More Canadian records are added to FamilySearch

They have added the following records -

Canadian Passenger List 1881-1922

They have added 2111 images to an existing collection.

The website says “Contains records for the ports of Quebec City, 1900-1921; Halifax, 1881-1922; Saint John, 1900-1912; North Sydney, 1906-1912; Vancouver, 1905-1912; Victoria, 1905-1912; New York, 1906-1912; and Eastern US Ports, 1905-1912. The lists for United States ports include only those names of passengers with intentions of proceeding directly to Canada”.

The website is https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1823240?et_cid=49343831&et_rid=839174644&linkid=https%3a%2f%2ffamilysearch.org%2fsearch%2fcollection%2f1823240&cid=

Newfoundland Vital Statistics 1753 - 1893

They have added 191,573 new indexed to the record collection

The website includes images of church record transcripts. Contains baptisms, marriages, and some burials from many churches in the province

The website is https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1793777?et_cid=49343831&et_rid=839174644&linkid=https%3a%2f%2ffamilysearch.org%2fsearch%2fcollection%2f1793777&cid=
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SPECIAL OFFER!!!!!!!!!

Need help in finding your Canadian ancestors?

As a nod of the hat to the Ontario Genealogical Conference being held in Barrie, Ontario from May 29 to May 31, may we take this opportunity to offer a month-long discount on our research and consultation services of 15% (ends 11 June at midnight).

Just go to Elizabeth Lapointe Research Services at www.elrs.biz, or send an email with the subject "special" to genealogyresearch@aol.com to see how I can help you find that elusive Canadian ancestor!

 

Research Tip! If you want to explore the possible research Wiki for Canada, go to https://familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Canada_Genealogy. They have completely sourced documents, and are adding more every day.

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

If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/05/canadian-week-in-review-18-may-2014.html

 

It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada

 

UPDATE: New Brunswick Provincial Marriages 1789-1950

FamilySearch.org has put new additions to their New Brunswick Provincial Marriages 1789-1950.

 

When complete, the collection will contain marriage records from New Brunswick, including:

 

Marriage Registers — 1789-1889

 

Marriage Certificates — 1887-1950 

 

Delayed Registration of Marriages — 1920-1945

 

Returns of Marriages — 1887-1950

 

The provincial government of New Brunswick began recording births, marriages, and deaths in 1888. For 1810 to 1887 records, there is a "Late Registration" compilation which is indexed. These records were registered after 1888.

 

They are located at the website https://familysearch.org/search/collection/1824707

 

You can also go to the Provincial Archives of New Brunswick at http://archives.gnb.ca/Archives/?culture=en-CA

 

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

If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/03/canadian-news-in-review-09-march-2015.html

 

It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada!

It has been a regular post every Monday morning since

April 23, 2012.

Family History Library - FREE Classes for March 2015!

FamilySearch.org is at it again – they are offering FREE classes this month, and I am going to take the first class (since I have relatives in the New England States) on March 7: New England States Research Series. The classes include “Town and Vital Records” at 9:30 a.m., “Probate, Land, and Tax Records” at 10:45 a.m., and “Pilgrims Progress and Migration Patterns” at 1:00 p.m.

The other classes include those given in Spanish for Hispanic Records and they are -

March 7: Arbol Familiar Para Principiantes Webinar is a class for Spanish-speaking guests and starts at 1:00 p.m.

March 14: Hispanic Research Methodology: A Case Study Webinar. This class starts at 1:00 p.m.

March 21: Hispanic Research Series Webinar. This series is for Spanish-speaking patrons. The classes include “Conozca los sitios asociados de FamilySearch: Inscripcion y findmypast,” “Conozca los sitios asociados de FamilySearch: Ancestry y MyHeritage,” and “Como utilizar Mejor el Wiki FamilySearch.” These classes start at 1:00, 2:00, and 3:00 p.m

Webinars can be accessed by going to FamilySearch.org, and then click Wiki,then Family History Library, then 2.2 Live Online Classes for details.

These classes and workshops are designed to help individuals and families find their ancestors and teach others family history techniques.

Meanwhile, more information has added to the name index of Canadian headstone inscriptions courtesy of CanadianHeadstones which is a family history database of records and images from Canada's cemeteries. Volunteers capture images of headstones in a cemetery and upload them to the site.

