Saturday, September 10, 2011

Ship’s Lists from England to Canada

Glenn Wright from Ottawa will be the special speaker at the Leeds & Grenville Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society on the topic “Ship’s Lists from England to Canada”.

The meeting will be held September 12th at the Brockville Tabernacle (the former Shrine Hall) on the Second Concession at 7:30 pm. Their website is at http://www.leedsandgrenvillegenealogy.com/meetings.html

Glenn says that ''Our ancestors packed a lot into a single suitcase - the future of an entire family. They left behind everything they knew and traveled thousands of miles across the ocean to a land they had never seen. Two men came for every woman, and more than 4,000 ships brought them here. They came for all reasons – to own their first piece of land, to find gold, to escape poverty and to discover a new life”.

If you can make the meeting, please do so - it would be very educational, and informative.

Glen will also be at Vankleek Hill at their Family History Fair Day on October the 1st http://www.vankleek.ca/PDFs/famhistory2011.pdf and I hear that he will be one of the speakers at the OGS 2012 Conference in June 2012! The Conference website is http://www.ogs.on.ca/seminar/conference2012.php

Friday, September 9, 2011

Canadian Women’s Army Corps (CWAC)

As we approach the 75th Anniversary of the beginning of the Second World War in 2013, there are a number of events coming up in the future that you may want to attend, or read about on the Internet.

One of them is the 70th anniversary of the founding of the Canadian Women’s Army Corps (CWAC).

Mr. Douglas Townend, an avid collector of memorabilia related to the Corps, will be displaying his extensive collection at the LeBreton Gallery, Canadian War Museum on Saturday, September 17, 2011 11:00 am to 3:00 pm.

Their Canadian War Museum is at http://www.warmuseum.ca/home

This event will be the same day as the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa Conference http://www.bifhsgo.ca/cpage.php?pt=22 which is being held just up the hill from the War Museum at the Library and Archives Canada http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/index-e.html, so I will be unable to attend.

For a history of the Canadian Women’s Army Corps, these places have their history online -

The Canadian Encyclopedia http://www.thecanadianencyclopedia.com/index.cfm?PgNm=TCE&Params=A1ARTA0001342

The Juno Beach Centre http://www.junobeach.org/e/4/can-tac-cwa-e.htm

Canadian Women's Army Corps http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canadian_Women's_Army_Corps

Life of an Island House

A press release came out this morning -

On Tuesday September 13 at 7.30 pm in the Carriage House at Beaconsfield, Prince Edward Island, Doug Sobey, a research associate of the Institute of Island Studies of UPEI, will give an illustrated talk telling the story of a 200-year old frame house which still stands on the cliffs near Sea Cow Head overlooking Bedeque Bay.

The title of the talk will be "Two Hundred Years in the Life of an Island House: The Story of 'Melrose Farm' and 'Windswept'".

The talk will also cover the legacy of one of the Bedeque Bay* area's Loyalist settlers, Alexander Anderson, a disbanded Revolutionary War soldier, who built the house (naming it 'Melrose Farm') shortly after arriving in the area in 1797 (after a sojourn at Rustico), and who died in the house in 1852, at the age of 106!

From him descend a number of Island families, including the MacFarlanes of Fernwood, the Godfreys of North Wiltshire and the Cairns of Freetown. In 1948 the house was saved from destruction by Eleanor Wheler, who had come from Ontario to work as a public health nurse, and who converted it to a summer
home, naming it 'Windswept'.

Its most recent occupant was the well-known Island artist and poet Elaine Harrison.

Because of a rich archive of photographic and other material preserved by descendants of Anderson, as well as by other owners of the house, the talk will be well illustrated throughout.

There will be a $5 admission charge.

The lecture will be held under the auspices of the P.E.I. Museum and Heritage Foundation.

*My husband's family lived in Bedeque when they lived “on the island”. Although the Lapointe family was originally from Quebec City, they spent many a weekend driving around PEI taking in the history of the place, and at every turn in the road they saw a fantastic view of the beauty of the land and the sea.

Thursday, September 8, 2011

International Jewish Genealogy Month

The International Jewish Genealogy (IJG) month is celebrated on the Hebrew month of Cheshvan - Oct 29 to Nov 26, 2011.

