Monthly Archives: January 2017

Around the Web – January 30, 2017

Genealogy research services at Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21

The staff at the Canadian Museum of Immigration at Pier 21 in Halifax want family historians to know they offer general genealogy research services, in addition to helping find immigration records.

The experienced researchers in the museum’s Scotiabank Family History Centre can help you in person or by email begin your family research, assist you with your genealogical brick walls, or point you in the right direction with your own research.

There is no fee for general and genealogical inquiries. If you choose, there is an option to donate if you are just looking for information or tips.

Although Pier 21 became a port of entry in 1921, the centre has no immigration records. They do, however, help people request immigration documents from the Canadian government. If they help you locate a pre-1935 immigration record, there will be a $15 charge for a copy of the document.

The staff maintains a small library of books on multiculturalism and genealogy in the centre, but almost all of their research is conducted online, using free and subscription services.

The centre’s scope reaches beyond the years of Pier 21’s operation, from 1928 to 1971, with information on topics including migration, nautical history, waves of immigration to Canada, ethnic groups and genealogy. It has immigration records from 1925 to 1935 on microfilm and staff has access to arrival sources going back to 1865. Staff also has access to information on all ports of entry into Canada, not just Pier 21, and can search US seaports, such as New York and Boston.

In the centre, the staff also works with visitors at computers to help them do their own research.

To learn more about the Scotiabank Family History Centre’s research services and how to submit an inquiry, visit their website. Make sure you take time to browse the menu items while you are on the website.

Source:  Genealogy a la carte

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Thousands of photos of Canadian Prairie towns available online

Anyone looking for historical photos of the town where their ancestors lived in Alberta, Saskatchewan or Manitoba should visit Images of Prairie Towns, a website that contains close to 12,000 images — and the collection continues to grow.

The collection is divided by province and then into an alphabetical list of more than nine hundred towns. There are photos of streets, schools, railways, and commercial and public buildings.

Many of the town pages include early population numbers — useful information when trying to put flesh on the bones of an ancestor’s life.

The only drawback to the site is that there are no photo captions and dates or and information about copyright restrictions. Before publishing any photos, it would be a good idea to request permission through the website contact page.

Ontario (Upper Canada) Historic On-Line Resources

Links to an ever-growing list of Ontario History books, directories etc. that are entirely free to read online, or downloadable to your computer for future reference use.  There are also links at the bottom of the page to join Ontario Genealogy and Upper Canada mailing lists.

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New records at FindMyPast:

Australia 

  • A collection of some 3 million petty court records from the state of Victoria. In Australia, petty court cases were held to hear minor criminal cases such as public drunkenness, criminal damage and theft. The cases usually involved just a judge (no jury). The records in this collection span the years from 1854 to 1985. A typical record lists the first and last name of the person, the name of the court, cause or reason for the charge, a description of the case and the actual court date. These records can be searched by first name, last name, year and court. Access is by subscription [Victoria State Petty Court Records]
  • 107,000 ship records from the port of Brisbane. These are passenger and crew manifests covering some 485 ship voyages between the years 1852 to 1885. These records come from the National Archives of Australia and list the vessel name, date and port of arrival, ancestor’s name, nationality and occupation. The vessels in this collection cover departures from England, Europe, North America and Southeast Asia. The records can be searched by first name, last name, ship name and date range. Access is by subscription. [Historic Queensland Ship Passenger Records]

Ireland 

1.2 million Historic Irish Newspaper articles this month have been added to the FindMyPast collection of historic Irish newspapers. Also included are seven new titles: the Leinster Leader, Donegal Independent, Kildare Observer, Eastern Counties Advertiser, Wicklow Newsletter & County Advertiser, the Longford Journal and the Ballyshannon Herald. Access is by subscription.

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ArkivDigital, the Swedish genealogy website has announced that they will be adding several million aerial photographs to their extensive collection of some 58 million ancestral records. These aerial photographs appear to be primarily of rural regions and cover farms, cottages, rural stores, etc. Most of the images were taken from the 1950s to the present. These images are expected to be added over the next several months (in addition to the some 600,000 new records added to the website on average every month).

Source:  Genealogy in Time Magazine

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Just for fun:

 

 

Moral of the story: Don’t nag and always write your father.

