London and Middlesex Genealogy Society-June Meeting

Finally,  I was able to attend a meeting of the London & Middlesex Genealogy Society Tuesday evening. Speaker for the meeting was Mr. Al Neely, librarian at the Westmount branch of the London Public Library. His topic was “Google for Genealogists”. This was a very entertaining and informative talk on using Google for genealogical research. My list showed 30 different aspects of Google that one could use from search, advanced search, book search, alerts, google books, news & news archives, cache for old web pages, etc. I think that I will look into Google a bit more, and try some of these uses for my own research.

News from Library and Archives Canada

Library and Archives Canada seem to be doing more digitalizing. A quote from their “what’s new”:

“Numerous documents belonging to the Library and Archives Canada collection have been copied to microfiche and microfilm. Some items from this collection are being digitized for access over the Internet. These digitized microforms are available on the Browse by Title page. Please note that this is not a database, therefore the images are not searchable by keyword.

Once you have selected the specific microform series you wish to access, you will be presented with links to the digitized images for that set of records. This online access to microforms attempts to duplicate the experience of going to a reading room. Use these links as you would an actual reel or fiche of microform. Each digitized reel or fiche is presented in sequence from beginning to end.”

I belong to a generation that can live with microfiche or microfilm reproductions. Bravo!!!

Genealogy Challenge #19

The Genea Bloggers’ “52 Weeks To  Better Genealogy Challenge #19” is to examine genealogy and military records that are available at the US National Archives. For non-U.S. folks (that’s me!) we can examine the military records at our own National Archives. The Canadian Archives! - Yikes now that’s a challenge- Eh!

The National Archives is based in Ottawa. Its taken me several years to get comfortable with a web site built by government bureaucrats . John D. Reid in his blog “Anglo-Celtic Connections” has been following the ongoing tale of what the Archives does and does not do. Mostly not do!

There are several data bases that are useful and free.

“Faces of War” is an online collection of photographs of the men and women who served in the Second World War.

“Soldiers of The First World War” is a data base containing the attestation papers of over 800,000 Canadians who served with the Canadian Expeditionary Force. This data base duplicates what is on Ancestry.  You can access this by either surname (hopefully its not Smith), or if you know it, a service number. Regardless you will need that number to pursue your research any further. If you are lucky your ancestor’s battalion is also listed. Don’t get too excited as many of the battalions were broken up in England as reinforcements for the front.

“The Canadian Virtual War Memorial” contains information on the Canadians who are buried overseas. Canadians from the First and Second World Wars are included.

“War Diaries of the First World War” is a data base containing the battalion diaries. Now this data base is heavy going. If you know which battalion that your ancestor served in  (that is the trick) then these diaries can give you a feeling for their lives on the Western Front. But do not expect to find your man unless you are prepared to spend hours going through the diaries. Even so, lots of luck.

The Canadian National Film Board although not part of the National Archives, but nevertheless a government agency, has “Images of a Forgotten War” of photographs of the Western Front.

So you want to find information on your relative? The first place to start is with “Soldiers of the First World War” either by using the government data base or Ancestry.  If it is the government data base use the search option and enter Surname and Christian names or the regimental number if you know it. The results will give you the information that the individual answered on the form. Do not believe everything you read. Keep track of the regimental number as you will need it.

If the individual died in Europe you can search The Virtual War Memorial by using the regimental number.

If it is one thing that the military is it is a bureaucracy - it produces a ton of paper work!. Service files are not online. For the First War these service files can come in several forms.

There is the Record of Service which can show you  the name of the ship that the serviceman arrived on in England or France, the battalion he was sent to, as well as promotions, transfers, injuries, etc.

If a casualty there is the Casualty Form.

If you are lucky pay sheets ( $1.50 a day). But not what they spent it on - that is another story.

There could be as many as 30 to 60 documents in a file. To order the file use the order form from Library and Archives Canada. The cost is $.40 per copy plus taxes if applicable, and could take as much as 4 weeks to arrive. If sent by Canada Post tack on another week. Be aware that not all of the records are available as there was some damage to some of them in the past.

On a personal note I ordered the service records of both my father and his younger brother who were in the Royal Canadian Air Force in the Second World War. Ordering these records are a little bit different as some of the servicemen are still alive. If not you need to provide proof of death or in my father’s case I was able to get him to sign for permission to access his files. Use the same order form as above. What I received 4 weeks later were two tomes. My father’s files (largely I think because he was a Prisoner of War for a year and a half) generated an amazing amount of paperwork. What I have is an incredible record of his service from 1940 to 1945. In an aside, I also found out that he was engaged while in England. Boy did I query him on that one!



