Genealogy ‘Summer Camp’ – Toronto, Ontario, 16-21 June 2013

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Genealogy ‘Summer Camp’ -  Toronto, 16-21 June 2013

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.

 

More BCGS Seminar Notes – Glenn Wright & Lesley Anderson – April 27, 2013

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These notes are about a few of the Ancestry.ca tips mentioned by Lesley Anderson. Posts will follow with notes on the passenger list and military sections.

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.

Reminder – BCGS General Meeting – May 8, 2013, Burnaby, BC

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Regatta Day, Kelowna, 1910Regatta Day, Kelowna, 1910. George Hudson, photographer.1

 

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 Research Tip – May 2013

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BCGS Library - Canadian military section

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.

 

BCGS Seminar Notes – Glenn Wright & Lesley Anderson – April 27, 2013

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Handouts for Saturday’s seminar with speakers, Glenn Wright and Lesley Anderson, will be posted soon.

 Glenn Wright & Lesley Anderson, Burnaby, BC, Canada, april 2013

Glenn Wright’s book sold out at the BCGS Seminar on Saturday. Copies of Canadians at War 1914-1919: A Research Guide to Wordl War One Service Records (Global Heritage Press, 2010) are available at Global Genealogy: http://globalgenealogy.com/countries/canada/military/resources/101160.htm

 

Many of the books mentioned during the talks are available at the BCGS Walter Draycott Library.

BCGS Editor, M. Diane Rogers, @mdianerogers, tweeted the seminar using the hashtag #bcgsseminar. The comments are her own.  The BCGS Twitter id is @bcgs_ca. If you are on Twitter, do follow BCGS! And you can still comment or ask questions.


Canada Book Day – April 23

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Cover, Vancouver Tourist Association boo, c 195It’s Canada Book Day today (also World Book Day and Copyright Day, or International Day of the Book) and Library and Archives Canada has posted a note about searching its Electronic Collection. There are some British Columbia digitized books there – and even among the dry government reports included are some research gems, like the Canada. Royal Commission on Indian Affairs. Report of the Royal Commission on Indian Affairs for the Province of British Columbia. — Victoria : Printed by the Acme Press, 1916.

The Library and Archives Canada Electronic Collection offers a search by title, subject, etc. and also a full text search. Publications are not always in the most readable format, but many are in easily downloadable .pdfs.

I quite like this publication, a Vancouver Tourist Association booklet c. 1905, full of photographs and ads. Library and Archives Canada has some of the book covers from its Dominion Hotel ad, Victoria, 1905collection on Flickr, including this. Specially attractive to me inside was the ad for this Victoria hotel, the Dominion, very convenient location, across from Victoria’s Carnegie Library (1904), convenient to “free busses” (still is convenient), but alas, they welcomed tourists, but only “business men”.  If the name of this hotel rings a bell from your family research, some of the hotel’s registers are in the BC Provincial Archives (CA BCA MS-1148)

For more about “Carnegie’s Canadian Libraries|, see Historic Places.ca

     M. Diane Rogers, BCGS Editor