Ontario Land Records: Where are they Online? Workshop handout

 Ontario Land Records: Where are they Online?

For those who attended my "Ontario Land Records: Where are they Online?" workshop presented on December 5, 2020 for the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO) you can find a copy of the handout under the Links of Interest in my blog or here. As I come across additional resources I will be updating the copy of the handout there.

In the next week or so BIFHSGO will be posting the videos from the workshop on their website for two weeks for those that couldn't make it to the workshop or had to drop offline early due to other commitments or technical challenges. After that time the videos will be made available to only BIFHSGO members as a membership perk.

Find a Picture of the SS Emperor

Every once in a while the fine folks that handle the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa Queries get an interesting genealogy research question that they aren't sure how to answer or even where to look for the answer. When that happens they often post the question to the BIFHSGO Members-only Discussion Group on Facebook. Here is one such question that was recently posted:

I have had an enquiry from somebody looking for a pictures of the ship SS Emperor–owned by Temperleys Line and sailed from London to Plymouth, arriving in Quebec City on 29 July 1872. Any suggestions? Thanks.

First of all, I love questions like these. It is only a single question and it has specific details.

For questions about old ships I often turn to two resources: Norway-Heritage and The Ships List.

A search of Norway-Heritage for the S/S/ Emperor of the Temperley Line resulted in:

Screen capture of the search results for the Temperley Line S/S Emperor from Norway-Heritage.

According to Norway-Heritage it doesn't make sense that the ship arrived in Quebec City on July 29, 1872 since it would take more than 7 days to cross the Atlantic Ocean at that time and it left London on July 22. But we will deal with that later, we have a picture to find. Unfortunately no other details are available on this site.

However a search of The Ships List didn't list the Emperor for the Temperley Line. That might make sense if the ship wasn't owned by Temperley but chartered as indicated by the results on Norway-Heritage. However, there is also a disclaimer on The Ships List page of:

"The following fleet list is not complete by any means, but is an attempt to collect the names of the companies, a brief history of each and the names of the vessels they used."

So, where to look next?

I've had some success in the past using the Lloyd's Register of Shipping. A number of these registers have been digitized and archived on the Internet Archive by the Lloyd's Register, Heritage & Education Centre, including the 1872 copy. Flipping through this book we can find the various ships named "Emperor":

Lloyd's Register of British and Foreign Shipper. From 1st July, 1872, to the 30th June, 1873 (London: Wyman and Sons, Printers, 1872).

As you can see, there are several ships of that name in 1872. So how do we narrow it down to the ship we want?

For that we can turn to the newspapers. Since the ship is leaving out of England hopefully the British newspapers collection on Findmypast has a mention of that vessel. But don't search on a last name but on the keywords "Temperley" and "Emperor". Only nine articles came back from that search with several of them from the Lloyd's List published in London, England. Here is the clipping from the July 22, 1872 edition of the Lloyd's List for "London - Vessels Entered Outwards for Foreign Ports."

"Vessels Entered Outwards for Foreign Ports," Lloyd's List, 22 Jul 1872, p. 6; digital images, Findmypast (www.findmypast.com : accessed 26 Mar 2020), British newspapers.

The columns are: Port, Vessel, Master, Fig., Tn, Dk., Broker, Entd, Class.

So it looks like the Temperley's Emperor had a Master with the last name of Leighton. In the list of ships in the Lloyd's Register of Shipping there is an Emperor recorded with a Master of "R.Leightn". That looks like a good match. It seems that this Emperor was a screw type vessel built of iron that was built by Napier in Glasgow in 1849 and it had the Official Number 13594.

We have a bit more information but still no picture. Maybe searching for the Napier shipbuilders in Glasgow might give us a lead. A google search lead me to the Wikipedia page for Robert Napier and Sons. But we don't know if this is the right Napier. However, at the bottom of that Wikipedia page there was a link to the Caledonian Maritime Research Trust. Don't you just love it when there are links to sources and external pages in the Wikipedia articles!

On the Caledonian Maritime Research Trust home page using the ship name Emperor and 1849 as the year it was built we get back:

Screen capture of search results for Emperor built in 1849 on Caledonian Maritime Research Trust site.

Only one ship built by a Napier and this is the ship with the O.N. (Official Number) 13594. The same number found in the Lloyd's Register of Shipping. Looks like a really good match. Clicking on the vessel name reveals the following information:

Screen capture of details for Emperor built in 1849 on Caledonian Maritime Research Trust site.

