Canada is a multicultural nation. You may not know it, but chances are you have a not-too-distant relative from a previous generation who joined the parade of people from many countries: Britain, the United States, France, Ireland, Germany, Italy, China, the Ukraine, the Netherlands, Poland, India, Russia, Norway, Portugal, and many more, seeking to make Canada their new home.
Read more at https://blog.myheritage.com/2017/06/they-came-to-canada/
30 June 2017
My my, my MyHeritage blog post just in time for Canada Day
Congratulations to New Order of Canada Recipients
Announced at Officer of the Order of Canada is Chad Gaffield, Professor of History and University Research Chair in Digital Scholarship at the University of Ottawa.
He returned to the university in September 2014 after serving as President and CEO of the federal Social Sciences and Humanities Research Council of Canada (SSHRC) during 2006-2014. An expert on the sociocultural history of 19th- and 20th-century Canada, Gaffield has been at the forefront of efforts to develop digital technologies that expand, deepen, and facilitate research, teaching and public engagement. His scholarship focuses in particular on Canada’s official languages in their changing socio-cultural, economic and demographic contexts since the early nineteenth century. He has also studied socio-demographic change in the Ottawa Valley as well as childhood and family history during the nineteenth-century development of mass schooling. From 2001 to 2008, Gaffield led the interdisciplinary, multi-institutional and cross-sectoral Canadian Century Research Infrastructure (CCRI) initiative, one of Canada’s largest and most innovative research projects in the social sciences and humanities. By developing digital technology to mine historical census enumerations and documentary evidence, CCRI is now enabling unprecedented temporal and spatial analyses of the forces that shaped the twentieth century. Gaffield’s new project concerns the conceptual and technological making of the Digital Age since the nineteenth century with a special emphasis on Canada. A fellow of the Royal Society of Canada, he received the RSC’s 2004 J.B. Tyrrell Historical Medal given for outstanding contributions to the study of Canada. In 2011, Gaffield was awarded the international Alliance of Digital Humanities Organizations’ Antonio Zampolli Prize which recognizes every three years a major research contribution. In 2015, he received a Doctor of Laws honoris causa from Carleton University. Gaffield received his BA (Hons) and MA from McGill University and his PhD from the University of Toronto.
Announced as Member of the Order of Canada is William (Bill) Waiser who joined the Department of History at the University of Saskatchewan in 1984 and served as department head from 1995-98. He was Yukon Historian for the Canadian Parks Service prior to his university appointment. He was named the university's Distinguished Researcher at the spring 2004 convocation and received the College of Arts and Science Teaching Excellence Award in 2003. He was awarded the Saskatchewan Order of Merit, the province's highest honour, in 2006, and elected a fellow of the Royal Society of Canada the following year. Bill retired in 2014 from the University. His books include Park Prisoners: The Untold Story of Western Canada's National Parks and (with Blair Stonechild) Loyal till Death: Indians and the North-West Rebellion, which was a finalist for the 1997 Governor General's Literary Awards for non-fiction. His All Hell Can't Stop Us: The On-to-Ottawa Trek and Regina Riot won the 2003 Saskatchewan Book Award for non-fiction.[3] He is perhaps best known for his award-winning centennial history of the province, Saskatchewan: A New History.
British Newspaper Archive additions for June
The British Newspaper Archive now has 20,347,024 pages (19,721,463 pages last month). The 60 papers with new pages online are tabulated below with the many major additions highlighted.
