Tuesday's Tip: Early Ontario Marriage Registers and Vital Records, 1786 - 1870

Because of my Canadian heritage, one of the genealogy newsletters I subscribe to via email is from Global Genealogy. Besides news and research articles pertaining to Canadian genealogy, Global Genealogy is also a great resource of books, maps, and software. In their last newsletter, I noticed that their book and CD series, Early Ontario Marriage Registers and Vital Records, 1786 - 1870, had online indexes.

If you've done any Canadian research at all, you'll know that Ontario didn't start keeping vital records until 1869, with the start of mandatory civil registration. All my Canadian ancestors immigrated to Ontario before this date, making finding most vital records impossible. Prior to this date, however, many districts in the province of Upper Canada (now the southern part of Ontario) attempted to keep vital records. All non-Anglican and non-Roman Catholic ministers who performed marriages were required to provide their marriage returns to the district peace clerks, and most of these returns were recorded in the 1830s and later. Clicking on the link above gives a good historical outline and research guide for this time period. It also leads to the transcribed records in book and CD formats, which can be purchased, as well as FREE INDEXES of these records.

As I started searching through these indexes for my early Ontario ancestors, I decided to come up with a spreadsheet for these resources to help me track my research. I have made this spreadsheet available to you for your own use at http://tinyurl.com/OntarioVR. If you find your ancestors listed in the indexes, I recommend you purchase the corresponding book(s) at Global Genealogy for more details on the records themselves.

By the way, if you are looking for Ontario vital records after the start of civil registration in 1869, some places where they can be found are Ancestry.ca or the world membership subscription at Ancestry.com. They are also available for free at FamilySearch.org. There are also a number of early records indexes at Library and Archives Canada.

Happy Hunting!

Ancestry.ca Offers Free Access To Drouin Collection of French-Canadian Historical Records

The following announcement comes from Ancestry.ca, the Canadian version of the U.S.'s Ancestry.com. To access this collection free from June 24 - 26, click here.

37 million records spanning 346 years now open to all Canadians in celebration of Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day

Montreal, QC (June 22, 2010) Ancestry.ca, Canada’s leading family history website, today announced that in honour of Saint-Jean-Baptiste Day, it will be offering Canadians three days of free access to the fully searchable indexes for the historic Drouin Collection.  This is the most comprehensive collection of French-Canadian and Quebec historical records in existence,  spanning 346 years from 1621 to 1967.

The indexes include 37 million records in baptism, marriage and burial records, and also a compilation of church records from Ontario, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick and various New England states.

The collection also contains confirmation records which often list the child’s mother’s maiden name, an often hard to obtain family history detail.

In addition to finding one’s own ancestors, the Drouin Collection contains records for many famous French-Canadians, and their ancestors, including Pierre Trudeau, Celine Dion and Henri and Maurice Richard. (original images available)

Family history enthusiasts can also trace their lineage back to the founding families of Quebec and Acadia, which includes that of Zacharie Cloutier, a common ancestor of distant cousins Celine Dion, Madonna and Camilla, Duchess of Cornwall. (Cloutier family tree / original images available)

The Drouin Collection can be searched in French or English by name, date, place, church or institution, and religion.

The History of the Drouin Collection:
From the early 1600s, the Catholic parishes of Quebec kept meticulous records of their members’ baptisms, marriages and burials. The Quebec Government soon required the Catholic Church to provide it with copies of all its records and in doing so became the central holder for Quebec’s vital records.

Joseph Drouin founded The Drouin Genealogical Institute in 1899, using Quebec’s vital records to research and sell family genealogies. His son Gabriel assumed stewardship in 1938, dedicating himself to microfilming and indexing Quebec’s vital records; this important work formed what became the Institute’s principal reference collection.

Many of these original records have been destroyed or lost while access to the remaining documents is nearly impossible, making the microfilmed copies available in the collection rare and valuable.

Recognizing its historical significance, Ancestry.ca secured the right to host the collection online.

Karen Peterson, Managing Director, Ancestry.ca comments: “More than five million Canadians have French ancestry so the Drouin Collection is of huge national relevance, not to mention the significance of the collection to millions of people worldwide that have French-Canadian family ties.”

The Drouin Collection will be free to access from June 24-26.

ABOUT ANCESTRY.CA
Officially Canada’s leading website for family history resources*, Ancestry.ca has 126 million Canadian records in such collections as the complete Historical Canadian Censuses from 1851 to 1916, Ontario and British Columbia vital records from as early as 1813, Quebec vital Records (The Drouin Collection), Canadian Passenger Lists and U.S. / Canada Border Crossings.

Ancestry.ca was launched in January 2006 and belongs to the global network of Ancestry websites (wholly owned by Ancestry.com Operations Inc.), which contains five billion records. To date more than 17 million family trees have been created and 1.7 billion names and 35 million photographs and stories uploaded. (Figures current as of June 1, 2010)

The Ancestry global network of family history websites - www.ancestry.ca  in Canada, www.ancestry.com  in the US, www.ancestry.co.uk  in the UK, www.ancestry.com.au in Australia, www.ancestry.de  in Germany, www.ancestry.it in Italy, www.ancestry.fr in France,  www.ancestry.se  in Sweden and www.jiapu.com in China.

