What’s in store for Canadian genealogy in 2020

Most genealogists tend to start the new year, hoping this is the year a new collection of records will be released that will break down a brick wall or two.

At the very least, we know some birth, marriage and death records will be released in 2020.

A few significant anniversaries will take place this year, and wishful family historians would like those events to be celebrated with the release of online collections, such as photos, service and employment records, immigration records, and land records.

Commemorative anniversaries
February 1 marks the 100th anniversary of when the Royal Northwest Mounted Police and the Dominion Police were amalgamated and renamed the Royal Canadian Mounted Police. No word yet on how this anniversary will be marked.

Manitoba will celebrate the 150th anniversary of the province joining Confederation.

In 1870, Manitoba became Canada’s fifth province, after a massive land transfer and a rebellion.

This year also marks the 350th anniversary of the oldest company in North America, Hudson’s Bay Company.

To mark both anniversaries, Manitoba last year announced the Hudson’s Bay Company Archives would digitize 1,052 reels of microfilm, encompassing more than 10,000 volumes of pre-1870 records kept at almost 500 Hudson’s Bay Company posts. The digitized records are now online and include post journals, incoming and outgoing correspondence, and accounts kept at individual posts.

On September 2, people around the world will commemorate the 75th anniversary of the end of World War II. While no genealogy-related projects have been announced, Veterans Affairs Canada said the approximately 80,000 living Canadian veterans of WWII can receive a tribute lapel pin and certificate in recognition of their service to Canada.

Government decisions
The Prince Edward Island legislature is expected to debate legislation in 2020 to open adoption records. The minority government will require the vote of at least one opposition MLA in order to pass. If passed, birth parents and adoptees could apply to learn one another’s identities starting in January 2021.

Vital statistics
As for civil birth, marriage and death records, if the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick follows last year’s pattern, it will release birth records for 1924 in January and marriage records for 1968 in February.

As early as February or March, Ancestry may upload Ontario birth registrations for 1914 and marriage registrations for 1938.

In June, we may see British Columbia registrations of marriages from 1944 and deaths registrations from 1999 on the BC Archives website. The next time a new collection of BC birth registrations will be released is 2024 — 120 years after the 1904 births were registered. In 2004, much to the dismay of genealogists, the British Columbia Vital Statistics Act added an extra 20 years to the release of births, extending it to 120 years.

In September, or perhaps even earlier, Nova Scotia Archives will make available on its website births in 1919, marriages in 1944, and deaths in 1969.

Last year, the Public Archives and Record Office of Prince Edward Island uploaded the index of thousands of death registrations, from 1965 to 1968. Let’s hope they continue to add death registrations every month. If we’re lucky, we may see marriages for 1945. We’ll have to wait until at least 2026 before seeing any birth registrations. They are restricted for 120 years after the birth, and civil registration didn’t begin until 1906.

Projects and initiatives
Likely in May, Library and Archives Canada will announce the recipients of the 2020-2021 Documentary Heritage Communities Program grants, which usually means at least two or three projects that will benefit family historians.

In British Columbia, the Kelowna & District Genealogical Society’s cemetery committee plans to begin photographing all the grave markers in the pioneer section of the main city cemetery, Kelowna Memorial Park Cemetery. The decision to post the photos on the society’s website or FindAGrave or both sites has not been made.

Almost 30 Okanagan heritage organizations and repositories are working on the University of British Columbia’s Digitized Okanagan History project. This means some collections will go online this year, such as historical photo collections from the Kootenay Lake Historical Society and Silvery Slocan Historical Society.

Keep a watch for online collections coming from the University of British Columbia’s Digitization Centre. They often upload new digitized collections to their website, and tell us about it.

By the end of 2020, the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan intends to complete its project to digitize the province’s community newspapers from 1939 to 1945, encompassing about 560,000 pages of newsprint from almost 160 community publications.

The Manitoba Genealogical Society plans to take part in a heritage event to celebrate the province’s sesquicentennial, but has kept under wraps what that event will be.

The Winnipeg-based society, which has been in existence since the mid-1970s, has had its hands full since several members of its executive resigned in the fall, leading them to cancel their first provincial conference. A special general meeting will be held on February 1 to elect executive officers who will serve until the annual general meeting in June.

Ontario Ancestors and FamilySearch will continue to digitize 120 years of Vernon city directories that cover most of the province of Ontario. Started almost a year ago, the ambitious project to digitize about 1,300 directories was initially estimated to take two years. The team is making good progress, and it’s possible the project could be completed by the end of the year or early next year. If Ontario Ancestors decides to include other publishers’ directories, the timeline will be extended.

Ontario Ancestors plans to make a stronger push this year for partnerships with libraries, archives, and corporate and government heritage groups.

The Nipissing District Branch of Ontario Ancestors announced last year it had started digitizing the North Bay Nugget newspaper, from 1909 to 1929, which are in the public domain. The digitized newspaper will be available in the members only section of the district’s website in the early months of 2020. It will also be available to visitors at the branch on a designated computer.

Genealogists with ancestors who lived in Northern Ontario should keep their eyes open for even more news from Ontario Ancestors about some “great opportunities” that may help further their research.

An interactive website about a major study on the migration paths of French Canadians throughout North America over three centuries will probably be launched early this year. The large-scale project, Trois siècles de migrations francophones en Amérique du Nord (1640-1940) – Three Centuries of Francophone Migrations in North America (1640-1940), which is led by Université de Saint-Boniface’s Dr.Yves Frenette, received $4.5 million in funding and began last fall.

