Census of the Prairie Provinces, 1926 now on Ancestry...sort of

Up until now, we could only search for folks who lived in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, and Alberta in the Census of the Prairie Provinces that started on June 1st, 1926 on FamilySearch in their "Canada, Prairie Provinces Census, 1926" collection via the "Canada, Prairie Provinces, Census, 1926" collection specific search page or using the Library and Archives Canada's "Census search" system. FamilySearch and Library and Archives Canada (LAC) both provide access to this census for free. The FamilySearch site even has a pretty good search system that also searches for variations of names, something that the LAC search can't do for us.

So why would we care that Ancestry now includes this census, labelled as "1926 Prairie Census of Canada", as part of their catalogue?

Many folks have their online tree, whether it be public or private, on Ancestry and many like to have one central place to search for information and record details about their ancestors. Of course, Ancestry isn't the only genealogy focused research site but it is probably the one used by the most people. In my case, along with Ancestry, I use almost all the major genealogy related sites in my research (budget permitting!), plus many others sites hosted by organizations such universities, libraries, archives, museums, and private individuals. So I've been using this census for some time now to help me document my Prairie kin.

But back to Ancestry and their "1926 Prairie Census of Canada" collection.

Screen capture of the top part of the "1926 Prairie Census of Canada" search page on Ancestry taken 9 Jan 2025.

On the Ancestry search page for the "1926 Prairie Census of Canada" we can search by the usual personal information such as their first, middle, and last names, along with when and where they were born. We can also search on additional details such gender, marital status, relation to the head of the household, whether they could speak English or French, could they read or write, ethnicity, citizenship, and immigration date. We can also search on the census details such as district and sub-district numbers.

However, you might notice something missing on the right side of the search page. Unlike with the other Canadian censuses that Ancestry has made available on their site, there is no way to browse the images of the pages.

That's because this collection is just an index and the images of the census pages aren't available on Ancestry (at least at this time).

This creates a little bit of a problem since I always stress that we should always look at the images of the source material. 

Why? To see what has been excluded from the index transcription or to confirm that it is the right person we are looking at due to transcription challenges.

So how do we do that with this census?

To start with, you may have searched for the person in this census on Ancestry or it could have popped up as a hint. Here is a screen capture of the page on Ancestry with the details for Donald McMullen, my grandfather.

Screen capture of the Ancestry "1926 Prairie Census of Canada" collection details page for Donald McMullen, age 9 years, in Manitoba, Canada.

As you can see, there is no image on the left side of the index transcription information for us to click on and look at.

We are going to have to do a little bit of work to get to the image since we are going to visit the Library and Archives Canada "Census search" page. Why use the Library and Archives Canada "Census search" since FamilySearch has the same information? FamilySearch doesn't let us search using the enumeration district and sub-district information. The district information is useful for filtering down to just a single page or two when there are multiple people with the same name. Plus with LAC we don't even need an account to view the images.

So we need to write down a few details from that Ancestry details screen:

• Name
• Age
• Residence Place
• Enumeration District
• Sub-District

All these details came from the index on the Library and Archives Canada site. By the way, the index for this census on the LAC site originally came from the folks at FamilySearch.

Popping over the Library and Archives Canada "Census search" page I've filled in the key fields with the information from the Ancestry details screen for my grandfather, Donald McMullen:

Screen capture of the Library and Archives Canada Census search page with "1926 (Prairies)" selected, First name of "Donald", Last name of "McMullen", Age 9, in Manitoba with District number 17 and Sub-district number 19 specified in the "Where" "more" section.

Here I've selected to search only the "1926 (Prairies)" census in the "When" section.

In the "Who" section, I've typed in the name exactly how it was found spelled in the Ancestry details along with the age.

When I only selected the "1926 (Prairies)", the "Where" section greyed out all the provinces not covered in this census. This made it easy to only select Manitoba since that is the residence place listed in the details.

The next step is a little more advanced, I need to click on the "More" button under "Place" to display the district and sub-district search boxes. There I filled in the District number, 17 in this case, and Sub-district number of 19.

With all those details, only one result was returned.

Screen capture of the Library and Archives Canada Census search results page of the "1926 (Prairies)" for Donald McMullen, age 9 years, in Manitoba.

A few tips concerning the results page:

• If you need to change your search don't use your browser's back button. Instead, click on that "Modify search" link at the top to bring up the search screen again. Using the back button will often bring you to a empty search screen and you have to type all the information again.
  
• As tempting as it is, don't click on the "digital object(s)" image to view the page. You are going to want to click on the name of the person.

Clicking on the name brings us to the details page. If I had just clicked on the image, I wouldn't be able to see the details about the record on the LAC site that I will want to use in a citation (we all use citations, right?).

Screen capture of the Library and Archives Canada Census search details page of the "1926 (Prairies)" for Donald McMullen, age 9 years, in Manitoba, item ID number 7193049.

You can now view the image on your screen, print it on your printer, or download it to your computer.

If you choose to download the image to your computer you can either save just the page you at looking at as a JPG or save all the pages in that sub-district as a PDF. 