| TITLE | DATE RANGE |
|---|---|
| Annandale Observer and Advertiser | 1873, 1879-1886, 1889, 1893, 1895 |
| Ballymena Observer | 1951-1957 |
| Barnet Press | 1879-1897 |
| Boston Guardian | 1930-1936 |
| Bradford Daily Telegraph | 1872, 1878, 1897-1898 |
| Catholic Standard | 1933-1949, 1951-1957 |
| Cork Examiner | 1900-1901, 1903-1904, 1908-1910 |
| Cornish Times | 1860, 1877, 1889 |
| Coventry Herald | 1940 |
| Cricket and Football Field | 1910 |
| Croydon Guardian and Surrey County Gazette | 1910 |
| Durham County Advertiser | 1897 |
| East Anglian Daily Times | 1902 |
| Eastern Evening News | 1884, 1886-1888, 1890-1896, 1898-1899, 1905-1909 |
| Eastern Morning News | 1881, 1885-1886, 1888, 1890-1892 |
| Fraserburgh Herald and Northern Counties' Advertiser | 1893-1949, 1951-1957 |
| Glasgow Evening Citizen | 1866-1867, 1869, 1879, 1881-1890, 1892 |
| Glasgow Evening Post | 1879-1881, 1883-1891 |
| Goole Times | 1870, 1889 |
| Hackney and Kingsland Gazette | 1880-1890, 1902-1909 |
| Hartlepool Northern Daily Mail | 1900-1909, 1911-1919 |
| Hereford Times | 1882 |
| Herts Advertiser | 1897 |
| Hexham Courant | 1877 |
| Ilford Recorder | 1902, 1904 |
| Inverness Courier | 1871-1884, 1886-1890 |
| Irish Society (Dublin) | 1919 |
| Isle of Wight County Press and South of England Reporter | 1884, 1889-1899, 1901-1910 |
| Isle of Wight Observer | 1888, 1901-1922 |
| Islington Gazette | 1905-1907 |
| Kentish Mercury | 1871-1910 |
| Lake's Falmouth Packet and Cornwall Advertiser | 1873-1910 |
| Leeds Mercury | 1935-1938 |
| Londonderry Sentinel | 1862-1868, 1873-1880, 1883-1884, 1887-1893, 1895-1899, 1901-1907, 1909-1910, 1912-1920, 1930-1943, 1945-1953 |
| Mayo Constitution | 1872 |
| Montrose, Arbroath and Brechin review; and Forfar and Kincardineshire advertiser. | 1873-1875, 1884-1957 |
| Nelson Leader | 1929, 1931-1937, 1940-1949, 1951, 1953-1957 |
| Norfolk News | 1871-1897, 1899-1910 |
| Northwich Guardian | 1861-1871, 1873-1878, 1880-1884, 1886-1896, 1898-1899, 1901-1907, 1909-1910 |
| Nottingham Journal | 1874 |
| Oswestry Advertiser | 1855, 1859, 1870, 1877, 1889-1890 |
| Oxford Times | 1888, 1890, 1892, 1894 |
| Pateley Bridge & Nidderdale Herald | 1883-1888, 1890-1894, 1896, 1898, 1900-1904 |
| Public Ledger and Daily Advertiser | 1902-1910 |
| Roscommon Messenger | 1904-1920 |
| Rothesay Chronicle | 1879 |
| Sheffield Daily Telegraph | 1916-1917 |
| Southern Echo | 1891-1895, 1909-1910 |
| Staffordshire Chronicle | 1889 |
| Sunday Mirror | 1914 |
| Surrey Comet | 1888, 1892 |
| The People | 1918 |
| Watford Observer | 1872-1909 |
| West Somerset Free Press | 1872, 1910 |
| Weston Mercury | 1885-1896, 1899-1909 |
| Weston-super-Mare Gazette, and General Advertiser | 1878-1886, 1888-1896, 1898-1900, 1903-1907 |
| Wigan Observer and District Advertiser | 1855-1877, 1879-1895, 1898-1904, 1907-1910, 1912-1918 |
| Wiltshire Times and Trowbridge Advertiser | 1883-1893, 1909-1919 |
| Yarmouth Mercury | 1880 |
| Yorkshire Evening Press | 1888 |
Free Access to University of Toronto Press Journals on Canada Day Long Weekend
Canadian Journal of History
Champlain Society Digital Collection
International Journal of Canadian Studies
Journal of Canadian Studies
These are just some of the journals now open to free access over the long weekend - until 3 July.
What's available? Take the 110 books published by the Champlain Society.
Ontario and the First World War, 1914-1918: A Collection of Documents, edited by Barbara M. Wilson caught my eye.
Three volumes in four parts of Select British Documents of the Canadian War of 1812.
Telegrams of the North-West Campaign, 1885.
The Upper Ottawa Valley to 1855: A Collection of Documents.
Multiple volumes of The Works of Samuel de Champlain.
There are also seven Champlain"Witness to Yesterday" podcasts on Canadian issues from 1885 to 1957.