Volunteers Discover Fun Facts Transcribing Historic Canadian Censuses

A FamilySearch News Release:

Volunteers Discover Fun Facts Transcribing Historic Canadian Censuses
Completed Indexes Will Be Free Online

Ontario, Canada—FamilySearch International announced its plans to make the indexes to available Canadian censuses accessible online for free with the help of online volunteer indexers and an agreement with Ancestry.ca. The first censuses completed will be those from 1861, 1871, and 1916. 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.

Famous Canadians in the 1916 Census
What do Art Linkletter, Sir William Samuel Stephenson, and Elvina Fay Wray have in common? They all have ties to one of the three provinces that make up the 1916 Canada Census, and some lucky volunteer may experience the thrill of transcribing their information for the free online index.

1. Arthur Gordon Kelly (Art Linkletter) will be found as a four-year-old child at Moose Jaw, Saskatchewan. He was abandoned as an infant and then adopted and raised by a preacher. He hosted House Party and People Are Funny both on radio and later on newfangled television, and he is best remembered for his interviews with children on the television show Kids Say the Darndest Things. His adoptive parents were Fulton John Linkletter and Mary Metzler.

2. Sir William Samuel Stephenson was a Canadian soldier, airman, businessman, inventor, spymaster, and a British intelligence specialist during World War II. Stephenson is best known by his wartime intelligence codename of Intrepid and is considered by some to be one of the real-life inspirations for James Bond. He was born William Samuel Clouston Stanger, January 23, 1897, in the Point Douglas area of Winnipeg, Manitoba.

3. Elvina Fay Wray was born September 15, 1907, on a ranch near Alberta to Elvina Marguerite Jones and Joseph Heber Wray and will most likely show up as a nine-year old-child in the 1916 census. She made her film debut in Gasoline Love (1923), but it was her lead role in The Wedding March (1928) that made her a star. She became a cult figure after her role in King Kong (1933), as the beauty captured by a giant gorilla.

Getting Involved
Interested volunteers can begin helping immediately by registering online at familysearchindexing.org, downloading the free indexing software, and selecting the 1916 Canada Census project. A digital image of a census page will appear. Volunteers simply type in the data highlighted on the computer screen and save it online. It takes about 30 minutes to complete one census page, and volunteers have a week to complete it if need be. Volunteers only need to be able to read, type, and have Internet access to participate.

“The 1916 census was selected first because it is the most recent and smallest of the three censuses targeted in the first phase. 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.

There are other hidden benefits to volunteering. Volunteers become familiar with historical documents, the valuable stories they can conceal, and their usefulness and application to genealogical research.

Indexers do not need to worry about their skill level at reading censuses. Each census page is transcribed by two different indexers. Any discrepancies between the two entries will be arbitrated by a third indexer. The result is a highly accurate, free index of tremendous value to family history enthusiasts. Young says the more online volunteers that help, the quicker the free census indexes will be available online for all to enjoy and benefit from.

One indexer recently commented, “I am intrigued with how the people come alive for me as I index. I indexed a household . . . containing a family with young children, grandmother, maiden aunt, and a couple of unmarried siblings. They had five servants, and I visualized a well-to-do household; the married son working maybe as a lawyer or doctor, taking care of his extended family. I see both sad and happy stories.”

FamilySearch manages the largest collection of genealogical records worldwide. In 2007 it announced plans to begin digitizing and indexing its collection for broader, online access—starting with popular collections like Canadian censuses. FamilySearch has digitized the 1916 Canada Census and is seeking online volunteers to help create a searchable index for it and other census and non-census Canada projects. The 1861 and 1871 censuses will be next.

Libraries and Archives Canada (LAC) owns and is providing the digital images for the Canada census projects.

1881 Canadian Census Images and Index Launched Online at the Library of Canada

courtesy 3DFlags

In all the excitement of preparing for the Summer 2008 Genea-Blogger Group Games, I noticed a few blog announcements that the Library of Canada has launched the 1881 Canadian Census with index AND images!

With numerous ancestors and relatives appearing in this census, it's taking a lot of self-control not to wander over there while I'm trying to finish up the Opening Ceremonies post! :-)

Daniel J. MacARTHUR and Martha JOHNSON

Source: MacArthur, Daniel J. and Martha Johnson. Photograph. C. 1863. Original photograph believed to be in the possession of Nancy Masten Peugh, Manton, Michigan. 1999.

This is one of my paternal 3rd-great-grandparent couples, Daniel J. MacARTHUR and his wife, Martha JOHNSON. Daniel was born 7 June 1827 in Glengarry Co., Ontario, Canada to first-generation Canadians of Scottish descent. Martha was born 20 October 1844 in Ingham Co., Michigan. Her mother's family, the MASSEYs, brings the only ancestry located south of the Mason-Dixon line to my family tree, from Kent Co., Maryland. This photograph may have been Daniel and Martha's wedding portrait. They were married 27 February 1863, probably in Montcalm Co., Michigan. However, it appears that Martha may be with child, and it is know that their eldest son, Henry A. McARTHUR, was born 11 December 1865 in Clinton Co., Michigan. Since Daniel was serving in the Union Army during the Civil War, it may be that they did not get an opportunity to have a photograph taken until the war was over.

