December, 2006 News

(This news feature is divided into topics of Genealogy, Heritage, and History)

Bonus Feature - Website Pick of the Month!

Merry Christmas!
(and “Thank You!”)
from the staff at GenealogyCanada.com

“Genealogy News”

Highgrader Magazine
    If anyone subscribes to the Highgrader—a magazine about Northern Ontario—one will find a column of mine in the recent August/September issue called “What Happens to my Family History Now?”, which discusses where a person can deposit their genealogy.
    And in the fall issue of Highgrader, I have another column entitled “... And now, Genealogy goes to school”, which talks about National Institution of Genealogical Studies at the University of Toronto.
    The address for the magazine is Highgrader Magazine, P.O. Box 624, Timmins, ON P4N 1E9

Ryan Taylor Scholarship Fund
    If you wish to contribute to the Ryan Taylor Scholarship Fund, please go to <www.genealogycanada.com/Ryan.htm>.
    Ryan passed away September 25th, 2006 while in Toronto filming part of Ancestors in Our Attic at <www.history.ca>.

Send Your “Best Wishes” to Ken Aiken
    And some sad news has reached me on another person whom I met this past spring at the Ontario Genealogical Society's seminar in Oshawa, and that is Ken Aiken, who had just moved to British Columbia from Alberta and who now has been diagnosed with ALS (also known as Lou Gehrig's Disease).
    If you wish to pass on Best Wishes to Ken, please e-mail him at <kgaiken@gmail.com>. His blog is found online at <www.genealogy-education.com>.

Guest Editor of the OGS Newsleaf
    And your editor, Elizabeth Lapointe, has been the guest editor of Newsleaf for the November issue, and will also be guest editor for the February issue of the Ontario Genealogical Society's (OGS) newsletter. The website is <www.ogs.on.ca>.
    The OGS is the largest genealogical society in Canada, and it holds a conference every spring. This year coming, it will be held in Ottawa. For more on the conference, please visit <www.ogsottawa.on.ca>.

Genealogical Society Changes Name
    The Shelburne County Genealogy Society (Nova Scotia) changed its name to the Shelburne County Archives & Genealogical Society. It was voted as such in the September meeting, and Kim Walker was appointed as archivist.
    Their latest newsletter says that “... this more accurately describes our institution as an established archives and an institutional member of the Council of Nova Scotia Archives since 1995.”
    If you would like to get in touch with the society, the address is: P.O. Box 248, Shelburne, NS B0T 1W0. The website is <http://nsgna.ednet.ns.ca/shelburne>, and their email is <gencentre@ns.sympatico.ca>.

Signature of Agreement
    A Signature of Agreement between the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO) and the Canadian Genealogy Centre was signed on Thursday, September 7th, 2006.
    The purpose of this agreement is to provide data for additional years and make revisions to the existing database of children who were sent to Canada from Great Britain from 1869 to 1930. It is estimated that 100,000 or more Home Children came to Canada between the ages of 6 months and their mid-20s, and were either adpoted or brought to Canada as farm labourers, domestic servants, or helpers from institutions in Great Britain.
    BIFHSGO will complete the indexation of names of children found in various archival records held by Library and Archives Canada.
    The website of the Home Children is <www.bifhsgo.ca/home_children.htm>.
“Heritage News”

Christmas Trees Cut in Nova Scotia
    Nova Scotia's 35 year-old tradition of presenting a Christmas tree to the people of Boston continues this year with a 12 metre white spruce tree cut from Alan Broome's property in New Ross, Lunenburg County.
    The tree  was cut down under the supervision of a forester instructor with the Nova Scotia Community College, and was transported to Boston Common where a tree lighting was held on Thursday, November 30.
    Further, for ten years, Shelburne, Nova Scotia has donated a Christmas Tree to Gloucester, Massachusetts, and this year's tree was was lit on November 25th.
    Shelburne and Gloucester (its twin community) feel very close, since many sailors and fishermen have been lost there over the years from the southwestern shore of Nova Scotia.