Census of the Prairie Provinces, 1926, Manitoba, enumeration district 17 Winnipeg South Centre, sub-district 19 Winnipeg (City), page 29; imaged, "Census search", Library and Archives Canada (http://central.bac-lac.gc.ca/.redirect?app=census&id=71934049&lang=eng : accessed 9 Jan 2025); citing ecopy number e011232194.

No matter what you choose to do, you can now review all the details recorded about the person for yourself. One detail that we don't find in the transcription is the address where the person was residing. This could be a street address for a town or city, or the section, township, range, and meridian that we can use to learn more about the property.

Have fun searching this census for your kin who resided in Manitoba, Saskatchewan, or Alberta in 1926!

Finding a Will of an English Earl or What's in a Name?

In our genealogy and family history research we've all probably come across challenges with finding someone in the records when searching for them by their name. The issue could be a problem with the transcription used to create the index such as what I found for the household of Thomas S. Pattillo inthe 1911 Census of Canada where the surname was originally transcribed as "Pattires" by the folks at Ancestry.

1911 Census of Canada, population schedule, Nova Scotia, Colchester district (41), Truro sub-district (25), p. 13, dwelling 113, family 125, household of Thomas S. Pattires [Thomas S. Pattillo], digital image, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com: accessed 13 Nov 2024); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm T-20358.

Maybe the civil or church authority who recorded the name in an official document spelled the name as they heard it. I came across that challenge for the household of John Haughton in the 1881 Census of Canada where the enumerator recorded the name as "Hutton".

1881 Census of Canada, population schedule, Ontario, Simcoe North district (139), Tiny sub-district (H), division 2, p. 61, dwelling 250, family 254, household of John Hutton, digital image, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com: accessed 13 Nov 2024); citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-13251.

We might even come across cases where a nickname or diminutive of the name is recorded. Possibly someone was named after their great-aunt Agnes but they go by the name Nancy since they think that Agnes sounds old-fashioned.

Then there is the interesting case a patron at a recent joint Ottawa Public Library - Ottawa Branch of Ontario Ancestors Genealogy Drop-In brought to the group. She was looking for help in locating the will of the 12th or 13th Earl of Derby as part of her efforts to confirm a family story of a possible undocumented child of one of those two Earls.

It should be easy to find the will I thought.

The first thing I did was to look up the details about the 12th and 13th Earls of Derby using Wikipedia to find out their birth names and when they died. I could also have looked up the entries in Burke's A Genealogical and Heraldic History of the Peerage and Baronetage, the Privy Council, Knightage and Companionage. 

I learned the following details:

• 12th Earl of Derby: born Edward Smith-Stanley and died 21 Oct 1834
• 13th Earl of Derby: born Edward Smith-Stanley and died 30 Jun 1851

Since both of the Earls died before 1857, I can't use the "Search probate records for documents and wills (England and Wales)" site. At the drop-in, John Reid, one of our subject matter experts, suggested that we need to look in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury (PCC) records since they cover the years 1384 to 1858. Since Ancestry has indexed and made available the images from the PCC wills in their "England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858" collection that's where I started.

And got absolutely nowhere!

I searched for any "Edward Smith-Stanley" who died around 1834 or 1851. I even searched for Edward Smith Stanley". I searched for all kinds of variations on the name and expanded the year range but there was no one who matched what I was looking for.

Since we only have an hour to help those dropping in, I put the searching aside and the group continued with the next question. But this was an itch that I just couldn't scratch. So at around 11 p.m. that night (it was one of those "I can't sleep" research itches) I dived back in this problem.

Might the will had been proved in another court such as the Prerogative Court of York or at a local court in England?

But first there was one other place I wanted to check for the Prerogative Court of Canterbury wills. That is The National Archives (England) "Wills 1384-1858" research guide since it has a search box. Instead of searching by name I searched for the keyword "Earl of Derby" (without quotes). I got back 18 results and two results got my immediate attention:

Reference:     PROB 11/1853/415
Description:     Will of The Right Honorable Edward Earl of Derby of Chester , Cheshire
Date:     25 November 1835
Held by:     The National Archives, Kew

and

Reference:     PROB 11/2140/271
Description:     Will of The Right Honorable Edward Earl of Derby of Angel Inn, John Street, Minories , City of London
Date:     22 October 1851
Held by:     The National Archives, Kew

So it seems that the wills for both the 12th and 13th Earls of Derby were proven in the Prerogative Court of Canterbury. I could even download a digitized copy of both of those wills for free from The National Archives if I sign in with my free account.

Yet why couldn't I find these wills on Ancestry?

I puzzled over that for a few minutes and then noticed that nowhere in the description is his birth surname "Smith-Stanley" recorded. Could Ancestry have taken his title and used it as his last name?

In searching for any "Edward" with the last name of "Earl" who died around 1834 only one entry was returned in the results:

Screen capture of the entry from Ancestry of the "England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858" collection index page found by searching for the first name "Edward", last name "Earl", who died around 1834.