Besides Henry, who died in 1944, Daniel and Martha had six other children: Daniel Thomas (1867 - 1945); Catherine A. "Kate" (1869 - 1956); George Clinton "Clint" (1871 - 1936); my ancestor Mary E. "Mae" (1875 - 1959); William Edward "Will" (1880 - 1973); and Arlie Mae McARTHUR (1884 - 1971).

Daniel served in Company I of the 1st Regiment of Berdan's Sharpshooters out of Michigan. Near the close of the war, he was furloughed due to illness and sent home to recuperate. During that time the war ended, and for whatever reason either he did not report back to his unit or no record was made or kept of his return. At any rate, when he later applied for a veteran's pension, he was denied, although he appealed unsuccessfully several times.

Daniel and his wife and family lived all over the lower peninsula of Michigan, from the northwest to the southeast and every county in between, it seems. I'm still putting together a timeline to show his many residences in chronological order for my research purposes. For most of his life, his occupation was listed as a farmer, except for the time when he was listed as a shoemaker on his daughter Kate's birth record. Martha died in 1897, and Daniel outlived her by 22 years. Although he married late in life (age 35), he lived long enough to see some of his great-grandchildren. He and Martha are buried in the Phillips/Danley/Hill Cemetery, Fulton Twp., Gratiot Co., Michigan.

Locations of my (Scots) Irish Ancestors

I've been lucky enough to know the exact location where my SAYERS family originated in Ireland before they emigrated to Canada in the 1830s. Letterkenny is the largest town in County Donegal, in the province of Ulster, Ireland, and apparently was the home of many Ulster Scots. I've mentioned before that I really haven't done much Irish research on my family, mainly because they lived in Ireland during a period of time for which it is difficult to access records, if they still exist. Many of the records that were kept when the SAYERS lived in Letterkenny were later destroyed, or are only accessed onsite.

I enjoyed reading through Wikipedia's descriptions of the place names I mentioned above. I also did a Google image search for Letterkenny, Donegal and Ulster, and by clicking on these links, you should be able to see some beautiful images as well.

When the SAYERS family came to Canada in the mid-1830s (the family immigrated in several stages over the course of about five years), they settled in Prince Edward County (not to be confused with Prince Edward Island), Ontario, particularly Picton and Athol Township. Some of the siblings and cousins moved into Hungerford Township in Hastings County, while my direct line traveled further to Cavan Township in Durham County and Port Hope in Northumberland County. I'm still studying the rather complicated histories of the locations and residences in which this family lived, backtracking bit by bit over time. As more and more information is available online (I haven't been able to find many resources for these areas at my local library), I've been able to educate myself further. There's much more to learn, and I've been keeping myself occupied with researching these lines after they came to Michigan.

I'd love to have the opportunities to visit all these locations and see the places where my Irish immigrant ancestors lived, worked, and worshiped. Until then, I'll be satisfied in being an armchair traveler using the amazing technology of the Internet!

Meeting a SAYERS Cousin

A couple of weeks ago, I checked my old e-mail address at Juno. I had it for years, and when I switched to Gmail, decided against closing my Juno account, as I had done online genealogy for so many years using that e-mail address. Every few weeks or so, I'll check on it, delete the piles of spam that have accumulated, and find a few messages from people that were unaware of my address change.

One such person was my cousin, Beverly (STRACHAN) STRONG, a fifth cousin, once removed and fellow descendant of William SAYERS, Sr. (1758 - 1860) and his wife, who we believe had the maiden name of GILLESPIE. Scots-Irish they were, from Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland. We know they had at least five children: William, Jr. (Bev's ancestor); Catherine, who married Stephen MARTIN; Henry; Gillespie; and John (my ancestor). We know from a history of the Martin family that some of these Sayers children came from Ireland c. 1830 with a group to the Bay of Quinte and settled in what is now Prince Edward County (not to be confused with P.E. Island), Ontario, Canada. A year or so later, they sent for their widowed father along with wives and children they had left behind in Ireland. Imagine being around 80 years of age, leaving the only home you had known, and boarding a wooden ship in order traverse the stormy Atlantic! Perseverance and luck played out, and William, Senior lived to the ripe old age of 102 before passing away in 1860 in Hungerford Township, Hastings County, Ontario.

William's descendants multiplied, as descendants will do, and today they can be found not only in Ontario, but in Alberta and British Columbia. Some of them crossed the border from Western Canada and resided in Western Washington. My particular ancestors, children of William's son John, headed southwest from Prince Edward County and settled in Muskegon County, Michigan. I've done a great deal of research in Muskegon County vital and cemetery records and found all sorts of branches of the SAYERS and related families, piecing them together and adding them to the family tree that Bev had begun to build.

I connected to Bev years ago (I just checked my files and it was in 1997) through another SAYERS descendant, Marge (DAINARD) McARTHUR, who had seen my information online (probably on a message board) and had called me from B.C. to tell me there was a whole tribe of Sayerses out there! Bev and I, and Marge and I, began corresponding and sharing information in earnest, along with a few other Sayers descendants we picked up along the way. For a while, we had a Sayers Family Website at MyFamily.com that was fairly active, until it became a subscription site (no one wanted to pay the high cost of storing all the family photos on that site).