To search the site, go to https://familysearch.org/search/collection/2290953

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

If you missed this week’s edition, it is at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2015/02/canadian-week-in-review-23-february-2013.html

 

It’s the ONLY news blog of its kind in Canada!

It has been a regular post every Monday morning since

April 23, 2012

Join Italians and Italian Fans for a Record-Setting Weekend!

We have received this exciting news from FamilySearch

“FamilySearch International, Salt Lake City Italian natives and those with Italian language skills, Italian ancestors, or a love of all things Italian are invited to help index (transcribe) historic Italian records this weekend (Sept. 13-15) to make them freely searchable on FamilySearch.org.

The event, part of the ongoing Italian Ancestors Project sponsored by the National Archives of Italy and FamilySearch, will unite participants from around the world in an attempt to set a new two-day volunteer mark of 35,000 records (approximately 100,000 ancestor names) indexed.

The event will start Friday, September 13 at 6:00 p.m. (MDT) and end Sunday, September 15, at 6:00 p.m. (MDT). To volunteer, or for details and status updates throughout the event, visit the Italian Ancestors Facebook event page.

About the Italian Ancestors Project

The Italian Ancestors Project, jointly sponsored by the National Archives of Italy and FamilySearch, is the largest historic Italian records preservation and access initiative ever.

Through this unprecedented effort, more than 115 million historic birth, marriage, and death records from Italy’s civil registration (1802 to 1942) containing some 500 million names of Italian ancestors, will be digitized, indexed (transcribed) and made freely searchable online.
Indexing of these valuable records is being provided by thousands of volunteers worldwide. Working from their homes at their own pace, volunteers have already made more than two million records available. Thousands more volunteers are needed”.

For more information or to volunteer, visit www.familysearch.org/italian-ancestors.

Recent changes at the FHL, Salt Lake City

Have you heard about the recent changes made to the FHL library in Salt Lake City?

Apparently, the research consultants have been moved from behind their walls and desks, and now they will be on the floors to be more accessible to the library patrons.

In the FamilySearch blog it says that “We have moved our consultants out from behind staff doors to assist at research counters and out on the patron floor.”

At the time of writing, the change had only been made, so they are asking “for patience and understanding as we implement and refine the new patron service model.”

They say that “The Family History Library is open more hours, provides more computers, printing options, and professional help than any other genealogical library, society, or archive in the world. We remain committed to providing all of these services free of charge to patrons from all over the world.”

So, do you think that these changes will be beneficial to the patrons? If anyone is going there this fall, on your return,tell us how you found it.

Say “Thank You” to Indexers

I revieved this notice from FamilySearch.org yesterday –

“Here’s your chance to say thank you to the indexers who have helped you find your ancestors. Create a short video that is one minute or less to thank FamilySearch indexers and arbitrators for helping to make records searchable online. Highlight an ancestor you have found, or highlight someone you know who has found an ancestor while searching on FamilySearch.org, and express your gratitude to the indexers who helped make it possible.

Help indexers know their work matters. Share this contest with your friends, and get them involved”!

Submission Start Date: Monday, October 8, 2012

Submission Deadline: Monday, November 5, 2012

Prized will be posted on the FamilySearch indexing Facebook page, and 5 winners will receive a $25 Visa gift card!

Read all about it at https://familysearch.org/blog/en/fsindexingvideocontest2012

Do You Read/Speak Italian?

FamilySearch.org is looking for people who can read/speak Italian, so that they can transcribe and put the rest of the Italian records online. Here is the press release that they put out the other day .

“FamilySearch launched a historic partnership with the National Archives of Italy in December 2011 to digitally preserve and index its civil registration records (birth, marriage, and death) for all states from 1802 to 1940. Since the project launch more than 24 million images have been published, and 4 million names have been made searchable on FamilySearch.org.

But there are 115 million historic Italian documents with over 500 million names remaining to index and publish. Tens of thousands of volunteers are needed. To meet this opportunity, FamilySearch is requesting help from indexers and arbitrators who speak or read Italian or a closely related language, such as Spanish, or who are willing to learn a handful of simple Italian words and phrases to help facilitate the initiative.