The press release says that the “International Jewish Genealogy Month honors our Jewish ancestors through the pursuit of Jewish family history research".

To read more about the IJG go to http://www.iajgs.org/jgmonth.html

To mark the International Jewish Genealogy Month, the Jewish Genealogical Society of Canada at http://www.jgstoronto.ca/content/view/448/30 is also celebrating the 25th Anniversary of the organization.

They have published a book called Tracing Our Roots - Telling Our Story. As the website says “It is an anthology of over over 45 compelling and entertaining contributions, written by members of our society”.

Also, on Sunday, September 18, 2011 from 10:00 am to 12:00 pm Stanley Diamond from Montreal will be in the Toronto area to give a workshop on what is new at the Jewish Records Indexing – Poland.

The website is http://www.jgsh.org/Events.php

Four other societies in Canada are -

Jewish Genealogical Society – Hamilton & Area http://www.jgsh.org/About.php

Genealogical Institute of the Jewish Heritage Centre of Western Canada Inc http://www.jhcwc.org

Jewish Genealogical Institute of British Columbia http://jgibc.shutterfly.com

Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal http://www.jgs-montreal.org

Twenty Ways to Avoid Grief When Researching

You will never know what you will find when you take a couple minutes to look around the Internet. Such was the case yesterday when I went on the British Columbia Genealogy Society website, and came across a “tips” article entitled “Twenty Ways to Avoid Grief When Researching” by Margaret M. Sharon*.

Some of the tips are -

Always note the source of any material you photocopy.

How many times have you gone to the archives, and have photocopied pages and pages from a book and then forget to mark the pages, or the source of the material?

Try not to let your research get behind.

Yes, can I tell you of the boxes, and boxes that I have of research material that has yet to be put in my genealogical family history?

Place names and boundaries have changed constantly over the years.

Even in a country like Canada with such a short history changes in place name and boundaries are everywhere. In the small village where I grew up it was known as Jordan River for many years before it was changed to Jordan Falls around 1900. Changes in place names do make a difference.

Take a minute, and read the paper in full because even though it is now somewhat “dated” having been written in 1988, there are still some genealogical truths in the paper that are still valid today.

The website is at http://www.bcgs.ca/Twenty%20Ways%20to%20Avoid%20Grief%20When%20Researching.htm

*It was originally published in The British Columbia Genealogist, March 1988, Volume 17, No. 1, pp. 4-6. © B.C.G.S.

Wednesday, September 7, 2011

Research Wiki Needs Writers!

The Research Wiki of the FamilySearch.org https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Main_Page where it publishes various articles on doing research in a particular county on many subjects.

Canada is listed 98th out of the most popular entries with over 20,000 views.

But they still need more articles on Canada.

Do you have articles that have yet to be published?

They have a complete guide to writing the articles, what is needed, and how to put the articles on the Research Wiki.

Go to the website to find out what you need to do at https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Canada

PEI Places Receive Heritage Designation

The following place in Prince Edward Island received the provincial Heritage Places Protection Act this summer -

SOURIS TOWN HALL & the McLEAN HOUSE INN, Souris

Built in 1905, the Souris Town Hall was built of Island sandstone. It was the post office and customs house for the town until the 1960s when the post office relocated.

The McLean House Inn, Souris was built in 1875 for John McLean (1845-1936), partner in the very successful Matthew and McLean business.

For the website of the town of Souris, go to
http://www.sourispei.com/about/about.html

FARMERS' BANK of Rustico

Built between 1861-1864 of locally quarried Island sandstone, the Farmers’ Bank was established to provide low interest loans to local farmers. It was to be one of the first credit unions of the province.

To read about the Farmer's Bank, go to http://www.farmersbank.ca


BARACHOIS INN, Anglo Rustico

The Barachois Inn was built in 1880 for Joseph Gallant, a prosperous local merchant.

To read about the inn, you can go to the website http://www.barachoisinn.com

ST. JAMES UNITED CHURCH, West Covehead

St. James United Church is a fine example of a rectangular Meeting House, with Classical Revival architectural design elements.

There are pictures of the church on this site at http://peiheritagebuildings.blogspot.com/2011/07/st-james-united-church-west-covehead.html