Bev (my dad's age and generation) and her husband, Ron, were for years directors of their local Family History Center in Alberta. While volunteering there, she went through roll after roll of microfilmed Ontario vital records and extracted names, dates, and places not only of the SAYERS family life events, but also those of other Bay of Quinte ancestors she was researching (DAINARD, WANNAMAKER, WESSELS, McCAMON). She and Marge and quite a few of the Sayers are descendants of many pioneers of this colony; I am not. Bev, out of the kindness of her heart, looked up my WILKINSON surname and extracted what little she could find out of those microfilms for me (William, Senior's granddaughter, Mahala Sayers, was my last Sayers ancestor, and she married John WILKINSON).

A few years ago, Ron and Bev applied to serve a mission for the LDS church, and fortune most certainly smiled upon them, for they were called to do a two-year mission at...the Family History Library in Salt Lake City!!! Now on leave, they are traveling around visiting family and friends, and it was Bev's message in my Juno inbox that I found not long ago, asking if it would be an imposition if they dropped by on Labor Day. Of course I jumped at the chance of finally meeting her after 10 years of correspondence, and I'm so glad we did! What fun we had visiting! Their descriptions of serving in the FHL were truly amazing! The logistics of coordinating thousands of volunteers for the Family History Library and Church history archives must be staggering; yet the FHL runs like a well-oiled machine. As we covered everything from genealogy to the latest matter concerning Ancestry.com, we ended up discussing a topic we had in common: working with the disabled. It seems that the LDS Church accepts their developmentally impaired members for missions as well. Paired up with a non-disabled person, these missionaries are able to contribute to their community and church and help further the cause of genealogy. According to Ron and Bev, the library is also well-equipped to handle disabled patrons, no matter what their needs may be.

After visiting for a few hours, the Strongs took us out to dinner. We had an enjoyable meal together, then wished them well, as they continued their journey. Such a sweet and pleasant couple, so interesting and entertaining...it was nice to make new friends that were also family!

Happy Canada Day!

To my Canadian relatives, friends and readers, I wish a Happy Canada Day!

Flag Image from 3DFlags

My ancestral connections to Canada are as follows:

• My father was born in Edmonton, Alberta while his father and uncle were stationed there with the U.S. Army Air Corps during World War II (back in the day when being born in a U.S. military hospital on foreign soil did not automatically qualify you for American citizenship). Dad became a U.S. citizen when he was 16. When I was a kid, I used to tease him that he could never become the President of the United States. I don't think that was ever a disappointment for him...! Dad also had many Canadian ancestors.
  
• On his father's side, Richard John WILKINSON, b. c. 1815 in Yorkshire, England, immigrated to Canada and lived in what is now Whitchurch, York Co., Ontario. His wife, Mary TERRY, a.k.a. Mary LAMOREAUX, may have been French-Canadian...or she may have been born in New Brunswick...or she may have been born to a Loyalist family from New Jersey. It's one of those vague family stories that I would love to focus on and get documented and clarified!
• Richard and Mary's son John WILKINSON married Mahala SAYERS, who was the daughter of Scots-Irish immigrants, John Henry SAYERS and Mary CAHOON. John SAYER's family came to Athol Township, Prince Edward Co. (not to be confused with Prince Edward Island), Ontario from Letterkenny, County Donegal, Ireland in the mid-1830s, in several trips. Mary CAHOON's father was Preston CAHOON, and our line dead-ends there. John and Mahala (SAYERS) WILKINSON immigrated around 1880 - 1881 to Musekgon County, Michigan along with many of her siblings, thereby missing both the 1880 U.S. Federal Census and the 1881 Canadian Census (they were sneaky like that!). Mahala was alive when her great-grandson Robert Lewis ROBBINS (my paternal grandfather) was born, and he had a few memories of her to share with me.
• On dad's mother's side, her paternal YORK and SWEERS ancestors took advantage of offers of homesteading land that were provided by the Canadian goverment during the early 19th century. We know that the SWEERS family emigrated to Chippewa Creek, Welland County, Ontario from Worcester, Washington County, Vermont in May 1809, and that the YORKs from Bath, Stueben County, New York were there around the same time. This became a problem for these American citizens when the War of 1812 broke out. Ancestor Daniel SWEARS, III, escaped across the Niagara River to join up with a New York regiment. Ancestor Jeremiah F. YORK (Daniel's future son-in-law) and his brother Stephen VanRensselaer YORK were pressed into the 3rd Regiment of the Lincoln Militia of the British army, but also managed to escape to Canadaigua, Cattaraugus County, New York to join Captain Justus P. Spencer's militia there. The SWEERS and YORK families eventually settled in the Town of Clarence, Erie County, New York, and later Atlas Township, Genesee County, Michigan.
• Grandma's paternal great-grandfather, Daniel J. MacARTHUR was born in Glengarry County, Ontario in 1827, a grandson of immigrants from Kenmore, Perthsire, Scotland. He emigrated to Montcalm County, Michigan in the mid-1840s. During the Civil War, he enlisted in Company I of Berdan's Regiment, U.S. Sharpshooters (Michigan), rising to the rank of sergeant. Taking ill within weeks of the close of the war, he returned home on leave, and apparently never reported back for duty, disqualifying him for a veteran's pension years later, although he made several applications.
  
