Saskatchewan Ancestors: The Greystone Yearbooks Online at the University of Saskatchewan Archives

Yearbooks are a fun way to find out about your ancestor's academic life. If your ancestor attended or worked at the University of Saskatchewan between 1912 and 1969, then you're in luck. The University has digitized their yearbooks for these years on their website.

The collection is called Student Yearbooks Online, 1912-1969. Digitized from microfilms, the images follow the yearbooks through its various name changes and formats

• From 1913 to 1920, the April edition of the University's newsletter The Sheaf was the graduation edition and served as a yearbook.
• 1921 a stand alone yearbook was published, called The Spectrum.
• 1922/1923 - published as The Keystone
• 1924-1926 - published as US
• 1927 - 1969 - published as The Greystone

I looked through the years and the yearbooks are really not much different than the yearbooks I remember from my own school years. Faculty pictures, student pictures and bios, and extracurricular activities are all featured. As to be expected, the early years have quite formal pictures. 

Here's a couple of student bios from the very first graduating class of 1912

Here's a neat one from the 1920 yearbook. I always get excited to see an ancestor's signature.

Another unexpected find. A tribute to a student who died in WWI from the 1917 yearbook.

Don't forget the faculty. Here's the deans from 1937.

Extra curricular activities are a huge part of any academic life. Here's the badminton and cross country teams from 1956.

As the years progress, the pictures start becoming more candid. Here's some of the pictures taken at a dance after an awards banquet in 1964

Lastly, don't forget the advertisements. Here's some from the 1943 yearbook

The images in the collection are fairly clear. The website does warn that there may be missing pages and low quality images, due to the conditions at time of the original microfilming. Also, take note of these other caveats:

• Due to privacy restrictions, later years won't have individual student photos and bios of the graduating class. Once a year book has passed the 92 year benchmark, they will also become available online. I looked and as of today, student bios and pictures are available up to 1927. However, there are still group photos from extra curriculars. You might still find your ancestor among those.
• There is no zoom function. This can make the site a little clunky to use, but it's not terrible.
• There is no ability to print. However, just right click on the image and save the page as a picture. Then you can use your computer's capabilities to crop and manipulate how you like.

Manitoba Ancestors: Issues of "The Commercial" on Canadiana

Records for your ancestor's personal life are the back bone of genealogy research. Looking into their professional life can be harder. If they were in public service, such as law or politics, there are many sources that are a matter of public record. Business owning ancestors don't leave as much behind. Of course, if your connection is to the Christies, Redpaths, Molsons, Bombardiers, or Ganongs, then no problem. These iconic Canadian business families have mention everywhere. But what if your ancestor was a smaller business owner? If they lived in Manitoba in the late 1800's, then you should look through the pages of The Commercial. You can find over 1000 issues on Canadiana. Geared toward business owners, they stated that they were "A journal devoted to the financial, mercantile and manufacturing interests of the Canadian North-west."

The journal ran from 1882 to 1922. Canadiana has issues up to 1903. The main body of the journal is filled with articles that talk about market trends and news of interest to business and industry owners. It was a fore runner to industry magazines you see today like Canadian Business Magazine. They may not be the most interesting reading for someone not in, say, the business of selling farm machinery. But, these articles can give you an insight into the working world of your ancestor. These outside factors can tell you why they changed careers, sold their business, or why their business prospered when others didn't. For instance, there is a rather scathing article admonishing The Montreal Witness. The article basically says that their opinions on the quality of Manitoba crops is doing harm.

Another feature of the journal was snippets throughout about specific companies. In the very first issue, you can see that there was a huge fire at a HBC mill, and several changes in ownership of companies.

The journal focuses mainly on Manitoba, and Winnipeg in particular. However, other parts of Canada do get mention now and then. Here's an example from 1895 of Assiniboia and Saskatchewan.

Here's mention of Alberta in 1902.

Lastly, any publication needs advertisement revenue. If your ancestor was a business owner, don't over look the advertisement pages. They made have placed an ad. I think they're interesting to look at regardless, but I'm a genealogist and we're a special breed. Here's some from 1893

Here's some examples from 1889

And finally, some from 1903. Notice the one for lead paint in the bottom left. 

