Both Ancestry.ca and MyHeritage have put their DNA kits on sale for Father’s Day, although I doubt they can be mailed to arrive by Friday. If interested as giving a kit as a gift this Sunday, you may want to consider including an IOU note in your card.
Ancestry’s DNA kit is on sale for CDN$79, down from $129, and for an extra dollar you can add a three-month World Deluxe membership. These offers end June 15.
The sale price for MyHeritage’s DNA kit is CDN$53, down from $139. The discounted price ends soon.
The Kelowna & District Genealogical Society (KDGS) in British Columbia has now made the Central Okanagan Obituaries database available for anyone to search online, thanks to a City of Kelowna Cultural Grant.
You can now search and download obituaries from the 24,000-plus collection of people who passed away in the Central Okanagan (Peachland to Oyama including Kelowna, West Kelowna and Lake Country, BC). Some of the obituaries date back to 1913.
Anyone can search and download If you find an obituary you would like to view, simply proceed to the shopping cart.
KDGS members can download the obituaries for free.
Non-members can purchase downloads for $10 plus a handling fee. (If you plan to download several obituaries, you may want to consider joining the society for $50.)
Only downloads of those with images of the obituary are allowed. So, if you encounter one without an image, a pop-up form will allow you to request the society find and upload the image. They will let you know when the image is available for downloading.
This project began in 2010. The grant allowed KDGS to purchase equipment and supplies to assist the Obituary Committee in processing items for the database, from collecting, preparing and indexing, scanning/uploading and proofreading to the filing of the originals.
The initial KDGS database was created by Geoff Dawson, a member of KDGS, and volunteers made tens of thousands of entries over the years. In 2023, a redesign of the database on a more robust program was started with Programmer/Developer Javier Gongora of Vyoniq Technologies, who worked in collaboration with Xenia Stanford, KDGS Obituary Committee Chair and the Project Manager, Central Okanagan Obituary Project, to complete the database and offer the public search.
The Ontario Genealogical Society will host three virtual presentations this week, including one that is hybrid. As usual, all are free and open to the public.
The following times are in Eastern time.
Tuesday, June 10, 1:00 p.m. — Irish Special Interest Group Irish Records from the Penal Period 1692-1829 by Fintan Mullan
Fintan Mullan has been Executive Director of Ulster Historical Foundation since 2001. Register to watch online.
Wednesday, June 11, 7:00 p.m. — York Region Branch The Toronto Book of the Dead and the City’s Morbid Past by Adam Bunch
With grisly tales of war and plague, duels and executions, you can learn a lot about Toronto through stories whose endings were anything but peaceful. Register to watch online.
Saturday, June 14, 10:30 a.m. – Simcoe County Branch The British Home Children: Canada’s Forgotten Legacy by Lori Oschefski
Discover the challenges these child migrants faced, the hardships of indentured service, and the resilience that led to their success. Learn about key resources for research and explore the vast contribution Home Children made to Canada’s development and war efforts. Through compelling stories and historical insights, this presentation sheds light on an overlooked chapter of Canadian history and honours the legacy of over 100,000 British Home Children who helped shape the nation.
This is a hybrid meeting. Attend in person at the Penetanguishene Centennial Museum and Archives, 13 Burke Street, Penetanguishene, or register to watch online.
For more gems like these throughout the week, join the Genealogy à la carte Facebook group. When you submit your request to join, you will be asked to answer two quick questions about your family history research.
Front page of the Vancouver Morning Sun, May 16, 1924. Source: Newspapers.com.
After publishing more than a couple of dozen Ontario newspapers during the past several weeks, Newspapers.com has looked to Canada’s west coast for its latest addition.
This week, issues of the Vancouver Morning Sun, from May 1924 to January 1926, have joined the popular online collection of newspapers.
In honour of both Danish Constitution Day and Swedish National Day, MyHeritage is opening up every Danish and Swedish historical record — over 350 million in total — for free, from June 5 to 8.
The Danish records include 31 collections that include church books, censuses, and newspapers from 1787.
The Swedish collections span from the 1600s onward, featuring household examination rolls, birth and death records, and military lists. Last month, MyHeritage added a collection of Swedish passenger lists documenting the names, birthplaces, residences, and destinations of Swedes who left the country between 1869 and 1951.
This year, archives, museums and documentary heritage institutions will share $1.425 million to carry out 37 projects selected under Library and Archives Canada’s (LAC) Documentary Heritage Communities Program.
The projects were selected for the impact they will have on documentary heritage preservation and access.
Librarian and Archivist of Canada Leslie Weir said in a news release, “My heartfelt congratulations to all the recipients. Your dedication to documenting and preserving your community’s history is truly commendable. It brings me much joy to see how LAC is able to support amazing projects like yours through yearly funding. Now, more than ever, it’s essential for LAC and communities across Canada to stay committed to making our shared stories accessible to everyone.”
While there are no genealogical societies among the recipients, there are a few projects that could help with family history research. These projects include oral histories, scrapbooks, school records, photographic archives, migration database, and a county newspaper digitization project.
