Saturday, April 7, 2012

OGS Receives Trillium Grant for Phase 2 of Digitization Project


The Ontario Genealogical Society is pleased to announce that we have been granted funding by the Ontario Trillium Foundation to begin Phase 2 of our Keeping and Valuing Ontario’s Heritage Project. The funding consists of $156,000 over two years and will allow us to continue to assist Ontario heritage organization in scanning their materials and making them available to researchers.

 Phase 1 began in Fall 2008 with the aim to do the following:
  • provide a digitized version of one-of-a-kind records, increasing security
  • allow small organizations access to digitizing services they otherwise could not afford
  • increase access to records significant to Ontario's heritage
  • allow an income stream to heritage organizations if they wish
Since then we have successfully joined with several Ontario heritage organizations to digitize their records and make them available online through a revenue generating program. We have launched a beta version of The Ontario Name Index (TONI) as the main access point to the Pay-Per-View database. The information available through Pay-Per-View allows access to the history of the people of this province.

Phase 2 seeks to continue to support the preservation of Ontario heritage materials through digitization by adding to the data available on this system and expanding our affiliations to include new heritage organizations. 

We will improve and expand on TONI while creating new indexing systems where necessary.

We will also create and launch a more user friendly search interface for TONI and Pay- Per-View to ensure that researchers can find and access their information with ease.


OGS gratefully acknowledges the Ontario Trillium Foundation for their strong support of this project and appreciates their ongoing efforts to support the growth and vitality of communities across the province of Ontario.



To go to the website of the Ontario Genealogical Society, click on www.ogs.on.ca

Friday, April 6, 2012

Sable Island Will Be a National Park Reserve

Sable Island was passed from the Canadian Coast Guard to Parks Canada this week, and the sandbar where so many ships went down (shipwrecked), and lives were lost, will be recognized as a National Park Reserve.

Over the recent years, more requests have been made by people wishing to visit the island, and it was believed that Parks Canada was best equipped to answer these requests.

The Honourable Peter Kent, Canada’s Minister of the Environment and Minister responsible for Parks Canada, the Honourable Peter MacKay, Minister of National Defence and Regional Minister for Nova Scotia, and the Honourable Darrell Dexter, Premier of Nova Scotia, signed a landmark agreement in 2011.

“Today’s historic agreement will ensure that this iconic and valued Canadian landscape fabled for its wild horses, shipwrecks and one of the largest dune systems in Eastern Canada, will be protected as a national park reserve.

Located 290 kilometres offshore from Halifax, Sable Island is a windswept crescent-shaped sandbar 42 kilometres long that emerges from the Atlantic Ocean near the edge of the Continental Shelf. The island’s sand dunes and fresh water ponds are home to over 400 wild horses and numerous migrant and breeding birds, including the rare Ipswich Savannah sparrow", said Minister Kent in the press release.

Called the "Graveyard of the Atlantic”, there were over 350 shipwrecks recorded here since 1583 due to the fog and storms that beset the island from time to time.

Thursday, April 5, 2012

Branches, Twigs, and Roots Newsletter

I received my first issue of the newsletter Branches, Twigs, and Roots this week.

Sue has an interesting topic this month in her newsletter, and it’s about how doing genealogy in different cultures can lead to brick walls.

She gives an account of a query she received by a reader in which she was asked to help find Edward Mayo/Maheux and his wife Ann Toose of Quebec. Were they of different cultures - or are they from the same culture? Is Edward French? Is he Irish? Are there any clues in their surnames?
Read about her case study, and what she has to say about taking culture into account in working through the problem.

To subscribe to the newsletter, go to http://www.familyhistoryalive.com/.

While you are there, look at the various topics which she has included to help you in your researh.

Wednesday, April 4, 2012

Researching Family History in Vermont (Free Lecture)

The lecture will be held on Saturday, April 14, 2012 at 10:30 a.m. at Briarwood Presbyterian Church Hall, 70 Beaconsfield Blvd, Beaconsfield (Montreal) QC, H9W 3Z3.

The leacture will be given by Ed Maquire, President of the Vermont French-Canadian Genealogy Society.

Ed Maquire will discuss the long history shared by Quebec and Vermont. In the 1860s, about almost half of Vermont’s residents were French-Canadian, and many from Lower Canada in the Eastern Townships.

They were living close to the US border, and many married in Vermont. Mr. Maguire will talk about the type of records available, such as church, immigration, naturalization, court, and military records, and explain where to find them.

Members and guests are welcome to join us!

Visit http://www.qfhs.com/

Postscript: I will have a new booklet entitled French-Canadian in Canada/Franco-Americans in the United States available in June of this year.

Watch this blog for the date the booklet will be available.

