Daniel Caron in violation of Parliament of Canada Act

According to the National Post, "A prominent constitutional lawyer says Canada’s top bureaucrat and 64 deputy ministers who have failed to provide details about the nature of the Conservative government’s $5.2 billion in spending cuts in their departments are violating the law and should turn the information over to the parliamentary budget officer."

Library and Archives Canada is one of the departments whose information was not supplied. Adhering to the legal requirement is a direct responsibility of the department head, in the case of LAC that's Daniel Caron.

The legal opinion cited is available here.

via a mailing list post from Myron Groover

Hand-drawn map of modern London

It's getting to be that time of year when genealogy news thins out and I need to cast the net wider to find blog-fodder. You have been warned.

Regular readers know I have an attraction to maps. I love this one featured on Mapping London where it comments     "It’s a hand-drawn map of central and inner-city London. Tube/train lines, parks and rivers are coloured, everything else is shown in black-and-white. Buildings are all drawn in a 45-degree isometric style. Annotations reveal characteristics of an area that won’t appear on traditional maps."

The artist is Jenni Sparks. Read her blog at: http://jennisparks.blogspot.co.uk/2012/05/hand-drawn-map-of-london.html
and order a copy at:
http://www.evermade.com/product/hand-drawn-map-of-london

Blame, or credit, the ancestors

An article published in the Proceedings of the (US) National Academy of Sciences adds to mounting evidence that experiences of ancestors are a factor influencing your life through epigenetics.

Epigenetic transgenerational inheritance of altered stress responses

Ancestral environmental exposures have previously been shown to promote epigenetic transgenerational inheritance and influence all aspects of an individual’s life history. In addition, proximate life events such as chronic stress have documented effects on the development of physiological, neural, and behavioral phenotypes in adulthood. We used a systems biology approach to investigate in male rats the interaction of the ancestral modifications carried transgenerationally in the germ line and the proximate modifications involving chronic restraint stress during adolescence. We find that a single exposure to a common-use fungicide (vinclozolin) three generations removed alters the physiology, behavior, metabolic activity, and transcriptome in discrete brain nuclei in descendant males, causing them to respond differently to chronic restraint stress. This alteration of baseline brain development promotes a change in neural genomic activity that correlates with changes in physiology and behavior, revealing the interaction of genetics, environment, and epigenetic transgenerational inheritance in the shaping of the adult phenotype. This is an important demonstration in an animal that ancestral exposure to an environmental compound modifies how descendants of these progenitor individuals perceive and respond to a stress challenge experienced during their own life history.

OGS Ottawa Branch AGM

Saturday's annual general meeting of the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society got underway at 1:30 PM with Mike More acting as chair.

The branch membership is 437 as of the date of the meeting including 42 family memberships. The previous year membership was 439 members including 49 family memberships.a

Norah Cousens Larocque stepped forward to take on the role of Chair. She has previously served as Chair and as Regional Director. Mike More will fill the role of past chair and Heather Oakley will become secretary. The positions of vice chair and treasurer remain unfilled. In the absence of a treasurer for the past year there was no financial report.

Al Lewis, who runs the popular Bytown or Bust website, volunteered to explore taking over as Branch Librarian.

The meeting was closed by 1:52 PM after which we heard a presentation from Kyla Ubbink on the work she did to restore a letter written on birch bark which involved practical research on the best methods of treating birch bark.

The next branch meeting is not until September. Dates for your diary are 18 November 2012 when Kyle Betit will give the Ryan Taylor Memorial Lecture, and 5-6 April 2013 for the next Gen-O-Rama.

Scottish Council on Archives issues Broadsheet on Family History

The monthly publication of the Scottish Council on Archives, called Broadsheet, is themed for family history in June. Produced free as a pdf this 12 page issue, while mainly focused on research in Scotland it has a couple of items of broader interest.

Pirates, Shipwrecks and War: how a search for an ancestor unearthed an amazing hitherto untold historical event, by Moira Stewart.

The Future of the Past: selling the archival silver, by Nick Barratt.

Download this an earlier issues from http://www.scoarch.org.uk/notice-board/broadsheet.

Thanks to Jean Patterson for the tip.

