Tuesday, July 9, 2013

Lac-Mégantic Library and Archive destroyed in disaster

I wrote in the Canadian News in Review on Monday that the library and archives at Lac-Mégantic had been destroyed in the fires resultant from the train disaster. Now word comes from the chair of the board of Lac-Mégantic’s library and archives, that they were planning to move from the two-floor location downtown to a bigger facility this fall. Now everything is gone.


Reminder: Check out Canadian Week in Review every Monday for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada. The next Canadian News in Review will be Monday July 15 2013

UPDATED: Alberta, British Columbia, Manitoba & Saskatchewan Update (revised)

The following cemeteries have been revised on the GenWeb Canada website - 

ALBERTA

Camrose:

- Greenview / Rosalind United Church / Methodist Church Cemetery

Edmonton:

- Westlawn Memorial Gardens & Edmonton Crematorium

Mountainview:

- New Bergthal Mennonite Cemetery

Stettler:

- Red Willow Cemetery

BRITISH COLUMBIA

Central Kootenay Regional District:

- Edgewood Cemetery

Cowichan Valley Regional District:

- Ladysmith Indian Cemetery

Peace River :

- North Rolla Lutheran Church Cemetery

- Sorenson / Carpio Cemetery

MANITOBA

Fisher RM:

- Sylvan Public / Transfiguration Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery

Franklin RM:

- Holy Trinity Roman Catholic Cemetery

- Ridgeville / South Ridge Cemetery

Harrison RM:

- Holy Ghost Ukrainian Catholic (New) Cemetery

Ritchot RM:

- St Joseph's Catholic / St Norbert Koscio sw Jozefa Cemetery

- St Norbert Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery

Rockwood RM:

- Polsen St Mary's Roman Catholic / Chapel of the Assumption Roman Catholic Cemetery

- St George's Cemetery

- St Michael's Cemetery

- Windsor Cemetery

St Andrews RM:

- Blessed Virgin Mary Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery

West St Paul RM:

- Riverside Holy Family Ukrainian Catholic Cemetery

Winnipeg City:

- St James Anglican Cemetery

SASKATCHEWAN

Excelsior RM # 166:

- Rush Lake Cemetery

Remembers to say your “Thanks” to Marilyn Whiting, Cheyenne Kepke, Patricia Green and Julia Adamson for help indexing, and to Carol Wilkinson, Cheyenne Kepke, Chris Pfeifle, Dennis Schultz, Grace Peters, Henry Martin Hamm, Ian Coupland, John Berger, Marilyn Whiting, Myron Masnyk, Patricia Green, Susan Severdija, and Walter Smelski for photos & transcripts.




Monday, July 8, 2013

Canadian Week in Review - 08 July 2013

I have come across the following Canadian websites, blogs, Facebook, and newspaper articles this past week that were of interest to me, and I thought you might be interested in them, too.

Websites

Quebec, Catholic Parish Registers, 1621-1979 
https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1321742
This is a FamilySearch.org web site that is added to every so often. Baptisms, marriages and burials of the Catholic Paris Registers. It also includes some confirmations and some index entries for Montréal and Trois-Rivières

The family register also extends to Ontario. The web site says that “The surname spellings were anglicized over time with the predominant ones being SHIRK, SHERK, and SHERRICK. The purpose of our web site is to help Schürchs learn their ancestry and to facilitate networking with each other”.

Waterloo Region Generations http://generations.regionofwaterloo.ca
Have you seen this site before? It contains about 250,000 people with over 1,000,000 source citations. They say that the people are in context of how “they relate to community members, businesses, buildings, organizations and places”

Blogs

A new blog about Oshawa, Ontario. The site says it “contain timelines, news clippings, birth/marriage/death/grave records, photos and stories of the people I am researching, as well as the history of streets and houses in the village of Oshawa”.

Facebook, Videos, You Tube

No sites for this week.

Newspapers Articles of  the Week

Latest Update: It appears that the library and archives building in Lac Megantic, in the Eastern Townships in Quebec, has been destroyed by fire in the run away train accident that occurred early Saturday morning.

Up-to-date news is available at www.cbc.ca/news

Which province has the largest land size? and other questions about Canada
www.brandonsun.com/lifestyles/breaking-news/which-province-has-the-largest-land-size-and-other-questions-about-canada-213374611.html?thx=y In case you missed this last week when Canada celebrated its 146th birthday on July 1st, here are some questions about the country. How many did you get correct?

Halifax artist, soldier chronicles her time at war
A new exhibit at Halifax's historic Citadel Hill is teaching people about the war in Afghanistan through the eyes of a young soldier and artist who there - Bombardier Jessica Wiebe.

The Friends of the Terry Fox Collection and the future Canadian Museum of History have reached an agreement where an exhibit will open at the museum in 2015, in memory of the 35th anniversary of the Marathon of Hope.

The Jet Aircraft Museum at London, Ontario is excited that it is going to transport and restore a CF-101 Voodoo from the air base at Greenwood, Nova Scotia. This is one of the Royal Canadian Air Force's most important  Cold War fighters – the Voodoo 006.

Story of the Week

Calgary Stampede

The Calgary Stampede can trace its beginning back to 1886 when the Calgary and District Agricultural Society held its first fair. In 1912, American promoter Guy Weadick organized his first rodeo and festival, known as the Stampede.

He returned to Calgary in 1919 to organize the Victory Stampede in honour of soldiers returning from World War I. It became an annual event in 1923 when it merged with the Calgary Industrial Exhibition, and the Calgary Exhibition and Stampede was created.

