52 Ancestors: Week 45- Society Blue Books Online

The Week 45 prompt for 52 Ancestors is "Rich Man". One of the odd quirks of high society in Canada are the "Blue Books". These publications listed a "who's who" of the wealthy. Not only that, it listed their seasonal residences, their affiliations, and what days they would "receive visitors". Now, I don't come from wealthy ancestors. In spite of that, or maybe because of that, I find these publications fascinating.

It does not only list the heads of households, but the whole family. As an added bonus you also get maiden names of the wives.

Here's a sample entry:

Now if you noticed beside "Clubs" it's a series of numbers. At the bottom of the page it tells you to look at pages 179 to 206 for the club codes. You'll also notice that each member of the family has their affiliations listed. So to look at our example above, Mrs. Addison and Dorothy Addison belong to club 23. Mr. Frederick Addison belong to two clubs: 12 and 64. By looking at the club pages, I found that those numbers coincide with:

• 12 is the Canadian Club of Toronto
• 23 is the Imperial order of Daughters of the Empire
• 64 is the Toronto Board of Trade

Now the club section itself is a good read all on its own. Some entries just show the club name. But some list the Board or Executives as well. And some also provide membership lists. That can be handy, especially if you're trying to connect families together. 

They also contained ads. If your ancestor owned a business that catered to the wealthy, you'll also want to check these out. Here's ads for the King Edward Hotel and the Hooten Chocolate Company Ltd.

Canadiana, as always, is a good place to start looking for these books. I trolled their collection and compiled some links for you of what they have:

• Foster's blue book, or, Ladies' directory of Toronto : Second Edition (1900)
• The Torontonian Society Blue Book and Club List. 1921, 1935, 1939 and 1946 
• Foster's Toronto blue book and home directory 1898
• The Victoria home journal - 154 issues. Though not a Blue Book, it focused on news, gossip, and advertisements for Victorian BC high society. 
• The Toronto and Hamilton society blue book c.1902
• The elite directory of Vancouver c.1908
• The national encyclopedia of business and social forms 1882? - a nifty little guide on penmanship, etiquette, and moving in middle class and high society

Internet Archive is another great online source:

• The Society blue book of Toronto and Hamilton 1910
• The Society blue book of Toronto and Hamilton 1906
• The Society blue book of Toronto and Hamilton 1911
• The Society blue book, Toronto : a social directory 1920
• Dau's society blue book for Montreal, Ottawa and Quebec 1905-1906
• The Society blue book, Toronto: a social directory 1913
• The Society Blue Book of Toronto, Hamilton and London. A Social Directory 1904-05
• The Society Blue Book of Toronto, Hamilton and London. A Social Directory 1908
• Torontonian society blue book and club list : a social and club directory. --1921
• The Elite directory of Vancouver [microform] 1908
• The Society blue book, Toronto and Hamilton: a social directory 1902

Memorial University of Newfoundland's Digital Archives have several editions of Who's Who and Why. While these are not strictly blue books, they do have some great biographical and genealogical information in them.

• Newfoundland who's who 1952
• Newfoundland who's who 1961: a pictorial and biographical record of outstanding Newfoundland personalities
• Newfoundland who's who : Centennial edition 1967-1968
• Who's who : Newfoundland Confederation celebration 1949-1975 Silver Anniversary edition
• Who's who and why in Canada (and in Newfoundland): a biographical dictionary of eminent living Canadians and notable men of Newfoundland, volume 1, 1912
• Who's who and why: a biographical dictionary of men and women of Canada and Newfoundland, volume 5, 1914
• Who's who and why: a biographical dictionary of men and women of Canada and Newfoundland, volumes 6 and 7, 1915-1916
• Who's Who In and From Newfoundland 1927
• Who's Who in and from Newfoundland 1930
• Who's Who In and From Newfoundland 1937

Some other sources to look at are:

• Public libraries
• Municipal Archives
• Provincial Archives
• Campus libraries. You never know what you're going to find in a University or College Library. What's available at Memorial University above is a prime example.

52 Ancestors: Week 44 - Cooking with The Nova Scotia Archives

The Week 44 prompt for 52 Ancestors is "Trick or Treat". If you're like me, the word treat makes me think of the special desserts you only get to eat during special family get-togethers. So, for this post I decided to highlight a recent edition to the Nova Scotia Archives digital holdings.