Canadiana lets you download whole issues by clicking on the PDF icon next to the "+" sign. 

Alternatively, you can right click on the image and save a single page.

As you can see above, you can also search keywords within a document. I used dry goods" and it told me which pages I could find that phrase. Just click on the page number and it will take you to that page. Keep in mind though that the keywords won't be highlighted.

Ontario Ancestors: School and Teacher Directories on Internet Archive

 I can't say enough good things about Internet Archive. For the genealogist on a budget, it is a great resource for finding sources that go beyond Census records and BMD's. The trick to using it though is patience. Because of the huge amount of material on there, you will have to try various search terms to find what you want.

The recent reopening of schools in Canada are in news headlines. I consider myself thankful that I don't have to make the hard decision on whether or not to send a child to school. So I decided this week to see what I could find on Internet Archive relating to schools. As always, I was able to find an interesting resource. If your Ontario ancestor was involved in education, then you'll want to look at Internet Archive's selection of School and Teacher Directories.

Similar to City and County Directories, these publications were put out by the Ontario Department of Education. Internet Archive by no means has a complete collection, but they range from as early as 1911 and as late as the 1950's. What a gold mine of information these can contain on your ancestor! Take a look at this page for principals and assistants for Lindsay, Ontario in 1931

Just look at the information for Edith F Gerrish

• Graduated with a B.A. from McMaster University
• Specialized in Classics
• Elementary/Intermediate certificate in Physical Culture
• Appointed in 1930
• 1 year of teaching Experience in a High School or Collegiate Institute
• Her annual salary was $2100

There is no standard formula for each year, so not all years contain so much information on an individual. As well, it would be good to look at the first few pages to understand any abbreviations used. If you take a look at 1918, they use these abbreviations

So then if we look at some Hamilton, Ontario schools, you can see what level of teaching certificate they have and their salary

You can also find general information on School Districts, as well as the District Secretary's names. Here is a page from 1949 showing Attendance, Assessment, and Secretary's name. As you can see, a few schools weren't opened as of yet on the list.

These publications, depending on the year, can give you a lot of information. But what they are best for is to provide a stepping stone to further research. Taking this information, you can then know which collections at the Archives of Ontario you need to consult. The Archives of Ontario doesn't have the same wealth of information online that some provincial archives do. However, they have some of the best finding aids around. By consulting their main finding aid Research Guide 216- Student and Teacher Records, you'll know where to look next to find more detailed records of your ancestor. This main finding aid contains links to more specific collections.

 

Quebec Ancestors: Prison Registers at BAnQ

Some people are rather taken aback when they find their ancestor listed in a criminal register. Then there are those of us who get excited, because it means there's an interesting story to add to our family tree. If you have Quebec ancestors that may not have been totally straight and narrow, BAnQ has several criminal registers digitized on their site.

The collection, Prison de Québec - registres 1813-1964, is only partly digitized. They've digitized from 1813 to 1903. The titles on the BAnQ website are in French, but I've given Google's English Translations below.

• P1 Detention register (admitted prisoners) of the Quebec prison (women and men), 1813-1823
• P2 Quebec prison prison register (women and men), 1823-1837
• P3 Quebec prison prison register (women and men), 1838-1843
• P4 Quebec prison prison register (women and men), 1844-1847
• P5 Quebec prison prison register (women and men), 1848-1855
• P6 Quebec prison prison register (women and men), 1856-1865
• P7 Detainee register (admitted prisoners) of the Quebec prison (women and men), 1865-1866
• P8 Quebec prison prison register (women and men), 1866-1873
• P9 Detainee register (admitted prisoners) of the Quebec prison (women and men), 1874-1880
• P10 Detention register (admitted prisoners) of the Quebec prison (women and men), 1881-1903

You can access the digitized images for each book by clicking at the links on the right side of the screen

