this year.

Internet Genealogy
- The Dec/Jan edition will feature an interesting article entitled, "Chinese-Canadian Records", written after I met the librarian of the Vancouver Public Library, Janet Tomkins, at the International Federation of Librarian Association (IFLA) Conference held this August at the Library and Archives Canada.

Family Chronicle - In the Nov/Dec issue is an article called, "A Genealogy Education". It is about getting a education in genealogy, and quotes such people as George Morgan, Dear Myrtle, and Chris Paton, who recently got his Postgraduate Diploma in Genealogical Studies at the University of Strathclyde in Scotland.

"Columns" - The latest in-house issue of the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors' (ISFHWE) newsletter, "Columns", will be out in December. It will be my usual column, this time entitled, "A Basket Full of Conferences", in which I talk about the Irish Symposium in November and the British Island Family History Society Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO) Conference in September of this year. Both were held at the Library and Archives Canada.

November's "NewsLeaf" - The newsletter of the Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS), "NewsLeaf", arrived a week or so ago and, as usual, it was a pleasure to edit!

Some of the articles are the first of two articles by Dr. Jerome Teelucksingh on the "No Longer Hidden: Recording the Caribbean Presence in Canada", "Some History on the Beginnings of the Ontario Genealogical Society" by Ross W. Irwin, and "Burial Records for Jewish Cemeteries Across Ontario" by Shelley Stillman.

Plus lots of news on the OGS and meetings and special events which will take place in Ontario this winter and summer!

December 2008 "e-NewsLeaf" - I also edit the OGS' "e-NewsLeaf". Right now I am working on the December issue, which will be sent out to OGS members December 15th.

Some of the topics to be covered will be "Canadian 'PaperofRecord' Sold to Google", "Immigration to Canada", and there will be photos and a short write-up of the opening of the new office/library in Brant County.

And, of course, there is always the blog!!!!!

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Canada's Parliament Opens

Canada's Parliament opened today, and in the Honour Guard was my husband (he has gone on lots of parades this year) as part of the Air Force Guard, amidst the Army Guard, the Naval Flag Party, the Canadian Forces Band, the Artillery (as it performed a 21 gun salute) and a small but brave and hearty contingent of civilian onlookers.

(He found it a "bit chilly"—there was snow on our lawn this morning with a temperature of -10 Celsius or so—as they stood at attention waiting for Her Excellency the Right Honourable MichaĆ«lle Jean, Governor General of Canada, to inspect them. But other than that, he said the parade was a big success, topped off by a delicious lunch at the West Memorial Block.)

The Library and Archives Canada has put on the Canada Gazette - "the official newspaper of the Government of Canada" - all of the issues since 1998. However, all of the issues since 1841 will be made available soon on the same website <http://canadagazette.gc.ca/index-e.html>.

The digitization project—which began in 2007—is still underway, and by the end of this year, full access to all issues of the Canada Gazetter (1841-1998) will be available to the researcher.

I will be excited to see if Barclay WEBSTER—a first cousin 4 times removed by marraige of Edwardina Mary (Ina Mary) BARCLAY, daughter of James of Shelburne, Nova Scotia to Dr. Henry Bently WEBSTER of Kentville, Nova Scotia—who had a very succesful law practice in Kentville, Nova Scotia, and was the Conservative member of Parliament in November 1900, is mentioned.

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Shelburne County Newsletter has Arrived!

Another newsletter has arrived - this time by email - and it is the Shelburne County Archives & Genealogical Society Newsletter in Nova Scotia <http://nsgna.ednet.ns.ca/shelburne>.

Shelburne County is my "home" genealogical and archives society, and it produces a newsletter three times a year, and a couple of years ago they starting producing the newsletter electronically.

In this edition "From the Doan(e) Family" recounts the grand time that was held at the reunion in Barrie, Ont this summer.

They are busy with DNA testing to find out what part of the British Isles that progenitor John Doan(e) came from (not much luck there as yet), and they are looking for more members - especially from Eastern Canada.

Another article is written by Eleanor Robertson Smith about her research of William Booth of England and his tour of Nova Scotia in 1785, He kept a diary, and you can read his impressions of Shelburne in the piece called "Introduction to Captain William Booth and His Rough Memorandums."

Eleanor also writes about Gideon White, a descendent of a Mayflower passenger, John Howland, at the launch of his papers, the Gideon White Family Papers, at the Nova Scotia Archives & Records Management Office <www.gov.ns.ca/nsarm/virtual/white>.

White came to Shelburne in the spring of 1784 and his letters to friends and family members, as well as his books, have been made public by the Nova Scotia Archives.

My BARCLAY ancestors are mentioned in the papers, and being in Ontario, it was so difficult to look through them until they were opened and put on the Internet earlier this year.

If you have a question to ask of the people at Shelburne, you can contact them them by writing to <gencentre@ns.sympatico.ca>.