Tuesday, July 26, 2005

Ontario Vital Statistics: New Indexes Released!

Now available for purchase are the Ontario Vital Statistics index reels for Births: 1908, Marriages: 1923 and Deaths: 1933. For libraries who order them, visit the order page for the Ontario Genealogical Society. (The Society hasn't yet updated their order form from 2004 but will do soon!) For those who request this information via InterInstitutional Loan from the Archives of Ontario, they are now available to be requested and/or viewed in the Reading Room in Toronto as per the A of O website.

OGS Cemetery Ancestor Index and Locator

From the OGS website:

In 1973 the Ontario Genealogical Society initiated its Cemetery Project. Its goal was to identify all cemeteries in Ontario and to record all the monumental inscriptions within each cemetery. Currently, 96% of Ontario Cemeteries have been successfully transcribed by OGS and its 30 branches. To make this information accessible to the public, the OGS has launched its Cemetery Ancestor Name Index and the Ontario Cemetery Locator.

Thursday, July 21, 2005

1911 Canadian Census now online

It's finally here! You can search the Census images online. Like its 1906 counterpart, it's only searchable by geographic region, but unlike previous databases, pdfs are available in addition to the Mr. Sid version. Click here to start searching!

Reciprocal Blog Links

In reading an article in Online about Blog Searching, I came across the suggestion to investigate what blogs make mention of your blog for the purposes of Competitive Intelligence, Brand Image and Reputation Management. Besides Dick Eastman, there are a few blogs and websites that mention this one. They are:

Personal Ancestral File - Lincoln Users Group
Genealogy and How - a "daily blog of what's new in genealogy"
GenealogyCanada.com - We're their Website Pick of the Month for July. Hooray!

I'm not including the site that thinks we're dealing with bonsai trees - family trees are anything but that tiny!

Monday, July 18, 2005

Ontario Family History

Looking for sources and techniques for Ontario Family History research? Be sure to register for the summer workshop being held by the Toronto Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society and the Canadiana Department of North York Central Library. A full day of sessions devoted entirely to Ontario, it's an absolute bargain at $20 for the day. To take advantage of this early bird fee, be sure to visit their website or call 416-733-2608 (voice mail.)

Friday, July 15, 2005

17th and 18th Century Quebec French Genealogy

The PRDH is a database of genealogical information that is an "exhaustive reconstruction of the population of Quebec from the beginnings of French colonization in the seventeenth century" brought to us by the Université de Montréal.
When searching, be aware of the spellings of surnames. Depending on who recorded the name, the spelling might be off. As an example, Gauthier as compared to Gautier, Gaultier, makes quite a difference in your research. Be sure to try mother's surnames as well since you could find some children under one spelling and others under a different spelling.

Canadian directories online

Library and Archives Canada (formerly the national archives) has begun a program to make its huge collection of city directories more accessible. They have national, provincial, county and city directories.
The program will make the directories available in digitized form on their website, so it will no longer be necessary to search out many of these directories in libraries which own them. In addition, a page on the history of directory publishing will demonstrate how directories can help genealogists. Finally, a Cityscape section will provide social histories of the cities whose directories are featured in the database. This background will be of great help to historians.
Directories can be used to determine when a family lived in a certain place, can help determine their address, where people worked and in the case of rural directories, whether or not they owned their farms. The information given in directories can be used to narrow down the time period used to search for obituaries, marriage records or even a move to another city. Some curious rural directories even state what breed of ducks and pigs people raised and what kind of car and tractor they drove!
This new attraction is a great step forward and shows once again how aware the LAC is of family historians’ needs. More information and a chance to search the database can be found HERE.

Dick Eastman's Report on New Blog

Librarians Helping Canadian Genealogists Climb Family Trees has been reported on by none other than Dick Eastman. To read his entry, please click here. Be sure to subscribe to his newsletter while you're visiting.

Canadian Cemetery Listings

It is possible to find more listings of Canadian cemeteries 0nline than ever before. Be sure to visit: Ancestors at Rest (scroll down to Canada) and Interment.net. Province-specific databases are also available, such as the Ontario Cemetery Finding Aid, and the British Columbia Cemetery Finding Aid. Be sure to do a search engine search for databases/indexes for your particular area of interest and/or lookfor the provincial genealogical society and see what they offer.

Thursday, July 14, 2005

Canadian Black Sheep Ancestors

Wondering if Great Uncle Bill was a criminal? Worried that Cousin Joe was better known as Bandit Joe? Then you'll want to check out Black Sheep Ancestors! for access to Canadian prison, convict and court records.

Wednesday, July 13, 2005

1911 Census Microfilm Update

According to an email I received today, Library and Archives Canada is planning to have inter-library loan services for the 1911 Census as well as making the microforms available for purchase, similar to what they have done with the 1906 census. The microform copies are expected to be available after the online version is available.

Saturday, July 09, 2005

Canadian Ships Passenger Lists Index 1908-1910 online

The Nanaimo Family History Society is currently indexing Canadian Passenger Lists for all ports from 1900 - 1924. So far they have completed Quebec Ports for the periods 2 Jul 1908 to 2 Oct 1908, 25 Jul 1909 to 26 Apr 1910 and 17 Sep 1910 to 13 Oct 1910, and these indexes are currently available on their website. The indexes are in Portable Document Format (pdf) and require Acrobat Reader to view them.