The list of documentary heritage organizations that received funding for the 2025-2026 cycle of the Documentary Heritage Communities Program is available on LAC’s website.
MyHeritage has just released a collection of 731 million records extracted from historical French newspapers, thanks to their in-house AI technology.
Called France, Names & Stories in Newspapers collection, this is MyHeritage’s first “Names & Stories” collection in a language other than English. The source of these newspapers appears to be is France’s national library, the Bibliothèque nationale de France.
The records delve beyond names and dates. They capture relationships, occupations, addresses, and more, all linked to original newspaper pages.
In 2024, MyHeritage developed specialized AI technology to extract structured records from newspaper pages published on OldNews.com. MyHeritage started publishing these collections, initially for English newspapers only, in December 2024, and they included newspapers from the United States, Canada, Australia, New Zealand, and the United Kingdom.
If you have a family tree on MyHeritage, you will soon begin receiving automatic Record Matches to articles in this collection that mention people in your tree. This will help you discover articles about your relatives without needing to search manually.
After more than 100 years, the Canadian military has identified a soldier killed in the First World War as Capt. William Webster Wilson.
Capt. Wilson, an accomplished soldier, left Lindsay, Ontario to fight in France before he was declared missing on October 9, 1916 following a fierce fight known as the Battle of the Ancre Heights – part of the larger Somme offensive.
The Defence department said his grave was identified by Canada’s Casualty Identification Review Board through the use of historical and archival research.
“Capt. Wilson gave his life to protect our great country and his identification is a reminder of the sacrifices that he and all Canadians who served have made — as well as their families,” said Defence Minister David McGuinty in a news release.
Capt. Wilson’s family has been notified about the news and a headstone rededication ceremony will soon take place at Adanac Military Cemetery, in Miraumont, France.
Capt. William Webster Wilson. “Memorial of the Great War, 1914-1918: A record of service”, Bank of Montreal, 1921. Courtesy of the Government of Canada.
William Wilson was born on November 29, 1890, in Edinburgh, Scotland, to Hugh Cunningham and Mary Ann Lyell (née Webster) Wilson. William had a younger brother, Hugh. William joined the Royal Bank of Scotland at the age of 15, working at several branches in Edinburgh. He resigned in 1911, shortly after his mother’s death, immigrated to Canada and joined the Bank of Montreal. He initially worked in Toronto, before joining the branch in Lindsay, Ontario.
Before the First World War, William volunteered with local militia units in both Scotland and Canada. While in Lindsay, he was a captain with the 45th Victoria Regiment and joined the thousands of men who travelled to Valcartier, Quebec, to enlist following the outbreak of war. He enlisted on September 23, 1914, as an Honorary Captain and Paymaster with the 1st Canadian Divisional Signal Company.
After training in Quebec and England, he was taken on strength by his unit in France in April 1915. Originally attached to the 1st Divisional Headquarters, by 1916 he was attached to the Canadian Section of General Headquarters, 3rd Echelon of the British Expeditionary Force.
By the fall of 1916, gruelling fighting and heavy losses sustained during the Somme Offensive meant that trained men were desperately needed on the front lines. Probably due to his extensive militia experience and recent completion of a machine gun course, Capt. Wilson was attached to the 16th Canadian Infantry Battalion (Canadian Scottish), Canadian Expeditionary Force.
On October 8, 1916, the Canadian Corps participated in the Battle of the Ancre Heights, as part of the broader Somme Offensive. The 16th Canadian Battalion was involved in an unsuccessful attempt to capture Regina Trench, and Capt. Wilson was reported missing the next day, on October 9.
It was not until June 24, 1919, that his brother Hugh received a second-hand account indicating that Capt. Wilson had been killed by a shell. At the time of his death, Capt. Wilson was 25 years old.
Researchers had not initially considered the grave could have belonged to Capt. Webster, since he was officially commemorated on the Canadian National Vimy Memorial as a member of the Canadian Signal Corps, rather than a member of the 16th Battalion, with whom he died.
Captain Wilson’s name is visible in the bottom right of the Lindsay Cenotaph in Lindsay, Ontario.
The Casualty Identification Program was established in 2007 and started to formally confirm unidentified graves six years ago. When their identity is successfully found, the headstone is replaced featuring their full identity with a small rededication ceremony.
Canadians with missing relatives due to 20th century war efforts can register with the program on this government website.
On Saturday, June 7, at 11:00 a.m. Mountain time, the Edmonton Branch of the Alberta Genealogical Society will host the free presentation, Irish Immigrants to Canada’s Prairies, delivered by Dr. Lucille H. Campey. It will be a hybrid presentation — in person and virtual.
Irish immigration to Canada spanned centuries, with different waves driven by poverty, famine, and the search for better opportunities. While many settled in Eastern Canada, some ventured westward with the expansion of the railways and the promise of land. In the Prairie provinces, including Alberta, Irish immigrants played a vital role in early settlement and development. They established communities, contributed to agriculture, and influenced the cultural landscape. Place names across Alberta reflect this heritage, marking the lasting impact of Irish pioneers on the province’s history. Come hear about Dr. Campey’s research in this area and what insights she can provide!