The above images are all from Library and Archives Canada

Canada’s Copyright Law- Or Lets All Tip Toe Through The Mine Field

Monday last was the chat session for my Pro Gen group. One of the discussions centered around how copyright affected genealogists.  As the lone Canadian in the group I could see that there were some subtle differences in the Canadian Copyright Act and the U.S. one. Also, that people can get pretty worked up about it.

The Canadian Copyright Act is available online through the Canadian Ministry of Justice. As well there are two blogs one by David Canton, and one by Michael Geist that deal with the Act, and the changes that are coming. Both are legal beagles so you had better have your lawyer-speak up and running.

In Canada the Copyright Law does not protect ideas but how those ideas are expressed. For genealogists that would be for anything that is written - articles, books, or blogs. So for the genealogist, and I might add the historian, what can I print and what can I not print. How do I cover my ass?

For published material Section 6 provides that works are protected for 50 years after the death of the author. Section 12 provides that government documents (Federal, Provincial, Municipal) are protected for 50 years from the end of the calendar year in which the document was created. So the 1916 Western Canada Census has become available; but something other than copyright is holding up the 1921 Census.

Section 10 states that photos taken by an individual are copyright according to section 6 of above. If the photo was taken by a corporation ( ie. newspaper) then the photo is copyright for 50 years from the date in which the photo was taken. The choice of who gains the copyright comes down to who it is that owns the camera or digital camera.

As I read these sections of the Copyright Act most historians would be in violation of the Act. However, the loophole is “fair dealing”. Fair Dealing in Canada as opposed to  “Fair Use” in the U.S. apparently is not as flexible in its use. Common to the Commonwealth countries fair dealing  as I understand it has its basis in common law. This would seem to be the loop hole through which historians work. Section 29 states that “Fair Dealing for the purpose of research or private study does not infringe copyright”. (here I should have a footnote so have a peak at the act above). Section 29.1 goes on to state that you must give the source (footnote), and the author ( all that goes into a footnote, author, title, year published, page reference).

If you are writing for research or educational purposes you are within the copyright rules; however, if you are being paid then you have to be really careful of you know what! The Canadian judiciary seems to frown upon “the motive of gain”.

Canadian bloggers be aware of the upcoming changes in the Copyright Act they may well change everything.

Do These Look Familiar ?

One hundred years has gone by but there remains products that are as popular today as they were for our ancestors. It's fun to look at what some of these products looked like years ago. Chances are that if you mentioned them to your great grandfather he would know what you were talking about.

The first is Canada Dry ginger ale- the champagne of ginger ales! Pharmacist and chemist John J. McLaughlin (yes it was his family that sold their car business to General Motors) opened a small plant in Toronto, Ontario in 1890 to manufacture soda water, which he sold to drugstores as a mixer for fruit juices and flavoured extracts. In 1923 the company was sold and a corporation, Canada Dry Ginger Ale, Inc. was formed.

In 1845, industrialist Peter Cooper obtained a patent for powered gelatin. Fourty years later  a New York based couple Pearle & Ann Wait  added flavouring to the powder and in 1897 Jell-O was born.

Wilkinson Sword in 1804 were makers of bayonets. Better blade making techniques led to  the making of swords, and that led in 1890 to the making of straight razors. In 1894 the first safety razor is introduced. The rest as they say is history.

Gum chewing apparently has been around since the ancient Greeks. When North America was been settled people found that the natives were chewing a resin found in spruce trees. In the nineteenth century paraffin wax was substituted for pine resin. General Antonio Lopez de Santa Anna, of all people, introduced Thomas Adams, Sr. to chicle which is derived from the Sapota or Saodilla trees. The first patent for chewing gum was awarded in 1869. In 1893 Juicy Fruit and Wrigley’s Spearmint gums were introduced.  Dentyne and Chiclets were introduced in 1899. As early as 1888 vending machines for chewing gum appeared at subway stations in Manhattan.

Some things as they say never changes.

An excellent source for looking at popular products of the past is The Digital Deli.

Saturday Night Genealogy Fun

Randy Seaver’s  Saturday  Night Genealogy Fun  asks you to create a family timeline on the family tree software that you use and post it to your blog. I use Legacy 7.4. Creating a timeline is easy enough using Legacy; but posting an image to blogger is beyond my poor computer skills. So I took the easy way out and created a PDF file and uploaded to Google Docs, and then linked it to this blog post.

Treasure Chest Thursday

Today is Treasure Chest Thursday at Geneabloggers. Sometime around 1926 Grandfather decided to immigrate to Florida. Why? No one knows for sure. The family stayed for two years until the farm just outside of Dutton became available. It did give father a lot of stories about  swimming with snakes and alligators that he enjoyed telling us over and over and over.

Actually Grandpa was born on the 25th. December; but who's counting!