Same with searching for any "Edward" with the last name of "Earl" who died around 1851:

Screen capture of the entry from Ancestry of the "England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858" collection index page found by searching for the first name "Edward", last name "Earl", who died around 1851.

After reviewing the images, I was certain that was them. It only took me less than two hours of effort to find the will and to understand why I couldn't find the information during our drop-in.

---

Now that we know how those copies of the wills of the peerage of the United Kingdom have been possibly recorded in the index of the "England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858" database on Ancestry we can try our hand at finding other wills of nobility proven in that court.

We can find other interesting wills of the English and Welsh peerage in this Ancestry collection by searching on the rank of nobility such as Earl/Countess, Viscount/Viscountess, Marquess/Marchioness, or Duke/Duchess, as their last name. But Duke and Earl are also possible actual last names. How do we filter out the non-peerage? By adding an exact Keyword match of "Honorable" or "Noble". You can even leave off the rank of nobility and just search use the exact match Keyword of "Highness" to find wills of some princes and princesses. I even came across the copy of the will of Her Most Excellent Majesty Charlotte, Queen of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland by just using the exact Keyword search of "Majesty" and leaving out all the other details.

Start of the will of Charlotte, Queen of the United Kingdoms of Great Britain and Ireland, probated 26 Jan 1819; "England & Wales, Prerogative Court of Canterbury Wills, 1384-1858," Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 13 Nov 2024); citing The National Archives (Kew), PROB 11/1612.

So be creative when you are doing your searches by name, especially when it comes to those of who are Peers of the United Kingdom!

The Harry Creagen Fonds of Canadian RFC and RNAS Airmen

During my visit to the Library and Archives at the Ingenium Centre in Ottawa to look at the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, the archivist, Adele Torrance, mentioned that part of a collection held by the Library and Archives at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum (CASM) in Ottawa had been digitized by Ancestry. Just a note, this is not the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) that we often use in our Canadian research.

The Harry Creagen Fonds were pulled together by Mr. Creagen between 1938 and the 1990s. Mr. Creagen had a life long interest in aviation and he created a collection mainly concerning Canadians who served during the First World War in the Royal Flying Corps (RFC), Royal Naval Air Service (RNAS), and also the Royal Air Force which was created by merging the RFC and RNAS in 1918.

McKinlay, Ken, Stack one of three of banker boxes of the Harry Creagen Collection, Photograph, 10 Oct 2024, Canada Aviation and Space Museum Library and Archives.

What the Canada Aviation and Space Museum Library and Archives received were a number of files organized by subjects and placed in bankers boxes. The files are still in those boxes at the archives and haven't been added into their catalogue...yet. It's a long process and there is limited staff to do all that work. 

I had the fun and pleasure of actually looking through those boxes when I visited the Library and Archives at the CASM when I was looking for information about the Royal Naval Air Service Wing No. 3 and one of their pilots, Gordon Stuart Harrower, a Canadian from the Montreal area. 

Honestly, it really was fun!

It's not often that one gets to explore a collection with no idea of what may be found. With the aid of the archivist, Adele, we spent about an hour looking in the boxes and file folders to understand how the material was filed and finding material of specific interest to my research task for the day. Remember, this material hasn't been entered into the CASM catalogue and all we had to go on were the labels on the boxes and a subject matter list of the material that is organized by Mr. Creagen's filing cabinet drawers. 

McKinlay, Ken, File folders found in one box from the Harry Creagen Collection, Photograph, 10 Oct 2024, Canada Aviation and Space Museum Library and Archives.

One sort of offbeat file I came across was what I'm guessing is an English transcription or abstract of the Jagdgeschwader Nr. 1 Victory Log. You might be asking why this might be of interest. This is the German squadron sometimes referred to as "The Flying Circus" that was led by Manfred von Richthofen, AKA the Red Baron. These pages list the date, pilot, the type of allied aircraft shot down, where it happened and the kill number for that pilot. It also records when a German pilot of JG 1 was wounded or killed. As with any collection, until you start to dive into the records, you just never know what you will come across.

Then there are the boxes of the index cards created by Mr. Creagen.

McKinlay, Ken, Boxes of index cards from the Harry Creagen Collection, Photograph, 10 Oct 2024, Canada Aviation and Space Museum Library and Archives.

It is this part of the collection that has been digitized by Ancestry.

Before rushing over to Ancestry to look for these digitized index cards, they aren't on Ancestry. Instead you will find them on Fold3 or Forces War Records. These two sites hold many of the military collections digitized by Ancestry and they may be pointed to from indexes on Ancestry. Where you will find the digitized index cards online is in the Canada, WWI, RCAF Pilot Cards on Forces War Records. You will also find it on Fold3 in their Canada, WWI, RCAF Pilot Cards collection. Basically, the same collection but on two different Ancestry owned sites.

So what will you possibly find written on those index cards?

As I mentioned, I was curious about Gordon Stuart Harrower of Montreal. One of his daughters married into a branch in my family tree. I had stumbled across a mention of Mr. Harrower serving in the Royal Naval Air Service during the First World War and the research itch took hold.