The new online database What's Cooking? Food, Drink and the Pleasures of Eating in Old-Time Nova Scotia is sure to be a hit with foodies and non foodies alike.

https://novascotia.ca/archives/cooking/default.asp

The Archives have put together an impressive collection of recipes and food history in the province. They've not only looked through their own holdings, but those of other institutions. They've even included a handy guide to help you interpret what some of the old ingredients and measurements mean in today's terms. You can zoom in and out on each image if you having trouble reading them. There is no way to download the recipes to your computer, unfortunately. However, you can try taking a screen shot and saving the image that way. A Google search can gives you several different programs that can do this. They've broken the collection down into several sections:


Short History
This section gives some background on the diet and cooking methods of Nova Scotians. They start with the very first French settlers that came with Samuel de Champlain, and discuss Acadians, Planters, and up to the twentieth century. As the section title suggests, it is not in depth, but it's a good read none the less.


Collected Recipes
The Archives has found and digitized 1096 recipes. The ones I looked at were all handwritten. They cover all kinds of cooking. I saw recipes for meat, for preserving, and for desserts. Some are instantly recognizable, such as Cornish Pasties. Other have exotic sounding names such as Mangaroo Pudding, which turns out to be a kind of sponge cake dessert. All the recipes are over 100 years old. You can see many of the cultural influences in them. It is a reflection of the early French, UK, and Prussian immigrants that settled the province. Here's a sampling of a few I found:

• Whip Sillybub?, Carrot Pudding
• Chicken Liver, Partridge Saute
• Lemon Cream, Julia's Muffins, "Try Them" Pancakes
• Roman Chicken
• Fish Pudding, Macaroni Croquets

Uniacke Family Recipes
This collection is further sub divided:

• Handwritten Recipe Book with the Initials R.J. - The initials are believed to belong to Rosina Jane Uniacke (1808-1858). Rosina was the wife of the Commissioner of Crown Lands and Attorney General of Nova Scotia, James Boyle Uniacke.
• A Collection of Recipes - Various recipes found among the Uniacke material in the Nova Scotia Museum
• A Collection of Recipes - Handwritten recipes from Dr. Carlin's  Last Receipte Book and Household Physician
• Numbered Recipes from the Uniacke Family - among the traditional recipes are also household remedies. I found ones for toothache and making soap
• A Collection of Recipes - This subset are attached to Geraldine Uniacke

Digitized Cookbooks

The Archives have digitized 17 cookbooks that were published between 1820 and 1950. Just click on a particular cookbook. You can then look at each one page by page. The titles are:

• The Nova-Scotia Almanack (1820)
• Cape Breton hand-book and tourist's guide compiled by E. Lockett, North Sydney and Sydney (1890)
• Church of England Institute receipt book by Mrs. William (Mary) Lawson and Miss Alice Jones (1888)
• Elementary text-book of cookery by Helen N. Bell (1898)
• Farmers' Milk Facts for Halifax by Farmers' Limited, Halifax 
• Kent Vinegars Recipe Book and Household Hints (c.1950)
• Kitchen army nutrition and receipt book by Sydney Nutrition Committee (c. 1943)
• The LaHave Cook Book by The Managers' Auxiliary of St. John's Church, Bridgewater, N.S. (1912)
• One Hundred Recipes from Domestic Science School, Halifax, N.S. (1906)
• The First Bite: Tasty Recipes from Holsum Bread by Ben's Bakery 
• The Art of Cooking Made Easy by Hattie & Mylius, Limited, Wholesale Druggist, Halifax
• The Bedford Recipe Book by The Ladies of All Saints Church Guild (1910)
• The modern cook book for Nova Scotia and Prince Edward Island
• Tried and true: A handbook of choice cooking recipes by S.J. Sims and B.E. Hills (1902)
• Grand-Pre Cook Book by Ladies' Aid of the Grand Pre United Church (1939)
• Grand Pre cook book by Ladies Aid of the Grand Pre United Church (1940)
• Favorite Recipes (1940)

Along with meal recipes, you can also find household tips.