As a final note, as funny as it is, this document also pains me. How sad it is that this man died alone and bitter. What trouble had he fallen into? What had fractured a family that must have begun in hope and happiness? May I suggest that we each hold close those we love – in kindness, patience and forgiveness?

Source: FamilySearch (https://familysearch.org/ark:/61903/3:1:3Q9M-CS7P-T33H-T?mode=g

Why Do Canadians Say “eh”? – Blame It On Our Ancestors

Americans tell us Canadians say, “eh,” more often than we realize. This linguistic tic seems to be part of our DNA.

According to linguists interviewed for the Atlas Obscura article, Why Do Canadians Say ‘Eh’?, we can partly blame our habit of saying, “eh,” on our ancestors and, in large part, because we just want to be nice.

Our Scots-Irish immigrants

It is possible “eh” originally came from some population of Scots-Irish immigrants, a major early group in Canada. Elaine Gold, the founder of the Canadian Language Museum and a recently retired lecturer at the University of Toronto, said, “eh” is still used in Scotland and in Northern England, but it’s used in a much more limited way, primarily to indicate that the listener hasn’t heard the speaker. It means “what?” or “pardon?”

We want to be polite

Jack Chambers, a linguist at the University of Toronto, wrote in a 2014 paper that “eh” has one pragmatic purpose: it shows politeness. Atlas Obscura reports, “Using ‘eh’ to end the statement of an opinion or an explanation is a way for the speaker to express solidarity with the listener. ...  (T)he speaker is basically saying, hey, we’re on the same page here, we agree on this.”

Source:  Genealogy a la carte

Join the Family History Writing Challenge


Genealogists who are struggling to write about their ancestors and need incentive should consider joining the Family History Writing Challenge that runs from February 1st to 28th, 2017.  Registration is free.

Created by Canadian genealogist Lynn Palermo, the annual challenge is “designed to help you develop long-term writing habits, provide inspiration and offer some educational pointers in your journey to write your family history stories.”

 

After you register, Ms. Palermo will send you the Daily Dose Newsletter by email every day throughout February. It will contain a motivational message and tips to motivate, educate, and inspire you. Registration also gives you access to the archive of articles.

Each day, you will be encouraged to write for a certain length of time. You will start with 28 minutes. At the end of the month, you will be writing for 90 minutes a day. You pick the amount of words to write every day — 250, 500, or 1,000 — whatever works for your schedule.

Learn more and register for the Family History Writing Challenge here.

 

Source:  Genealogy a la carte

How Do I Know If This Really Is My Ancestor

Following up on our recent post about Climbing Brick Walls Strategies, “is this really my ancestor”  is a question we have all asked at one time or other.

Jessica, from her “Do as I Am Doing” blog has a post that may be helpful to ensure that the person you are researching is really the correct person.

“One of the most difficult parts of genealogy research is determining if the records you come across really are for the particular individual you are researching…”

She then goes on to list some basic things to check when you find a new record just to make sure you do have the right person.  You should, of course, consider every part of a record to determine if it really is your ancestor, but hopefully this will be a good starting point for you.

Good luck with your research.

January 13, 2017 “Around the Web”

ORGANIZE YOUR GENEALOGY

We spend a lot of time researching and, at times, we may have all sorts of non-sorted information cluttering our desktops, file cabinets or even just covering the dining room table.   There is never a good time to take the time to sort and organize paper, but at times it becomes a necessity.   To help you along with your organizing, FamilyTree Magazine is offering a .pdf file that can be downloaded, “Twenty-Three Tips to Organize Your Genealogy”.  

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ENCYCLOPEDIA OF GENEALOGY (A service of Eastman’s Online Genealogy Newsletter)

The Encyclopedia of Genealogy is a free content encyclopedia created by its readers, people like you. The Encyclopedia of Genealogy is available to everyone, free of charge. Everyone can also contribute  information, again free of charge.

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Just for Fun:

Ever wonder what day of the week you or a relative were born on? Click here for an on-line time and date calendar.

Double Match Triangulator for DNA

Louis Kessler, a Winnipeg genealogist, DNA expert and software developer, is one of ten semi-finalists in the 2017 RootsTech Innovation Showdown for his genealogy tool, the Double Match Triangulator (DMT).

