Sunday, August 29, 2010

This Week's Favorites

The film collection of the Canadian National Exhibition has been made possible on Youtube through funding by the EMC Heritage Trust. The C.N.E. or simply the Ex was founded in 1879 in Toronto and bills itself as the fifth largest fair in North America. This is more nostalgia than genealogy; but I love it!


They are at it again, it seems, in La La Land. Now they are feeding booze to cattle apparently to improve the texture of the meat. If true it would seem that my days of sweating over a hot stove trying to make a red wine sauce are over.

John D. Reid reports that Glen Wright’s book “Canadians At War, 1914 - 1919: A Research Guide to War Service Records” is published an will be available at Library and Archives Canada. Not of much interest I think with the general public - but I am getting a copy.


I highly recommend Colleen Fitzpatrick’s “Forensic Genealogy”. I even get some of the quiz’s correct! Imagine that.

James Tanner has an excellent article on rules for buying a new computer for genealogy.  Mind you I have never been good at following the rules so I will probably be breaking them.

Thomas MacEntee’s new book “Approaching The Lectern: How To Become A Genealogy Speaker” is now available in print. Having heard many Genealogists, and Historians, speak at conferences I would wholeheartedly recommend this book to them. However, as for myself, I prefer to wing it.

Wednesday, August 25, 2010

Wordless Wednesday - Three Brothers Go To War

William Donald Hillman 1914-1986
John Arnold Hillman 1920
Bruce Ivan Hillman 1921-1945

Sunday, August 22, 2010

Sunday's Blog Roundup August 15 -21

I have noticed that most of the “best of” very rarely mention Canadian Blogs or Bloggers. So Here we go in trying to put together a list of Canadian Blogs for the week.

Searching Middle Names” in “Anglo-Celtic Connections” by John D. Reid. I have logged before about how I wish my own ancestors made use of more middle names. It sure would have made genealogical life easier for me. I am impressed with  John’s blog overall.

Brenda Dougall Merriman in her blog called of course “Brenda Dougall Merriman” has been posting highlights of her interesting trip through Scotland.  Ah - the Eld Country as they say in Dunwich Township.

Lorine McGuiness Shultz in her blog “Olive Tree Genealogy Blog” has been posting an ongoing  series entitled “Sharing Memories”.

Diane Rogers in her blog ‘CanadaGenealogy, Or Jane’s Your Aunt” keeps us well informed as to what is happening in La La Land (for non-Canadians that is British Columbia).

Speaking of La La Land I try to keep track of the humour (Canadian spelling - live with it) of it all with “Family Trees May Contain Nuts”. Personally I think the bear at the picnic table is as guilty as they come.He is probably the Godfather of the Black Bear Clan.

Looking4Ancestors”. Oh well looks like the summer holiday bug hit here!

On that note if you are suffering from insomnia or have nothing else to do there is always my other blog “Veterans Of Southwestern Ontario”.

Randy Seaver over at “Genea-Musings” hosts a “Best of The Genea-Blogs” which is well worth looking into. At the end he writes. “Did I miss a great genealogy blog post? Tell me! I am currently reading posts from over 660 genealogy bloggers using Bloglines, but I still miss quite a few it seems“. He is so darn polite that I wonder if he has any Canadian ancestors in his family tree?.

Let me say here that I do not suffer from insomnia, I have never suffered from insomnia. There is no way I am going through 660 blogs. Ever!

Wednesday, August 11, 2010

Library And Archives Canada - Microform Digitalization

The data base at Library and Archives Canada is huge. In my other bog Veterans Of Southwest Ontario I try to deal with the data bases relating to the military. On this blog I will deal specifically with the data bases relating to genealogy.

Recently Library and Archives Canada has been releasing a data base of documents in microfilm and microfiche format. The data bases of interest to the genealogist are:

1.Form 30: Border Entry Records, 1919-1924. There are 96 microfilm reels in this collection. The first reel contains 5,165 pages so overall you will need the patience of Job to get through all of them. Also none of these records seem to be searchable.
sample page, Library and Archives Canada

2. School Files Series, 1879-1953. These on first glance appear to be records from the Department of Indian Affairs. They contain information on the reservation schools throughout Canada. The first reel of 317  contains 2,136 pages.
sample page from Library and Archives Canada

3. Ocean Arrivals, 1919-1924. Pages of immigration papers. The first reel of 310 contains 3,723 pages. Note that in these years they had no problem asking if there was any insanity in the family! I wonder if those who did not speak English realized what they were being asked?
sample page, Library and Archives Canada  

4. Sir John Thompson Fonts. These will be of more interest to historians as Sir John Thompson  was a former Prime Minister of Canada in the 1890’s.

Thursday, August 5, 2010

August Genealogy News

Thomas MacEntee has just released his “A Genealogy Blog Primer: Everything You Wanted To Know About Genealogy Blogs But Were Afraid To Ask”. It is in PDF format and well worth a read.

Family Search Record now has parish records for the County of Cornwall online. This is of value for me as my mother’s maternal grandparent’s the Thomas’s were from Cornwall.

The Elgin County Branch of The Ontario Genealogical Society has a new site online which has been very much improved over the previous one.