Canadian Week in Review 17 March 2014

I have come across the following Canadian websites, social media posts, and newspaper articles this past week that were of interest to me, and I thought you might be interested in them, too.

Websites

MacMillan Bloedel Limited fonds
http://digitalcollections.library.ubc.ca/cdm/landingpage/collection/macmillan
The records of MacMillan Bloedel Ltd. are part of University of British Columbia Library's Rare Books and Special Collections, and now they have put it online.

Capilano Timber Company fonds
http://digitalcollections.library.ubc.ca/cdm/landingpage/collection/capilano
The Capilano Timber Company Collection forms part of University of British Columbia Library's Rare Books and Special Collections. These are images – photos – that were originally from a single photograph album, and depict the daily operations of the Capilano Timber Company.

Social Media

10 Top Tips for How to Bust Through Your Genealogy Brick Wall
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=33NcRbkm-eQ

This was posted before in RootsTech 2013 news blog, but I think it bears reposting again, because the information given by Dave Obee in this YouTube video is important to those people researching Canadian roots.

News Stories

Nova Scotia-Maine ferry to start in May

http://www.eturbonews.com/43664/nova-scotia-maine-ferry-start-may
It’s good to see ferry service between Yarmouth and Portland again. In my younger years, I took the ferry many a time on our summer jaunts down to the 'Boston States’ to visit relatives.

Historic stick staying in Canada Stick believed to date back to early 1800s pulled from eBay, destined for museum
http://www.canada.com/Historic+stick+staying+Canada/9620247/story.html
Apparently, the so-called “Moffatt Stick,” a curved hunk of maple that experts have confirmed matches the style of sticks used for games of shinny (pond hockey) in eastern North America in the early 19th century, has been sold.

Saint John to become home port for cruise to Portland in 2015 http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/new-brunswick/saint-john-to-become-home-port-for-cruise-to-portland-in-2015-1.2573200
This sounds just wonderful - Blount Small Ship Adventures will offer a 10-day tour of the Bay of Fundy on a 98-passenger ship, with stops in Saint Andrews, GrandManan Island, and Campobello Island.

Irish history in Canada and Quebec is far from timid
http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/Irish+history+Canada+Quebec+from+timid/9619784/story.html
Irish-Canadian history is about a lot more than the Great Famine and coffin ships. Jane McGaughey, a professor of Canadian-Irish studies at Concordia University, is investigating Irish participation in the 1837-38 Rebellions.

Reclaim island airport, install Canadian Air and Space Museum: Shirley Bush’s Big Idea
http://www.thestar.com/bigideas/arts_recreation/2014/03/14/reclaim_island_airport_install_canadian_air_and_space_museum_shirley_bushs_big_idea.html
An interesting article - see how she plans to do this!

Newfoundland’s viking connection: Recreated villages and re-enactors heat up history
http://www.montrealgazette.com/travel/Newfoundland+viking+connection/9613780/story.html
A group of Greenland Vikings emerged around AD 1000 to establish a settlement on the island of Newfoundland. 

Ed Coleman's history: The Irish started the Town of Kentville
http://www.kingscountynews.ca/Opinion/Columnists/2014-03-13/article-3644637/Ed-Colemans-history-The-Irish-started-the-Town-of-Kentville/1
Read the early Irish history of Kemtville, Nova Scotia. 

Alberta offers free admission to museums and heritage sites to recognize military service
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/Alberta+offers+free+admission+museums+heritage+sites+recognize+military+service/9613873/story.html
The free admission will be permitted to past and present members of the Canadian Forces at five major museums, including the Royal Alberta Museum and the Royal Tyrrell Museum, and 14 historic sites and interpretive centres, such as the Ukrainian Village, the Oilsands Discovery Centre, and Head-Smashed-In Buffalo Jump.

