Brick Wall Ancestor Got You Down? Try Some Transcribing and Indexing

A lot of people have more time for genealogy these days. Us genealogists are handling the new measures better than most, because we have no problem staying in and losing hours in pursuit of our ancestors. My job is considered essential, so I still get up and go to work every day. However, I'm still getting in more research time than normal due to physical distancing.

The downside to everything is that the Archives and Libraries are closed. But thanks to the digital age we live in, there is a TON of online resources for us to further our research. But what to do when that Brick Wall Ancestor starts making you tear your hair out? Why not take a frustration break and do some transcribing, indexing and/or tagging of photos. Several projects have started up over the last few weeks. These projects are gifts that keep on giving.

1. It helps the genealogy community as a whole. Someone years from now is going to be finding that record or photo and do a happy dance. 
2. By stepping away from your own research and focusing elsewhere, you'll have a clearer head when you go back to it. 
3. You get to hone your skills at deciphering handwriting.
4. You might stumble onto a record or photo that is applicable to your own research

So, this week, I'm going to provide links to projects. Now, I usually try and focus on Canadian research in my blog. But in the interest of genealogy as a whole, I'm going to include projects outside of Canada as well. 

https://www.familysearch.org/indexing/

Family Search

These guys have always got some projects going on. Just go to their Indexing page to get started. They have projects from all over the world in many different languages. A couple relating to Canadian research are:

• Canada, Nova Scotia—Church Records, 1864–1877 [Part B]
• US—Aliens Pre-Examined in Canada and Mexico, 1906–1954

Ancestry

The World Indexing Project by Ancestry is another global initiative. You will have to download the keying tool in order to participate. Each record set shows the language and difficulty level. No Canadian projects right now, but they have:

• United Kingdom-4
• Germany- 2
• Australia- 2
• Ukraine- 1
• Italy - 1

https://co-lab.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng

Library and Archives Canada

Co-Lab is the LAC's central hub for their projects. They have divided their "challenges" into different categories: transcription, translation, tagging, and description. There are 13 challenges on the go right now, including:

• Winnipeg General Strike of 1919
• Correspondence regarding First Nations veterans returning after the First World War
• Women lightkeepers, heroes by the sea

Here are some other projects I've found out about

Canada

• The Community Archives of Belleville and Hastings needs helps transcribing the 1871 assessment roles for the area townships.
• The Nova Scotia Archives has one project on the go right now on their Transcribe page.  Commissioner of Public Records - Refugee Negroes details Black immigration and settlement from 1783 to 1838.

United States

• The Newberry Library in Chicago has letters and diaries needing transcribing that deal with 19th and early 20th century life in the Midwest
• The New York Public Library has a few projects on the go. A really fascinating one is the NYPL Community Oral History Project. Volunteers are needed to help with the transcribing of oral histories about life in New York City.
• The Smithsonian always has projects on the go.Check out their Digital Volunteers page regularly to see what they have. Right now, they have 18 projects in progress. 
• The U.S. National Archives is another site with multiple projects on the go. I counted at least 20 projects on their Citizen Achivist page. They have everything from the beginner level to expert level
• The Library of Congress has 16 "campaigns" going on right now. Each campaign is made up of smaller projects.

And Elsewhere...

• University College London has huge project going on transcribing the writings of philosopher Jeremy Bentham
• Free UK Genealogy is a huge crowd sourcing project for UK BMDs and Census records
• Gould Genealogy made a post in February of 2019 of transcription projects in Australia. It's a year old but will give yo a good starting point in finding records to transcribe there.
• The UK National Archives have several projects that don't require on site access
• French site Geneanet has lots of indexing projects
• The NIOD in the Netherlands are looking for people to help transcribe WWII diaries

Look Locally

If you want a project that coincides with your own research interests, try contacting the local Institution or Society of your area of research. They are always looking for volunteers. I checked on Genealogical Society web pages across Canada, and almost all had a notice looking for transcribing/indexing volunteers. In the current COVID world, some of these projects could be on hiatus. However, if the material can be done from your home, then I'm sure they would be glad to have you on board. Some require you to be a member. Now is as good a time as any to try out a membership and see what they're about.

If you know of any transcription/indexing projects let us know in the comments. 

Maximize Your Searching with the New France Archives

A great many of us can trace our Canadian ancestry back to when we were a part of France. The French starting coming to North America in the 1500s, and the first permanent settlements started in 1604. The eastern part of what is now called Canada was called New France. The territory came to include part of  Newfoundland, Quebec, Nova Scotia, New Brunswick, and Prince Edward Island. It also included the Great Lakes region on both sides of the present Canada/US border, and Louisiana. In 1763 New France switched to British control, and the Canada we know now began to take shape.

