Findmypast will host a free webinar, Alma Summers and the Great War: Discovering a Life through Findmypast, presented by Jessica Taylor, today, August 11, at 1:00 p.m. Eastern time.
Ms. Taylor will use a case study to show how to use Findmypast’s records to discover military history in your family.
Register and find more info here.
Was your ancestor among the Scottish Highlanders who sailed on the Hector to Nova Scotia in 1773? If so, BBC Scotland would like to hear from you.
The British Columbia Genealogical Society writes on its blog:
“BBC Scotland is on the lookout for Scottish-Canadians and Scottish-Americans descended from those on the ship the Hector. On September 15th 1773, the vessel landed at Brown’s Point in Pictou in Nova Scotia. The tired three-masted cargo vessel had almost not made it, overcoming terrible sickness and epic sea storms. But when the 189 Highlanders disembarked, it would change Canada forever. The Hector was the first ship to directly transport passengers from Scotland to Nova Scotia. The historic voyage marked the beginning of a massive wave of immigration that would shape the future of North America.”
Contact details are available on the society’s blog.
Visit the Ship Hector Passenger Descendants Facebook Group here.
The Sunshine Theatre presents the play, Home Child, by Laura Teasdale, in the tent at Coldbrook Park in Knowlton, Quebec, on Friday, August 26, from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m. Admission is pay what you can.
The play is based on a true story from a complex and fascinating part of Eastern Townships history. From 1872 to 1912, the Knowlton Distributing Home under the direction of Annie MacPherson received almost 5,000 British children and found local families to take them in. The stories of their experiences range from fairy-tale happiness to absolute horror.
Coldbrook Park is on Lakeside Road near the Mill Pond.
Annual reports typically make for dry reading. Few people read the finely crafted, but lengthy, text. Instead, we tend to look at the photos and glance at sub-titles.
Library and Archives Canada’s 2015-2016 annual report does not fit the usual dry style. Instead, it has been produced for its users and the average Canadian. The articles are short, making it ideal for the short attention span of many of today’s readers.
Library and Archives Canada annual report, 2015-2016.
You can read the annual report online with links to pages on Library and Archives Canada’s (LAC) website or read the appealing and graphic PDF version. Both versions make for palatable reading because the titles are snappy and eye-catching, the articles are thankfully short, and the graphics and photos make it easy to find what interests a reader.
While the text throughout LAC’s website is unusually small for some unknown reason, I still prefer reading the web page because of the links to other areas of the website.
Highlights from the annual report:
The online and PDF versions of the annual report can be found here.
There’s a new sign on the door at the Niagara Peninsula Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society, and it tells everyone what they may not know or have forgotten.
The sign features the three key areas of the branch’s mission statement:
Education, Preservation, Advocacy.
It’s a terrific idea and it’s pretty simple to do.
Front door at the Ontario Genealogical Society’s Niagara Peninsula Branch features the branch’s mission: Education, Preservation, Advocacy. Photo credit. Steve Fulton UE, president, Niagara Peninsula Branch.
By featuring the main focus areas of the branch’s raison d’être on the front door, the branch constantly reminds visitors, members, and even board members of the branch’s goals. The sign promotes why the branch exists and what it contributes to the community.
The sign helps keep the branch focused on its goals and ensures everyone is working from the same playbook.
Niagara Peninsula Branch president Steve Fulton said, “We balance all that we do through those three words. If we plan something, and it doesn’t match one of the three words, then we do not do it.”
Letterhead
Other societies may draw inspiration from this sign. In addition to promoting the mission statement on the door, societies should think about the value of adding it to their letterhead, like a tag line.
Genealogical societies should never assume people know what they do.
Email signatures
If the budget cannot support the purchase of a new sign for the door — or the society doesn’t have a door — and they still have stacks of paid-for, printed letterhead in the back room, there is still plenty that can be done.
A zero-cost initiative is to add an abbreviated mission statement at the end of email signatures. Whenever any board members, librarians, support staff, or other volunteers send an email or reply to someone from outside the organization, they can easily and automatically include those two or three words or a very short statement/tag line after their name, title, and society name. (To learn how to do this, search signature in your email program, such as Outlook, Hotmail and Gmail.)
Website
Most societies post their mission statement or a version of it somewhere on their website. If it is not front and centre and quick to read, societies should consider shortening it to something snappy, and feature it on the home page.
Facebook and Twitter
Social media platforms are also excellent places for societies to promote what they do. They can easily post a three-word (or more) mission statement or tag line at the beginning of the About section. Another idea is to include the mission statement on the Facebook cover photo as the Niagara Peninsula Branch has done.
The cover photo on the Niagara Peninsula Branch’s Facebook Group features the focus areas of its mission.
To be consistent in all messaging, societies should review their Twitter profile to make sure the mission statement — again, in only a few words — appears in it.
Inspiration
For inspiration of what is possible, genealogical societies should look to organizations outside the genealogy community. The ALS Society of Canada is an example of how to feature a shortened mission statement on a website banner.
The ALS Society of Canada’s mission is clearly featured on its website banner.
Savoir faire
Kudos to the Niagara Peninsula Branch for producing a simple, doable initiative that will likely inspire others to do the same.Theirs is an idea that can help keep the board and members focused on society goals, while promoting what they do to outsiders, such as political and community leaders and potential supporters.
If you are researching your ancestors’ roots in Canada, you will benefit from reading Kathryn Lake Hogan’s article, Canadian Roots: 11 Essential Sources, in the September 2016 issue of Family Tree Magazine.
From civil registrations to land and military records, the article is a good guide of the online Canadian resources every genealogist should bookmark. All but two of the recommended websites are free.
Each resource is described in a manner that makes it makes it easy to understand what can be found and how to conduct a search.
