Saturday, November 7, 2009

Heroes Remembered

As many of us are aware, war veterans—in general—do not wish to talk about their wartime experiences. Available to you, however, are now over 1,600 hours of video and audio conservations with 75 veterans from the 20th century wars with which Canada has been involved.

These interviews, along with pictures of the veterans and their stories, are available online at <www.vac-acc.gc.ca>.

You can also search the database to find out about the conflicts, the geographic location of the conflicts, the campaign, the branches of the Canadian Forces, and the regiments which fought in the campaigns.

There is also a section devoted to the Chinese-Canadians who took part in the Second World War, and stories from Canadians who flew the Spitfire - the plane used at the beginning of the Second World War.

There are diaries, letters, poems, popular songs from the Second World War that you can listen to, art, and Remembrance Day posters from previous years.

Wednesday, November 4, 2009

How Will You Remember?

The theme of this year's Veterans Week (Nov 5th to Nov 11th) is "How will you remember?"

The Library and Archives Canada has put on their website "Welcome to Canada at War: a Guide to Library and Archives Canada Recalling the Canadian War Experience".

This year marks the 65th anniversary of both D-Day and the Battle of Normandy, and the 70th anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War.

For information on the role that the Canadian military played during the Second World War, please go to the virtual exhibit called Faces of War at <www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/faces-of-war/index-e.html>.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Grosse Île Quarantine Station - Thematic Guide

The Thematic Guide to Sources Relating to the Grosse Île Quarantine Station was published on the Library and Archives Canada website Friday.

Some of these records contain genealogical information — e.g. Immigrants at Grosse Île (1885-1937) — about people who passed through or died at Grosse Île.

Go to <www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/the-public/005-1142.08-e.html>.

If you are planning a trip to the LAC in the near future, please check with them first to see if they are open.

They are presently closed due to a lack of heat and water caused by the shutdown last week of a heating plant caused by a boiler explosion in which one worker died, and several others were seriously injured.

Thursday, October 22, 2009

"Disease & Distress!" Workshop

On Saturday, 28 November, the Toronto Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society and the Canadiana Department of the North York Central Library have joined together to sponsor "Disease & Distress!", an all-day workshop on how our ancestors handled adversity.

With expert speakers from Ontario and the United States, this event will offer a window on our ancestors' struggles with hardships and devastation - from the "white plague" to life on the WWI home front - and the footprints they left behind.

The workshop will be held in the Auditorium of the North York Central Library, 5120 Yonge Street, at the North York Centre subway station.

For program and registration details, visit <www.torontofamilyhistory.org>. To check availability, call 416-733-2608 (voice mail) or e-mail <info@torontofamilyhistory.org>.

Wednesday, October 21, 2009

Ryan Taylor Memorial Lecture

Due to the closure of Library and Archives Canada facilities until at least Sunday, the Ryan Taylor Memorial Lecture scheduled for this Saturday, October 24th has been cancelled.


Mike More
Chair, Ottawa Branch OGS
<chair@ogsottawa.on.ca>
<http://ogsottawa.on.ca>

Monday, October 19, 2009

Helpful Tips....

Some helpful research tips were in the fall edition of the Quebec Family History Society's newsletter, Connections, which I received the other day.

The first one was Quebec Newspapers Search on page 11, where you can check for BMDs in selected newspapers.

You are required to have a membership to the Bibliotheque at Archives nationales du Quebec <www.banq.qc.ca>, and then you can search online.

The membership is free, but you have to register.

The membership is only open to Quebec residents at present. The newspapers to check are the Montreal Gazette, The Quebec City Chronicle Telegraph, the Sherbrooke Record and the Stanstead Journal.

The second place to check is the online catalogue with the QFHS.

They have a system whereby you can borrow three books and/or five periodicals for up to three weeks, and the copy says "all members can borrow books from the library, no matter where you live."

You may not be aware but the QFHS has been putting names into a database - so much so that there are now over 1-million records in the database as of 1 January, 2009.

If you are a member, do not forget to check this fast growing database - it's invaluable in doing Quebec research.

Pennie Redmile is doing a notary database in Quebec.

Notaries handled various contacts of the day including wills, marriage contacts, land transactions etc and the Quebec archives hold their records up to c1899.

If you have a specific name, you can asked that it be looked up for free, but if want the accompanying documents, a fee of $10.00 will be charged to cover such costs as photocopies and postage.

You can contact Pennie at <predile@total.net>.

You do not have be a member to take advantage of this service.

The QFHS also offers a number of search features to the members, For example, you can ask that they look up a certain surname per cementery for $5.00, and they can also do in-depth research for you for $20.00 an hour.

Of course, you can enter the name you are looking for in their Ancestral Surname List and you can always go to their library at 173 Cartier Avenue, Point Claire (Montreal) Quebec to search on your own.

Go to their website <www.qfhs.ca> for more information.

Tuesday, October 13, 2009

Long Point Settlers

R. Robert Mutrie has made the Long Point Settlers of Norfolk County his life story.

As his website points out, "he is quite simply, 'Mr. Long Point Settler'".

Over the years, he has gathered information on over 600 Norfolk County pioneers which he has put together in a book called, The Long Point Settlers.

Now he has put a representation of his work at <http://sites.google.com/site/longpointsettlers> in which he gives a brief summary of each of the genealogies online.

If you want to learn more, you can place an order in the on-demand access site for the complete genealogy.

The Long Point Settlers were pioneers who settled in Norfolk County in southwestern Ontario from 1795 to around 1815.

Norfolk County is comprised of the townships of Walsingham, Charlotteville, Woodhouse, Townsend, Windham, Middleton, and Houghton.

From 1994 to 2000, he also published The Long Point Settllers Journals, of which a number of issues are still available.

He may be contacted at <rmutrie@becon.org>.