Sunday, November 2, 2008

The first question out of Brian Gilchrist——the Reference Archivist of The Region of Peel Archives who was at the Library and Archives Canada yesterday to give the second annual Ryan Taylor Memorial Lecture——was the question, "How savvy a researcher do you think you are?"

And this was just the first of many questions he asked during his lecture, the purpose which was to spur everybody on to evaluate their research - what is the quality of your research?

Do you, as you are supposed to, always work from the known to the unknown? Do you always ask the correct question of fellow genealogists, librarians, and archivists?

Do you think about how many levels there may be to your question? Is there a difference between what you need to know and want to know? And when do you need to know it?

I was reminded of a question that I have had since I started my own genealogy in 1994. That is why my g-g-g-g-grandfather Andrew BARCLAY had listed as his occupation - a bookbinder, and not as a farmer as was his father's business?

He was not the first son, so he did not get the land owned by the Barclay's in Kinrossshire, Scotland ... so was else was he to do? But bookbinding seemed so off the wall at first glance. Why bookbinding?

Through research I found that his grandfather had been a bookbinder in Edinburgh! And that area of Scotland there had been a huge trade in printing, and bookbinding, a profession he would take with him to the United States in c1760.

But maybe the most important question Brian asked through the entire lecture was the one he finished with - "What legacy have we left behind?"

That is perhaps the most important question these days since so many Canadian genealogists over the past three or four years have died. (In our immediate area, there are three nationally-known genealogists—-Sandra Devlin, Ryan Taylor, and Paul McGrath——who have passed on since 2005). Where has their work gone? What has happened to it?

Have you made a provision in your will to give direction to your executive as what to do with your papers, photos, video, and anything else you may have discovered along the way? What will happen to your genealogical "stuff"?

These questions he raised yesterday have made me think. I plan to finish the BARCLAY genealogy over this winter, and post it to the Internet as well do a limited production run of it to give to the Shelburne County Genealogical and Archives in Shelburne, Nova Scotia. I also have photos, certificates, and other family memorabilia which I plan to give to them for safekeeping, and for other people to research.

So, have you done the same thing with the "stuff" you have collected?

Friday, October 31, 2008

New Federal Heritage Minister

The new Department of Heritage minister is James Moore from the BC riding of Port Moody-Westwood-Port Coquitlam.

He first entered Parliament in 2004 and was named Secretary of State for Officials Languages, Pacific Gateway and the Vancouver-Whistler Olympics before he was announced yesterday as the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages.

The Heritage website is going to be closed tomorrow - presumbly to put Moore in as the minister, and to change some of the script on the website to reflect the new minister.

Josee Verner has been moved from the Heritage Department to Intergovemmental Affairs and is responsible for La Francophonie.

Greg Thompson is still the Minister of Veterans Affairs.

Thursday, October 30, 2008

Métis Nation Seeks Genealogist

I recently received (indirectly) an email from Karole Dumont-Beckett, Registrar of the Métis Nation of Ontario's head office in Ottawa, looking for a full-time genealogist/historian.

The link for the job description is located at <www.metisnation.org/voyageur/articles/job_postings/08oc_genealogist.pdf>.

Deadline for application for this interesting position is November 10, 2008.

There are other opportunities across Canada, so if Ottawa is out of your area, perhaps something a little closer to (your) home might be available.

In any event, this is an interesting site, and offers a lot of information for those looking for their Métis ancestry, and the latest in news and events. Check out their magazine, Métis Voyageur, at <www.metisnation.org/voyageur/in_print/home.html>.

As well, this big news item from a recent press release on their site -

"MNO, Ontario Government and Council of Ontario Universities announce University of Ottawa selected to host first Ontario Research Chair in Métis Studies (Often unknown history of Ontario Métis will start to be told)". The link is <www.metisnation.org/voyageur/articles/national/08_sep_Chair_Annouce.html>.

For more information, please contact Karole at:

Karole Dumont-Beckett
Registrar / Director of Registry
Métis Nation of Ontario
500 Old St-Patrick St. Unit D, Ottawa, ON, KIN 9G4
Ph: 613-798-1488 Ph: 800-263-4889
Fx: 613-722-4225
Email: karoled@metisnation.org
Website: www.metisnation.org

Wednesday, October 29, 2008

Holocaust by Bullets

Father Patrick DesBois, author and Holocaust expert, has been in Montreal at the Montreal Holocaust Memorial Centre to speak during Education Week <www.mhmc.ca>.