Back in 2004, a giant collaboration between Canada and France was undertaken to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the settlement of New France. This collaboration resulted in the New France Archives website.

http://nouvelle-france.org/eng/Pages/new-france-archives.aspx#t1

There are two versions of the website, one in English and one in French, so don't fret if your French isn't that great. However, you are going to still need some sort of translating website open if your knowledge of  French is very small or non existent. Even those with intermediate French skills are probably going to want a French/English dictionary. For obvious reasons, the digitized images are in French, and there are no translated transcriptions.

This incredible "one-stop shop" website has over 1 million digitized images that form collections from

• Archives nationales d’Outre-Mer (Aix-en-Provence)
• Archives nationales (Paris)
• Archives départementales de la Charente-Maritime (La Rochelle)
• Archives départementales de la Gironde (Bordeaux)
• Archives départementales des Pyrénées-Atlantiques (Pau)
• Library and Archives Canada (Ottawa)
• Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec (Québec)

The documents in this collection date from the 16th century (1500's) to 1763. The website says there are a few post 1763 documents as well. There are several search options. I'll give a brief outline on each method, then explain what to do with your results. 

Basic Search

This option allows you to enter simple keywords to conduct your search. I entered fur trade and got 7 results. The result titles will be in French, but Google will translate for you automatically. I used fishing and got 0 results. But then a flash of inspiration came and I searched using the French verb pecher (to fish). I yielded 34 results. So keep this in mind when doing your searches.

Advanced Search

This section will come in handy if you're looking for a specific record, or if you are looking for a record from a specific archive

http://nouvelle-france.org/eng/Pages/search.aspx

As you can see above, you can put your keyword in, then narrow the results by several options. If you have something very specific you are looking for, then the advanced search might be the better option.

Your Results

So here are some of the results from using pecher in the basic search

http://nouvelle-france.org/eng/Pages/list.aspx?k=pecher

Now, in these results, both the document title and the Fond names are hyperlinks. If you click on the document title, then it will take you straight to the digital images. If you click on Fonds, it will take you a page listing all the documents in that fond. Each document is hyper linked to the digital image. My 8x great grandfather was Jean Bastnarache dit Le Basque. If you're not familiar with "dit names", these were a sort of nickname commonly used in New France. I use the term nickname loosely. Not only were they "Pierre Blanc the Carpenter" in general conversation, but in legal documents too. The unique thing about dit names is that they may have started just to identify which of two men was being written about, but it became a way to refer to their descendants as well. So to use my Jean Bastarache as an example, his children also became "Bastarache dit Le Basque". The grandchildren from Jean's sons also had the name "Bastarache dit Le Basque". My 7x great grandfather is his son Jean, and then my 6x great grandfather is Jean the younger's son Michael. My Bastarache dit Le Basque line daughters out at my 5x great grandmother Felicite. She married into the Saulnier family. Over the years, some lines descending from Jean ended up dropping the Bastarache part of the name and became Le Basque, then simply Basque. Now my older Jean Bastarache came from the Basque area of France, hence the nickname. The Basque fishermen fished the waters in the Maritimes for generations. So I decided to look at document 7828, which is titled in English Document relating to the treaty which allows the Basques to go fishing in the Saint-Pierre Islands. It dates to 1694. here is the 2 images of the document

The image viewer on the site is fantastic. You can easily zoom in and out, and even go full screen with it. There is no lag time with the zooming in and out. You also have the option to download it the images to your computer, and/or print them. 

Thematic List

This section allows you to explore the fonds themselves. In English they are:

• General Control of Finances Fond 
• State Secretariat for the Navy and the Colonies fonds
• Marine
• Colonies
• Settlement Fortifications Deposit Fond
• Colonies' public papers deposit fond
• Bayonne Admiralty Fond
• Admiralty Fund of Brouage en Saintonge
• Admiralty of Guyenne Fond
• Admiralty of La Rochelle Fond
• Quebec Sovereign Council fonds
• Stewards' Fonds
• Grands Voyers Fond
• Fonds of the notaries  Rivière and Pierre and François Soullard (La Rochelle)
•  Antoine Bagard Notary Fond (La Rochelle)
• Fond of the notary  François Desbarres (La Rochelle)
• Fond of notaries  Pierre and Léonard Guillemot (La Rochelle)
• Fond of notary  Jacques Bréard (Rochefort)
• Fond of notaries  of Saint-Jean de Luz
•  Chartier de Lotbinière family fonds
•  Beauharnois family fonds
•  Ramezay family fonds
• Duhamel du Monceau, Duhamel de Denainvillers, Fougeroux de Bondaroy and Fougeroux de Secval fonds
• Engraved and handwritten cards
• Plans, drawings and graphic documents of all kinds
• Collection known as "Historical Monuments"
• Collection of documents from the reserve of the Minutier central des notaires de Paris
• Collection known as the iron cupboard and the museum

