All current BCGS members are eligible for one entry for each full membership (not associate memberships) they sign up from August 2012 to June 1, 2013.  See the BCGS Bring-A-Friend Membership contest details and on-line application form here.

Three Prize Baskets will be awarded at the June 12, 2013 meeting by draw.

Questions? Contact the BCGS Membership Committee now – membership@bcgs.ca or call the BCGS Walter Draycott Library: 604 502 9119.

Researching Genealogy in Scotland Talk – July 11, 2013, Vancouver, BC

George Caldwell. Scottish Group Facilitator for the BC Genealogical Society (BCGS), will be giving a talk on Researching Genealogy in Scotland, Thursday, July 11th from 2:00 – 3:30 pm on the Vancouver Public Library’s Central Branch Lower Floor in the Alma VanDusen and Peter Kaye rooms.

Free. Co-sponsored by the BCGS and the Vancouver Public Library.

Vancouver Public Library (VPL) offers other free genealogy and history related events and activities. See the VPL’s event calendar for details. Coming up:

What’s Up, Doc? Series: The Mystery of Mazo de la Roche, Canadian novelist, a feature documentary screening, Monday May 27, 7:00 pm-8:30 pm.

Wired for Learning, Google Beyond the Basics, Wednesday June 12, 2:30 pm-4:00 pm.  Registration required.

For 2013, the remaining holiday Saturdays are:

May 18th, for the Victoria Day weekend

June 29th, for the Canada Day weekend

July 27th for the BC Day weekend

August 31 for Labour Day weekend

October 12th for Thanksgiving weekend

November 9th for the Remembrance Day weekend

Usually we are closed for 10 days over Christmas and New Year’s Day. Those dates will be announced soon.

If you have questions, or if you notice any errors or omissions on the BCGS calendar, please contact the webmasters at: webmaster@bcgs.ca

This will be our BCGS Strawberry Tea night and Announcement Night for the BCGS Family History Book Awards. Authors will be there to talk about their books and books will be for sale too. Join us for an educational and fun night.

And members are invited to bring their own displays to show. Please contact Eunice Robinson at 604 596 2811 to ensure space.

Location: Danish Lutheran Church, Downstairs Hall, 6010 Kincaid St., Burnaby, BC. Download BCGS- Location Change-April 2013  (.pdf) for a prinable map of the Danish Church’s location with directions.

The books submitted for this year’s BCGS Family History Book Award included (alphabetically by author’s last name):

Baile, Lisa—John Clarke, Explorer of the Coast Mountains (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2012).

Bentley, Peter, with Fowler, Robin—One Family’s Journey: CANFOR and the Transformation of B. C.’s Forest Industry (Vancouver, BC: Douglas and McIntyre, 2012).

Hawthorn, Tom—Deadlines: Obits of Memorable British Columbians (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing, 2012).

Hope, Sharon—The English Travelers: Three Narratives (Sidney, BC: 2011).

MacLean, Albert Mair with Margaret Anne Hume—My Life: Adventures of an RCAF Flying Officer, Eaton’s Manager, and Family Man (Vancouver, BC: Caissie Cape Publications, 2012).

Martin, Elinor—The Kurrajong Tree: Loves and Lives of Three Women in Colonial Australia (West Vancouver, BC: Eastcot Publications, 2012).

McBride, Sam—The Bravest Canadian – Fritz Peters, VC: the Making of a Hero of Two World Wars (Vancouver, BC: Granville Island Publishing, 2012).

Pavlik, Janet, and Smith, Desmond, and Smith, Eileen—Echoes Across Seymour: a History of North Vancouver’s Eastern Communities Including Dollarton and Deep Cove (Madeira Park, BC: Harbour Publishing Co. Ltd, 2012).

Young, David Esson—The Uchuck Years: A West Coast Shipping Saga (Madeira Park: Harbour Publishing, 2012).

See the website’s feature, Find My Parish – by Province or County: http://www.irelandxo.com/where-do-i-start

The Peter Robinson settlers from Ireland 1823, 1825 were mentioned. The following is a sampling of websites with information, indexes and databases

The Archives of Ontario, see particularly the Land Records research guide, “From Grant to Patent: A Guide to Early Land Settlement Records, ca.1790 to ca.1850″, pages 11-12: http://www.archives.gov.on.ca/en/tracing/the_records.aspx

Peterborough Museum and Archives: http://www.peterboroughmuseumandarchives.ca/Browsing/archivalcollections.htm

Peter Robinson Ships’ Lists, Trent Valley Archives: http://www.trentvalleyarchives.com/resources/online-resources/census-registries-directories/peter-robinson-ships-list