If your knowledge of French is sketchy, don't worry. These digitized registers are in English. They are all set up the same way, with the exception of the first volume, P1 Detention register (admitted prisoners) of the Quebec prison (women and men), 1813-1823. This book gives an index by surname at the front of the book, but part of the A surnames are missing. The entries for each person run across 2 pages, so make sure you look at the next image as well. The columns are:

1. Prisoner Name and Description
2. Committed When & How, By What Authority & for What Cause
3. Bailed, When and by what Authority
4. Recommitted, When, How, By What Authority & for what Cause
5. Delivered When and by What Authority
6. Remarks

The very first entry involves a snapshot into the War of 1812, with John Hill. Mr. Hill was taken into custody on suspicions of being an American.

The other registers are much more in ledger form. As well, look to the back of the volume for the index. Some of the volumes have double pages scanned as one image, while others do not. They contain any of the following headings

1. Name
2. Age
3. Native of
4. By whom Committed
5. Crime with which charged
6. Education level
7. If committed before, No. of times
8. Date of Commitment
9. Period for which Summarily Committed
10. Sentence
11. Date of Discharge
12. By what authority
13. Conduct in Gaol
14. Married
15. Single
16. Temperate
17. Intemperate
18. Size (feet and inches)
19. Complexion
20. Religion
21. Occupation
22. Residence

Some of the registers have additional codes, so it's always good to look at the first few pages of the books to see what the codes mean. For instance, here's a legend from P4 Quebec prison prison register (women and men), 1844-1847. 

Don't forget to look at the names around your ancestor's name. People arrested at the same time and for the same charge may have been friends or relatives, and can offer new avenues of research. Sometimes looking at the other names can give you a pretty good picture of the circumstances surrounding your ancestor's arrest. Take a look at the names and occupations of these people from book P8 Quebec prison prison register (women and men), 1866-1873. 

 Now if you look at the corresponding arrest details, you get the feeling that maybe a "house of ill repute" was raided.

So what happens if you find your ancestor listed and you want to find out more? BAnQ also holds court records in their collection. These are not online that I could see. Because of COVID, it may not be possible to do an onsite visit. However, BAnQ is still handling research requests. You can make a request through their online form. There are several different facilities around the province. If you know which facility the records you want are located in, then you can also contact that branch. The contact information for each BAnQ facility can be accessed here.

Prince Edward Island Ancestors: Looking for Ancestors in Probate Records on Family Search

 Thanks to the pandemic, travelling to Archives has been severely restricted. This makes finding online sources to search all the more important. Some provinces already had a good online presence pre pandemic, while others did not. If the pandemic has been good for one thing, it's been making Archives and Museums rethink their strategies.

FamilySearch has always been ahead of the curve in bringing genealogy into people's homes digitally. But what a lot of people don't realize is that only a fraction of what they have on line is indexed. It's always good to check their catalogs for digitized materially that hasn't been indexed. Those searching in Prince Edward Island should bookmark the collection Probate records, 1807-1958; indexes, 1786-2000. This collection of 213 microfilm reels covers almost 200 years of wills and estate records in the province. Most but not all the reels are available to be viewed from the comfort of your own home. There are a few that can only be viewed at a Family History center, or one of its affiliate libraries. 

The fact that there are over 200 films can be daunting for an unindexed collection. However, they can be divided into sets. You can narrow your search down just to a comparable few. Just pick a microfilm, then click on the camera to the right. If the camera has a key above it, then it is one of the reels that can only be viewed at a Family History Center.

Indexes

There are 4 reels of indexes. Two have access restricted to the Family History Centers, but two do not. They are:

• Index no. 1 (original index) to wills and administrations, 1786-1900 (also includes index to wills not recorded, and some "exemplifications, partitions and sundry, other documents filed prior to first January A.D. 1901") - restricted

• Indexes no. 1-4 to wills and administrations, 1786-1983 (index no. 1 is a reorganized and partially-typed copy of the original index)

• Index no. 5 to wills and administrations, 1984-May 2000

• Index, letters of administration 1897-1901; index, letters of probate 1897-1901 - restricted