Here are the cards I found by searching for his name in that collection on Forces War Records.

If I didn't already know the date of his death, I now have it. But the index cards for Mr. Harrower held other clues such as the squadrons he served in, when he left the service, and even that he trained in Texas. I also found out that he served in the Royal Canadian Air Force in the Second World War. Maybe some day I'll do a blog post about Mr. Harrower since, in addition to his service, he was trained at Wright Brothers Field and is mentioned on a plaque at the Wright Brothers Memorial in Dayton, Ohio, USA.

Along with looking at the Harry Creagen Fonds, the archivist also took the time to look through the CASM catalogue of books for material that may have shed light into the Royal Naval Air Service and Canadians aviators in the First World War.

McKinlay, Ken, A selection of books from the CASM Library concerning the RNAS and other topics of interest, Photograph, 10 Oct 2024, Canada Aviation and Space Museum Library and Archives.

They have a wonderful library in addition to their archives and I know I could easily spend a full afternoon just perusing the books on the shelves. They even have a flight log book copy collection of log books that have been donated to the Canada Aviation and Space Museum Archives of military and civilian pilots.

I really can't thank Adele Torrance enough for taking the time out of her day to show me the Harry Creagen Fonds in the CASM vault and also searching the Canada Aviation and Space Museum Library and Archives catalogue for additional books and material. 

If you are looking to visit the Library and Archives at the Canada Aviation and Space Museum, check out their page at https://ingeniumcanada.org/aviation/library-and-archives for the opening hours, location, and contact information. Don't forget to get an admission ticket to explore all the neat exhibits after you finish your research!

Researching Those Who Served Canada in the First and Second World Wars

McKinlay, Ken, "Cross of Sacrifice, National Military Cemetery," Photograph, 10 November 2018, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

With Remembrance Day rapidly approaching I've updated my two pages under my "Links of Interest" that I use in my own research:

• First World War: Researching a Canadian Soldier of the Great War
• Second World War: Researching the Canadians Who Served 

I am also giving several talks in the next few weeks concerning researching those who served Canada in the First and Second World Wars:

Researching a Canadian Soldier of the Great War - Join me online for an exploration into the process of uncovering the military service of our Canadian ancestors who served in the First World War. Through real-life case studies, this presentation will guide you through the rich array of resources available for tracing the military history of your relatives. Learn about the contents of the service files, additional archival records, and other invaluable tools to bring the past to life and gain a deeper understanding of your family's wartime legacy. 

• 11 Nov 2024 at 7 pm ET: Bruce County Genealogical Society - Register via Zoom at Researching a Canadian Soldier of the Great War (https://us02web.zoom.us/webinar/register/WN_UEPUe3QRSwem1kW6CA1cLA#/registration)

 

Second World War: Researching the Canadians Who Served - This presentation delves into the wealth of records available for researching Canadians who served during the Second World War. We’ll explore both the poignant records of those who gave their lives in service to Canada and the rich archival resources that reveal the stories of those who survived. Whether your interest lies in uncovering military service details, personal narratives, or broader historical insights, this session hopefully provides the tools and guidance to deepen your understanding of those who served Canada.

• 18 Nov 2024 at 7 pm ET: Sudbury District Branch of Ontario Ancestors: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZ0tdOyvrjoqHta5RnLfLzuwLnh9xvaGbRdE#/registration
  
• 24 Nov 2024 at 2 pm ET: Halton-Peel Branch of Ontario Ancestors: https://us02web.zoom.us/meeting/register/tZUofuqqrTgoHNMKs-qiVWTp3Z99kflBJMzo#/registration
  

 

 

McKinlay, Ken, "Tomb of the Unknown Soldier, National War Memorial," Photograph, 26 June 2022, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records

Recently John Reid, of the Anglo-Celtic Connections blog fame, and I paid an in-person visit to the Library and Archives at the Ingenium Centre located beside the Canada Science and Technology Museum in Ottawa. Please note, this is not the same as Library and Archives Canada, so don't drop by the LAC building on Wellington if you are wanting to look at these actual records. 

"Canada, Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, 1897-1981," database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62578/ : accessed 30 Sep 2024), Miscelanious Records > 1950-1955 > Ships-Memorabilia > image 2 of 9, Canadian Pacific Steamships crest; citing Canada Science and Technology Museum; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Records of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company, "Ships - Memorabilia, 1950-1955", reference CPS-04-0509 folder.

We were there to learn about their collaboration with Ancestry to digitize and make available the records of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company (CPS). John Reid wrote about our visit there in his post "Resources of Ingenium Library and Archives". The digitized records were released online in June 2024 in Ancestry's "Canada, Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, 1897-1981" collection. It is important to note that not all the items in the collection have been digitized. Some of the large foldout ship diagrams and other large documents weren't digitized.

