Genealogy Canada

Saturday, February 7, 2015

Kent County Branch live streams meetings

The Kent County Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society www.ogs.on.ca/kent is continuing with live streaming of their monthly meetings.

The meetings take place at St. Andrew's Residence on Park Street in Chatham, Ontario, and there are usually between 40 and 60 people who come out to hear a different speaker each meeting. In the past few months, the meetings have been recorded and shown on You Tube, both live, as well as for later viewing. And lots of people are using this venue. Some of the meetings have more than 150 views, so the branch members know the message is getting out into the public.

The next branch monthly meeting will take place on Friday, February 13th at 7 p.m. at St. Andrew's Residence. The guest speaker will be Brenda Travis, in a presentation entitled Dabbling in DNA. As she is also the president of the board of directors of the Chatham-Kent Black Historical Society, the evening will also coincide with February as Black History Month.

Their second annual open house will be held on Saturday, February 14th from 10 a.m. to 4 p.m. on the second floor of the public library, 120 Queen Street. This will be a free open house to learn more about the resources of the OGS.

Check the Canadian Week in Review every Monday morning for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/02/canadian-week-in-review-02-february-2015.html

It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada!

It has been a regular post every Monday morning since April 23, 2012.

UPDATE: OGS Conference - Interviews

During this week's meeting of the Ontario Chapter of the Associated Professional Genealogists (OCAPG), Shirley Sturdevant—the immediate past-president of the Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS)—brought us up-to-date with happenings at the 2015 OGS conference to be held this year in Barrie, Ontario.

One thing that she said was new this year are the interviews with the presenters at the conference, and so far, they have interviewed Thomas MacEntee and Dr. Janet Few.

Thomas MacEntee will be the moderator on the Panel Discussion: Tracks through Time on Saturday morning, and on Sunday will present Tracing Your New York Ancestors.

The interview with him is available at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Uax98ie2LxQ

I also listened to the interview with Dr. Janet Few from England, who will give a lecture on Saturday entitled Uproar and Disorder: the Bible Christians of North Devon and their impact upon nineteenth century Canada, and another lecture on Sunday entitled Putting Your Ancestors in their Place: an introduction to one-place studies.

The interview is at https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=JN16jlIqxqs&feature=youtu.be, and her lectures will be live streamed to the Conference from England.

The Conference website is online at http://www.ogs.on.ca/conference

The Conference Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/OntarioGenealogicalSocietyConference

Friday, February 6, 2015

FREE Valentine's Day Genealogy Workshop

The Alberta Genealogical Day is presenting the Grand Prairie Family Day on Saturday, 14 February 2015 from 11 a.m. to 5 p.m. at the Montrose Cultural Centre (the library) at 9839 - 103 Avene, Grand Prairie. It will be a fun-packed Family Day featuring workshops, research help, a trade show, and displays.

It will be hosted by Grande Prairie and District Branch of the Alberta Genealogical Society, the Grande Prairie Public Library, and the South Peace Regional Archives.

There will be talks on the archives, researching in Western Canada, scrapbooking, and storytelling.

For more information, go to http://www.abgenealogy.ca/grande-prairie-family-day?id=778.

For more information, please contact the Grand Prairie and District Branch of the Alberta Genealogical Society at gp@abgenealogy.ca.

Manitoba Adoption Records

There is great news coming from Manitoba. They will be opening birth records related to adoption.

The changes to The Adoption Act and The Vital Statistics Act will allow for more openness with respect to birth records related to adoption. Adult adoptees and birth parents can access birth record information and protect their information.

The new legislation is expected to come into effect in June 2015. Manitoba’s new legislation will allow adoptees and birth parents to access available identifying information. It will also allow them to keep their information confidential if they wish.

You can read the press release at http://news.gov.mb.ca/news/index.html?item=30552

Thursday, February 5, 2015

Victoria (VGS) offers half-year memberships

Steele Family Picnic, 1942 - submitted by VGS member Lauren Pinkerton of Peterborough, Ontario

The Victoria Genealogical Society of British Columbia has now joined the Ontario Genealogical Society and the Quebec Family History Society in offering half-year membership fees for 2015.

For a limited time (Feb 1 to Apr 30), regular and family memberships are being offered at half-price for a six-month membership. Regular (adult and senior) members will only pay $25 instead of the usual $50. Family memberships will only cost $37.50 instead of the usual $75.

Check out their membership page to learn all about the benefits of joining, and how easy it is to sign up. Benefits include free access to their Resource Centre and their monthly Speaker Series events. And the networking opportunities with other talented researchers are phenomenal! They also offer online options for joining and paying your membership fees from the comfort of your home.

Spread the word about this wonderful opportunity. They hope you, your friends, and family will give them a try.

The website is at http://www.victoriags.org, and their Facebook page is at https://www.facebook.com/vicgs.

Dear Myrt’s Beginning Genealogy - Session 5

As previously promised in my blog on 06 January 2015 at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/beginning-genealogy-study-group.html, I am reporting on Dear Myrt’s Beginning Genealogy study group as it proceeds. I watched Session 5 yesterday, and the two top things that were discussed were -

1. Software – We need some sort of tree to keep the information that we find, and Dear Myrt asked us take a Google or an Excel sheet and make four columns – 1) Online trees 2) Software 3) Analysis 4) Family Search Certified.

Then fill in the spaces with the different trees that are available.

For example, there are Ancestry Trees, MyHeritage trees available for column #1; there is Family Tree Maker and RootsMagic for column #2; Evidenta and GenSmarts for column #3; and then find out which is FamilySearch Certified for column #4.

She emphasized that no matter which one of ones you chose, go with the one that your nearest genealogical group uses so that if you run into problems, or you have questions to ask, there is somebody in your group that you can go to. Very sage advice.

2. The second part of the class was devoted to the Research Records, and she briefly touched on Country of Origin, and how they would affect your method of research. The website is at https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/United_States_Naturalization_and_Citizenship

Please remember that there will not be a class next week (11 February 2015) because Dear Myrt will be at RootsTech 2015 in Salt Lake City. Class will return on 18 February 2015 with Lesson 6.

Session 1 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-1.html

Session 2 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-2.html

Session 3 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-3.html

Session 4 - http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/01/dear-myrts-beginning-genealogy-session-4.html

Remember to make yourself a member of Dear Myrt’s Genealogy Community before watching the YouTube Google+ Hangout on Air by going to https://plus.google.com/communities/104382659430904043232

Wednesday, February 4, 2015

The Home Front, 1917 exhibit

Library and Archives Canada Photographer: W.J. Topley Studio PA-042857

The Canadian War Museum will open an exhibit to the public on February 19, 2015 called The Home Front, 1917. It will how the war changed Canadian society by delving into the themes of politics, economy, industry, and family life.

The press release says, “Among other things, The Home Front, 1917 examines the conscription crisis, explaining how Prime Minister Sir Robert Borden initially promised not to introduce the draft, but changed his mind in 1917, when the number of Canadian soldiers killed in Europe vastly outstripped the number of voluntary recruits. It outlines the bitter debate that led to riots in Quebec, pockets of resistance elsewhere in the country and Borden’s decision to grant the vote to women whose next of kin were serving in the war in the hope they would bolster his electoral fortunes”.

Two lasting legacies of the war at home were the women’s suffrage (extended in 1918 to all adult women British subjects), and income tax!!!

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