29 June 2017
Lady Macdonald's Diary
Lady Macdonald’s diary, primarily covering the years 1867 to 1869, is a unique first-hand account by the Prime Minister's wife of the earliest days of the new Dominion of Canada, beginning just a few days after Confederation in July 1867.
There are 91 pages in the diary. As of 10:30 am on 29 June 2017 there are 5 pages complete, 7 pages incomplete, 13 pages needing review, and 4 other pages updated in the past 24 hours.
Although not as easy as the previous LAC transcription project, the Colton Report, the cursive writing of Lady Macdonald is clear.
Find out more at http://transcribe.bac-lac.gc.ca/en
LostCousins helps celebrate Canada Day
"There are 4,000 LostCousins members in Canada, so I decided that this year I'd put together a page of offers to help celebrate Canada Day.
Please tell other family historians in Canada about the offers - just copy this email to them or send them the link below. Remember, every new Canadian member is not just a potential cousin of yours, they could be a cousin of mine (or of any other LostCousins member), so the more family historians who take advantage of the free subscriptions I'm offering to new members the better it is for all of us.
To find out about saving special offers click the link below so that you can read the articles (or else, highlight it, copy it, then paste it into your browser).
https://lostcousins.com/newsletters2/canadaday.htm
Please remember to update your My Details page when your email address is about to change - if I can't contact you then neither can your cousins!"
RootsMagic gets long promised update with Ancestry hints
You can learned about the new capabilities at FAQ: WebHints & TreeShare for Ancestry and on a video linked from the RM program.
If you want to take advantage of the Ancestry hints you are REQUIRED to have a tree at Ancestry linked to the RM tree. If uploading a RM tree to Ancestry by default it will be private, but some will be concerned that having the information outside their computer increases privacy vulnerability.
In my view it's a risk worth taking given the benefit of the web hints. I recommend going further and making a basic version of your tree, less any sensitive information, public.
Glengarry County Archives
In the case of Ontario's Glengarry County it's almost the reverse. No mountaineer would dream of scaling the heights north of the St Lawrence River, from Cornwall to the Quebec border and north to the 417. History is there aplenty, especially for those with a name starting with M(a)c.
Charlottenburgh and Lancaster were two of the eight Royal Villages established along the St Lawrence River in the 1780s settled by United Empire Loyalists.
On this date in 1786 The McDonald, a converted troop ship, set sail from Knoydart on the west coast of Scotland with 520 passengers, including 240 under age 13. Most settled in what is now Glengarry and descendants helped build the county, province and Canada.
The Glengarry County Archives is the place for local history and genealogy. Check it out at GlengarryCountyArchives.ca.
28 June 2017
Ancestry updates Glasgow, Lanarkshire, Scotland, Electoral Registers, 1857-1962
If you have Glasgow ancestry there's the possibility that something of interest might have been added to this database, now with 30,247,020 records.
New Book: Glenalladale Settles, 1772
Having no PEI ancestry, I've only been there once, it's not a settlement that came to mind despite Scottish settlement on the island being covered in some detail in a book in my collection, Lucille Campey's An Unstoppable Force.
In Glenalledale Settlers 1772 the first five chapters
Life in Gaelic Scotland
The Emigration Leader
Preparation
On the Sea
Arrival in St John's Island
comprise a section of Background ending at page 36. These were Scottish Catholic's displaced from their homes in the Western Highlands and Islands.
Except for a three page bibliography the remainder of the book, to page 219, comprises biographical sketches of The Passengers. Their names are Beaton (1), Cameron (4), Campbell (2), Cummins (3), Curry (3), Fisher (1), Fitzgerald (1), Gillis (3), Henderson (4), MacCormack (3), MacCraw (1), MacDonald (75), MacDonnell (3), MacDougald (3), MacEachern (8), MacGillivray (3), MacInnis (7), MacIntosh (3), MacIntyre (9), MacIsaac (1), MacKay (2), MacKenzie (6), MacKinnon (12), MacLellan (1), MacLeod (4), MacMillan (3), MacNab (3), MacNeill (6), MacPhee (4). Don't get aggravated if there are no Mcs and regarding the capitalization of names - they likely didn't.
There's a tribute to the MacDonalds in a poem on page 66, "If Ye Ain't a MacDonald."