It seems that it was originally built as an cargo iron paddle steamer by Robert Napier of Govan, Scotland. However, in 1871 it was converted to a screw steamer. But the best news was when scrolling to the bottom of the page a picture of the ship was found.

Paddle Steamers Rob Roy, Emperor and Queen of Scotland (William Griffin) Photo credit: Hull Maritime Museum.

This was painted circa 1849 since that is when the Emperor was launched. This would have been when the ship was an iron paddle steamer.

As for the date of arrival being July 29, 1872. That just didn't make sense since it took much longer than seven days to make the Atlantic crossing in the late 1800s. So it was off to look up of the Canadian passenger lists on Ancestry for the Emperor arriving in 1872.

Ancestry.com, "Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935," database and images, Ancestry.com (www.ancestry.com : accessed 26 Mar 2020); citing S.S. Emperor passenger list dated 22 July 1872, p. 1.

As you can see, the date is 22 July 1872, the date of the departure. So when did it arrive in Quebec?

Once again we turn to the newspapers and come across an entry in the August 13, 1872 edition of the North British  Daily Mail where on page 7 under "Arrivals at Foreign Ports" it is recorded:

Emperor (ss), at Quebec, Aug. 10.

It took a bit of effort to track all this down but now we have a picture of the vessel, although before conversion to a screw steamer, the date of departure, and the correct date of arrival in Quebec. All done without leaving the comfort of your home. Not bad for an hour or two of effort.

Converting Section-Township-Range-Meridian to Latitude-Longitude in Canada

In a recent post in the members only British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa Discussion Group on Facebook a question was asked about how to find a group of Saskatchewan homesteads on a map.

If any of your relatives settled in the Canadian Prairie Provinces and you've looked at the 1906, 1911, 1916, 1921, or 1926 census you might have seen the Place of Abode asking about the section, township, range, and meridian for anyone not living in a city or town.

1926 census of Canada, Saskatchewan, district 20, sub-district 23, Rural Municipality of Fairview, p. 2, dwelling 11, family 11, Margaret Gilchrist; RG 31; digital images, Library and Archives Canada, Library and Archives Canada (www.bac-lac.gc.ca : accessed 24 Jan 2020); citing Library and Archives Canada, item no. 1018757.

The locations were given using the Dominion Land Survey (DLS) method that was used to divide up most of Western Canada (Manitoba, Saskatchewan, Alberta, and parts of British Columbia) into one mile square sections. These coordinates boil down to a legal subdivision, typically one of 4 quadrants - NE/SE/SW/NW, section, township, range, and meridian. I'm not even going to describe how all this came about since the Library and Archives Canada landing page for the Land Grants of Western Canada, 1870-1930, Wikipedia page on the Dominion Land Survey, and the Saskatchewan Land Information Services Corporation page on Measuring Land in Saskatchewan do a much better job than I ever can, so I refer you to those pages.

So, just how do you plot these co-ordinates onto a modern map?

I looked at a number of sites and many of them do a great job if you have only a few locations to plot. However, after between 3 and 20 plots you had to pay for monthly subscription or a small amount, usually less than a dollar and sometimes literally only pennies, to do more. However, I found that the Oil and Gas industry also uses this mapping system since the Dominion Land Survey addresses are used as legal land descriptions. After a bit more searching I came across the SCADALink DLS/LSD to Lat/Long page provided by Bentek System out of Calgary, Alberta, Canada.

Screen capture of Bentek System's DLS/LSD to Lat/Long page with Margaret Gilchrist address.

It isn't the fanciest or prettiest page but, gosh darn, it just works and I love when I come across a web page that is designed for functionality with no bells or whistles.

The census enumerations for Canada generally only asked for the section (SEC), township (TWP), range (RNG), and meridian (MRD). Unless the enumerator wrote down NE, SE, SW, or NW you won't know which quarter of the section they were living on, unless they owned the whole section. In those cases I will just leave the LSD as the number "1" which is in the south-east corner of the section.

In the screen capture above for Margaret Gilchrist from the 1926 census of Canada I entered in the details from the enumeration leaving the LSD as "1". I clicked the Convert button and it did its magic giving a result of 51.345549,-108.257044.

So what can I do with that set of numbers? Well you can click the "Map" button and it will zoom into the coordinates in a Google Map page embedded with the SCADALink page. Or you can copy those numbers into Google Maps directly, maybe even creating your own map plotting where your relatives lived.