Manitoba wants panel to rule on costly census dispute
http://globalnews.ca/news/1202755/manitoba-wants-panel-to-rule-on-costly-census-dispute
Manitoba wants the federal government to appoint a panel to rule on whether Statistics Canada undercounted the population by 18,000 in the last census — costing the province $100 million a year in transfer payments.

A historically significant photograph turns up in Nova Scotia
http://www.ourwindsor.ca/opinion-story/4408086-a-historically-significant-photograph-turns-up-in-nova-scotia
Read what this photo has to say about the 1870 Red River Rebellion when a 1,200-man militia was sent to the Red River district of Manitoba.

Picturesque Lighthouse in the Pacific Northwest Designated under Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act
http://www.digitaljournal.com/pr/1786742
The Nootka lighthouse, located on the ancestral territory of the Mowachaht-Muchalaht Nation on Vancouver Island, BC, is now protected for years to come under Canada's Heritage Lighthouse Protection Act (HLPA).

Council considers historic designation for Hotel
http://www.rmoutlook.com/article/20140313/RMO0801/303139981/-1/rmo08/council-considers-historic-designation-for-hotel
Canmore's town council is officially considering municipal historic resource designation for the Canmore Hotel.

The lost post: Leslieville man finds letters from a WWI soldier under his Bertmount Ave. porch
http://www.thestar.com/news/world/2014/03/15/the_lost_post_leslieville_man_finds_letters_from_a_wwi_soldier_under_his_bertmount_ave_porch.html
Larry McLean hopes to return the stack of old mail discovered during renovations to soldier Leslie Currell’s family.

Montreal Diary: Temporary typhoid hospital helped scuttle 1910 epidemic
http://www.montrealgazette.com/health/Montreal+Diary+Temporary+typhoid+hospital+helped+scuttle+1910+epidemic/9613249/story.html
At the corner of Lucien L’Allier St. and Overdale Ave, Robert N. Wilkins discovered an abandoned building that was used in 1910 as a provisional facility for those who were suffering from typhoid fever. (This story was first seen on Gail Dever’s blog, Genealogy à la carte, at http://genealogyalacarte.wordpress.com).

Story of the Week

I have been in discussions with various people who will have books published this year on the two anniversaries we will be honouring – the centennial of the beginning of the First World War, and the 75th anniversary of the Second World War.

And now I see where the Canadian government has put a new site on the heritage department called Commemorations of the First and Second World Wars. There isn’t much on the site right now, but I am sure more will be added as we get closer to the actual days the wars began.

In the meantime, there are articles starting to appear in the newspapers about the First and Second World Wars, as there will be ceremonies which will take place all over Canada, and on the battlefields in Europe, and the staging stations for the troops as they arrived in Great Britain.

The Heritage Canada website is http://canada150.gc.ca/eng/1389030950562/1389031264299

Reminder: Check the Canadian Week in Review next Monday for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada. It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in country! The next post will be on 24 Match 2014.

FREE Access: Ancestry.ca

Enjoy free access from now until March 17th to more than 41 million historical records to find your Irish roots!

Go to http://www.ancestry.ca/cs/ca/irish

Mocavo offer free access

Cliff Shaw in his blog at Mocavo is offering all Mocavo Basic members free access to all of the premium Mocavo Gold features until Sunday at midnight. 

Over the past few months, he says, “we received so much positive feedback about our free access weekends is offering that we decided to do it again!

Back by popular demand, all Mocavo Basic members can now access all of the premium Mocavo Gold features for free until Sunday at Midnight. This means you can search our entire collection to your heart’s content, upload your tree to receive new discovery alerts, download and print any document you find, and much more”!

During their last free offer, I found a marriage notice of my g-g-aunt Aunt Louisa Barclay (daughter of Andrew Barclay from Shelburne, Nova Scotia) to Caleb Haley of California (formerly of Yarmouth, Nova Scotia) in a New York newspaper. I had been looking for a notice of her marriage for years, because I had been lead to believe they were married in Yarmouth, even though I had known she had taken frequent trip to New York. There is a lesson here - 

The details of the blog is at http://blog.mocavo.com/2014/03/open-access-mocavo-gold-sunday-midnight

OGS Conference 2014

Steve Fulton U.E., on behalf of the OGS Conference 2014 Committee, has sent out an invite and a reminder that the conference is almost most here! 