Newspaper Supplements

This section has 4 booklets that were added as supplements to newspapers:

• Wartime Economy Book of Recipes for 1945 (Supplement to the 10 April 1945 Halifax Herald and Halifax Mail) - This contains the winners from a contest of over 8000 submissions
• In "Letters to the Editor", Dorothy Sparling, Sydney, gave a number of African American recipes (February 1973 edition of Grasp) - The first page is a letter to the editor from Dorothy Sparling, highlighting recipes of African Nova Scotians
• Cooking in Nova Scotia No. 1 (Supplement to the 20 February 1975 of the 4th Estate) - Reader submissions of recipes
• An Indian Cookbook by The Native Communications Society of Nova Scotia (supplement to the February 1977 Micmac News) - Recipes and remedies from the Native Community

Like the cookbook section, just click on a particular supplement and you can browse page by page

Virtual Exhibit

This section has an eclectic collection of visual images from around the province. There are 113 items in total. There are posters, diagrams, and photos. Some of the more interesting items I found among the collection are:

• Diagram on how the dishes will be arranged at the Halifax Queen's Ball in 1795
• A picture of employees peeling potatoes for canned chowder in the Frank E. Davis Fish Plant in 1951
• A picture of Bennett Comeau, harvesting potatoes from his garden in 1950

Moirs Limited

This landmark company started out as a bakery in 1830, and through the generations expanded into making chocolate and candy. Those iconic Pot of Gold chocolate boxes were just one of their creations. This collection has 122 recipes from the candy and chocolate side of the business. The Achives does warn that these recipes are for mass production. Some of them even include the Piece work rates for the workers in the factory. Among the recipes:

• Fresh made Creams
• XXX Gingerale
• Molasses Taffy
• Fresh made Vanilla Caramels

Lobster Labels
You can't think of Nova Scotia without thinking of lobsters. Perhaps it's because the province has been shipping lobsters around the world since the 1800's. According to the Archives, the first commercial cannery opened in Yarmouth in 1830. This section has a selection of the various labels that have been used by the commercial canneries through the years. Most even have recipes included. You can find recipes for salads, stews, appetizers, and even a lobster curry.


Modern Method
In this section the Archives team have converted 6 recipes using modern methods and conversions. They were kitchen and taste tasted. Just click on the digital image of the recipe you want to try. You'll get a modern translation of the recipe. The recipes are:

• Molasses Gingerbread c.1818-1886
• Composition Cake c.1828
• Doughnuts, Cornwall Cake  c.1830
• Apple Cake c.1830
• A Light Spice Cake, Excellent Tea Cake, Hamlets, Christmas Plum Cake, Rice Fruit Pudding, Beautiful Cake c.1874
• Nova Scotia Almanak- A Common Cake 1820

52 Ancestors: Week 43 - Looking at Railway History with Old Time Trains

Week 43 of 52 Ancestors has the prompt "Transportation". The biggest influence in Canada's history is the railway. I decided this post to look at a great site I stumbled upon called Old Time Trains. If you have a railway ancestor, you'll want to check this site out. Even if you don't, you may still want to look at it. The promise of a railway helped persuade British Columbia to become part of Confederation. The railways brought new homesteaders to the Prairies. The rail connected isolated areas of the provinces to city centers. You can be sure that in some way the railroads of Canada touched on part of your ancestors' lives.

Old Time Trains has been around for 20 years. It seeks to be a one stop shop about Canada's rail history. It's last update was just this month, so the site is very current. It covers the history of the railroad across the country.

http://www.trainweb.org/oldtimetrains/index.html

What's New
This section gives updates on new submissions and corrections. It looks like it is updated on the first of every month.


Articles
This section has articles, advertisements, photographs, and documents relating to all aspects of rail transportation. Most date back to the early to mid 1900's. A few interesting examples I found were:

• A time table for the Lindsay, Ontario train station from Oct 19 1923. The conductors and engineers are listed. This train station no longer exists.
• A "family tree" of all the small railroad companies that eventually all came together to become the CNR
• An article from 1915 detailing the CPR extension to Lake Louise, Alberta

Stories

This section contains personal memories of trains and train travel. Many of these are the memories of railway workers. These could give you an insight into your own ancestor's working life. Take a look at:

• The Way It Was - The daily routine of a roundhouse foreman
• CPR Chipman-Norden NB. Talking to some of the last workers of steam locomotives on this New Bunswick rail line.
• A link to the website "The Last Days Of Steam" This website shares the life stories of brakeman A. B. Peden in 1950's Winnipeg 

Archives

An amazing collection of digital images of all kinds of memorbilia. I found posters, ticket stubs, and time tables to name a few. It's worth taking a look at. Some of the more unusual things I found:

• The printing plate for a 100 pound sterling railway bond
• Toronto fireman Ray Bossi's trip ticket book
• A copy of the Rules and Regulations for CPR employees from 1890

Photographs

A nice little section of photos of trains, buildings and images of advertisements. There's a really neat collection of old bank notes. I had no idea that there used to be a $25 dollar bill!