Screen capture of Google Maps with Margaret Gilchrist address plotted.

Sometimes you might come across situations where a transcription is missing a key part of the details such as the meridian. This has happened to me several times with the Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada, Homestead Grant Registers, 1872-1930 collection on Ancestry where the meridian is missing.

Here the record for the transcription for Harold Geo. Armitage's entry is missing "Meridian":

Screen capture of the record page for Harold Geo Armitage in the Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada, Homestead Grant Registers, 1872-1930 collection on Ancestry.

But since they provide a way to view the image of the register gaes you can check what was really recorded (fourth entry from the top).

"Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada, Homestead Grant Registers, 1872-1930," database and images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 24 Jan 2020), entry for Harold Geo Armitage, application date 4 Nov 1914, image 6; citing  Homestead Grant Registers. R190-75-1-E. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

"Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta, Canada, Homestead Grant Registers, 1872-1930," database and images, Ancestry (www.ancestry.com : accessed 24 Jan 2020), entry for Harold Geo Armitage, application date 4 Nov 1914, image 7; citing  Homestead Grant Registers. R190-75-1-E. Library and Archives Canada, Ottawa, Ontario, Canada.

As you can see on image 7 it seems that someone forgot to transcribe "2" for the meridian, or more accurately, W2. We can verify that information by searching the Land Grants of Western Canada, 1870-1930 at Library and Archives Canada for an Armitage at section 10, township 49, and range 14. Only one appears in the results.

Screen capture of search for Armitage at section 10, township 49, range 14 in the Land Grants of Western Canada, 1870-1930 at Library and Archives Canada.

Now we can properly map the location!

I hope that this helps you put your ancestors and relatives on the ground in the Prairie Provinces of Canada.

Findmypast US & World Newspapers Collection - Extra Canadian Newspapers?

I'm in the midst of putting the final touches on my "Finding Your Past With Findmypast" presentation for the upcoming British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa 25th Annual Conference being held in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. In doing so I've been going through the Findmypast holdings with a critical eye looking for cool and unusual items and collections.With the slides basically done I'm just writing up my "script" of talking points and was working on the newspaper section of my presentation.

I often use the Canada newspapers in the US & World Newspapers collection on Findmypast to look for my ancestors and relatives in Manitoba, specifically Winnipeg, plus a check of Alberta and Saskatchewan to see if they moved out that way. I might even check out the St. John's, Newfoundland papers. At least that is what I thought was all that was offered based on the filters.

I started playing with the search using the common surnames of "Smith" and "Jones". But I start to see newspapers from other areas of Canada.

Screen capture of Findmypast "US & World newspapers" collection filtered by Canada for Smith

A search for "Smith" using the "By Country" filter of "Canada" in the US & World newspapers collection returns articles from the Winnipeg Tribune, Victoria Daily British Colonist, and Acton Free Press (Acton, Ontario), Not shown in this screen capture of part of the first page of results are articles from the Vancouver Chinook, Milton Canadian Champion (Milton, Ontario), Agassiz Record (Agassiz, British Columbia), and Dauphin Herald (Dauphin, Manitoba).

If I look at the "By Publication" filter I see the Dauphin Herald listed but none of the others. In the "By State" filters only Alberta, Manitoba, Newfoundland, and Saskatchewan are listed. Ontario nor British Columbia is listed.

In looking at the search results themselves, the note at the bottom of the newspaper image states:

"Copyright: "Fair Use" allowed. NewspaperARCHIVE.com"

Could it be that NewspaperARCHIVE.com has many more Canadian newspapers than what Findmypast filters know about or is telling us? Could I have been underrating the Canadian newspaper collections provided by Findmypast?

I think the answer is a definite YES to both questions!

To see what might really be available we need to pop over to NewspaperARCHIVE.com and check out their collections. Going to the Canada section we see

Screen capture of NewspaperARCHIVE.com Canada collections by State

Looks like there are newspapers from Alberta, British Columbia, the Federal government, Manitoba, New Brunswick, Newfoundland, Nova Scotia, Ontario, and Saskatchewan.