The Conference is between May 1 to 4th at Brock University in St Catharines, and here are some of the activities - 

• Hank Jones Jr - Banquet Speaker - Coming from California

• Chris Paton - Houston Lecture Speaker - Coming from Scotland

• Saturday Morning Plenary - International Panel on Social Media

• Thursday Board Meeting & Greet at Donnelly's Pub in Thorold

They are also providing an opportunity for those who can't come for whatever reason. They will be streaming 7 speakers onto the Internet so you can view them in your home. 

Three Speakers will be streamed in from their locations (England, Salt Lake City & British Columbia). 

Other amazing Speakers and opportunities to meet other genealogists!

The website is at http://www.ogs.on.ca/conference2014/index.php

The Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/NiagaraPeninsulaBranchOgsConference2014?ref=hl

The Gatineau Valley Historical Society

The Gatineau Valley Historical Society will host An Evening with Brian Doyle that will be held at the Larrimac Golf & Tennis Club, 1148 rte. 105, Chelsea Quebec on Monday, March 17 at 7:30 p.m. 

Brian will talk about and read from his 2013 e-book Confessions of a Depression Baby, a series of 24 essays he wrote for the Ottawa Citizen about growing up in the 1930s. 

A former Glebe Collegiate teacher in Ottawa, Brian is best known for his grainy young-adult novels about growing up in Ottawa and along the Gatineau River, and as a consummate storyteller, his 24 essays are no less engaging than the vivid scenes he painted for readers in such books as Angel Square, Up to Low and Easy Avenue.

The website is at http://www.gvhs.ca

They have a great Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/pages/Gatineau-Valley-Historical-Society/810653888950823

FamilySearch Online Training is NOW a Click Away

Kudos to FamilySearch because now you can now get training through the use of  their online manuals. 

Some of the manuals which are available are - 

The Family Tree Reference Manual 

The FamilySearch Learning Center (on this site is the 2014 RootsTech live streaming talks) plus other videos – and they are all FREE)

The Training Link

The Family Tree Quick Start Guide

Go to https://familysearch.org/blog/en/familysearch-online-training-click

Canadian Week in Review - 10 March 2014

I have come across the following Canadian websites, social media websites, and newspaper articles this past week that were of interest to me, and I thought you might be interested in them, too.

Websites

Timber Trade History
http://thecanadianencyclopedia.com/en/article/timber-trade-history/
This site tells the Timber Trade History in Canada in the 1800s, and the effect that world events had on the industry.

Social Media

No blogs this week.

New Stories 

Canadian War Museum
http://blogs.ottawacitizen.com/2014/03/01/canadian-war-museum-to-highlight-canadian-art-of-the-first-world-war
The exhibition is called Witness – Canadian Art of the First World War and will be ob at the Canadian War Museum from April 10, 2014 to September 21, 2014 at the Lieutenant-Colonel John McCrae Gallery.

It examines how Canadians captured their First World War experiences in art, both at home and overseas, whether as official war artists or as soldiers in the field.

Anne Murray's Nova Scotia hometown of Springhill applying to dissolve status
http://www.ctvnews.ca/canada/anne-murray-s-nova-scotia-hometown-of-springhill-applying-to-dissolve-status-1.1714497
There is news that the town of Springhill, Nova Scotia is applying to the government to have the town dissolved of its town status. The reason: economics!. 

Roderick Benns: Our prime ministers are worth honouring
http://fullcomment.nationalpost.com/2014/03/04/roderick-benns-our-prime-ministers-are-worth-honouring
The plan for 22 life-sized statues of Canada’s prime ministers, once intended for central parkland in Kitchener, Ontario, has been quashed because 79% of the survey’s 2,441 respondents rejected the plan!

