Showing posts with label Canadian Connections. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Canadian Connections. Show all posts

Monday, November 3, 2008

GenealogyToday Publishes Article

GenealogyToday.com, a website that I have been writing for on a monthly basis for the past six years, continues to publish my columns on Canadian genealogy. It published my latest column, "Chinese-Canadians Immigrants Now Online", on the 10th of September at <www.genealogytoday.com/roots/xweb.mv?xc=Display&xo=rescms&xn=-1&xr=1585&xw=&t_rid=25294&xz=connect.html>.

Simply go to the "Canadian Connections" section of GenealogyToday.com to see a history of the columns that have been published by Illya D'Addezio and company.

He wrote to me over the weekend to tell me of a new website he now has now called "Live Roots".

It was launched a couple weeks ago and now contains over three million names. He says that they continue to add 5 to 10 thousand new names every week!

It is a search engine for genealogists. Illya says that "the feedback has been terrific. Live Roots also includes most of the GenealogyToday.com information, creating one place to search across thousands of databases."

He says that LiveRoots was built to provide the researcher a site that "extends beyond the typical bounds of a traditional search engine or link directory by facilitating access to offline records and publications through partnerships with amateur and professional researchers who either own copies or are geographically closer to the librarians and archives that do."

I have gone on the site to see what is available for BARCLAY, and found quite a bit of stuff - both in the non-subscription and subscription areas. So it is true to its word - the site does provide lots of information that you can't find or would take too long to find.

It says on the website that each of the results has been hand transcribed and checked to make sure they are correct - the results I have checked so far are accurate as far as I know.

You just put in the surname and you will get results in the surname area and resource area - and I found results in each area.

He asks you to email him with feedback after you have had a chance to visit LiveRoots.com. The address is <owner@gentodayllc.com>.

Wednesday, August 13, 2008

"The Last Hundred Days" of WWI

Do you know that on November 11th, Canada will mark 90 years since the First World War ended?

More than 100,000 Canadians fought in that war and this year, the period from August 8th to the signing of the armistice on November 11th will be called "The Last Hundred Days."

Prime Minister Stephen Harper said in a statement (08/08/08) that "Over 'The Last Hundred Days', Canadian soldiers advanced 130 km and 30 Canadians and Newfoundlanders earned the Victorian Cross."

If you are searching for your WWI ancestor, the best place to start your search is at the Canadian Genealogy Centre at <www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/022/022-909.006-e.html>.

There you will see the 600,000 personal records of Canadians who enlisted in the Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF).

If you enter the last name and the first name of your ancestor in the search engine, you will see the actual enlistment papers that your relative signed - the enlist papers that got him into WWI.

Also on the site is a section devoted to the Aboriginal Soldiers, the Royal Newfoundland Regiment and Newfoundland Forestry Corps, the Air Force and the Navy. (Some of these files may not be online - check with the LAC first to see if they are, or have to be, borrowed since they would be on microfilm.)

If you would like, you can also go to the Veterans Affairs Canada <www.vac-acc.gc.ca> site for information about the graves and memorials of the 116,000 Canadians and Newfoundlanders who died.

The site contains digital images of photographs and personal memorabilia about individual Canadians.

Monday, August 11, 2008

1881 Census of Canada Released

At exactly 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 7th, the 1881 Census was released online!

The people who first got the news were the attendees at the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) who were at the Library and Archives Canada attending a conference on Genealogy and Local History. I was one of the attendees.

On the database, researchers can access the name, age, country or province of birth, nationality, religion, and occupation of Canada's residents at the time of the 1881 census. It also has the actual census return itself, which you can also access.

The press release said that "It is the first regularly scheduled collection of national statistics in Canada. Information was collected for Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia, and the North-West Territories".

I checked the census Thursday evening for the BARCLAY (my direct line) family in Nova Scotia and I found them, but I found the children in one grouping and the mother and father in another grouping. Funny - but that is how it was.

Also, their surname was spelled as BARCKLAY - which was also unusual.

Sylvie Temblay, the Chief Project Head at the Canadian Genealogy Centre, expects 750,000 searches per week on the 1881 census.

The index was created by familysearch.org, and access to the digital images of the original census was work done by the Library and Archives of Canada.

The database is available at <www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/census-1881>.

Thursday, July 31, 2008

LAC Conference 2008 - Blog

I will be away on vacation from Friday, August 1st to Sunday, August 11th. But, "I will be away on vacation", is a relative term - because for two days I will be at the "Genealogy and Local History for all: Services to Multicultural Communities" (August 6 & 7) in Ottawa. It is a Satellite Conference sponsored by GENLOC/RISS International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions under the organization of the Library and Archives Canada.

While there, I plan to meet with Dave Obee, a genealogist from British Columbia, and Janet Tomkins, a librarian with the genealogy department at the Vancouver Public Library.

While I am gone, if you want something of mine to read, you can check "Canadian Connections" on the <www.GenealogyToday.com> website.

I have been writing for them since 2002 about everything Canadian in genealogy, heritage, and history.

And you can also read the current issue of e-NewsLeaf, which can be accessed if you are a member of the Ontario Genealogy Society <www.ogs.on.ca>. I became the editor of e-NewsLeaf when it was started back in April.

The latest newsletter just came out last weekend (July 2008 Volume 1, No. 4) and has articles on the Nipissing Branch Receives Trillium Award, "The Wall of Ancestors" at Conference '08, Information Wanted for Local History Book, African Roots in Canada, and Ottawa Branch Supports Local Library.

I will be back on the blog Monday, August 11th.