Drilling down in the map you can find the various newspapers for the list provinces such as:

New Brunswick

• Fredericton Head Quarters (1844-1861)
• Moncton L Acadien (1918-1926)
• Saint John Morning Freeman (1860-1870)

Newfoundland

• Corner Brook Western Star (1900-1952)
• St. John's (12 publications)
• Saint Johns (38 publications)¹

Nova Scotia

• Halifax British Colonist (1848-1860)
• Halifax Citizen (1863-1873)
• Halifax Gazette (1753-1778)
• Halifax Sun And Advertizer (1862-1867)

Ontario

• Durham Chronical And Grey County Advertiser (1867-1969)
• Durham Grey Review (1878-1897)
• Durham Review (1897-1940)
• Kingston
• Kingston British Whig (1834-1895)
• Kingston Chronicle (1819-1832)
• Kingston Chronicle And Gazette (1835-1847)
• Kingston Daily British Whig (1850-1901)
• Kingston Daily News (1856-1887)
• Kingston Gazette (1810-1818)
• Kingston Upper Canada Herald (1819-1847)
• Kingston Weekly British Whig (1858-1885)
• Lindsay
• Lindsay Canadian Post (1893-1898)
• Lindsay Expositor (1869-1870)
• Lindsay Post (1907-1914)
• Lindsay Victoria Warder (1870-1899)
• Lindsay Watchman (1888-1898)
• Lindsay Watchman Warder (1899-1915)
• Lindsay Weekly Free Press (1908-1909)
• Lindsay Weekly Post (1899-1907)
• Millbrook And Omemee Mirror (1905-1909)
• Millbrook Reporter (1893-1962)
• Orillia Expositor (1872-1873)

This is only a selection of what is actually offered on NewspaperARCHIVE and subsequently, due to their partnership, probably also in the Findmypast newspaper collection for Canada.

For some of the newspapers the date ranges held are only for a few years but you never know what you will find.

In my case I had an open "to do" item to locate the death notice or obituary for Ann (nee McDonald) McKinnon, my 3rd great-grandmother, in the Victoria Warder from Lindsay, Ontario. I knew the date the obituary was printed in the newspaper and even had a transcription but I always want to see the original source. When I last looked a few years ago, Library and Archives Canada didn't have the year I wanted for that newspaper. Supposedly Trent University had a microfilmed copy of the issue the obituary was in but getting there is a challenge for me since I don't own a car. However, it seems that NewspaperARCHIVE.com does have the newspaper and the right years. This meant I could probably find it via Findmypast.com. With a bit of patience I was able to pull up her obituary on Findmypast.

"Obit.-Ann McKinnon," The Victoria Warder, 20 Oct 1893, p. 5, col. 3; digital images, Findmypast (www.findmypast.com : accessed 16 Sep 2019), US & World newspapers - Canada.

One more to do item crossed off my list! Only 749 to go as I write this post. YIKES!

Hopefully Findmypast will update their search filters on the US & World Newspapers collection search page to more closely align with what NewspaperARCHIVE has in their collection.

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1. Yes, I know that "Saint John's" and "St. John's" Newfoundland should be the same place but the computer doesn't.

Upcoming Genealogy Presentations in 2019

I have a number of upcoming occasions where I will be giving presentations on the subject of genealogy research methodologies. So if you are in the Ottawa, Ontario, Canada area and you have an interest in learning how to better research your family tree please drop by and say hello.

Yours Truly at the Dec 8, 2018 meeting of BIFHSGO. Photographer: Dena Palamedes

Date	Event/Location	Talk	Cost
Apr 6	OGS Ottawa Gene-O-Rama	Genealogical Miracles	$42 for the day
Apr 11	Ottawa Public Library: Nepean Centrepointe	Doing Family Tree Research in Your Pajamas	Free
May 11	Voices From the Dust	Top Ten Tips and Tricks for Finding Your Ancestors	Free
May 23	Ottawa Public Library: Nepean Centrepointe	Chipping Away at the Brickwall	Free
Jun 1	Ottawa Public Library: Nepean Centrepointe	So you want to start researching your family tree?	Free
Sep 27	BIFHSGO Annual Conference	Exploring your past with Findmypast	TBD

You can also usually find me helping out at the Ottawa Public Library - Nepean Centrepointe branch every second Tuesday at their Local History & Genealogy Drop-In Club.

Talk Announcement - BIFHSGO: Searching Findmypast's Newspaper Archives

As part of the Before BIFHSGO Education Talks I will be giving a short education talk starting at 9 a.m. titled "Searching Findmypast's Newspaper Archives" before the main monthly meeting at the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa meeting being held on March 11, 2017 at The Chamber, Ben Franklin Place, 101 Centrepointe Drive, Ottawa, Ontario.