Preservation

A small collection of photos and articles about some of the projects to preserve old railway cars.

Library

If you want to find out more about certain aspects of Canadian rail history, you can purchase these books from various vendors:

• Cape Breton Railways: An Illustrated History by Herb MacDonald
• Narrow Gauge Through the Bush by Rod Clarke
• Sudbury Electrics and Diesels by Dale Wilson
• The Canadian Steam Power Catalog from the York Central Railway
• JBC Visuals Colour Postcards
• On Track: The Railway Mail Service in Canada by Susan McLeod O'Reilly
• Canadian Pacific in Southern Ontario (Volume One) by W.H.N. Rossiter

Links

Links to other sites that deal with Canadian Railway History. I found links to sites right across Canada. If you can't find what you're looking for on Old Time Trains, there's sure to be something on these other sites to pique your interest.

Old Time Trains

This section details the preservation efforts of the group in restoring rail cars.

Contact Us

Gives the contact email for communicating with the website. They welcome comments and submissions for the site. If you can't find what you're looking for on the site, they suggest you email them with your questions.

52 Ancestors: Week 42 - Finding Early Immigration Records at the LAC

Week 42's prompt is "adventure". I can think of no bigger adventure for someone than starting a new life in another country. So for this post I decided to look at one of the immigration databases on Library and Archives Canada's website, Immigrants Before 1865. There was no regulated system of recording immigration to Canada before 1865, and today there is only a hodge podge of surviving records. The LAC has put what they have together into one database on their website.

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/immigrants-before-1865/Pages/introduction.aspx

By clicking on List of Records it will expand out showing a chart. The records making up the database are:

1. List of the persons transported from Rotterdam to Nova Scotia on the ANN 1750
2. Lists of emigrants transported from Rotterdam to Nova Scotia on the SPEEDWELL, GALE, MURDOCK and PEARL 1751
3. List of Swiss embarked in Rotterdam for Nova Scotia aboard the GALE 1751
4. Lists of persons leaving various ports in the United Kingdom bound for various ports in North America 1774-1775
5. List of Loyalists bound for Halifax on board the CLINTON 1784
6. German settlers from New York in Markham Township, Upper Canada 1793-1808
7. Declarations of aliens in Lower Canada (mostly from the United States) 1794-1811
8. Emigrants leaving Fort William, Scotland, for Pictou, Nova Scotia, on board the ships SARAH and DOVE 1801
9. List of passengers forwarded from Lachine to Selkirk’s Baldoon Settlement in Kent County, Ontario 1804
10. List of the crew and passengers on board the ship CLARENDON of Hull, England, bound for Charlottetown 1808
11. Documents concerning mostly the Red River Settlement and the conflict with the Hudson’s Bay Company, with some records relating to the Baldoon and Grand River Settlements and Prince Edward Island 1811-1823
12. List of settlers in the Island of Cape Breton 1813
13. List of settlers enrolled for Canada, sailing aboard the ATLAS, DOROTHY, BALTIC MERCHANT and ELIZA 1815
14. Settlers arrived at Quebec from England aboard the ATLAS, DOROTHY and BALTIC MERCHANT 1815
15. List of inhabitants of the Island of Guernsey who wish to emigrate to British North America 1816
16. Lists of persons who emigrated from the British Isles to Canada 1817-1831, 1849
17. Immigrants from Great Britain and Ireland proceeding to Canada via New York, whose passes were signed by the British Consul 1817-1819
18. Petition of John Banfield requesting land in Simcoe County, Ontario, for intended immigrants from the Scilly Islands 1819
19. Lists of persons leaving Scotland bound for Upper Canada on board the GEORGE CANNING, DAVID, EARL OF BUCKINGHAMSHIRE and COMMERCE 1821
20. State of Swiss settlers in the Red River 1822
21. ecords relating to Peter Robinson settlers in Eastern Ontario. Lists of Irish passengers on board the ALBION, AMITY, BRUNSWICK, ELIZABETH, FORTITUDE, JOHN BARRY, REGULUS, RESOLUTION, STAR and STAKESBY 1823-1844
22. Archibald McNab Papers: Correspondence and lists of settlers in McNab Township, Renfrew County, Ontario 1825-1842
23. Lists of passengers aboard ships BRITANNIA, WARRIOR, LIVELY, HARMONY and DANIEL O’CONNELL bound for Quebec after clearing customs 1832, 1840, 1842
24. Lists of immigrants from Londonderry County, Ireland, that were contained in the original Ordnance Survey records. From various parishes to ports in Canada and the United States. 1833-1836
25. Lists of emigrants on board the KINGSTON from Liverpool to settle in Hull Township, Lower Canada 1834
26. Returns of destitute at Prescott, Ontario 1835
27. Lists of emigrants from Kettlestone and Heacham parishes, Norfolk County, England 1836
28. List of immigrants with capital who arrived at Kingston, Ontario 1840
29. Lists of settlers in the records of James Allison, emigrant agent at Montreal 1842, 1847
30. Naturalization certificates 1846-1849
31. Lists of emigrant orphans in Montreal and Quebec City 1847
32. Agricultural questionnaires answered in 1853 by some immigrants in Canada West (Ontario) who had arrived between 1791 and 1848. Only 41 questionnaires survived. 1853
33. Most of the documents are accounts submitted by teamsters and boat captains who provided inland transportation by wagon or boat to indigent immigrants. The person providing the transportation would submit the account to the government emigrant agent for reimbursement. There are also a few vouchers and receipts for other services provided, such as the delivery of provisions or the burial of deceased indigent immigrants. 1843-1854