• Grandma's maternal grandfather, Orlando BARBER, was born in Ontario in 1868, and the household is found in Amabel, Bruce County in the 1871 Canadian Census. The family emigrated to Lapeer County, Michigan around 1876. Orlando's father, James, was born "in England" in 1839. His death record gives no clues as to his parentage. Orlando's mother, Elizabeth A. "Betsey" COLE, was born in South Dorchester, Elgin County, Ontario to parents James COLE and Lavina WILLIS who were a first-generation Canadian (James' parents were from Vermont) and a direct immigrant from New York, respectively. It is likely they came to Canada for the same reasons the YORKs and SWEERs did.

My husband has two lines that also hail from Canada:

• His great-great-grandmother, Rachel HUBBY, was born somewhere in Ontario in 1832 to John HUBBY from Scotland and Hannah JONES from New York.
• Henry LYTON was born as George TURK in Ottawa around 1841. He, like 10,000 other Canadian men, immigrated to the U.S. during the Civil War expressly to join the Union forces. He served from Iowa.

So as you can see, Canada may not be my home, or my native land, but it is one of my ancestral homelands!

A WWII Letter from My Grandfather

A couple things I've read lately reminded me that I had a special keepsake: a letter my paternal grandfather wrote his parents during World War II: Becky has been transcribing her letters from boot camp to home; and a reader of Family Tree Magazine recently wrote in response to their February 2007 article "Preserving Memories" that envelopes of letters should be saved, as they often contain vital information to complete what's in the letter.

The letter I have was saved because it mentioned that my grandfather, Robert Lewis Robbins, had frozen his fingers during the service. I'm sure it was used toward obtaining some sort of disability pension from the military. He and his brother, Bill, Jr., signed up together and served in the 1452nd Army Air Force, Air Transport Command. Bob worked as a flight mechanic and achieved the rank of sergeant before he was discharged.

So that you understand some of the people mentioned in the letter: Bob, my grandfather, was married to my grandmother, Jeanne, and they had two children at the time of this letter: two-year-old Louise and 6-month-old Bryan (my dad). My grandfather was the oldest of five siblings; the rest of the family included Bill, Jr., Shirley (not mentioned), Jack, and Joyce. My grandmother, aunt and father were living in Edmonton, Alberta to be near where my grandfather was stationed. Great-uncle Bill was also married to Josephine, a Edmontonian, although she's not mentioned here. The letter was written to Bob's parents, William Bryan ROBBINS, Sr. and Marie LEWIS.

The letter is written in cursive pencil on United States Army Air Forces stationery with a matching envelope. It's addressed from:

Sgt R Robbins 16086708
Sq F, 1452 AAF Base Unit
AIRO 462 c/o P.M. Minn, Minn.

and is addressed to:

Mr & Mrs Wm B Robbins
Coopersville
Michigan

Instead of a stamp, Bob has written "Free" and the faded postmark says "U.S. ARMY POSTAL SERVICE, DEC 23 1944 402"

A note has been scrawled across the front in ink:

Save
Record of Bob freezing
finger en route on flight

Dec 14/44

Dear folks

Am now over the headwaters of the Mississippi in northern Minn. or Dakota heading south. We are going to some place in Ill. to a hospital with a patient we picked up in the Artic [sic] early this morning. I frosted my two thumbs and a couple of fingers last night when we had some mechanical trouble I had to correct in sub-zero temps in a forty mile an hour wind. Just like Michigan. I should be back to our base by this time tomorrow. I can't get back too quick to suit me this time though because Jeanne took Bryan to the hospital with a bad cold day before yesterday. He wasn't very bad but they have so much better facolities [sic] there than we have in one room and they seemed very willing to keep him there for a couple of days. He's such a tiny guy that we hated to have him in someone else's care but as he would be better off we think it's best, at least for a couple of days.

Sure glad to hear Jack is in the Navy. I'm sure he'll get along OK. We'll drop him a line as soon as possible congratulating him. And I do bet it's a relief for you folks. I suppose Bill will be leaving soon, two weeks is all too short to be at home only once a year. We'll soon be coming into Minneapolis now so will finish this later

01:00 o'clock
Dec 23/44

Was just going thru my bag and found this letter that I'd never finished. Bryan is well and home now, he was in the hospital just one week. Am now on my way back to base from a trip to Montana. Which reminds me that I was down here just before or on Christmas day last year too. Jeanne and I have a little tree and we look forward to having a very merry Xmas for our little family. We have all kinds of presents for Louise and Bryan. Say sure thought that turtle that Joyce made was cute and it's a very practical little pillow too. I bet Bryan will spend hours on it. Last week I made Bryan a pottie chair out of an orange crate and I'm just as proud of the design & workmanship as can be. I've been getting to see quite a bit of the family in spite of all my traveling lately. I wish we could all be together for this Christmas, but in our family we're together in mind if not in body so I sincerly [sic] wish each of you still there at home a most merry Christmas and may God bless you all, every one.