This is an admirable tribute to the founders of this branch of the Scots diaspora in PEI.
Find out more, and how to order a copy here.
27 June 2017
TNA Webinar: Reading old documents: Introduction to Medieval and Tudor palaeography
The webinar series covers basic skills required to read handwriting from the past, and some tips and tricks to help you get to grips with original documents.
Find out more, and register for free at https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/webinar-reading-old-documents-introduction-to-medieval-and-tudor-palaeography-tickets-32440403119?aff=ebapi
Creating Dialogue Between Archivists and Historians
This week ActiveHistory.ca, a website that connects the work of historians with the wider public and the importance of the past to current events, is hosting a theme Week: Creating Dialogue Between Archivists and Historians.
In the introductory post Krista McCracken mentions" funding of LAC, records management programs." I hope the series doesn't degenerate into archivists telling historians why they need more resources.
The first post Missed connections: looking for everything in the archives by Danielle Robichaud explains why there's a disconnect between researcher expectations and archival practice; because archival material is rarely described to the item-level. This makes it difficult for archivists to do more than point researchers to where everything about a particular topic could be.
Robichaud describes herself as a Digital Archivist so I was disappointed that her post stopped at explaining the historical rationale for the disconnect. Beyond explaining it what is being done by digital archivists to bridge the disconnect?
26 June 2017
In From The Cold
The In From The Cold Project was formed more than ten years ago to research and identify all service men and women missed from the Commonwealth War Graves Commission Debt of Honour database. To date 4,150 people have been added owing to the IFC project. Six were added on 17 June.
The project also provide a route to submitting corrections to the Debt of Honour database that may have crept in during digitization or at some other stage.
Don't make the mistake I made. Had I known about IFC I could have short-circuited a tortuous process I took, initially, through the Department of Veterans Affairs, to have Private John K McLean buried at Beechwood Cemetery added to the CWGC database and to the headstone he shares with Private W J Royston.
FamilySearch adds England, Scotland Ireland Records
Three new record sets became available on Friday, 23 June, on FamilySearch
Scotland Church Records and Kirk Session Records, 1658-1919 has 302,522 records from registers of baptisms, marriages, and burials originally filmed at the National Archives of Scotland, CH2 series. There are no images available.
England, Cambridgeshire Bishop's Transcripts, 1599-1860 has 52,632 records , with linked images of the originals, for parishes throughout Cambridge originally filmed at the Cambridge University Library. Find a list of parishes and years included here.
Ireland Civil Registration, 1845-1913 consists of browse images, 1864-1913 for births, 1845-1870 for marriages, and 1864-1870 for deaths. They are copies of the original documents and volumes held at the General Register Office and are referenced in the Ireland Civil Registration Indexes. See How Do I Search the Collection? at https://familysearch.org/wiki/en/Ireland,_Civil_Registration_(FamilySearch_Historical_Records)
25 June 2017
Family History Microfilm Discontinuation
Below is an announcement from FamilySearch.
It was inevitable. Microfilm is a legacy technology. But it is VERY DISAPPOINTING that during the transition FamilySearch would not substitute a digitization on demand service so that patrons are not left hanging, potentially until the end of 2020 if the project is on time, waiting for access.
====================
On September 1, 2017, FamilySearch will discontinue its microfilm distribution services. (The last day to order microfilm will be on August 31, 2017.)
The change is the result of significant progress made in FamilySearch’s microfilm digitization efforts and the obsolescence of microfilm technology.
• Online access to digital images of records allows FamilySearch to reach many more people, faster and more efficiently.
• FamilySearch is a global leader in historic records preservation and access, with billions of the world’s genealogical records in its collections.
• Over 1.5 million microfilms (ca. 1.5 billion images) have been digitized by FamilySearch, including the most requested collections based on microfilm loan records worldwide.
• The remaining microfilms should be digitized by the end of 2020, and all new records from its ongoing global efforts are already using digital camera equipment.
• Family history centers will continue to provide access to relevant technology, premium subscription services, and digital records, including restricted content not available at home.
Digital images of historical records can be accessed today in 3 places on FamilySearch.org under Search.
• Records include historical records indexed by name or organized with an image browse.
• Books include digital copies of books from the Family History Library and other libraries.