The first thing you are going to do is to search the database to find if your ancestor is listed. Because you'll need to go back and forth from the main information screen, you'll want to open the search screen in a new window. Just right click on Search:Database, and select "open link in a new tab".

In the search screen, you have the option of searching by any or all of

• Surname
• Given Name(s)
• Year of Immigration
• Keyword

I decided to look for one of my more common surnames, Douglas. I received several results, as I suspected I would. The very first entry is for a "Widow Douglass" 

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/immigrants-before-1865/Pages/list.aspx?Surname=douglas&

I decided to look at her. I clicked on the Item Number on the left of her name and this came up

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/immigrants-before-1865/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=3096&

Since no PDF image is attached, I will have to check the main page's chart. Using the information from here, I then went back to the main page and looked on the chart for the record set that is part of the Department of Finance fonds. It turns out it is the last record set. Luckily this set is digitized.

According to the information for the Widow Douglass, she went from Toronto to Bondhead. Her passage was paid by the Emigration Service Fund. Her record is on page 315. I clicked on pages 291 to 343 on the main page above. A PDF opened in a new window. Document 315 is an account of payment to teamster Arthur Clifton for delivering indigent immigrants between July 3 and 10, 1845

According to the document, she traveled with several other people on July 7 1845 to Bondhead. She has five family members traveling with her.

Some results have images right in the search results file. Here is one for a J. Douglas:

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/immigrants-before-1865/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=17201&

This is a letter of thanks written to James Allison. The owner of the vessel Boiver of Stratham was charging a Poll Tax to the passengers. James Allison seems to have paid the tax for them. As you can see, there are two PDF files attached. The first I could open no problem, but there's no J. Douglas written there. The second link, however, came up not available. So I went back to the main page and found the Neilson Collection, Records of James Allison fonds. I clicked on the microfilm number and it took me to the Heritage site. I scanned through the images to find 146A/147. That page was the same as shown above. So I went to the next page and found where J. Douglas fit into the letter. There's actually 2 men signing the letter named J. Douglas, a Junior and a Senior:

http://heritage.canadiana.ca/view/oocihm.lac_reel_c15773/795?r=0&s=4

Though it looks like digital images can be accessed for most of the records, there are a few that no images are available online. You have to the option of visiting onsite, or you can order a copy of the record. Scroll to the bottom of the database's main information page for the link to order copies. The LAC also gives these research tips on their site:

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/immigration/immigration-records/immigrants-before-1865/Pages/introduction.aspx