Archives Offers New Internet Research Tool
    A new online research system offers free website access to archival descriptions, photographs, and library records held by the Provincial Archives of Alberta.
    Called HeRMIS—for Heritage Resource Management Information System—it is a serachable accessible database that allows users to view archival holdings and new collections will be made available as they become available.
    A new book, An Administrative History of the Government of Alberta, 1905-2005, will also be published.
    “These two new resources give Albertans, and people around the world, unprecedented access to Alberta's history and heritage,” said Community Development Minister Denis Ducharme.
    Work is currently underway on HeRMIS to include holdings of other museums and facilities operated by Alberta Community Development. The archives is one of the first facilities to provide electronic access to the majority of its collection through HeRMIS.
    The website is <www.archivesalberta.org>.

Government of Ontario Modernizes Services
    On October 19, 2006, the government of Ontario introduced legislation that will permit the holdings of the Archives of Ontario to be modernized, ensuring that the provincial heritage is preserved and accessible through the best methods available, including electronic and digital formats.
    The Archives of Ontario added new fonds to its Archives Descriptive Database, and some of them include: the business records from Thomas G. Brown (F4443), who operated a church Interiors from 1905-2002; the Mitchell Photographs of Muskoka and Toronto (F4468); the Peter Smith Architect Inc., (F4446), which explains the records left to the archives; and the Bernard Rasch fonds (F4447), who was a Toronto-based architect who was in practice from 1972 to 2002.
    Visit the holdings at <www.archives.gov.on.ca/english/about/new_in_add.htm>.
“History News”
Louis Riel Day Ceremonies
    On November 16th, special presentations honouring nine First Nations Chiefs and Warriors who were hung along with Louis Riel in 1885, as well as a reading of a speech by Gabriel Dumont about his last day with Riel, were conducted at a Commemorative Ceremony at Queen's Park.
    The presentation was made to Anishinabek Nation Grand Council Chief John Beaucage by Métis Nation of Ontario President Tony Belcourt.
    The Métis are a distinct Aboriginal people with a unique culture, language, and heritage, and with an ancestral homeland that covers Ontario, Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, British Columbia, and parts of the Northwest Territories in Canada, and part of the northwestern United States.
    For a site to visit on Métis genealogy, please go to <www.othermetis.net>.

Oral History of Great War Goes Online
<>    The Library and Archives Canada—along with the Department of Veterans Affairs Canada and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation (CBC)—has launched a web exhibit featuring recorded interviews of veterans who served in the Canadian Forces during the First World War (1914-1918).
<>    <>Oral histories of the  First World War are divided into seven sections: Second Ypes, Vimy Ridge, War in the Air, The Somme, Trench Warfare, Passchendale, and Perspectives on War.
<>    <>Each section is made up of one-on-one interviews selected from In Flanders Field, a CBC radio broadcast which was divided into a 17-part series, and was 350 hours long, running from November 11, 1964 to March 7, 1965, and which was put together by the CBC to commemorate the 50th anniversary of the First World War.
<>
<>    “These guys have a personality that you can hear ... Their emotion comes out in their voices,” said Gordon Jung, a project manager of Library and Archives Canada.
<>    <>The exhibit can be accessed at the <www.collectionscanada.ca/first-world-war/interviews/index-e.html>.
<>
Ontario Trucking Association Makes Photos Available
    The Ontario Trucking Association is digitizing its historical photo archives of more than 1,000 pictures depicting the evolution of trucking in Canada.
    “Among researchers and historians the OTA collection has been of consideration interest for many years,” said OTA president David Bradley. “The collection will now be even more accessible while at the same time be safeguarded against damage, loss and theft. The move to digitize the collection dovetails perfectly with OTA's 80th anniversary.”
    The collection starts in the 1950s and contains many rare images.
    Once the collection is digitized, it will be available through the OTA web site at <www.ontruck.org>.

Website Pick of the Month!

www.CanGenealogy.com
    Dave Obee, a genealogist on the western coast of Canada, has started Cangenealogy.com - a links site with a difference.
    The aim of the site is to limit “the links to the ones that we feel will have the greatest value to researchers --- and we are ranking them, with the most important ones … at the top.”
    It includes links to all of the Canadian provinces and territories, genealogy events, Acadian, Loyalist, Métis/First Nations, military, and to other links such as maps, and Essential Tools, such as software and forms and charts.
    He says that they are open to all suggestions and updates. They will consider any site of general genealogical interest.
    If you have a site to suggest, please contact him at <Daves@genealogyunlimited.com>.

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