He is the president of the Yahad-in-Unum Association, a group which has brought to light the percise conditions under which 1.5 million Jews who lived in the Ukraine were exterminated by mobile Nazi units during the Second World War.

He has a website called "Mass Shooting of Jews in Ukraine (1941-1944): The Holocaust by Bullets", and he travels the Ukraine finding people who lived there at the to hear the stories.

He has used the German and Soviet archives, gathering eyewitness reports of the execution and burial sites, and to gather material proof of the genocide. The sites are recorded, including its GPS readings, and personal items are recovered by the teams including victims glasses, children's games, and jewellery.

He will appear tomorrow night at 7:00 p.m at the Barney Danson Theatre in the Canadian War Museum, 1 Vimy Place, to tell the story.

The website is <www.warmuseum.ca>, and the phone number is 819.776.8600.

Tuesday, October 28, 2008

Brian Gilchrist to Speak in Ottawa

Saturday, November 1st will be a red-letter day in Ottawa as Brian Gilchirst comes to speak at the second Ryan Taylor Memorial Lecture at the LAC.

The lecture will be entitled "Developing a Research Strategy", and he will talk about "being stuck", and how to become unstuck, and move your research on again.

The session will present a number of options based on a review of your own notes, and leaning how to ask questions of people who can help, be it from networking with other genealogists, or with archivists and librarians, or on-line resources.

As the pre-publicity says, "There is a whole world of untouched resource material out there, and Mr. Gilchrist will help you learn how to access it".

He is the Archivist at the Peel Archives near Toronto, and has been given lectures ever since I first attended the OGS' Gene-O-Rama in Ottawa in 1993.

The Ryan Taylor Memorial Lecture was started last year in Ottawa as a response to the 2006 death of Ryan, who had been a keynote genealogist in Canada and the United States.

The lecture will take place at the Library and Archives Canada Auditorium at 395 Wellington Street on Saturday, November 1st at 10:00 a.m., and is free.

See you there!

A Canadian Genealogist Dies in Scotland

Yesterday afternoon (Monday, October 27th, 2008), Don Hinchley, President of the Ontario Genealogy Society (OGS), wrote to tell a number of us that Paul McGrath, the genealogist on "Ancestors in the Attic", has died in Scotland.

He was the chair of the Toronto Branch, and had given many talks around Ontario on genealogy.

He died last Wednesday of a heart attack.

People who attended Conference '09 in London, Ontario this year heard him give a couple of seminars and the talk at the supper on "Ancestors in the Attic".

This blog send its condoldances to his family for thier personal loss, and to the genealogists of Canada, for they have lost a great family historian.

Saturday, October 25, 2008

Irish Symposium 2008 at Library and Archives Canada

The Library and Archives Canada (LAC) is holding its second Irish Studies Symposium on November 3 & 4. The first one was held in Ottawa in 2006.

The door will be open at 8:30 for the two days, and the sessions will be held until 5:00 p.m on the first day and until 7:00 p.m. the second day. A book launch of A Story to be Told: Personal Reflections on the Irish Emigrant Experience in Canada, which is a collection of stories of about 128 Irish Emigrants to Canada, will be held the second day from 5:00 p.m. to 7:00 p.m..

There will be six sessions and one roundtable panel that will cover topics such as -

The Irish in Quebec

- Famine and Commemoration

- Politics: Shifting Attitudes and Political Impact

- The 1911 Census of Ireland

- Irish Culture: Print, Music, Food, and Film

- Irish History and Modern Media

- Directions in Irish Canadian Studies

Some of the people attending will be Irish historian and noted author on Grosse-Île, Sister Marianna O'Gallagher from Quebec, Dr. Diarmid Ferriter from Boston College, and Dr. Catherine Cox, Director for the Center for the History of Medicine in Ireland.

The cost to attend the symposium is FREE but an RSVP is required.

To attend the symposium, simply call 613.992.2618 or e-mail <webservices@lac-bac.gc.ca>. The webpage is <www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/ireland/033001-1001-e.html>.