After my talk, Gillian Leitch will be presenting "From Famine to Prosperity to the Longue Pointe Asylum: the Varied Life of John Patrick Cuddy" starting at 10 a.m.

Overview

Newspapers can be a treasure trove of details about families and events that aren't often found in the usual birth, marriage, death, and census records. The Findmypast world subscription includes newspapers from the UK, Ireland, Canada, US, and other countries. I will provide some tips for searching these often overlooked resources in our genealogy and family history research.

Reminder: Call for Presentations for the BIFHSGO Conference 2015

The deadline for submitting your proposals for presentations to given at the 21^st Annual Family History Conference of the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO) that is being held September 18-20, 2015 in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada is rapidly approaching with a deadline of January 31, 2015.

The three themes for the conference will be Scotland, Photographs in Genealogy, and Technology (including hardware, software, apps, websites, databases, social media, DNA analysis tools etc.). Proposals on these three themes for lectures at the conference on the Saturday and Sunday are sought as well as for workshops or seminars on the Friday.

Details on writing the proposals can be found at www.bifhsgo.ca under the Conference 2015 heading. Make sure you send your proposals to conference@bifhsgo.ca before January 31, 2015!

BIFHSGO's 20th Anniversary

Much like people much be registered when they are born so must corporations. On November 16th, 1994 the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa was issued the Federal Letters Patent as a corporation.

How things have changed

• Then, in the first issue of Anglo-Celtic Roots potential authors were asked to submit typewritten, double-spaced copy on standard 8.5 by 11 inches paper to the society post box address.
• Today we're request to submit in electronic format using MSWord-compatible software via email.

• Then the first issue of ACR contained none of the terms Internet, www or http. They came along in the final issue of the first volume.
• Today every major article published has Internet references.

• Then out of nine society directors one was a woman.
• Today out of eleven directors eight are women including the president.

We've come a long way.

Tip: Did your recent ancestors own or were they on a board of a Canadian federally incorporated company? If you know the name of the company you can search for the details at Search for a Federal Corporation.

Call for Presentations for the BIFHSGO Conference 2015

The British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO) is seeking proposals for presentations at its 21^st annual conference, September 18-20, 2015 to be held in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada at Library and Archives Canada.

The three themes for the conference will be Scotland, Photographs in Genealogy, and Technology (including hardware, software, apps, websites, databases, social media, DNA analysis tools etc.). Proposals on these three themes for lectures at the conference on the Saturday and Sunday are sought as well as for workshops or seminars on the Friday.

Details on writing the proposals can be found at www.bifhsgo.ca under the Conference 2015 heading. Please send your proposals to conference@bifhsgo.ca before January 31, 2015.

20th Annual BIFHSGO Family History Conference Brick Walls

One of the activities I set up for the Research Room at the 20th Annual BIFHSGO Family History Conference that took place the weekend of September 19-21, 2014 was a brick wall board. If you know of any pointers or solutions to these problems posted by the attendees, don't hesitate to leave a comment (with additional information and/or contact details) or contact me and I can forward on the information to the poster. My e-mail address is:

The Brick Walls

Name: Lydia Ferin

Dates: b. ~1798, d. ?

Question: When and where was she born? When and where did she die?

Details: Lydia was married to Nathaniel Chamberlain (b. 1788) and settled in Chelsea, Quebec. Moved to Osgood circa 1856 - no trace after that.

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Name: Christian Doho (Dohoo)

Dates: married ~1738 in Southwark

Question: Where was he from?

Details: Had several children born in Lewisham, Kent. Name later changed to Dohoo. Doho was (and is) common name in Africa. This is part of a One-Name research project.

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Name: Eunice Hutchins

Dates: b. ~1807 in USA, d. 1 Mar 1891 in Chelsea, Quebec

Question: Who were her parents?

Details: Eunice married John Bradley and subsequently Thomas Childs. Lived in Chelsea Quebec.

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Name: Archibald Campbell Turner

Dates: b. ~1790

Question: Where was he born?

Details: Indicated are that he could have been born in Ireland but lived in Scotland before emigration to Canada in 1820.

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Name: Samuel Dowdall, Private Canadian Fencibles 1816

Dates: 1809-1816

Question: Is there a regimental roll or list for Canadian Fencibles Regiment at their discharge in 1816?