Bob

P.S. Bill is back, going strong. he has a new job now no more flying for him, too much rank. Incidentaly [sic] that was Moline, Ill & Davenport Iowa that I was at. Just had a short layover though, and I slept all of those few hours

Happy Flag Day!

Today is Flag Day, a day set aside to honor our national banner and its origins. I hope you will join me in displaying your flag today, and remembering all that it stands for.

Flag Image from 3DFlags

Here are some interesting links:

• Wikipedia's definition of Flag Day in the United States
• Wikipedia's article on Elizabeth "Betsy" (Griscom) Ross
• Flag Etiquette for the United States Flag

I also recommend a great little book I picked up a few years ago at the public library: The Flag, the Poet & the Song: The Story of the Star-Spangled Banner by Irvin Molotsky, published 2001 by Dutton (Penguin Putnam, Inc.), New York. It includes some fascinating, not-so-trivial facts about our flag and its origins, the National Anthem, Francis Scott Key, and the War of 1812. I just picked it up from the library again today for another good read. Here are some facts that I remember reading the first time around:

• The National Anthem should be sung or played at a brisk, martial pace, not slowly. Its tune was an old pub song (modern-day scenario: think of creating a National Anthem to the tune of Toby Keith's I Love This Bar!).
  
• The Star-Spangled Banner that flew over Fort McHenry, which inspired Francis Scott Key, and which is now displayed in the Smithsonian, was made by Mary Pickersgill. It is very likely she had the help of her 13-year-old daughter Caroline, three nieces, a free black woman who worked as a servant in the household, and a slave girl owned by Pickersgill.
• Francis Scott Key, who repeatedly penned the words "the land of the free" in his song, was also a slaveowner.
  
• The British burned the capitol and the White House in Washington, D.C. during the War of 1812 as retaliation for the American destruction of many buildings that housed the provincial government in York (now Toronto), Upper Canada (now Ontario). These included the Parliament Building in York and the Governor's House at Fort York. We Americans are not taught this in our history classes!

Spokane Man Last Living Canadian WWI Veteran

From the Associated Press:

TORONTO, CANADA -- One of the last two Canadian veterans of World War One has died, leaving a man in Spokane, Washington, as Canada's last known surviving veteran of the war.

Dwight Wilson died today in Toronto at age 106.

His death leaves 106-year-old John Babcock of Spokane as the lone remaining Canadian veteran.

Read more here.

One Million Historical Names from Canada Go Online

I received the following e-mail this evening from FamilySearch.org / The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-Day Saints:

FamilySearch News Release

27 March 2007

One Million Historical Names from Canada Go Online

Nova Scotia Releases Early Birth, Marriage, and Death Records

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH-Early vital records of Nova Scotia, Canada, are viewable over the Internet for the first time and for free, thanks to a joint project by the Genealogical Society of Utah, FamilySearchT, and the Nova Scotia Archives and Records Management (NSARM). The records include one million names found in birth records from 1864 to 1877, marriages from 1864 to 1930, and death records from 1864 to 1877 and 1908 to 1955. Users can search the database at www.novascotiagenealogy.com.

Nova Scotia is the first province in Canada to digitize all of its historical vital statistics and make them available online. "This project provides key information to researchers on their ancestors," said Genealogical Society of Utah regional manager Alain Allard. "It involves the vital records-births, marriages, and deaths-which are a key record set to find, identify, and link ancestors into family units."

The Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU) first microfilmed most of Nova Scotia's vital records back in the 1980s. In 2005, GSU used FamilySearch Scanning to convert those microfilms to digital images, while at the same time capturing additional vital records with a specially designed digital camera. Volunteers for the Nova Scotia Archives then used the images to create the searchable electronic index, which was completed in 2006.

Anyone can now search names in the index and view a high quality digital copy of the original image online for free at NSARM's Web site, www.novascotiagenealogy.com. In the near future, the index and images will also be available on FamilySearch.org. Researchers who want to obtain an official copy of a record can do so online through the Nova Scotia Archives. The cost will be CAN$9.95 for an electronic file and CAN$19.95, plus shipping and taxes, for paper copies.

Nova Scotia Provincial Archivist, W. Brian Speirs, said the cooperation of GSU was crucial to this important project. "Without the Genealogical Society of Utah offering in the early days of the project to provide complimentary digitization of all the records as their contribution to the initiative, the proposed undertaking would have been dead in the water and gone nowhere," Speirs said.

FamilySearch is the public channel of the Genealogical Society of Utah (GSU), a nonprofit organization sponsored by The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. FamilySearch maintains the world's largest repository of genealogical resources accessed through FamilySearch.org, the Family History Library in Salt Lake City, and over 4,500 family history centers in 70 countries.

Another Busy Weekend

This is the second of three busy genealogical weekends for me, so I'm doing a quick summary:

• *At our local LDS Genealogy Conference yesterday, I taught two classes twice: "County Genealogy Websites" and "Finding Volunteer (or Low-Cost) Researchers Online." Attendance was great at the conference; they were expecting 400 people, and I'm sure they exceeded it. Ugo Perego of Sorenson Molecular Genealogy Foundation was superb as our keynote speaker, and I participated in the free DNA sample project. I was able to meet fellow blogger Amy Crooks of Untangled Family Roots as well! There were many members of EWGS in attendance, as well as several people from the Online Genealogy classes I've taught through the Community College of Spokane, and even a co-worker who I invited from the middle school where I am employed. I'll have to blog more about this conference later.
  