Digitizing Canadian WW1 publications

Below is a long list of items relating to Canadian involvement in the First World War being digitized.

You`d think with all the noise Library and Archives Canada is making about digitization that would be the institution doing it. Don`t be distracted by the noise. The heavy lifting is being done by the British Library as part of The Europeana Collections 1914-1918 project.

The collection will be digitised and distributed free as it is believed that the copyright in much of this content has expired. Should you believe that you hold rights in any of the material, please write to Teresa Harrington, Project Support Officer, Europeana Collections 1914-1918, The British Library, 96 Euston Road, London, NW1 2DB with proof of copyright ownership.

Items in bold are already available on the Internet Archive

1. Hay, A. W. and H. J. Horan, Syllabus of Infantry Training, as Suggested by Notes on Company Training Issued by the General Staff and Adopted by 52nd Overseas Battalion Canadian Expeditionary Force. (London: Hugh Rees, 1916) 
2. The Empire at War (London: Oxford University Press, 1921-26) 
3. Canadian War Records Office, The Canadian War Pictorial (London: Hodder and Staughton, 1916) 
4. Beck  de, A. M., Women of the Empire in Wartime (London: Dominion of Canada News Co. Ltd., 1916) 
5. Armstrong, E. H., The Crisis of Quebec, 1914-18 (New York: Columbia University Press, 1937) 
6. Roberts , T. G. (ed), Histories of Canadian Battalions (London: Canadian War records Office, 1918) 
7. Canada Army, 78th Overseas Battalion, Winnippeg Grenadiers, (Winnipeg: Canadian Army, 1916)
8. Canada Army, 77th Overseas Battalion, Canadian Expeditionary Force, (Ottawa: Canadian Army, 1916) 
9. Adami , J. G., The War Story of the Canadian Army Medical Corps (London: Canadian War records Office, 1918) 
10. Canada Army, Thirty Canadian VCs 23rd April 1915 to 30th March 1918 (London: Canada War Records Office, 1918) 
11. Canada Army, A Brief History of the Canadian Grenadier Guards and the first months of the Royal Montreal regiment in the Great War (Montreal:  Gazette Printing Co., 1926) 
12. Fetherstonhaugh, R. C., The RoyalMontrealRegiment 14th Battalion C. E. F. 1914 – 1925 (Montreal: Gazette Printing Co., 1927) 
13. Hopkins, J. C.,Canadaat War, a record of heroism and achievement, 1914 – 1918  (Toronto: Canadian Annual Review Ltd., 1919) 
14. Cameron,K, History of No. 1 General Hospital Canadian Expeditionary Force, 1914 – 1919 (Sackville: NB Tribune Press, 1938) 
15. Nasmith, G G,Canada’s Sons andGreat Britainin the World War (Toronto: John C. Winston Co., 1919) 
16. Canada Army,Canadain Khaki, a tribute to the officers and men now serving in the overseas military forces ofCanada(London: Canada War Records Office, 19–) 
17. Newfoundland Army, The First Five Hundred, being a historical sketch of the operations of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment in Gallipoli and on the Western Front during the Great War 1914 – 1918 (Albany: C. F. Williams and Son, 19–)           