Depending on the time period, the pages are set up in different ways. The indexes can give any of the following information

• name
• residence
• whether will or administration
• will number
• inventory number
• Liber
• Folio
• Date of Grant
• Remarks

Some are typed and some are handwritten. Here's a page from the l860s and 1870s

Will Books

This set also has some restricted reels. Some of the wills are on the same reels as the indexes, but further along in the images. They are:

• Will books, v. 1-2, 1807-1833 - restricted

• Will books, v. 3-5, 1833-1858 - restricted

• Will books, v. 6-7, 1858-1868 - restricted

• Will books, v. 8, 1868-1875 - restricted

• Will books, v. 9, 1875-1880 - restricted

• Will books, v. 10-11, 1880-1887 - restricted

• Will books, v. 12, 1888-1891 - restricted

• Will books, v. 13, 1891-1894 - restricted

• Will books, v. 14-15, 1894-1900 - restricted

• Will books, v. 16-17 (to p. 582), 1902-1909

• Will books, v. 17 (from p. 581)-20 (to p. 360), 1909-1917

• Will books, v. 20 (from p. 359)-23 (to p. 140), 1917-1923

• Will books, v. 23 (from p. 140)-25 (to p. 420), 1923-1929

• Will books, v. 25 (from p. 419)-28 (to p. 134), 1929-1934

• Will books, v. 28 (from p. 133)-30, 1934-1939

• Will books, v. 31-33, 1939-1944

• Will books, v. 34-37 (to p. 881), 1944-1950

• Will books, v. 37 (from p. 880)-41, 1950-1958

These are copies of the wills. There is not always 1 will to a page. As one ends, the next will continue underneath. Here is an example from 1904

Estate Files

This is by far the biggest section. The reels are listed in the following way, so that it is actually fairly easy to find the ones you want to look at:

• First letter of surname
• Year Range
• File number range

Estate files are the pot of gold for a genealogist/family historian. You can find a huge amount of information in these. Some details are purely for insight into your ancestor. While knowing that your ancestor owned 2 lame cows (yes I did find that in a listing) is amusing, it doesn't add a lot to your research. However, other details can help you further your research. Estate files can contain

• copy of the will/ letter of administration
• birth details
• death details
• coordinates of land owned
• family members
• inventories of possessions and cash

Here's a great example of grandchildren inheriting in the will of Thurza Ford in 1894. It even shows their ages and residences!

Here's an example from 1921. One of the executors for Frederick Anderson has made an affidavit to the court to be sole executor. The other named executor could not perform their duties because they are currently an inmate of the Provincial Asylum

And here is newspaper clipping of a notice paid for by the executor of the estate of James Waite. The notice askes for anyone who has a claim against the estate to appear before the Court on February 23 1911.

Some things to keep in mind with the collection:

1. You should look at the indexes first. If your ancestor is listed, it will give you the will/estate file number. This can help narrow your search even further.
2. The Estate Files microfilms have "testate" or "intestate" labelled on them. However, I found intestate files in among the testate rolls, and vice versa.
3. The handwriting on some of the documents can be rather cumbersome. Give your self a quick refresher on the "boiler plate language" in wills. Look for phrases such as "by the Grace of God', "being of sound mind", and "I give and bequeath". This can give you an insight into how the writer formed letters, which in turn can help you decipher the rest of the handwriting.
4. Keep the main list in one window, and then right click and open individual rolls in new tabs. It's much more efficient.

FamilySearch's image viewer allows you to zoom in and out, print and download specific images. I find it's much easier on the eyes to download the image and crop it before printing. A printed page that you need a magnifying glass to read doesn't help your paper files much. Whether your system is digital or paper, make sure you include not only the reel information but the image number in your source citation. Imagine how frustrated you'll be a year from now when you have to wade through hundreds of images on a reel if for some reason you need to find that image again.

Newfoundland Ancestors: Directories online at Memorial University

 Newfoundland did not become a province until 1949. However, the first official accounts of Europeans setting foot on Newfoundland goes back to the late 1400's. The historic site L'anse aux Meadows is over 1,000 years old, and attributed to Leif Eriksson. The province is considered England's first overseas colony, going back to Elizabeth the first.