• *I received the EWGS quarterly, The Bulletin (March 2007 issue), full of terrific articles as always. Found a couple of links to sites of interest.
• *I also received the May 2007 issue of Family Tree Magazine. Haven't had time to read it, but have glanced at a few interesting titles. I see Lisa Alzo has an article on Polish research.
• *One of my former Online Genealogy students e-mailed me with a question regarding how to properly use "dit" names (French-Canadian nicknames or aliases). I found some great answers at Genealogy.com; it was a learning experience for me, and has me wondering about my 4th-great-grandmother, Mary (LAMOUREAUX, also known as TERRY) WILKINSON, about whom I blogged earlier. Could she be French-Canadian? LAMOUREAUX is so very French. Is TERRY a dit name?
• *As a member of the Computer Class Education committee for EWGS, it's my duty to e-mail (or call) all those who've signed up for the computer classes with a reminder one week before class. I realized next Saturday is St. Patrick's Day, and the parade route and number of people downtown will definitely impact driving and parking, so gave a warning and a link to the parade map to help out fellow members with planning and parking alternatives.
• *We're getting ready to have some family time this evening. My husband's brother and sister-in-law have picked up a pizza from Costco to feed their youngest and our two kids (all teens) while they take Norm and I out for dinner to celebrate our March birthdays (his the 6th, mine the 19th). After dinner, we'll all head over to their place for dessert and birthday time and to call Norm's sister who lives on the West Side of the state to wish her happy birthday as well.

Ontario, Canada Vital Records at Ancestry

I have the feed to Joe Beine's blog on my Google home page (along with feeds from many of my favorite blogs), and I noticed yesterday that he had a new post entitled "Online Canada Death Records Indexes." I discovered that not only were the death records indexes for Ontario available at Ancestry.com, but so were Ontario birth and marriage records indexes. Where have I been?

I have no idea when these databases were added to Ancestry, so that's what I love about Joe's blog. It highlights new online databases, links of which are posted at his website. For someone like me who can be very easily overwhelmed by visual clutter, this blog is a godsend. Whenever I try to find out what's new at Ancestry, it's too hard for me to process all the information available on their "What's New" page. Besides, Ancestry isn't the only kid on the block. Joe's easy-on-the-eyes blog and website have links simply categorized from all over the web.

I was very excited to find birth, marriage, and death records for many of my SAYERS, WILKINSON, and SWEERS (SWEARS) kin in Ontario. I wasn't as successful with my BARBER, COLE, and McARTHUR (MacARTHUR) searches, probably because I didn't have enough information to do a specific search, and/or the records I needed were too early for registration. At long last, I believe I found a death record for my 4th-great-grandmother, Mary (TERRY) WILKINSON (or was her maiden name LAMOREAUX?...I have documents that support both as her maiden name). Here's a snippet of her death record from Markham Village, York County, Ontario:

For a full-size view, click here.

If you've got Canadian ancestors in Ontario from 1858 to 1932, I recommend you visit Ancestry. And no matter from where your ancestors hailed, I definitely recommend you visit Joe!

Research Log - LYTON / TURK research

Received an obituary for Emma Alice (LYTON) CHAPLIN from Christine Gray, RAOGK volunteer for Multnomah Co., Oregon. There wasn't a lot of new information, with the exception of the fact that she had two great-great-grandchildren living when she died. Emma's father was Henry LYTON, a Civil War soldier who had immigrated from Canada to serve in the Union. His real name was George TURK, and for some reason which is not quite clear, assumed the name Henry LYTON.

My Hubby's HUBBYs

Clarence Cassler did a good deed for me by photographing several HUBBY graves in the Hull Cemetery in Luther, Boone Co., Iowa. These included the shared headstone for my husband's 3rd-great-grandparents, John HUBBY, Sr. and wife, Hannah JONES. A unique feature is that on their headstone it reads "born in New York" for Hannah, and "born in Canada" for John. Would that all our ancestors be so considerate as to list their birthplaces on their tombstones!

February News

Wow, I can't believe it's been a whole month since I last blogged! I can tell you, though, it has not been a whole month since I did any genealogy! I manage to do something, genealogically speaking, each and every day. I just don't always get the time to sit down at my computer and blog about it. I have timed myself, and it takes about one hour to create a post, from start to finish. Some of it is my slow computer, some has to do with the time it takes to think about what I'm writing, the actual writing itself, the editing and revising process (including adding hyperlinks), and finally, the posting followed by a quick review.