Emigration From Cork Ireland to Upper Canada, 1823, The First Peter Robinson Settlers by Roberta M. O’Brien: http://webhome.idirect.com/~obrienr/cork1823.html

Peter Robinson Settlers of 1823 and 1825, Joe Kenny: http://kennytree.com/links/peter_robinson.htm

Peter Robinson Settlers from Cork to Canada 1823 & 1825, The Ships List: http://www.theshipslist.com/ships/passengerlists/peterrobinsonindex.shtml

Peter Robinson Settlers – 1825, Peterborough County GenSearch: http://freepages.genealogy.rootsweb.ancestry.com/~peterborough/probinsn.html

Extracts from 8 of the Robinson ships, Surgeon-superintendent Reports for 8 of the 1825 vessels, Olive Tree Genealogy: http://www.olivetreegenealogy.com/ships/canada/PeterRobinson.shtml

Survey of Robinson’s Irish Settlers, Robinson’s Papers and Correspondence, Ships Lists, Medical Journals, etc. Transcription project: http://peannairi.com

See also -

The book, Peter Robinson’s Settlers by Carol Bennett (originally published by Juniper Books Ltd.: Renfrew, 1987, latest edition published by Global Heritage Press: Milton, Ontario, 2011).

1825 Robinson Settlers website for information on the 2025 Celebration planned and to contribute to a new book on Robinson settler families. Contact the Kawartha Ancestral Research Association Inc.: http://www.karagen.org/robinson.html

also mentioned -

Irish Centre for Migration, ERIN, The Centre for Migration Studies (CMS) at the Ulster-American Folk, Co. Tyrone, Northern Ireland and the Irish Centre for Migration Studies (ICMS) at the National University of Ireland, Cork : http://migration.ucc.ie/indexemigration.htm

Centre for Migration Studies, Ulster-American Folk Park: http://www.nmni.com/uafp/Collections/Emigration

Irish Petty Sessions Courts were another topic. Some on-line resources are -

Irish Petty Sessions Courts, Irish Genealogy Toolkit: http://www.irish-genealogy-toolkit.com/irish-petty-sessions.html

Irish Petty Session records, Republic of Ireland only, Find My Past (FindMyPast.ie or .com or co.uk – World Search), see list of all Irish indexes and databases at Find My Past: http://www.findmypast.co.uk/help-and-advice/international-records/irish-records

Irish Petty Sessions records, Republic of Ireland only, see the FamilySearch catalog for films: https://familysearch.org/catalog-search

Public Record Office of Northern Ireland, petty sessions for the 6 northern Ireland counties only: http://www.proni.gov.uk/index/family_history/family_history_more_sources/family_history_19th_century_sources.htm

Here’s an article from the Vancouver Sun newspaper, Vancouver, British Columbia, Canada, Wednesday, 4 June 1930 (page 11), that may explain some of those missed, seemingly misspelt or cryptic entries.

ENUMERATORS HAVE MANY PROBLEMS

Dogs, Unwilling and Know-It-All People Are Handicaps

Enumerators seeking to register on the voters’ list all adult British subjects of one year’s residence in Canada are having their troubles.

Some people don’t like to answer the door for “pedlars”. Others keep dogs that don’t like strangers. Others blandly assure the eunumerators that they are already on the list. Others –many of them—are out.

Proprietors of hotels and rooming houses have been none too helpful in some cases, although this is not the general rule.

Mr. R.M. Edgar, returning officer for Vancouver Centre, instructed his enumerators to call in a policeman if the keeper of a lodging house denied them access to his tenants.

MAY BE OFF LIMITS

People who don’t answer the door for “pedlars” and people who are quite satisfied that they are already on the list may find themselves without votes on election day.

Nobody is on the list, because there is no list.

The whole Election Act has been changed and the only list will be that compiled by the enumerators now canvassing the city. There is no compulsory voting in Canada, so people who refuse to give information to the enumerators will themselves be the losers.

Enumerators find that they have to work early and late. In one rooming house they found that the management specialized in night workers. The tenants sleep all day.

In residential districts many households where both man and wife go down town to business all day were discovered. Evening visits are necessitated at such places as these.

Down town where large apartment houses exist there are precincts containing the requisite 200 to 300 voters consisting of one apartment house and half a dozen private dwellings in the same block. Further off a precinct may cover many city blocks.

WORKING IN PAIRS

One of the problems of the enumerators is that of working in pairs. Each precinct has had one Liberal nominee and one Conservative nominee appointed to work together and keep check on each other.

In some cases, one enumerator is a day worker and the other’s a night worker. How to get together under these circumstances proves a difficult problem.

The enumerators must complete their work by Saturday and turn in completely typed alphabetical lists of the eligible voters in their respective precincts not later than Tuesday next.