Newfoundland is not in the available national Census records for Canadian research. They do have their own census returns, held onsite at Library and Archives Canada and The Rooms in Newfoundland. You can also view the original images online both at Family Search and at Ancestry for 1921,1935, and 1945. Transcriptions of many years are available at the Newfoundland Grand Banks website. I wrote a previous blog post on their site back in 2018, which you can access here. Directories are a great census substitute. I wrote a previous blog post on a what a great source of information directories can be, which you can read here. Memorial University has digitized several varieties of directories and indexes on their site.

For each of the publications, you view each a page at a time. Use the side bar to go through the pages. You have the option of downloading and/or printing specific pages to your computer.

I've provided links to some of what's available on the site

Directories

• A directory : containing names and present addresses of professional men, merchants and shopkeepers, burnt out by the general conflagration of July 8th, 1892 - a great resource if your ancestor lost their homes and/or businesses due to the devastating fire in St. John's in 1892. The first part of the book gives an account of the fire itself. The names are arranged alphabetically

• Business and general directory of Newfoundland, 1877
  

• Directory for the Towns of St. John's, Harbor Grace, and Carbonear, Newfoundland, for 1885-86
  

• Hutchinson's Newfoundland directory for 1864-65
  

• List of electors. Harbor Grace, 1900
  

• Lovell's gazetteer of British North America [1871; extract: Newfoundland sections only]
  

• Lovell's Province of Newfoundland directory, 1871
  

• McAlpine's Maritime Provinces directory for 1870-1871 [Extract: Newfoundland sections only]
  

• McAlpine's Newfoundland directory, 1894 to 1897
  

• McAlpine's Newfoundland directory, 1898
  

• McAlpine's Newfoundland Directory, 1904
  

• McAlpine's St. John's city directory, 1915 : comprising a directory of St. John's, a classified business directory, a street directory and directory of Belle Isle, Carbonear and Harbor Grace.
  

• McAlpine's St. John's directory : containing a directory of citizens and business and street directories 1908-9 ; also, directories of citizens of Harbor Grace and Carbonear and classified business firms of Newfoundland
  

• Newfoundland Directory 1936
  

• Newfoundland directory : containing an alphabetical list of all business firms and private citizens and list of streets in St. John's and St. John's Suburbs, also directories of Bay Roberts, Harbor Grace, Carbonear, and Burin West ; also list of popular hotels, tea rooms, motor service stations and business houses in the Districts of Hr. Main and Port-de-Grave
  

• Devine and O'Mara's City Directory for 1897
  

• St. John's city directory, 1924
  

• St. John's classified business and city directory 1932
  

• St. John's Newfoundland Directory 1913
  

Census Substitutes

• Number of inhabitants in the Harbour of Brigues, Cupids, Bareneed and Port de Grave ending September 27th 1817 - this handwritten census substitute lists the heads of household. Also listed are the number of men, women, children, female servants and male servants. 
  

• An account of inhabitants residing in the harbor & district of St. John's, 1794-1795 - This index was compiled from the 1794/1795 census of St. John's. It would be good to read the first few pages, as it explains the abbreciartions and reference numbers

• Newfoundland Population Returns 1836
  

Blue Books

These ledgers kept by the Colonial Governors mainly deal with the mundane figures involved in running the colony. However, they also list appointments, and do have some names listed. The University has digitized a large amount of these. These are a few to get you started.

• Newfoundland Colonial Blue Books 1822
  

• Newfoundland Colonial Blue Books 1823
  

• Newfoundland Colonial Blue Books 1825
  

• Newfoundland Colonial Blue Books 1826
  

• Newfoundland Colonial Blue Books 1836
  

• Newfoundland Colonial Blue Books 1838
  

• Newfoundland Colonial Blue Books 1840
  

• Newfoundland Colonial Blue Books 1841
  

• Newfoundland Colonial Blue Books 1843

Miscellaneous

• First four hundred Royal Artillery, 1940 - If your ancestor was one of the first 400 men attested to the two Newfoundland regiments of Britain's Royal Artillery during World War II, you'll want to look at this. It includes the names and addresses of then men, as well as an honour roll.