• Catalog includes a description of genealogical materials (including books, online materials, microfilm, microfiche, etc.) in the FamilySearch collection.
When approved by priesthood leaders, centers may continue to maintain microfilm collections already on loan from FamilySearch after microfilm ordering ends. Centers have the option to return microfilm that is available online or otherwise not needed. As more images are published online, centers may reevaluate whether to retain microfilm holdings.
OGS recognition of City of Ottawa Archives
City Archivist Paul Henry accepted the award from OGS Conference 2017 Co-chair Heather Oakley and Branch Chair Doug Gray.
Langevin and Residential Schools
A week later and the title of a blog post on Active History makes it clear -- "Sir Hector-Louis Langevin, “Architect” of Residential Schools?"
In it Matthew Hayday, points out that if anyone was the architect it was Sir John A. who reserved Indian Affairs as a post he held in addition to Prime Minister. He has historical precedence having given a speech two weeks before Langevin's using very much the same words.
Should everything named after Macdonald be renamed, just as the former Langevin block?
In a comment to that blog post Jason Ellis points out that people engaged in naming debates don’t care about good history; they care about the present. We've certainly seen that in Ottawa where political (and Political) have outweighed historical considerations in naming.
Worth reading at http://activehistory.ca/2017/06/langevin/
Additions to Findmypast Scottish Records
Scotland, Post Office Directories
Over 180,000 new records have been added to the collection of Scottish Post Office Directories. The new additions cover Aberdeenshire, Ayrshire, Bute, Midlothian, Forfarshire, Lanarkshire, Renfrewshire, Perth and Inverness-shire.
Scotland Monumental Inscriptions Index
Over 32,000 new additions covering burial grounds in Berwickshire and East Lothian have been added to the Scotland Monumental Inscriptions Index.
24 June 2017
Medway, Kent, England, Methodist BMB records
Baptisms are by far the predominant record type.
The records are sourced from Medway Archives and Local Studies Centre, in Chatham. The new Medway Archives Centre will open on Tuesday, 4 July 2017 at 32 Bryant Road in Strood.
New Norfolk Browse Records from Findmypast
Norfolk Marriage Bonds 1557-1915 Browse
444 volumes of marriage bonds, over 147,000 records kept by the courts of the Archdeaconry of Norfolk, the Archdeaconry of Norwich, the Dean & Chapter of Norwich and the Diocese of Norwich Consistory Court.
Norfolk Poor Law Union Records 1796-1900 Image Browse
Over 55 volumes of Poor Law records covering 20 unions: Aylsham, Blofield, Depwade, Docking, East and West Flegg, Forehoe, Guiltcross, Henstead, King's Lynn, Loddon and Clavering, Mitford and Launditch, Norwich, Smallburgh, Swaffham, Thetford, and Wayland.
There are a wide variety of record types including births & baptisms, relief lists, admission & discharge books, rate books, report books, minute books and more.
Norfolk Non-Conformist Records 1613-1901 Image Browse
More than 7,000 records, 11 registers covering various denominations including Methodist, Quaker, and Baptist in the parishes of Attleborough, Aylsham, Kenninghall, Norwich, Tasburgh, Walsingham, and Wymondham.
Summarizing the Norfolk titles in Findmypast
| Title | Records |
|---|---|
| Norfolk Electoral Registers 1832-1915 | 4,466,609 |
| Norfolk Baptisms | 1,785,807 |
| Norfolk Burials | 1,422,549 |
| Norfolk Marriages | 905,752 |
| Norfolk Bishop's Transcripts Baptisms | 634,077 |
| Norfolk Banns | 451,484 |
| Norfolk Bishop's Transcripts Burials | 412,336 |
| Norfolk Bishop's Transcripts Marriages | 157,290 |
| Mid Norfolk Monumental Inscriptions | 9,652 |
| Mid Norfolk Baptisms | 1,257 |
| Norfolk Marriage Bonds 1557-1915 Image Browse | 444 |
| Norfolk, Bishop's Transcripts 1687-1901 Image Browse | 125 |
| Norfolk Poor Law Union Records 1796-1900 Image Browse | 55 |
| Norfolk Archdeacon's Transcripts 1600-1812 Image Browse | 51 |
| Norfolk Non-Conformist Records 1613-1901 Image Browse | 11 |
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