Here are some of the events, activities, and research I've done this past month, to give an idea of how genealogy fits into my everyday life:

• nearly every day this month, I have posted a burial to Find A Grave, either from my local newspaper's obituary section, or from one or more of my three genealogy databases
• on Saturday, February 4th, I attended the monthly Eastern Washington Genealogical Society meeting. Not only do I attend as a regular member, but I am involved in the Ways and Means Committee (fundraising), selling raffle tickets and merchandise at each meeting. This month's meeting featured Tim Harper, the EWGS's webmaster speaking about the society's website and mailing list. He then asked three members (one of which was myself) to talk about their family tree websites, giving some details about what kind of program they used, and what type of information is presented on their website. You can view my website here.
• after the meeting, I shared with another member that I design personal family history websites, and she asked me to build one for her. I referred her to the website I designed for Oleo Publishing as an example of my work.
• on Monday, the 6th, I taught the last segment of my Winter Quarter Online Genealogy class for the Institute for Extended Learning. I really enjoyed this group of students, and look forward to seeing them at other local genealogy events in the future!
• on Thursday, the 9th, I went to my local Family History Center and attempted to find a birth record for my great-great-grandmother, Mary J. Wilkinson. I had rented the transcribed Northumberland County, Ontario, Canada Birth Records on microfilm. She was not listed in the records, but I did find one for her brother, John. I may try finding her in church records next.
  
• on Friday, February 17th, I went to my local Family History Center, and looked at some more microfilms I recently rented. I found the birth record of my great-great-grandmother, Mary "Mae" E. McArthur, who was born in Washington Township, Gratiot County, Michigan. I also found a birth record for her younger sister, Arlie. I could not find her sister Catherine's birth record. However, Catherine's birth was recorded in neighboring Clinton County Birth Records book, with the location of her birth given as "Gratiot County." I am also missing brother Will's birth record. I will take another look at a later time, since I am still waiting for the microfilm of the birth records index to come in. It should make finding the records I'm seeking easier.
• Saturday, the 18th, I visited the downtown branch of the Spokane Public Library. First I went to the genealogy room and looked up some Washington death records in the Washington State Death Index. I was looking for death certificate numbers. One of these days, I am going to the Family History Center in the south part of the county to view their old Washington death certificates on microfilm. They are listed in certificate number order, though, so it is necessary to have those numbers before I drive all that way. After finding my information, I took a free computer class offered to EWGS members. This month's class was presented by Donna Potter Phillips, and was an interesting tutorial about Ancestry.com. Even though I knew most of the information Donna presented, I did learn a couple of new things about the website. That's why it's so important to go to every genealogy class you can get to (especially if it's free)! There is always something to learn!
  
• nearly every time I visit my local Family History Center, I look up records for others around the country (and around the world) who may not have access to them. I am listed as a volunteer with Random Acts of Genealogical Kindness, Find A Grave, and Books We Own.
  
• over Presidents' Day weekend, I went to a local cemetery and took photos for someone who requested them through Find A Grave. While there, I found the urn of a former neighbor, and also took photos of my sister-in-law's family members buried there.
• on Saturday, the 25th, I contacted a person who is interested in my Spring Quarter Online Genealogy class. It is always exciting to look ahead to the next one! I so enjoy getting others interested in researching their family trees!
• Also on Saturday, I met with two ladies from the EWGS Ways and Means Committee. We talked about upcoming fundraisers, especially for the October workshop.
  
• Sunday, the 26th, my desktop e-mail program (Juno) crashed. I am frustrated with myself for not keeping a better backup, because this has happened before...twice, as a matter of fact. I had 140 messages in my Inbox, most of which were genealogy messages. I also had over 100 e-mail addresses in my address book. Most of those addresses I do have stored elsewhere. I did attempt back up of Juno, but have not been successful in getting the program to open. I may need to reinstall the software, and try again. If you have e-mailed me recently and have not received a response, please try again. Currently, I am accessing new e-mail online, without any problems whatsoever.
• over the weekend, I went to the public library and brought home some issues of Smart Computing. This is such a great computer magazine...written without all the techno lingo for ordinary people. There is all kinds of technology help, software and website reviews (including those for genealogy), tips, tricks, and general information. Everyone in the household loved the magazines, including my 15- and 12-year-old kids. We liked it so much, we decided to get a two-year subscription. We're not impulse shoppers, and try to be pretty frugal when it comes to subscriptions. After all, if the library has it available, why should we pay for our own? We realized that having this magazine around the home 24/7/365 would be a great resource, especially if we're having computer problems and can't get online to solve them. One of the many perks of this subscription is that we can access the archives of four other major computer magazines online. Genealogy and computers go hand-in-hand so well these days, you can't research your family tree without some knowledge of PCs and the Internet!

There you have it: a month in the life of a family historian! This of course, does not include the many activities and responsibilities I have as a wife, mother, homemaker, employee, and school volunteer! Although I'm busy, I wouldn't have it any other way. It's what puts the joie in my vivre!

Henry Lyton...or George Turk?

My sister-in-law called me last night to tell me of a discovery she'd made. She did a search for our husbands' ancestor, Henry Lyton (c. 1841 - 1874) at Ancestry.com, and had come up with a listing in the Civil War Pension Index for his name. We know him as the 3rd-great-grandfather who came from Canada to the U.S. to fight for the Union during the Civil War. Well apparently, Henry Lyton was a pseudonym. His real name was George Turk, and he fought with a Michigan Engineers unit during the war.

Diane did a bit more searching, found a Turk family website, and contacted someone listed there. Guess I'll be updating my husband Norm's database with much more, corrected, information soon, on this Lyton...er, Turk, line.