• First Newfoundland Regiment Rifle Range Register - this unique resource has the names and points scored on the rifle range. It covers the first world war years. The sheets also give wind direction and visibility.

• The journal of Oliver Rouse, Anglican missionary in Newfoundland : September 1846 to May 1850 - This journal mentions the names of many people and places within the province
  

• The first five hundred : being a historical sketch of the military operations of the Royal Newfoundland Regiment in Gallipoli and on the Western Front during the Great War (1914-1918), together with the individual military records and photographs where obtainable of the men of the first contingent, known as "The First Five Hundred", or "The Blue Puttees"

Yukon Ancestors: Find your Yukon ancestors with the Yukon & Alaska Geneaology Centre

 One of the drawbacks to Yukon genealogy research is the lack of online record sets. A good site to help your research is YukonAlaska.com. 

http://yukonalaska.com/pathfinder/gen/

The site has compiled information from the massive 6,000 page database from Murray Lundberg. They have organized the information into several categories. 

Historic Yukon & Alaska Hotels, Roadhouses, Saloons & Cafes Index - Proprietors and Managers

While everyone thinks of the gold rush miners, there were many others who flocked to the Yukon. Some of them made their money by operating establishments that catered to the miners. This alphabetical list of over 1200 names Includes many women, which is exciting to see. Women tend to be left out of historical records if they didn't come from wealthy backgrounds. Each entry gives the name of the establishment they own or ran, location, and years it operated. Some enterprising souls ran more than one. here's a section of the D's that show several people that belonged to more than one venture

http://yukonalaska.com/pathfinder/gen/rhse_ownersDG.html

Index to British Yukon Navigation Company Employment Applications at the Yukon Archives

The British Yukon Navigation Company's River Division built and ran steamer ships, and dominated the traffic of the Yukon river for the first half of the 20th century. This handy index lists all the personnel records held by the Yukon Archives. If you find your ancestor, you can order a copy of the file from the Archives' website. 

Information that can be found in the employee files can include:

• age, possibly birth date as well
• marital status
• birthplace
• names and address of parents if living, or next of kin and relationship if parents are deceased
• years experience in the steam boat industry
• past injuries, extent and who their employer was at the time
• work history -includes the ship and line
• last employer and reason for leaving
• emergency contact
• certificates obtained
• signature

The amount of information you can get from these records make me wish I had a steamboat ancestor. The finding aid from the Yukon Archives states that the occasional record from the Air Division is included in the fonds.

 Ship Passenger Lists

This section lists the passengers on the following ships in 1899

• Gleaner 
• Lully C 
• Ruth
• Clifford Sifton

They have also provided a link to Explore North's comprehensive lists of vessels that traveled within both Alaska and the Yukon.

The Matanuska Colony: The New Deal in Alaska

This takes you to another page on the Explore North website. It provides a good overview of the history of the Alaskan colony. It also gives the names of the 203 families living in the colony at the time when the draws for land tracts was held. Though this section is not Canadian history per se, there was much travelling between Alaska and the Yukon in the past. It's worth a look if there are gaps in your ancestor's history.

http://www.explorenorth.com/alaska/matanuska_colony.html

Klondike Stampeders

If your ancestor was an American or Australian who got gold fever, you might find them on these lists. There are four lists, compiled from the "Pan for Gold" database at the Dawson Museum in Dawson City, Yukon

• Klondike Stampeders from Montana (approximately 620 names)
• Klondike Stampeders from Australia (approximately 260 names)
• Klondike Stampeders from California (over 4,000 names)
• Klondike Stampeders from Seattle, Washington (over 4,000 names)