In addition to the 11 Essential Sources, there is a genealogy toolkit with a resource for every province and territory.
This is an excellent primer for beginning genealogists and those with limited experience researching their Canadian ancestry.
For the experienced genealogist, there are no surprises in the list, but it is a good refresher to keep for future review.
Findmypast launched the United States, Canadian Border Crossings, 1895-1954 database on Friday, and ever since I’ve been trying to figure out the difference between this collection and Ancestry’s U.S., Border Crossings from Canada to U.S., 1895-1956, apart from two missing years.
As I do with all new databases, I searched for Dever. (It’s one of the rarest names on my family tree.)
In the new Findmypast collection, I found a record for my uncle from Montreal who travelled to New York in 1951 via St. Albans, Vermont. But no matter how hard I tried, I could not find the same record in the Ancestry collection that also includes St. Albans crossings.
The same record, however, does appear in the free FamilySearch database, Vermont, St. Albans Canadian Border Crossings, 1895-1954. This database contains more than four million images, but fewer than Findmypast (6 million+) and Ancestry (5 million+).
Bottom line, it’s always a good idea to check more than one resource.
(I sure wish the Findmypast search engine worked with fewer glitches. A simple search revealed 71 results, but try as I might, I could not see the second page of results this weekend where my uncle’s name appeared. The same search had worked the day it was launched with fewer annoying glitches. Findmypast should also change Birth State to Birth State/Province since Quebec is not a state.)
This year’s One World One Family genealogy conference in Etobicoke, in western Toronto, features a very good line-up of speakers, 27 workshops, and a wide array of topics, including research in the West Indies.
The conference takes on Saturday, August 20, and registration with a box lunch is only $27.
Workshops
Beginning Swedish Research by Jenny Snow Jackson & Kathy Snow Gill
Discovering Your Czech Roots: Let’s Get Started! by Edward Zapletal
DNA: Clutter or Heirloom? How to “mine” it… by Susan Reid
Doing Research from a Distance by Danielle Manning
FamilySearch Apps and Beyond by Shirley-Ann Pyefinch
Feast or Famine—Irish Research in our Digital World by Nuala Farrell-Griffin
Finding Hispanic Records on FamilySearch.org Part 1 by Kevin and Linda Snow Westover
Finding Hispanic Records on FamilySearch.org Part 2 by Kevin and Linda Snow Westover
Finding your English Ancestors during the Reign of Queen Victoria – 20 June 1837 to 22 January, 1901 by Victor Dupree
Four Family Tree Certified Programs TREESEEK, RECORDSEEK, PUZZULLA, and FIND-A-RECORD by Don Snow & Linda Snow Westover
Freeware for Family History: The Best Things in Life are Free by Don Snow & Linda Snow Westover
In the Footsteps of our Ancestors Workshop #2 by Greg Lucas
In the Footsteps of our Ancestors–Workshop #1 by Greg Lucas
Journey to the Past: The Lost Villages of Mississauga by Matthew Wilkinson
Planning and Holding Family Reunions by Judy Snow & Lance T. Spencer
Policing in Ireland 1793-1925 by Nuala Farrell-Griffin
Searching Canadian Records by Lesley Anderson
Tracing Your West Indian Ancestral Roots by Pooran R. Bridgelal
Tracking Your Scots Emigrant Ancestor by Christine Woodcock
Two Men I Really Respect: A Personal View of the Barnardo Children by Ivy Sucee
What the Scottish Documents Tell You by Christine Woodcock
What’s New at Ancestry by Lesley Anderson
Where To Start when you Have Only A Name by Shirley-Ann Pyefinch
Workshop 1: Finding Your Polish Roots by Kathleen Ann LaBudie-Szakall
Workshop 2: I found my Polish Village, Now What? by Kathleen Ann LaBudie-Szakall
Registration and details are available here.
An archivist in Alberta has compiled a list of the top 20 Canadian archives on Facebook, based on the number of followers, and you may be surprised at the ranking of the archives in Canada’s largest province.
Andrew Chernevych of the Galt Museum and Archives in Lethbridge writes that he was surprised to see “some small archives punching well above their weight and some major institutions have no Facebook presence!”
I think two of the reasons the top 20 have a lot of followers are because they post useful, engaging information and they do so on a regular basis.
Check out the top 20 list in Canadian Archives with Largest Following on Facebook. (If I posted the list here, that wouldn’t be fair to Mr. Chernevych, would it?)
The Honourable Mélanie Joly, Minister of Canadian Heritage, announced Friday $600,000 in funding for the Ville de Magog’s redevelopment of Merry House, a historical residence located in the heart of Magog in Quebec’s Eastern Townships.
Merry House was built in 1821 by Ralph Merry III, the first permanent settler in Magog. It was handed down through the generations of the Merry family, who played an active part in the development of the town.
Merry, considered the founder of Magog, was an American Revolutionary who immigrated to Lower Canada in 1799 and settled in nearby Bolton. He bought up all the neighboring lots, including the village of Magog, where he went on to act as its mayor, judge, and developer.
Merry House is the oldest residence in Magog’s urban area. It serves as a symbol of the settlement and development of the Eastern Townships at the beginning of the 19th century.
Vicki-May Hamm, Mayor of Magog, said, “Once it gets redesigned according to a completely innovative concept, Merry House will make it possible to share the proud heritage and history of the settlement pattern, economic development and cultural practices of Magog and the region.”
So far, the city has raised $3,330,500 from muncipal, regional, provincial, and federal sources and the private sector. The goal is to raise $3.5 million. The city purchased the home for $1.2 million in 2008.
Ralph Merry died in 1825 and is buried in Pine Hill Cemetery in Magog. You can see a photo of the Merry House here.