The idea for the DMT began soon after Mr. Kessler received his 93-year-old uncle’s results from FamilyTree and saw more than seven thousand possible relatives. Determining the relationships was not a task he relished.

The solution was to create the DMT.

Mr. Kessler explains how it works:

 “DMT combines two different people’s Chromosome Browser Results files from FamilyTreeDNA to provide Double Match and Triangulation data that can be used to help determine genealogical relationships. It loads the results into an Excel file along with a colorful map that helps the researcher visualize the matches and help to identify Triangulation Groups made up of people who could share a common ancestor, helping you to map your DNA segments to your ancestors.”

You can read more about the DMT here and try it out on Louis Kessler’s website, Behold Genealogy, where you will also find his blog.

Climbing Brick Wall Strategies

Do you have one or more brick walls that you just can’t seem to climb?  We all have them, those ancestors who just refuse to be found!

Every so often you may want to revisit an ancestor to see if you can break through his/her brick wall.    The first step is to organize and analyze your research to find clues as to what information may be missing.   If you need assistance in climbing over the wall, there are several resources available from Qualicum Beach Family History Society:

  1. “Successfully Climbing a Genealogy Brick Wall” is a document on our QBFHS website outlining the basic steps to revisit your research and find new sources to conduct further research.
  2. The Genealogy Toolbox on our QBFHS website (click on the link on the top toolbar) is another valuable resource with links to a variety of resources. Also don’t forget the tips and hints links with even more links to a variety of websites in many different countries.
  3. Our local Qualicum Beach Family History Centre is available for your research on Mondays and Tuesdays each week. Not only are microfilm and microfiche readers available, but there is also an extensive research library.   The computers at the centre have free access to several subscription websites, including Ancestry and FindMyPast, among several others and we have knowledgeable volunteers available to help you both from the Family History Centre and the Qualicum Beach Family History Society.  For more information on what is available at our local Family History Centre, please click here.
  4. Special Interest Groups – we currently have special interest groups led by very knowledgeable people on England & Wales, Scotland and Ireland. If you are researching in these countries, this may be where you can receive assistance.
  5. Our Qualicum Beach Family History Society Library is another resource with a large number of books on a variety of genealogy subjects. It is available at the Family History Centre when it is open, Mondays and Tuesdays and is well worth a visit.  Please click here to view our library catalogue.
  6. Ask for assistance at our monthly meetings during our members’ moments section of each meeting. You may be pleasantly surprised to see how many people are willing to offer suggestions as to how to break down that brick wall.  If you are not currently a member of QBFHS, information on joining our Society is available here.

Good luck with your research and may your brick walls come tumbling down!

If you have taken an AncestryDNA test please upload a tree!

With all the sale prices offered in the last month by Ancestry DNA, Chris Paton on his British Genes Blog [now discontinued] posted this very helpful information:

“A wee tip if you have been given an AncestryDNA test for Christmas is to remember that there are two sides to the test that need to work in conjunction for this to be a powerful tool for your family history research. The first is quite obviously to take the test, and to send the sample off! The second though is to upload a family tree, no matter how basic, to your Ancestry account. Once uploaded, Ancestry flags up potential cousin matches, based on shared sections of DNA that you and your cousins will have inherited. If you don’t upload a tree, prospective cousins will see the following if a DNA match is flagged up:

There are two parts to the AncestryDNA test results. The first is the so-called ethnicity profile. If you want my advice, forget this – not only is it vague, but the bottom line is we’re all human and have ancestors who come from across different parts of the world. And we all eventually make our way back to Africa – so tell me something I didn’t know! The second part, the cousin connect, is where the real power of the test lies – but only if you play ball by supplementing the DNA evidence with your documentary evidence in a tree.

In the last two months I have made many connections with folk who have shared their trees. In the last week alone I have fleshed out an entire ancestral story from Donegal in Ireland, thanks to a tip found via a cousin connection, and have spent the last two days researching my first ancestor confirmed to have fought in the Peninsula Wars.

So please – do add your tree. You can privatize it to protect the living before you upload, or even make it private, so that potential cousins have to contact you for more info. But without a tree to accompany your DNA result, all that you effectively have is a boffin’s result from some spit inside of your mouth that tells you next to nothing on its own.”

Good luck with your DNA results!