Details: Would like to find out Samual Dowdall's place of origin and if he had transferred into the Fencibles from another regiment. There was a Samuel Dowdall in the 41st Regiment in the Niagara Theatre during the War of 1812. Would like to determine if this the same Samuel Dowdall as that found in the Canadian Fencibles.

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Name: Midghall/McKervney

Dates: 1890+

Question: Looking for the Kathryn Jackson of Australia that is/was researching the same uncommon surnames. She had left messages on several boards 10 years ago but is not longer responding or seeing the messages left for her. Would love to contact her.

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Name: Peter Grant

Dates: b. ~1815 in Inverness, Scotland, d. 17 Apr 1890 in Ontario, Canada

Question: Who were his parents? Where are they?

Details: Peter Grant was a Justice of the Peace in Ontario. Did he possibly study low in Scotland? He came to Canada about 1836 but we don't know which ship. He married Elizabeth Muir about 1855 in Gainsboro Township, Markham. He lived in Pelham.

Speakers announced for British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa Conference

Speakers announced for British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa Conference

OTTAWA, 8 March 2014 — The British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa (BIFHSGO) has announced the speakers for the annual conference, to be held 19-21 September, at Library and Archives Canada in Ottawa.

For its 20th anniversary year, the society will celebrate with an ambitious program which will help family historians delve into their British Isles roots.

The society expects to welcome more than 250 attendees at the event, which has three special themes:

• English family history;
• Immigration from the British Isles, including Home Children; and
• Genetic genealogy.

“Our nation’s capital is also its family history capital. Every year we have welcomed folks from far and near, researching their ancestors in collections at Library and Archives Canada and learning about resources for discovering their British and Irish roots at our conference” said BIFHSGO President Glenn Wright.

This year’s conference speakers will include:

Dr. Lucille Campey — emigration historian, author of numerous books on British Isles emigration to Canada who will launch her latest book Ignored but not forgotten - Canada's English Immigrants at the conference.

Gail Dever — BIFHSGO webmaster, social media expert and blogger at Genealogy à la carte.

John Dickenson — a former professor at Liverpool University who now researches Canada’s Home Children, especially their involvement in the First World War.

Dr. Janet Few — freelance researcher and prize-winning author specializing in the south-west of England who will give a streamed-in presentation on North Devon immigrants to Canada.

Paul Jones — retired publisher, “Roots” columnist for Canada’s History magazine who speaks
frequently on offbeat topics at family history events.

Debbie Kennett — an avid genetic genealogist, author of DNA and Social Networking (2011) and The Surnames Handbook (2012). Debbie is Honorary Research Associate in the Department of
Genetics, Evolution and Environment at University College London.

Paul Milner — an internationally recognized speaker specializing in British Isles research, author
of Discover English Parish Records and Genealogy at a Glance: English Research.

Gary Schroder — long-time President of the Quebec Family History Society and a frequent
guest on Quebec radio and television promoting family history research.

In addition, speakers at pre-conference seminars on September 19 will include, from Library and Archives Canada, Paul Marsden and Sylvie Tremblay.

BIFHSGO looks forward to welcoming you at its 20th anniversary conference. Reserve 19-21
September 2014 in your agenda now and look for more details coming soon on the society website at
www.bifhsgo.ca.

BIFHSGO Contacts:
John D. Reid, Conference Program Chair, conference@bifhsgo.ca
Mary-Lou Simac, Publicity Director, publicity@bifhsgo.ca

Call For Speakers: 20th Annual BIFHSGO Family History Conference

20th Annual BIFHSGO Family History Conference

The British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa is seeking proposals for presentations at its annual conference, September 19 - 21, 2014, to be held in Ottawa at Library and Archives Canada.

Conference Theme

The conference will focus on three main topics:

• English family history
• Immigration from the British Isles, including Home Children
• Genetic genealogy

Proposals are also invited for other conference presentations likely to be of interest to BIFHSGO members and for pre-conference workshops or seminars.

Deadline

Please send proposals to conference@bifhsgo.ca before January 31, 2014.