A few days afterward registers will be appointed in whose possession the lists will be open to public inspection so that corrections, amendments and additions can be made.

__________________

From time to time, the BC Genealogical Society offers these kinds of Glimpses into BC’s Heritage in its journal and on the website. If you come across a suitable story like this, please do contact the BCGS Editor: editor@bgs.ca

The 17th annual camp, organized by the

Toronto Branch, Ontario Genealogical Society

Genealogy ‘Summer Camp’ in Toronto, Ontario, Canada, brings out-of-town family historians to Toronto for an intensive week of tutorials and hands-on research, with the guidance of local experts, at the many archives and reference libraries in Toronto. Campers take full advantage of Toronto’s great public transit system, and the group is small to allow lots of help from our local experts.

Those from out-of-town are encouraged to stay with the group – there is economical university residence accommodation.

The 2013 Genealogy ‘Summer Camp’ will be number 17! More than 135 participants from England, right across Canada and many US states have attended the 16 previous Summer Camps—some more than once! And there have been many local participants as ‘day campers’. It is an excellent way to get acquainted (or reacquainted) with the libraries and archives in Toronto. It is also a great excuse for a week of concentrated research.

This year’s Summer Camp is scheduled for June 16 to 21, 2013. The Summer Camp fee for 2013 is $240 (Canadian), which covers approximately 7 hours of lectures and tutorials, 25 hours of hands-on instruction and all worksheets and handouts.

For details as to venues, resources, tutorials and accommodation, and to download an application package, visit www.torontofamilyhistory.org/summercamp.html or contact Jane MacNamara at info@torontofamilyhistory.org  Applications should be received by 16 May 2013.

Lesley Anderson mentioned a money saving tip that will be of interest to many. Ancestry.ca has an affiliate agreement with the Royal Canadian Legion which could give new or renewing members significant savings. If you are already a Legion member, you can call, check out the offer and give your #. If you aren’t a Legion member, you can search for contact details for the nearest Legion Branch on the Royal Canadian Legion website to enquire about this and other benefits of Legion membership, then call Ancestry to check out the Ancestry offer.

Ancestry.ca is digitizing some of the pre-1871 British military records that apply to Canada which includes material from the War Office, Admiralty and Colonial Office (including records from WO97 / WO 120 / CO 385/385). Some of the microfilms were of poor quality and not all records will be indexed right away. Ancestry does already have several useful military databases and indexes.

Another useful tip if you are researching Nova Scotia, Canada is that due to licensing agreements, official records of Nova Scotia birth, marriages and deaths on Ancestry do not appear in the global search results. Choose the database you need from the Ancestry Card Catalogue (under the top menu Search button) and search this directly. Note the “Terms and Conditions of Access to and Use of the Nova Scotia Historical Vital Statistics Online Service” which you must agree to.

And Lesley Anderson also said that Ancestry is negotiating with Library and Archives Canada re the 1921 Canadian census. See Library and Archives Canada’s blog for more on the 1921 Canadian census – 1921 Census Countdown – Library and Archives Canada.

A reminder that the meeting this Wednesday will be at the Danish Lutheran Church in Burnaby.

BCGS General Meeting, Wednesday, May 8, 7:30 pm – 10:00 pm

Danish Lutheran Church, Downstairs Hall, 6010 Kincaid St., Burnaby, BC. See below for a printable map of the new location.

Group topics:
Genealogy 101 – Parish Records
Irish Interest Group – Petty Session Records – A census substitute??

For the April to June, 2013 general meetings we wll be at the Danish Lutheran Church, Downstairs Hall, 6010 Kincaid St., Burnaby, BC. Download BCGS- Location Change-April 2013 for a map of the Danish Church’s location.

¹The photograph above shows Regatta Day at Kelowna in 1910; the S.S. Okanagan is at the wharf. The photographer, George Henry Ernest Hudson, took photographs of Okanagan Valley life for federal government pictorial settlement brochures. For more of his work, see the Greater Vernon Museum and Archives collections at MemoryBC or contact the Museum and Archives.

Credit: Canada. Patent and Copyright Office / Library and Archives Canada / PA-029775.

BCGS Library – Canadian military section

2014 will mark the 100th anniversary of the start of World War I and already a number of research and display projects are underway.

Take the time now to review the World War I participants in your family tree and to enhance your research or understanding of their roles whether at home or in service.

Consider submitting an article to a genealogical or historical journal or a photograph to a website. If you have Canadian relatives who died in service during World War I, check to see if you have digital photographs or other memorabilia to add to the Canadian Virtual War Memorial, sponsored by Veterans Affairs Canada.