This year’s stampede is still going on despite the flood which has occurred there the past couple of weeks.

Did you know that they have an archive? They do, and it is called The Calgary Stampede and Libraries and Cultural Resources, and it is housed at the University of Calgary.  

 The archives include - photographic images, board and committee minutes, annual reports, daily programs, and souvenir programs. It also includes people associated with the Stampede - all rodeo and chuck wagon contestants, the winners of those events dating back to 1912, and the sponsors and prizes.

In addition, the archives contain Stampede collectibles such as posters, Stampede Post Office cachets, letterhead stationery, invitations, souvenirs, prize trophies and many other historical items.

You can also visit their online archives where you will find digitized images of Stampede posters, thousands of photographs, databases of rodeo and chuck wagon contestants and collections of corporate publications such as annual reports and souvenir programs.


Reminder: Check out Canadian Week in Review every Monday for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada. The next post will be 15 July, 2013

Sunday, July 7, 2013

Brant OGS Golf Fundraiser

This is a really neat idea!

On Saturday, August 31, 2013, there will be a golf fundraiser held at a local club called Fescue’s Edge, 18 Hagan Rd., Brant at 11:00 am Shotgun Start.

The cost will be $80 and it includes cart, lunch and donation to Brant OGS (Receipt for donation will be provided), and the deadline to register will be August 20, 2013.


You can contact brantogsgolf@gmail.com, or go to the web site at www.ogs.on.ca/brant

Saturday, July 6, 2013

Winners of the Canada Day Brick Wall Contest

The four winners of the Canada Day Brick Wall Contest held by GenealogyCanada, and sponsored by ELRS at www.elrs.biz on Canada Day are –
  • Lois E.
  • Phyllis C.
  • Heather K.
  • Jennifer L.
There were dozens of entries in all, with the four winners being picked by random.

I would like to thank everyone who took the time to send in their brick walls, all of which were interesting and daunting. It was a pleasure to have had the chance to read them.

Elizabeth

Reminder: Check out Canadian Week in Review every Monday for the latest in Genealogy, Heritage, and History news in Canada.

Friday, July 5, 2013

Historic Acadian Families of Summerside, PEI

If you have Acadian roots or connections in Summerside, PEI, your family may go back several centuries, and you should attend the Historic Acadian Families of Summerside, which is a summertime series of talks by Jean Bernard (presented in English). The eight most familiar Acadian family names of Summerside are Arsenault, Aucoin/Wedge, Bernard, DesRoches, Gallant, Gaudet, Poirier/Perry and Richard.

Genealogist and author Jean Bernard will speak on these family histories at the Lefurgey Cultural Centre, 205 Prince Street on Wednesdays July 10, 17, 24 and 31 and Thursdays July 11, 18, 25, and August 1. All presentations will be in English and begin at 10:00 a.m. lasting for 60 to 90 minutes with lots of time for questions and answers.

Each talk will feature a 'primary concentration' on a surname and the talks will be presented in 'alphabetical order'. Invariably the discussion will 'stray' onto other connected names, but the intention is as follows:

July 10 is primarily about Arsenault

July 11 is primarily about Aucoin/Wedge

July 17 is primarily about Bernard

July 18 is primarily about DesRoches

July 24 is primarily about Gallant

July 25 is primarily about Gaudet

July 31 is primarily about Poirier/Perry

August 1 is primarily about Richard

Space is limited. Please contact Fred Horne at 432-1332 fredhorne@wyattheritage.com for more information or if you wish to reserve a seat. Admission is by donation.

Presentations hosted by Culture Summerside's MacNaught History Centre and Archives in response to Mr Bernard's generous offer to share his knowledge of Acadian family history


The Culture Summerside's MacNaught History Centre and Archives is at  www.wyattheritage.com/mainsite3/macnaughthouse.asp

Save Our Heritage Lighthouses

                                Seal Island Lighthouse Replica

Lisa Bastien—the Constituency Assistant–Outreach of the Office of Malcolm Allen, NDP M.P. for Welland, Ontario—asked for my help yesterday in spreading the word about saving out heritage lighthouses.

The message says, in part - “In 2010 the Conservative Government identified nearly 1000 lighthouses across Canada as surplus – meaning that these lighthouses are not active or they could be replaced by a simpler structure such as pole with a light on top as a cost-saving measure.

The Department of Fisheries & Oceans gave the provinces and communities groups 2 years to send in petitions and submit business plans to save their local lighthouses. As of May 2013, only 128 plans have been received, and the future of over 800 lighthouses are unknown. There are lighthouses in every province and territory at risk."

We think that the Conservatives need to stand up and protect our Maritime Heritage and work with the provinces/territories and local community groups to ensure that these lighthouses remain as beacons of navigation and history along our coastlines rather than downloading the coast onto others.

If you would like to know if there is a surplus lighthouse in your riding, please contact our office at 905-788-2204, or at malcolm.allen.c1a@parl.gc.ca".

A PDF copy of the petition is available by writing me at genealogycanada@aol.com. (I received a copy of the original Word file, but I can't post it for download from my blog.)

Personal Note: Lighthouses are dear to me because my great-great-grandmother spearheaded the project of building the lighthouse on Seal Island off of the southwest coast of Nova Scotia. Her name was Mary Hitchens.

In later years, her descendant, Walter Hichens, from Bethel, Maine, spent many summers on Seal Island, and eventually had one lighthouse built at Barrington Passage. You can visit it today, and learn the story of Mary Hitchens.

And, I'm pleased to note, the Canadian Coast Guard named a ship after her.