Descendants of Italians and Italy historic and genealogy societies are especially invited to participate to help accelerate the publication of this valuable record set”.

Interested individuals, societies, or groups should visit www.familysearch.org/italian-ancestors to learn more.

To search the completed Italian records online and to learn more about reading Italian records, visit familysearch.org/italy.

Indexing [Part B] Ontario Marriages, 1869–1927 Now Complete

FamilySearchh.org has told us that the Ontario Marriages 1869-1927 [Part B] is now complete.

The project have been removed from the available online indexing batches, and will now go through a final completion check process. Once this is completed, it will join the regular search feature.

To bring yourself up-to-date with the projects the FamilySeach is indexing, go to

https://indexing.familysearch.org/projtab/current_projects.jsf

The Genealogy Corner

I have started writing a genealogy column called "The Genealogy Corner" in The Review – a weekly newspaper in Vankleek Hill, Ontario. The column is geared towards beginning genealogists, but I think anyone can gain a new insight in the views that I have put forward in the column.

The column appears every two weeks in print, but unfortunately, doesn't appear on the website, so if you are interested, you will have to buy the paper or get an online subscription. The website is www.thereview.on.ca.

The columns that have been printed so far this year are -

• March 14 - Finding Your Canadian Roots
• March 28 - A Genealogical Society Is Not Just Another Society
• April 11 - It's Time to go Back to School – Year Round
• April 25 - It’s Time to Start Your Research!
• May 9 - The Year Genealogy Was Reborn In Canada

 The next column on May 23 will be all the changes that are taking place at FamilySearch.org.

Canadian Genealogy on Facebook

FamilySearch.org has put Canada on Facebook! 

Although this particular Facebook first appeared in May 2011, how of us know that it existed?

FamilySearch says that is it a popular site, and “These pages and groups are run by experienced genealogy volunteers for those areas. These virtual communities are the online equivalent of asking for help at your local Family History Center. We grew from 4 communities to 59 over the past several months. With a minimum need of 2-3 admins per community--and a greater need for larger communities--we are at less than 50 percent "staffed." Advisers are looking to recruit more volunteers”.

Would you want to to help by volunteering your time to connecting researchers the world over? It looks like a good idea that FamilySearch has here. Maybe it could be a good place to post your brick wall. 

Find out about the Facebook Community by going to "Join a Facebook Research Community" at www.familysearch.org/learn/wiki/en/Join_a_Facebook_Research_Community.

Research Wiki Needs Writers!

The Research Wiki of the FamilySearch.org https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Main_Page where it publishes various articles on doing research in a particular county on many subjects.

Canada is listed 98th out of the most popular entries with over 20,000 views.

But they still need more articles on Canada.

Do you have articles that have yet to be published?

They have a complete guide to writing the articles, what is needed, and how to put the articles on the Research Wiki.

Go to the website to find out what you need to do at https://wiki.familysearch.org/en/Canada

Canadian Census - 2006

There has been talk the last couple days in the media about the 2006 Canadian Census not counting nearly a million people that they should have counted.

It's true! If you check Wikipedia <en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Canada_2006_Census>, you will see that the population count in 2006 was 31,612,897 and that was lower than actual count in 2006 - 32,623,490 people.

That is over a million short - someone didn't fill out their census return!

This is made even more odd by the fact that this was the first year that the form were offered online and you could fill it there. It will be interesting to see what Census Canada does with this problem!

Meanwhile, Question 53 is still up in the air and hasn't been resolved, according to genealogists. Statistics Canada agrees to release the Census information after 92 years, but it will only be information by those people who have checked the box.

The statistics show that there was a "yes" reponse by 55.50% of the population - the highest being in PEI, with 64.50%.

If you have't read the blog of Nov 16th where I talk about Ancestry.ca and FamilySearch partnering on indexing and digitizing the census from 1851 to 1916, go to the blog <http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2008/11/joint-initiative-provides-online-access.html> and take a look - it's interesting.

FamilySearch Looking for Volunteers!

FamilySearch International is going to make the indexes to the 1861, 1871, and 1916 census available online for free with the help of online volunteer indexers, and an agreement with Ancestry.ca.

The press release says that "Online volunteers are needed to help transcribe select information from digital images of the historical documents into easily searchable indexes."