What makes this collection exciting for genealogy and family history researchers is the time period it covers. For Canada, we generally only have incoming passenger lists up to 1935. But what about after that time? This is where you might get lucky and find your kin mentioned in the records if they sailed on one of the Canada Pacific Steamship ships between 1897 to 1981.

However, before you dive into the records make sure you read the descriptions of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Limited fonds and their sub-series hosted on Archeion. These description gives you the history of the CPS along with details about the various series to help you understand what you might find.

Here is the search screen on Ancestry:

Screen capture of Ancestry's "Canada, Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, 1897-1981" collection (https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62578/ : accessed 24 Sep 2024).

If you are like me, you may have recorded the names of the ships and when your ancestors sailed on them in your genealogy software. Yet how do we know which ships were operated by the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company? Fortunately we have a list of the ships operated by the CPS found on Wikipedia in their "List of ships of CP Ships" article. 

Using that list of ships I searched my database and found about 35 people who sailed on the various Empress and Duchess ships of the CPS. Out of that list I actually came across passenger indexes for only two of them. Yet that is still two more lists of passengers than what I started with. Here is a page from the index for tourist class on board the Empress of Britain from Liverpool to Quebec with my 2nd cousin twice removed, Cora McTavish, listed.

"Canada, Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, 1897-1981," database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62578/ : accessed 27 Sep 2024), Cora E. McTavish, age 46, arrived 24 Sep 1959 at Quebec, P.Q. onboard the Empress of Britain; citing Canada Science and Technology Museum; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Records of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company, Reference Number: X0450.

You might be wondering how I knew that Cora was on this ship? I used the BT27 series of records held by The National Archives in England and made available on various genealogy site in searchable databases such as Ancestry's "UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960" collection and Findmypast's "Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960" collection.

Going to the first page of that passenger index on Ancestry I found that the Empress of Britain arrived in Quebec City on 24 Sep 1959. Along the way, the ship also stopped at Greenock, Scotland.

"Canada, Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, 1897-1981," database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62578/ : accessed 27 Sep 2024), Passenger Index cover page for the Empress of Britain, arrived 24 Sep 1959 at Quebec, P.Q.; citing Canada Science and Technology Museum; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Records of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company.

Yet what else can one find in this collection?

I also came across her name in the list of Tourist Passengers when she went from Montreal to Liverpool on board the Empress of England. She is listed with her cabin numbers along with an indicator that she was in the first seating for dinner.

"Canada, Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, 1897-1981," database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62578/ : accessed 27 Sep 2024), Cora E. McTavish, Tourist Passengers, Empress of England, 21 Jul 1959, from Montreal to Liverpool via Greenock; citing Canada Science and Technology Museum; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Records of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company, Reference Number: CPS-01-0030.

Maybe I'm interested in what may have happened on the voyage of the Empress of Britain that Cora was on when she came back to Canada. Using the "Browse this collection" on the right side of the search screen we can also browse the collections for other tidbits of information for record groups such as:

• Crew of Passenger Lists
• Immigration Regulations and Policy
• Journals, Logs, and Ship Movement Books
• Miscelanious Records [yes, that is a typo on Ancestry's part!]
• Named Ships
• Programmes, Menues, and Events
• Promotional Artwork
• Schedules and Fares
• Ships Officers, or Company Officials
• Voyage Reports

Along with the date of arrival or departure, often the key to finding these other documents that can shed some light on the voyages of our ancestors is the voyage number. 

If I didn't know voyage number from that manifest, I might have then looked for the Empress of Britain departing on September 18, 1959 in the Movement Book found in "Journals, Logs, and Ship Movement Books" record group.

"Canada, Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, 1897-1981," database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62578/ : accessed 27 Sep 2024), Journals, Logs, and Ship Movements Books > 1959 > Movement Book No. 40 > image 29  of 226, p 10, Empress of Britain, Voyage 55; citing Canada Science and Technology Museum; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Records of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company, Movement Book No. 40.

There are also the voyage reports. With just a few clicks of the mouse I found out the details about Voyage No. 55, both from England to Canada and the return back to England.

"Canada, Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, 1897-1981," database and images, Ancestry (https://www.ancestry.ca/search/collections/62578/ : accessed 27 Sep 2024), Voyage Reports > 1959 > Captain's General Voyage Report-Empress of Britain-Voyage No. 55 > image 2 of 29; citing Canada Science and Technology Museum; Ottawa, Ontario, Canada; Records of the Canadian Pacific Steamship Company.

In this sort of report we find the ports visited, times of arrivals and departures at the various ports, number of passengers embarking and debarking at the various ports, possibly how any cargo was stored, the names and positions of the officers, if a stowaway was found (yes, on the return to England), reports by the doctor (two deaths during the return to England), and a daily summary of the happenings on board the ship.

I had mentioned that the larger fold out pages haven't been digitized by Ancestry from this collection. In some cases you will need to visit the Library and Archives at the Ingenium Centre in Ottawa to view these large scale documents and pages for yourself. However, sometimes other organizations have digitized the material they have on hand. Such was the case for the deck plans of the Empress of Britain from 1955-1959 when I found them in a digitized on The University of British Columbia library site within The Chung Collection.