Proposal Submission

• Each proposal should be written on one page and include:
• Your full name, postal address, telephone number, and email address;
• Whether the proposal is for:
• a lecture (or several lectures) during the conference, and/or
• a seminar or hands-on workshop on the Friday. Please indicate if the workshop will be a half day (3 hours) or a full day (6 hours);
• Presentation title(s);
• An abstract of up to 200 words describing each presentation;
• A one or two-sentence description of your talk(s) for the conference brochure;
• A 100-150 word biography;
• Your audiovisual requirements;
• Whether your presentation(s) would be aimed at those working at the beginner (general), intermediate, or advanced (specialist) level;
• Whether you will provide a two to four-page summary of your talk, including references and website addresses, as a handout;
• Whether you would be prepared to present remotely.

Oct 26th, 2013 Talk - A Soldier of the Great War: A Research Case Study

At the Nepean-Centrepointe branch of the Ottawa (Ontario, Canada) Public Library on Saturday, October 26th, 2013 at 11 a.m. I will be giving a presentation as part of their "Canada in the First World War" program. This day is being held in partnership with the British Isles Family History Society of Greater Ottawa and the Ottawa Branch of the Ontario Genealogy Society. Along with my talk, archivist and historian Glenn Wright will give an overview on searching for information on your military ancestor, historian and strategic analyst Andrew Godefroy will present the Ottawa Branch's Ryan Taylor Memorial Lecture on the contributions of Canada and Ottawa to the Great War, and Robbie Robertson and Bob Anglin from the Canadian War Museum will be there to help identify Great War artifacts. This free event starts at 9 a.m. and ends at 3:30 p.m. and you don't even have to register in advance, just show up and learn more about Canada in the First World War.

My part of this will be a talk titled "A Soldier of the Great War: A Research Case Study". At the recent BIFHSGO Conference in September one of the visitors to the research room asked me to find out how her cousin Victor Lou Sornberger lost his leg in the Great War of 1914-18. I will be going through the steps I took to get the file, what was found and where I looked next for more details. I will cover the basics of visiting the Library and Archives Canada building in Ottawa to review his service file, locating digital copies of  the war diaries, and finally figuring out roughly where on the battlefield he suffered his wound.

If you are in Ottawa I sincerely hope you will be able to make it out to the "Canada in the First World War" day.

Talk: "Saving Money When Searching ScotlandsPeople"

As part of this month's BIFHSGO's Scottish Genealogy Group meeting I will be giving a brief presentation titled "Saving Money When Searching ScotlandsPeople". I will be talking about some of the tips and tricks I use to wisely spend my money when researching my Scottish ancestors.

The meeting is taking place between 10:00 a.m and noon on Saturday, October 19th, 2013 in room 226 of the City of Ottawa Archives located at 100 Tallwood Drive, Ottawa, Ontario.

BIFHSGO Conference Research Room and Brickwalls

As John Reid mentioned in his Anglo-Celtic Connections blog, this past weekend I had the pleasure to be the host of the Research Room at the BIFHSGO 19th Annual Family History Conference in Ottawa, Ontario, Canada. The focus of this year's conference was on Irish genealogy research.

In the Research Room we had a number of computers with donated access to sites such as Ancestry.ca, Findmypast.com, Genes Reunited, The Genealogist, British Newspaper Archive, and the Irish Times Ancestry Search. Along with those online resources we had a number of skilled and very patient volunteers to help the attendees with their research problems.

Being a conference focusing on Irish family history we had many questions concerning how to find their ancestors in Ireland and all the issues related with doing research from a distance. We also had some success stories:

• One woman spent at least 6 hours finding records and documents concerning her family in Nova Scotia. She had the guidance of a number of our volunteers to help her out.
• We had one participant find the newspaper article concerning an ancestor that confirmed a family story.
• A transcription of an Irish parish register confirmed an aunt's research and also led to a possible collateral branch.

This year we also added place where people could post their "brick wall" problems.

Our "moss and ivy covered" brick wall.

In the next several weeks the information on those cards will be posted on the BIFHSGO web site in the hopes that someone might be able to help solve a problem or too. I will also be going through them to see if I can possibly find some answers for their brick walls. I will be posting my findings in this blog along with how and where I discovered the answers to the questions.

However, there were some common methodology related problems with many of the posted brick wall problems:

• Not knowing what records are available (or aren't available in some cases)
• Not understanding what records are available in the various collections
• Assuming everything must be online
• Not knowing when the various civil registrations started for births, marriages, and deaths

When you come across a new collection learn what is actually included in the collection. This can save hours of frustration when attempting to search for records that aren't included in the collection.