In early January, the New Brunswick Genealogical Society will roll out to its members the ability to search the first lot of historic New Brunswick Anglican church registers. Society volunteers have so far digitized and indexed about 440,000 names found in almost 150,000 birth, marriage and burial records. The entire project is expected to take until fall 2022 to complete. As for access to non-members, the society plans to provide basic access within the first quarter of 2020. Non-members will be able to view a listing of registers, showing the places, dates and types of records. From there, they will be able to search through images of the digitized registers.

Indexing of Nova Scotia church records, from 1864 to 1877, on FamilySearch began last month, with about 20 percent indexed to date. These are registers of baptisms, marriages, deaths and other records for some Catholic and Anglican parishes in the province. Anyone who has set up a free FamilySearch account can index the records. A list of indexing projects is available under the Indexing tab.

Conferences
The Nanaimo Family History Society in British Columbia will host a one-day beginner/intermediate seminar on March 28. The society expects to post the list of speakers and topics on its website in January.

Also in British Columbia, the Kelowna & District Genealogical Society‘s Harvest Your Family Tree conference will feature four speakers, with one from Canada and three others from the United States and United Kingdom. It will take place September 25 to 26.

For the first time in about 20 years, the British Columbia Genealogical Society will not hold its annual seminar. The volunteers are receiving a much-needed break to gear up for the society’s 50th anniversary in 2021 when they plan to hold a seminar in the spring and host an Alaska cruise in the fall with Blaine Bettinger and Mary Kathryn Kozy.

The Alberta Family Histories Society will celebrate its 40th anniversary with a two-day conference, Follow Your Ancestors’ Footsteps, on October 3 to 4, in Calgary. Speakers include Dave Obee, Christine Woodcock and Cyndi Ingle. The deadline for their call for presentation proposals is January 7. Subjects include Métis and Eastern European research, country-specific research, such as Ireland and England, and how to use DNA in your research.

The Alberta Genealogical Society holds a conference every second year, but 2020 is not one of those years.

Under the theme, 2020 Vision: Seeking Ancestors Using DNA and Digital Tools, the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society will hold its biannual conference in Prince Albert, April 17 to 19. They are presenting a good line-up of topics and speakers, in person and virtual. The topic of Connie Gerwing’s in-person presentation, Finding Women Homesteaders in Saskatchewan, is perhaps the most Canadian of all being delivered. Registration is scheduled to open January 20.

Ontario Ancestors‘ annual conference will take place in Hamilton, June 5 to 7. The society yesterday released the Vision 2020: Finding the Past — Moving into the Future conference program and opened registration. Toronto author and historian Adam Bunch will deliver the plenary and banquet lectures. American genealogist Jen Baldwin is the other keynote speaker. One of her presentations will be The Spirit of the Next Generation: Why Age Doesn’t Matter in Genealogy.

The British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa will hold its 26th annual conference from September 25 to 27. The theme is Irish Lines and Female Finds: Researching Your Irish Roots and Female Ancestors, and it will include presentations on DNA. Registration will likely open in April or May. Deadline for the call for presentation proposals is January 31.

Online learning opportunities
Ontario Ancestors’ first webinar of the year begins today, January 2, at 7:00 p.m. Eastern time, with Thomas MacEntee talking about Smarter Search Strategies for Genealogy. The society recently posted its full list of free monthly webinars on its website. Registration is open to all. The recordings are available afterward to society members only.

The Niagara Peninsula Branch of Ontario Ancestors will launch its new series of monthly webinars with its first webinar on Tuesday, January 14. The webinars will focus on the old counties of Lincoln & Welland family history. Webinars will be open to all, but the recordings will be available in the members only section of the branch website. The list of presentations and registration links will be available soon.

Legacy Family Tree’s 100 upcoming webinars, announced two days ago, have something for beginners and experts. While there is nothing specific to Canadian research, there are plenty of webinars on US, UK, Ireland and Australian resources, search techniques, and a large number on DNA. The webinars are free to watch for up to seven days after the free live presentation. After that, a subscription is required. Watch for subscription sales for new members.

RootsTech in Salt Lake City, Utah, from February 26 to 29, is bound to live stream about a dozen presentations and make handouts of all the presentations available for free. The live stream schedule should be available by the end of January, although it is very unlikely they will include a presentation on Canadian research. In the meantime, you can watch online presentations you missed at previous RootsTechs.

The third annual MyHeritage Live, this year in Tel Aviv, Israel, from October 25 to 25, will likely broadcast all of its presentations live and make the recordings available by the next day. To watch the presentations delivered in 2018, look for the drop-down menu under Past Events on the MyHeritage Live website. The 2019 presentations are here.

Wish list
My 2020 wish list for Canadian genealogy is:

• Access to more digitized newspapers.

• More digitized church records.

• More Canadian indexing projects on FamilySearch than the very few in 2019.

• Many more Quebec notarial actes, i.e., the actual records, on Ancestry, in addition to the repertoires (indexes).

• Civil birth, marriage and death records on the websites of the provincial and territorial archival centres who have yet to do so. If unable to do the work, they should try to make arrangements with FamilySearch.

• Better promotion of archival repositories’ new digitized collections in a What’s New section on their website and on social media.

• Increased number of Canadians delivering presentations and webinars.

• Strong, vibrant genealogical societies.

• Continued collaboration among genealogists at meetings and conferences, on social media, and over coffee or a glass of Chardonnay.