The completed indexes will be available for free at <www.familysearch.org>.

If you want to become a volunteer, you can start right away by registering online at <familysearchindexing.org>, by downloading the free indexing software, and selecting the 1916 Canada Census project.

It will take about 30 minutes to finish one page of the census, and the volunteer has one week to finish it, if need be.

"The 1916 census was selected first because it is the most recent and smallest of the three census targeted in the first place. It included three of the western provinces (Saskatchewan, Manitoba, and Alberta), and has about 1.7-million names - so it will not take long to complete," said Stephen Young, FamilySearch Project Manager.

It is interesting that they have picked three personalities known to people, that is; Arthur Gordon Kelly (Art Linkletter), Sir William Samuel Stephenson (real-life inspiration for James Bond), and Elvina Fay Wray (Fay Wray) who appeared in the 1916 census as example of people you can meet along the way to indexing the census - to make it more interesting to transcribe, I suppose.

The Library and Archives Canada (LAC) owns, and is providing the digital images for, the Canada Census Project.

Joint Initiative Provides Online Access to Canadian Censuses

Ancestry.ca and FamilySearch International made an announcement on Nov 11th that they will partner on the digitized and indexing of the Canadian census.

The press release says that the "joint initiative will allow the organizations to improve online access to a comprehensive collection of Canadian censuses".

As apart of the agreement, FamilySearch.org will provide images and index to Ancestry.ca for censuses 1861, 1871, 1881, and 1916, and Ancestry.ca will provide images and index to FamilySearch.org for the 1851, 1891, 1901, and 1906 Census.

Notice that nowhere is the Library and Archives Canada (LAC) mentioned. The LAC originally held the census records on microfilm (being transferred to them by StatsCan), but through agreements with Ancestry.ca and FamilySearch.org, they seemed to have lost control over them in how they are used.

And it looks like the "free" search on FamilySearch.org is about to come to an end. The press release says that the images "will be free to all qualified (those people who have done transcription work for FamilySearch.org) FamilySearch members and at all FamilySearch family history centers".

1881 Census of Canada Released

At exactly 2:00 p.m. on Thursday, August 7th, the 1881 Census was released online!

The people who first got the news were the attendees at the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) who were at the Library and Archives Canada attending a conference on Genealogy and Local History. I was one of the attendees.

On the database, researchers can access the name, age, country or province of birth, nationality, religion, and occupation of Canada's residents at the time of the 1881 census. It also has the actual census return itself, which you can also access.

The press release said that "It is the first regularly scheduled collection of national statistics in Canada. Information was collected for Prince Edward Island, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, Quebec, Ontario, Manitoba, British Columbia, and the North-West Territories".

I checked the census Thursday evening for the BARCLAY (my direct line) family in Nova Scotia and I found them, but I found the children in one grouping and the mother and father in another grouping. Funny - but that is how it was.

Also, their surname was spelled as BARCKLAY - which was also unusual.

Sylvie Temblay, the Chief Project Head at the Canadian Genealogy Centre, expects 750,000 searches per week on the 1881 census.

The index was created by familysearch.org, and access to the digital images of the original census was work done by the Library and Archives of Canada.

The database is available at <www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/census-1881>.

FamilySearch.org - From a Canadian Point of View

Every since the Internet has become like a second skin for the genealogy public, one site has become essential for research: <FamilySearch.org>.

I did that back in 1995 when I started my family history. There were three genealogies which had been done - but there were no supporting documents. So I am grateful that <FamilySearch.org> was there and that I was able to use them for free. But that might be changing in the near future.

In a recent press release from them, the word "free" is more clearly defined.

"Where possible, FamilySearch will seek to provide free public access to digital images of original images of original records. Due to affiliate obligations, free access to some images may be available only to FamilySearch members (volunteers and indexers who meet basic contribution requirements each quarter, patrons at Family History Centers, and members of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints who's contributions supply FamilySearch's operations)."

So what does this mean to you?

To me, it sounds like you will have to pay for access unless you fall into one of those categories. Will you be willing to go the local Family History library to do your research rather than turning on your home computer? Are you willing to index so much material per quarter in lieu of paying for access?

They are going to have the software by next year to verify that you are a member of FamilySearch so that you will be able to access future home use.

What do you think?