The "Canada, Canadian Pacific Steamship Company Records, 1897-1981" collection on Ancestry is one of those collections where name searching only uncovers part of the story of your ancestor's trip. Be curious and explore the browsable series within this collection to learn more about their voyage.

FamilySearch Full-Text Searching of Ontario Probate and Land Records

Thank you to John Reid of Anglo-Celtic Connections for the heads up on the addition of Canadian records to the Full-Text Search on FamilySearch in his blog post "***** FamilySearch Experimental Labs Search of Canadian Probate Records"

What is really exciting for genealogy and family history researchers researching their kin in Canada is that FamilySearch has now included two virtual collections: "Canada, Homestead Records, 1600-2011" and "Canada, Probate Records, 1600-2020". If you have been following my blog for any period of time, you know that I have a particular interest in Ontario land records, and that is what the "Canada, Homestead Records, 1600-2011" collection includes. So I'm really excited to see this addition to the Full-Text Search on FamilySearch.

So what is this cool FamilySearch tool and where do we find it?

On FamilySearch there is a not too well-known area called FamilySearch Labs containing what FamilySearch calls "experiments". These experiments are features that the teams at FamilySearch are working on but they aren't quite ready to release as part of the main FamilySearch site. 

Screen capture of the FamilySearch Labs landing page (accessed 29 Aug 2024: https://www.familysearch.org/en/labs/).

There is one experiment that quite a few people have been playing with and that is the "Expand your search with Full Text". This has many folks excited since it uses handwriting recognition (HWR) and Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software to create word searchable index of various records. I've used this experiment to discover land records in Vermont that had my 6th great-grandmother's name mentioned in the documents. 

To enable this experiment, click on the "TRY IT" bar under "Expand you search with Full text". That will bring you to the "Find Results with Full-Text Search" landing page where you can give it a go.

Screen capture of the FamilySearch Labs experiment landing page for Full-Text Search" (accessed 29 Aug 2024 : https://www.familysearch.org/search/full-text).

Before diving it to this experiment, please take the time to watch the view that they have linked to on the page. It might just save you some frustration in your searches.

But since I know most of you won't watch the video until later, let's jump in.

In the search box, as a keyword, just type in a name that you are interested in and press search. In my case, I used the surname "Smith" as my starting place since it is a common surname since I wanted to see what collections and provinces were included from Canada in this experiment.

It came back with 12,262,190 results from various countries.

This is where the fun begins. And it is a good sort of fun.

First of all, note the search tips on the right side of the page in the search pane. We can:

• use quotation marks to find an exact word or phrase. Example "Henry Jones"
  
• use the + symbol to include a specific word of phrase. Example: +Judith
• use the - symbol to exclude a specific word or phrase. Example: -John
• use the ? symbol to find different spellings. Example: Jens?n will return Jensen and Jenson
• use the * symbol to find different forms of a root word. Example: Car* will match car, cars, carriage, carpenter, etc.

Next, we want to reduce the number of items returned. This is where the "Filters" come in handy. We can filter on the collection name, year, place, and record type.

I've been finding it easier to first filter by the place.

Since I'm currently interested in the records found in Ontario, Canada, I'll select "Canada" then "Ontario" using the Place filter. I could even narrow it down further to a specific county and then possibly to the township or town. For now, I'll keep it at the Ontario, Canada level. However, the ten provinces of Canada all have results returned so these virtual collections have been made up from many collections on FamilySearch.

Next we can filter the results by collection. If you are searching for probate records such as wills, estate records, letters of administration, etc. then you will want to select the "Canada, Probate Records, 1600-2020" collection. If you are looking for entries found in the land record copy books for Ontario like I am, then you are wanting to select the "Canada, Homestead Records, 1600-2011" collection. As an aside, FamilySearch is treating both of these collections has holding "Legal Records" as the record type.

For the "Canada, Probate Records, 1600-2020" collection I have noticed one caveat. They seem to have only applied the handwriting and OCR software against the digitized records that are accessible from anywhere. If the digitized material still has a key above the camera in the catalog listing, it may not have been added into this experiment.

Screen capture of the FamilySearch Labs Full-Text Search query for Luke McMullen in "Canada, Ontario" within the "Canada, Probate Records, 1600-2020" collection. (accessed 29 Aug 2024 : https://www.familysearch.org/search/full-text).

From the screen capture above you, can see that there several items that have been found in the Lanark County probate estate files for my Luke McMullen. I searched for his name within quotes. If I already didn't have his file, now I can get it quickly. For Luke, when I was first looking for his file, I had to manually look through the image since the digitized index for all the years is still only accessing from a FamilySearch Affiliate or Centre.

Fortunately for me, the Ontario land record copy books don't have this sort of access restriction issue.

Looking for "Luke McMullen", I again used quotes for the keyword search, in the "Canada, Homestead Records, 1600-2011" collection returned back 13 results.