Tuesday, April 3, 2012

Genealogy Courses in Toronto

Gwyneth Pearce of the Toronto Branch of the OGS has just written to GenealogyCanada to tell us that the previously scheduled March/April course, "Going Back to Basics – A Refresher", has been cancelled due to low enrolment.

In addition, their course on "Exploring the Baldwin Room’s Manuscript Collection", which was to be offered in March, has been postponed (new date TBA) due to the Toronto library strike.

The following are courses which are still offered by the Branch. They are -

DATE: 5-19 Apr 2012: 3 sessions, Thursdays (5:30-7:30 p.m.)
COURSE: Toronto Branch OGS
LOCATION: Archives of Ontario, 134 Ian MacDonald Blvd., Toronto
TITLE OF COURSE: "Hands-On Ontario Estate Records"
NAME OF INSTRUCTOR: Jane E. MacNamara
BRIEF INFO: Participants will follow assigned case histories to learn hands-on at the Archives of Ontario how to find estate files and land registry records. Basic course or equivalent experience is a pre-requisite. This course is now FULL.

DATE: 18-25 Apr, 2-9 May 2012: 4 sessions, Wednesdays (6:15-8:15 p.m.)
COURSE: Toronto Branch OGS
LOCATION: Toronto Reference Library, 789 Yonge Street, Toronto
TITLE OF COURSE: "Advanced English Family History"
NAME OF INSTRUCTOR: James F.S. Thomson & Joan Read
BRIEF INFO: This advanced course will focus on the 1700-1837 period – topics will include finding vital events, researching a parish, population listings, inheritance records, poor relief, apprenticeship records and land tenancy records.

DATE: 28 Apr 2012: Saturday (9:00-4:00 p.m.)
COURSE: Toronto Branch OGS
LOCATION: North York Central Library, 5120 Yonge Street, Toronto
TITLE OF COURSE: "A Day of Technology for Family Historians"
NAME OF INSTRUCTOR: Carol Nichols
BRIEF INFO: Learn how to harness the power of technology in your genealogy – find out how technology can assist family historians in finding and organizing information, and in editing and sharing photographs and other images.
CONTACT INFO: www.torontofamilyhistory.org/

The following is the monthly meeting -

DATE: 23 April 2012 (7:30 p.m.)
MEETING: Toronto Branch OGS
LOCATION: Burgundy Room, North York Memorial Community Hall, 5110 Yonge Street, Toronto
TITLE OF TALK: “Women, Bicycles and Animals: Humanizing the First World War”
NAME OF SPEAKER: Melissa Ellis
BRIEF INFO: A look at some databases of women's involvement in the war effort and the bicycle corps' work in reconnaissance gathering. Additional short presentation by Elayne Lockhart: “My DNA – the Genealogical Gift That Keeps on Giving”. $5 charge for non-members of OGS.

For more information, go to http://www.torontofamilyhistory.org/

Sunday, April 1, 2012

BIFHSGO's Anglo-Celtic Roots - Spring 2012



The Spring 2012 edition of the newly-revamped Anglo-Celtic Roots has just been received, and the new format lends itself very well to the writings of the members of BIFHSGO.

Under the title of "Family History Research" are four articles - Perhaps Love: A Postcard from the First World War; Little Girl Lost – and Found; The Yacht Armide; and Eleanor, Ellen and Francis.

In "Techniques and Resources" are the articles The Cream of the Crop, and The Bookroom.

There is the "BIFHSGO News" section in which they have put the Notice of Annual Meeting and Minutes of 2011 AGM; Website Access; Great Moments: June Meeting; and the Membership Report.

Anglo-Celtic Roots is published four times a year; this is in addition to an electronic newsletter issued once a month via email.

Over 20 informative and interesting articles have been reprinted and made available online as "Classic Articles" at www.bifhsgo.ca/cpage.php?pt=33, while past issues are available in the "Members Only" section at http://bifhsgo.ca/members.php.

Saturday, March 31, 2012

Marilyn Adams Genealogical Research Centre

The Marilyn Adams Genealogical Research Centre (MAGRC) is located in the Ameliasburgh Ward of the City of Prince Edward County, Ontario, Canada. The area was settled by the United Empire Loyalists in 1784

Some of the records that they have are -

Hastings County Land Records for about 100 years prior to 1955

Tudor & Cashel Township Records, dating back to 1852

The Klein research on the Tripps' of the Bay of Quinte

Women's Institute Tweedsmuir histories, minute books, and other records

Douglas Crawford canning factory papers

Hessian Research of Johannes (John) Helmut Merz

Heal Research Papers and Records

There are also two databeses online – the Names Database with 1,426 names that you can check, and the Heal Database with 147, 760 names.

The site is at http://quinte-kin.com/magrc.htm