18. Canada Army, The Brazier, a regimental journal nos. 1-9 (France, 1916-17) 
19. Canada Army, The Canadian Sapper. (Official magazine of the Canadian Engineers.) vol. 1. no. 1-vol. 3. no. 15. Feb. 1918-April 1919 (Seaford, England: Canadian Engineers Training Depot, 1918-19)
20. Canada Army, The C.R.O. Bulletin. War souvenir number, Xmas 1918 (London, 1918) 
21. Chronicles of Cliveden. (“Stand Easy.”) vol. 1. no. 1. 30 June 1917 (Cliveden, 1917)
22. Canada Army, The Sling. A little journal published by the boys of a Canadian Field Ambulance. no. 1, 2. Jan., Oct. 1917 (London, 1917) 
23. Canada Army, The RouellesCampMagazine. Canadian Base Depot, Havre. vol. 2-4 (Havre: Imprimerie du Havre-Éclair, 1916) 
24. CanadaArmy The Vics Patrol. (The active service journal of the Victoria Rifles of Canada.) vol. 1. no. 1-3. June-Dec. 1916 (London, 1916) 
25. Canada Army, The Dead Horse Corner Gazette. no. 1-3. Oct. 1915-June 1916 (Manchester and London, 1915-16) 
26. Canada Army, La Vie Canadienne. A monthly [sic] magazine for the Canadian Section, General Headquarters, 3rd Echelon. vol. 1. no. 1-15. (Rouen , 1915-18) 
27. Canada Army, The Listening Post. no. 1-9, 11-33. Aug. 1915-Mar. 1919 (France, 1915-19) 
28. Canada Army, Trench Echo. 4 no. Christmas 1915-Christmas 1917 (At the Front, 1915-17) 
29. Canada Army, Reconstruction (A bulletin published by the Canadian Military Hospitals Commission…)(Ottawa, 1918) 
30. Bourassa, H., La Conscription (Montreal: Editions du Devoir, 1917) 
31. Bourassa, H., The Foreign Policy of Great Britain (Montreal: Editions du Devoir, 1915) 
32. Bourassa, H., Hier, aujourd’hui, demain. Problemes Nationaux (Montreal: Editions du Devoir, 1916) 
33. Bourassa, H., La Langue Francais auCanada  (Montreal: Editions du Devoir, 1915) 
34. Bourassa, H., La politique de l’Angleterre avant et après le guerre (Montreal: Editions du Devoir, 1914) 
35. Bourassa, H., Le ‘Devoir’, son origine, son passé, son avenir (Montreal: Editions du Devoir, 1915) 
36. Bourassa, H., Le ‘Devoir’ et la guerre. Le conflit des races (Montreal: Editions du Devoir, 1916) 
37. Bourassa, H., Le probleme de l‘Empire (Montreal: Editions du Devoir, 1916) 
38. Bourassa, H., L’intervention americaine (Montreal: Editions du Devoir, 1917) 
39. Roux, E., Bourassa au service l’Allemagne (Montreal: Perrault, 1917) 
40. Canada Army, The Maple Leaf, the magazine of the Canadian Expeditionary Force (London, 1916) 
41. Victor, E A.,Canada’s Future: what she offers after the war (Toronto: Macmillan, 1916) 
42. Fielding, E., Short Stories ofJamaicaand the War (Jamaica, 1915) 
43. Horner, A. E., From the Island of the Sea: Glimpses of the West Indian Battalion inFrance(Nassau: Guardian Office, 1919) 
44. Cundall, F.,Jamaica’s Part in the Great War 1914 – 1918, (London: Institute of Jamaica, 1925)
45. Lisser  de, H.G.,Jamaicaand the Great War (Kingston: Gleaner Press, 1917) 
46. Canada Army, Oh,Canada! A medley of stories, verse, pictures and music contributed by the Canadian Expeditionary Force (London: Simpkin, Marshal and Co., 1916)