Screen capture of the FamilySearch Labs Full-Text Search query for "Luke McMullen" in "Canada, Ontario" within the "Canada, Homestead Records, 1600-2011" collection. (accessed 29 Aug 2024 : https://www.familysearch.org/search/full-text).

You might come across records where the person was also a witness to the transaction. That's something that won't be mentioned in the land Abstract registers.

When it comes to Ontario land records we will also probably want to then find the Abstract Register of the property mentioned in the returned records to see if there were any other transaction that this experiment missed. To do that, we just need to read those instruments copied into the land record copy books to find the township, concession, and lot. Hopefully you still remember how to read cursive!

Although I have focused on just Ontario in this post, I did a search for Charles Howe in New Brunswick in the "Canada, Homestead Records, 1600-2011" collection and it returned back a link to the image of his land petition in New Brunswick. I don't think I have this one in my files!

For the Quebec records, you might come across names in the "Québec, district judiciaire de Québec, tutelles et curatelles, 1639-1930" or "Lower Canada land petitions and related records, 1637-1842" collections on FamilySearch.

Just keep in mind that the handwriting recognition software has the same challenges you have when reading poor quality images or lousy handwriting. It won't be able to index those documents. But the doors it can open up for us will contain rooms full of treasure. 

Have fun in your searches!

Finding a War Bride in the Directorate of Movements Microfilms

After a year of writing new talks and updating my existing genealogy talks I finally took sometime this past month to do a bit of diving into the records of folks who married into my various lines in order to see what I was missing. One of those tasks was looking for folks found in the 1921 Census of England and also the 1939 Registration that took place in England. 

And that is where this story starts. 

I started looking into the life of Vera Beresford, born about 1920 in Manchester, England. I really didn't have much information about her, only what I gleaned from the service file of her husband Arnold Norman Richard Burfield. 

Arnold Burfield is my 3rd cousin once removed and he was born in Peterborough, Ontario, Canada on 2 Aug 1914. He enlisted to serve Canada in the Second World War and he was killing in action in Sicily on 23 Jul 1943 while with the Hastings and Prince Edward Regiment. So I started by once again reviewing his service file which is now available online from Library and Archives Canada. The last time I had looked at his file was in 2012 and I actually had to go to LAC to view the original file. My genealogy research skills have advanced just a bit since then so I looked at his file a bit closer.

That is when I came across this memo in his file.

Canada, "Military Service Record: Burfield, Arnold Norman, Regimental Number C5652," memorandum from Director of Repatriation to Director of Records, dated 12 Jan 1945; Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa.

It is a memorandum from the Director of Repatriation to the Director of Records dated 12 Jan 1945.

I realized I had missed this important clue in my earlier reviews of the file. It meant that his wife, Vera, was a war bride. That note states that Vera and her son Norman had arrived from overseas, ex W 779 on 6 Jan 1945. It also provided the destination address of her mother-in-law.

But what is that "ex W 779"?

Honestly, that took a bit of Google-fu to find that answer. I found it in the document "TrainShipSchedules39 45" that was uploaded to Scribd by David A Ryan on 23 Oct 2019. For those researching mass military personnel movements within Canada and also for ships going across the ocean during the Second World War, this document is a real treasure trove. It is described as:

"This document lists the unit serial numbers and embarkation locations for various Canadian military units between 1939 and 1945. It includes divisions, brigades, batteries, regiments, pioneer battalions, medical and supply units. The units embarked from locations across Canada like Toronto, Montreal, Winnipeg, Edmonton and Vancouver as well as some from the UK."

Buried within that document I came across these items:

TS #	Serial #	Unit	Embarkation
1434	-	Ex-W-779 Dependents Special	Halifax
1435	-	Ex-W-779 Dependents Special	Halifax

The above table extract deals with the trains taking the dependents to their new Canadian homes.

The next two table extracts provide the dates, ships, and ports information.

Date	Destination	Date	Ship #	Ship Name
6-Jan-45	Halifax		W-779	Mauretania
6-Jan-45	Montreal		W-779	Mauretania
6-Jan-45	Various		W-779	Mauretania
6-Jan-45	Various		W-779	Mauretania

Ship#	Ship Name	Port	Sailing Date	Convoy
W-779	Mauretania	Halifax	6-Jan-45	-

So it looks like the ex W-779 in that memorandum is the ship Mauretania. No, this is not the Mauretania that was mentioned in the film "Titanic". This is the RMS Mauretania that was built in 1938.

Thanks to the posts by John Reid in his Anglo-Celtic Connections blog, the Canadian War Brides stories available on the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa site in their name index, and discussions with fellow researchers, I knew that many of the microfilms for the Directorate of Movements held by Library and Archives Canada and available in a digitized format on the Héritage might have additional information. What I didn't realize is that there are 198 microfilms with many of them having 5000+ images each to go through.

So it was time to rethink my approach of just diving in since I'm not going to wade through all of those millions of images to find the ship and hopefully documents I'm interested in. I need work smarter and not harder.

Since the microfilms came from Library and Archives Canada I decided to see what the Collection Search might give me. But what to search on?