Shilling discovery could rewrite Canadian history
http://www.google.com/hostednews/afp/article/ALeqM5hLjve_XGNlbeteLjroFpOsUBfJrg?docId=4fbf6ac4-3c2f-4bf2-a21d-e395052d4578
An amateur treasure hunter has discovered a 16th century shilling buried in clay on the shores of Vancouver Island, and he may have found something that may overturn the theory that says that a British explorer (Sir Francis Drake) had made the voyage here two centuries before it was discovered by Spanish sailors. 

Words take on different meanings to describe Quebec’s history
http://www.montrealgazette.com/life/Words+take+different+meanings+describe+Quebec+history/9554528/story.html
Apparently, young francophones and anglophones see Quebec’s history differently — they even use different words to recount that history.

Heritage policy getting an overhaul
http://www.thestarphoenix.com/travel/Heritage+policy+getting+overhaul/9585207/story.html
Saskatoon city council has been asked to look at a proposal to create a public database listing all heritage properties in the city, but also a comprehensive resource for people interested in heritage. 

Restoring tradition
http://www.thepacket.ca/News/Local/2014-03-06/article-3639375/Restoring-tradition/1
Learn of the history of the Pelley House in Boyd’s Cove, Newfoundland, as it receives a Heritage Plaque from the province. 

Medalta receives grant money to preserve kilns
http://medicinehatnews.com/news/local-news/2014/03/07/medalta-receives-grant-money-to-preserve-kilns
Read how the flood which hit Alberta in 2013 almost destroyed an historic kiln in the torn of Medicine Hat.

After the deluge, High River’s museum thaws out Alberta’s history
http://www.theglobeandmail.com/news/national/after-the-deluge-high-rivers-museum-thaws-out-albertas-history/article17361855
And in High River, learn how the archivist is undertaking a groundbreaking project to reanimate part of Alberta’s history that was nearly wiped out by last summer’s floods.

MP Greg Kerr speaks about Cape Forchu Light in House of Commons
http://www.novanewsnow.com/News/2014-03-07/article-3641283/MP-Greg-Kerr-speaks-about-Cape-Forchu-Light-in-House-of-Commons/1
The lighthouse at Cape Forchu at Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, is on this year’s cover of the 2014 Nova Scotia Doers and Dreamers Travel Guide.

Story of the Week

The Ukrainian Uprising 

In 2011, there were an estimated 1,209,085 persons of full or partial Ukrainian origin residing in Canada. It is the 9th largest group living in Canada. It is the third-largest Ukrainian population behind the Ukraine itself, and Russia.

The first wave of settlement was from 1891 to 1914. The first wave of Ukrainian immigration came to Canada in 1892. Ivan Pylypow helped found the Edna Star Settlement, east of Edmonton, the first and largest Ukrainian block settlement.

The second wave was in 1923 to 1939. The majority of immigrants who came became workers in the growing industrial centers of Montreal and southern Ontario, and the forests of Northern Ontario.

And the third wave from 1945 to 1952, when most of the immigrants were political refugees and displaced persons who tended to move to cities in southern Ontario and Quebec.

The History of Ukraine in Canada
http://www.torugg.org/History/history_of_ukrainians_in_canada.html

With the political unrest in the Ukraine over the past couple of weeks, there had been newspaper reports showing that the Ukraine people in Canada still remember their homeland.

Rich Ukrainian history in Saskatchewan: Province's ties to Ukraine date back to late 1800s
http://www.newstalk650.com/story/rich-ukrainian-history-saskatchewan/273635
The earliest Ukrainian settlements in Saskatchewan date back to 1896. By the 1930s, Western Canada had over 200,000 Ukrainians.

Reminder: Check the Canadian Week in Review next Monday for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada. It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in country! The next post will be on 17 Match 2014.