The lists show what checkpoint they came into the Yukon through. You can find out the date and checkpoint. They also have death/departure details for many. For those who died, they list the death date and location. For those who left, they list departure date and address they are going to. A separate group of those who died in the Chilkoot Avalanche in 1897/98 have their own section. here's the list of California 

http://yukonalaska.com/pathfinder/gen/CaliforniaDb.htm

Biographies of Yukon & Alaska Pioneers

This section takes you a series of biographies of people connected to Alaska, the Yukon, and the Arctic in general. Some listed can be as simple as an obituary. Others are extensive, including photos are reference material for further reading. Here's part of the biography for the colorful John Leonard, who was a balloonist in the Yukon in 1899. It even has a photo.

http://www.explorenorth.com/library/bios/leonard-john-balloonist.html

Other Yukon & Alaska Genealogy Resources

This last section contains links to help you further your research. It has links that cover not only Alaska and Yukon, but the Northwest Territories and Nunavut too. 

BC Ancestors: The Bill Silver Digital Archive

Free online newspaper sites are always a good thing. If your ancestors lived in and around Vanderhoof, British Columbia, you'll want to explore The Bill Silver Digital Archive. Provided free of charge, it is hosted on the Vanderhoof Public Library website.

Bill Silver was a local historian who built a collection from 3 local newspapers

• The Vanderhoof Herald
• Nechako Chronicle
• Omineca Express

After his death, his wife Edith continued the collection until her death in 2003. The collection of weekly newspapers runs from 1917 to 2007. It is the result of a collaboration between the Vanderhoof Public Library and the Vanderhoof Heritage Museum. Simply enter in a search term and you get digital images of the newspaper pages. Just click on the link on the top of the page to get to the search screen.

https://www.vanderhooflibrary.com/my-lists/explore/the-bill-silver-digital-newspaper-archive/

Just type in your search term and hit enter. As you can see below, you can do a more targeted search by paper. You can also adjust your searching method to stemming, fuzzy and/or phonic searching.

 

http://archive.vanderhooflibrary.com/

I used "mcdonald", and got 1140 hits on a general search.  I then tried a phonic search and got over 4000 hits. The search results can be sorted by relevance, newest date or oldest date. You can also print your search results. Just use the tabs on the top right. now, I did find that it sorts by paper first, then year if you're doing a newest or oldest filter. Which means the oldest issues, which are from The Vamderhoof Chronicle, will show up last. My suggestion is to search each paper separately.

http://archive.vanderhooflibrary.com/archive/dtSearch/dtisapi6.dll

Next just click on the link to a particular page and a digital image will open in a new window. That's handy, as you don't lose your results list. The page opens as a PDF that you can download and/or print.

As with any paper on a local level, you can find lots of little tidbits that you don't see in newspapers that are published for a larger audience. Here's some examples of what I found:

Here's some "Local Happenings" from March of 1918

Here's some birth announcements from October 1962 

Here's some items covered during recent Vanderhoof Council meetings in June 2001 

W C Young got into some trouble in December 1934 for shooting game out of season

As a last example, here's an article on the accidental death of Ralph Andros from March 1956

Some tips for using the site:

• The search capability appears to be OCR technology. Anyone who's dealt with OCR on older newspapers knows it is far from fool proof. So make sure you try all the search options 
• There is no highlighted boxes for your search words. This means you will have to read the whole page. But that's part of the fun.
• Because the saving is to PDF, you won't be able to crop like you can with a picture. One suggestion is to make a transcription for yourself if you're printing. Another option is to zoom in on the article in the PDF and then take a photo of the screen with your phone or tablet. Alternately, you can zoom in on the article, and then use a snipping tool to take a screen shot. 
• Some of the search terms I tried would not give me results in the year ranges I was looking for. But, I found putting in a year, such as "1928" gave me results in the 1920's and 1930's

The searching is a little clunky, compared to other sites. It's still worth looking at in your research though. One improvement to the collection I would like to see is the ability to browse issues. If there is a way to do that I could not find it.

There were several donors involved in getting the collection up and running. You can thank the following for this collection:

• The Irving K. Barber Learning Centre
• Vanderhoof Co-op Association
• Friends of the Library
• The Bill Silver Family
• Nechako Valley Historical Society
• Black Press
• Rosemary Boyd