Scotland 1861 and1871 census indexes at Familysearch

Continuing Family Search's addition of indexes from Find My Past for Scottish Census, 1861 and 1871 are now available.  They were taken on 7 April 1861 and 2 April 1871. Both have over 3 million entries.

A search provides first and last names, year and county of birth, and place of residence. There is a link to FMP which has additional detail transcribed, but you need to search the pay per view site scotlandpeople.gov.uk to see the actual image.

FMP adds Sheffield parish records

The Sheffield & District Family History Society, through findmypast.co.uk come almost 70,000 new parish record transcriptions for Sheffield.

There are 13,102 baptisms from 1858 to 1940; 24,772 marriages from 1848 to 1986 and; 31,470 burials between 1767 and 1802.

WW1 and WW2 prisoners of war

Findmypast.co.uk recently added files for WWI and WWII prisoners of war

The notes for WW1 say they are for 7,703 British Army Officers who were Prisoners of War between 1914 and 1918. However, the first person I checked was a Canadian, G. W. Northwood, and his record is included. He`s listed as rank: Capatain, service: Infantry Canadians. The additional information available by pay per view or subscription is Section (meaning where serving); date missing; and Interned (which gives the country and what appears to be the date of repatriation).

For WW2 there are three sets of records:
Prisoners of War 1939-1945 – British Navy & Air Force Officers: 19,229 records
Prisoners of War 1939-1945 – Officers of Empire serving in British Army: 39,808 records
Prisoners of War 1939-1945 – British Army held in German territories: 107,000 records

The records will usually provide you with the following information about your ancestors: name, rank, regiment, army number, camp number, Prisoner of War number, camp type, camp location and extra notes, where applicable.

The first record I checked, for A.M. Reid in the British Navy & Air Force Officers series turned out to be a Canadian airman interned at Stalag 334 at Lamsdorf. However, the other I checked were British. 

The source given is Naval and Military Press Ltd so you might want to use these are clues in looking for original records.

It`s worth checking this source for Canadian POWs despite the title.

Comments on poll on LAC

This item contains personal opinions.

A few days ago I posted a poll asking respondents what action they have taken regarding the situation at Library and Archives Canada. 55 people responded, obviously a highly significant number totally representative of the Canadian population at large (NOT).

Over one third of respondents have written to the Minister of Canadian Heritage and/or their MP about LAC, or about LAC in the the context of the larger issue of Canadian heritage. Another 13% have signed a petition.

A further 49% expressed concern in the survey. A little under half of those have expressed concern to someone else.

Only 6% supported the government action.

While I`d like to have seen more nearly 50% taking some action is encouraging.

There are many issues to be concerned about in this world. Hunger, obesity, terrorism, violence, environmental sustainability, biodiversity, nuclear proliferation, literacy, youth unemployment, discrimination .. the list goes on. How can you deal with them all. Set against these the preservation and availability of Canada`s documentary heritage may not seem so significant.

Yet our governments have a sophisticated (complex) structure to allow them to deal with more than one issue at a time. I wouldn`t want the job of government to balance them but do expect them to do just that. Yet government, and we, rely on single issue organizations and agencies to clamber for attention to their and our issues.

I`ve said it before, but it bears repeating. Genealogy suffers in this game as there is no national voice for genealogy in Canada, and no willingness on the part of OGS, by far the largest single organization, to lead in its formation.

More Dorset records on Ancestry

Ancestry have added a variety of new records for the country of Dorset in England from the Dorset History Centre. They are indexed with images of the originals linked.

The major databases, over 100,000 records, are:

Land Tax Returns, 1780-1832,  646,167 records
Jury Lists, 1825-1921, 348,846 records

Significant databases, more than 10,000 records are:

Dorchester Prison Admission and Discharge Registers, 1782-1901,
62,737 records
Militia Lists, 1757-1860, 31,298 records

Smaller databases with less than 5,000 records are:

Vagrant Passes, 1739-1791, 4,903 records
Calendars of Prisoners, 1854-1904, 4,863 records
Alehouse Licence Records, 1754-1821, 4,025 records
Convict Transportation Records, 1724-1791, 488 records

Ancestry have also updated the database of Dorset Wills and Probates, 1565-1858,
27912 records

US War of 1812 collection free on Fold3

During June, in recognition of the 200th anniversary of the US declaration of war on Britain, Fold3 is making records from their War of 1812 collection freely available online.
Included are service records (33,712 images) and pension files (239,233 images) as well as a collection of letters received By The Adjutant General, 1805-1821 (132,136 images) and War of 1812 Prize Cases, Southern Dist Court, NY (12,237 images)

http://go.fold3.com/warof1812.php

Ottawa Branch OGS June meeting and AGM

This Saturday, 16 June 2012, sees the last Ottawa Branch OGS meeting of the season with well known local paper conservation specialist Kyla Ubbink speaking on the story around a letter from the Upper Ottawa River valley written in birch bark which she conserved.
This is also the occasion for the Branch Annual General Meeting.
Events get underway at 1pm in room 115 at  the City of Ottawa Archives, 100 Tallwood Drive

TNA podcast: Tracing merchant seamen, 1857-1918

Janet Dempsey, a records specialist at TNA, gave this short presentation on 12 April 2012 which deals with a period when there were no individual British merchant seaman records. Crew lists are distributed between TNA, the National Maritime Museum, the Memorial University of Newfoundland and various smaller sites.  There are also medal records for the WW2 period.

http://media.nationalarchives.gov.uk/index.php/tracing-merchant-seamen-1857-1918/

Mitt Romney's English ancestry

A BBC news magazine item on Mitt Romney's English ancestors
http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/magazine-18422949

OGS Toronto Branch stands up

The following is information from Gwyneth Pearce on behalf of OGS Toronto Branch.