• The obvious is the name of the ship, "Mauretania". 422 results were returned. I want to narrow it down just a bit.
• In the "About" tab for the Directorate of Movements topic page on Héritage it stated that the archival reference is "RG 24 C 24". From my own experience I know that "RG 24" is written as "RG24" on the LAC site and it is the Department of National Defence fonds. Adding "RG24 C 24" (the quotes are needed) to the search reduces it to 96 results. Not bad.
• Thinking a bit more about the "W" prefix for the ship number I realized that it probably indicated a westbound ship. So I added "westbound" (without quotes) and now I have 61 results. 
• Finally I filtered the date by the Year: 1945 since that is when the Mauretania arrived in Halifax. That got it down to 11 results. Now that it manageable!

Screen capture of the Library and Archives Canada Collection Search for 'mauretania "RG24 C 24" westbound" Date: 1945' showing the first of eleven results returned.

Scrolling though the results I came across this entry: "Westbound Personnel - MAURETANIA - Port of Departure - Halifax - Convoy TA-175 [United Kingdom to United States]". However, I wanted Halifax as the port of arrival. In the record information section it stated the date was 1945/01/07 (year/month/day formatted), it is found on microfilm reel number C-5717, and the file number is "HQTS-63-303-779-1". Hmmm, that 779 looks familiar though so I retained some hope that I could find the right microfilm and information about Vera and Norman.

Since microfilm C-5717 is on the Héritage site I decided to see what I could find.

Sigh.

5297 images and none of them are available for text searching. Time to hunker down and start walking through the microfilm images in the hope that this microfilm might have any information about the passage and maybe even find Vera and Norman Burfield listed somewhere.

On image 4 there I came across the Ship Allotment page.

Department of National Defence., "Directorate of Movements," images, Héritage (heritage.canadiana.ca : accessed 29 Jul 2024), Ship Allotment for the Mauretania, M.C. 303-779, Code AT 175; citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-5717, image 4. 

It appears that the file starts with the disembarkation in Halifax. It also seems to indicate that there are 630 dependents of Army, Air Force, Navy, and Firefighter personnel on this ship in addition to service members.

I started bouncing through the images in leaps of 20 to see if I might come across lists of passengers. And I got really lucky!

Department of National Defence., "Directorate of Movements," images, Héritage (heritage.canadiana.ca : accessed 29 Jul 2024), List of Canadian Dependents Arriving in Canada ex W-779, List No. 10, for M.D. 3, Sheet No. 2; citing Library and Archives Canada microfilm C-5717, image 200.

On image 200 there was Vera and Norman listed. Nothing new was discovered but the information matches that which was found in the memorandum I found in Arnold's service file. 

That "M.D. 3" on the top right of the page stands for "Military District 3" which, as of 1939, had its headquarters in Kingston, Ontario and included their destination of Peterborough. The various military districts in Canada from 1900 to 1999 can be found listed on the Canadian Soldiers site on their "Domestic Military Organization 1900-1999" page.

I will admit to having a chuckle when I came across pages and pages of letters and notes concerning lost luggage. Even 80 years ago luggage was being misplaced or lost and folks were trying to get compensation for the missing items.

There are pages detailing the need to trains to take the passengers to their destinations including a documents with the timings of the special trains that departed on 7 Jan 1945 starting at image 372. At the bottom of image 375 I found V. Burfield listed and that she had one suitcase and one box to start a new life in Canada as a war widow for her and her son.

I can't imagine coming to Canada from England in the midst of a Nova Scotia winter.

So what happened to Vera and Norman?

She remarried and in 1960 she went back to England with her new family where she passed away many years later.

Where else can you look for records and information? 

You might be able to find your war bride and children in the "UK and Ireland, Outward Passenger Lists, 1890-1960" collection on Ancestry and the "Passenger Lists Leaving UK 1890-1960" collection on Findmypast. There you might come across a record created by the Canadian Wives' Bureau - Civilian Repatriation Section like what we see here for Jaboca E Sauve departing on the Scythia out of Liverpool on 24 Oct 1946 bound for Halifax, Nova Scotia, Canada.

"Passenger lists leaving UK 1890-1960," database with images, Findmypast (www.findmypast.com : accessed 29 Jul 2024), Jacoba E Sauve on board the Scythia departing from Liverpool on 24 Oct 1946; citing The National Archives (Kew), BT 27 Series, 129508.

However, not all the ships may be found in this collection. Such is the case for Vera and Norman Burfield.

Remember that the information about the ship movements were often a war secret. Details about the comings and goings of ships would not have been reported in the newspapers of the Allies, especially if the ships were carrying military personnel or supplies. However, the local newspapers where they were going to might have articles about welcoming the war brides to their new home.

Just keep in mind that this sort of research isn't simple or quick to do but it can be rewarding and even informative. In this case, I was lucky enough to have enough details to start looking for records and researching what might be found and it only took me a day or so of research to find what I did.

As with much of our research, all we need is a starting place. Often that starting place is already in the records we have and family stories we've been told.