At its annual general meeting on 28 May 2012, the Toronto Branch approved a resolution to send a letter to both the Minister of Canadian Heritage and Official Languages and the Prime Minister of Canada expressing our serious concerns about the cuts.

The letter, signed by Branch Chair Diana Thomson, urges the government of Canada to consider alternatives to the planned service reductions and elimination of programs at LAC so that Canada’s precious documentary and published heritage will be preserved and remain available for future generations.

The Toronto Branch letter and resolution are both posted at www.torontofamilyhistory.org.

Potential remedy for Ancestry stock purchase regret

The following is a Businesswire release

Zeldes & Haeggquist, LLP, a shareholder and consumer rights litigation firm, has commenced an investigation into possible violations of the federal securities laws by certain officers and directors at Ancestry.com, Inc. (“Ancestry.com” or the “Company”), and others.
Ancestry.com, which helped pioneer the market for online family history research, describes itself as “the world’s largest online family history resource, with approximately 1.7 million paying subscribers around the world as of December 31, 2011.” On May 11, 2011, Ancestry.com, whose common stock trades on the NASDAQ under the ticker symbol ACOM, completed a $173.2 million secondary stock offering at $42 per share.
Zeldes & Haeggquist’s investigation concerns whether the Registration Statement and Prospectus used to conduct the May 11, 2011 offering contained false and misleading statements, causing the offering to be overpriced. Some of those misstatements have since been corrected, causing the Company’s stock to plummet, and it is now trading at approximately $25 per share.
If you purchased shares of Ancestry.com (NASDAQ: ACOM) in the May 11, 2011 stock offering and would like additional information regarding this investigation, or if you have information regarding the matters under investigation, please contact attorney Amber L. Eck at 619-342-8000 or by email at ambere@zhlaw.com.
Zeldes & Haeggquist is a full-service law firm which brings major class actions nationwide on behalf of defrauded investors and consumers and handles a variety of complex business litigation matters. Please visit www.zhlaw.com for more information.

COMMENT
Ancestry stock closed at $26.15 on Wednesday having advanced from below $23 at the start of the month on news that the company was exploring putting itself up for sale.

New Irish genealogy books are popular

Two new Irish genealogy books are proving popular at the Ottawa Public Library.

Seven copies of the new edition of John Grenham's Tracing your Irish Ancestors are in the OPL collection. Six of are on circulation, one at the Main Laurier/Metcalfe site is for reference. There is a short waiting list.

The OPL system acquired six copies of David Elliott's Researching your Irish Ancestors at Home and Abroad. Reference copies are at the Main and Nepean Centrepointe locations. Again there is a short waiting list.

Ian Wilson remarks to OGS

On June 1st former Librarian and Archivist of Canada Ian Wilson addressed 500 genealogists at the opening session Richard J Houston Memorial Lecture of the Ontario Genealogical Society Annual Conference in Kingston.
He spoke from notes, there was no prepared text. I'm informed a prepared version is in progress for publication in OGS Families later this year.
The presentation reviewed the productive relationship between archivists, librarians and genealogists using illustrations from Mr Wilson's long career, which started in Kingston.
Toward the end he signalled he was going to address more current developments. I reached for my iPhone and was able to capture the remainder of his remarks, about the last 12 minutes. The quality of the recording is not great but tolerable. And as time was running short, it appears somewhat abbreviated and lacks the full context of his talk.
The response was enthusiastic, a standing ovation. I had to edit out the applause due to clipping of the recording.
Mr  Wilson has kindly agreed to allow me to make this recording available for download through the blog.

http://www.mediafire.com/?jucr7q26b872xlm

Video of Daniel Caron keynote at CLA

A YouTube video has surfaced of Daniel Caron, Deputy Head and Librarian and Archivist of Canada and Chair, Heads of Federal Agencies, reading his presentation keynote address "Finding Our Place on the Digital Shelf" at the start of the Canadian Library Association annual meeting in Ottawa in late May.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vNSlcLrg45o&feature=youtu.be