You first click on a fond title. This will take you to a new page giving you the following general information

• Database Item Number
• Title
• Date Range
• Language
• Reference Number
• Scope and Content
• Physical Description (how many containers, linear length of the collection)
• Access and Use Restrictions
• Repository the Collection is Held at

Below that is the individual sub sections. For example, the fond Minutes from notaries René Rivière, Pierre Soullard and François Soullard contain the following sub sections

http://nouvelle-france.org/eng/Pages/item.aspx?IdNumber=33933

Clicking on one of these will then allow you to "drill down" through subsequent subsections, until you find a particular document to look at. Then it will take you to the image viewer.

Exhibition: New France, New Horizons

This section takes you to Library and Canada's vitual exhibition of New France. It covers many topics:

• Departure: The circumstances upon leaving
• Navigation: The crossing
• Discovery: The exploration of new territories
• Encounter: Contact with Aboriginal peoples
• Settlement: The seigneurial system
• Foundation: The establishment of towns and forts
• Daily Life: Everyday life in the colony
• Administration: The institutions
• Trade: The economy
• Worship: The role of the Church
• Warfare: Armed conflict
• Survival: The changeover of European control, the deportation of the Acadians, and the English conquest

Each section gives some historical overview, as well as images and downloadable documents.

We can thank the Direction des Archives de France, Library and Archives Canada (LAC), Bibliothèque et Archives nationales du Québec and the Canadian Embassy in Paris for this great website.

Celebrating 100 Years of the RCMP Part 2- Records at Library and Archives Canada

Fort Walsh, Saskatchewan, 1878; NWMP Headquarters until 1882.http://collectionscanada.gc.ca/pam_archives/index.php?fuseaction=genitem.displayEcopies&lang=eng&rec_nbr=3711122&rec_nbr_list=3723709,3379430,3379427,3379428,3379429,3711122,4921978,3855779,3714948,3711794&title=Fort+Walsh%2C+Saskatchewan%2C+1878%3B+NWMP+Headquarters+until+1882.+&ecopy=e008128929-v6

Our national police force under the name Royal Canadian Police Force turned 100 this month. Last post, I gave a bit of history on the RCMP and gave an introduction to their website. This post, I'm going to look at what Library and Archives Canada holds on your RCMP ancestor.

The LAC holds an impressive amount of material related to the RCMP. Most of it is not online. I did a quick archives search using "RCMP", and got over 11,000 hits that are not online. This is the overall breakdown of the types of materials not digitized:

• Architectural and technical drawings (94)
• Art (606)
• Maps and cartographic material (72)
• Moving images (63)
• Multiple media (3)
• Objects (including medals and pins) (33)
• Photographs (1,729)
• Sound recordings (49)
• Stamps and stamp products (135)
• Textual material (10,412)
• Unknown (24)

Most RCMP records at the LAC are classed under RG18, so when I did a search using "RG18", I received over 43,000 hits. This is the breakdown:

• Architectural and technical drawings (18)
• Art (11)
• Maps and cartographic material (22)
• Moving images (43)
• Multiple media (5)
• Objects (including medals and pins) (2)
• Photographs (27)
• Sound recordings (35)
• Stamps and stamp products (0)
• Textual material (43,227)
• Unknown (0)

Using "NWMP" (Northwest Mounted Police) as a search term gave me 745 textual records not online. Using "RNWP", the name of the unit after Royal Honors were given to the unit, gives another 289 textual records. I used "Dominion Police Force" and got another 37 textual records. As you can see, the numbers are very different, and so are the breakdowns. Which just goes to show you, don't do a "one and done" method when using searching databases.

So what is online? Here's a few gems I found among the results:

• Police Services - NWT (Incl. RCMP Patrols - Posts)  an incredible 506 page PDF download of the activities of the RCMP from 1925-1930. The first report talks of interactions with the Indigenous people. It is an interesting read
• A series of PDF files regarding the repatriation of Japanese in Canada after WWII
• Correspondence regarding the pension application of Lt. Col. James Walker
• Hoo Sam - Prince Albert, Saskatchewan - Murder of Mark Yuen.
• Indians: 1) Smallpox amongst Crees 2) Convictions of persons tried for furnishing intoxicants to, 3) Disturbances on Blood Reserve and engagement of scouts in connection therewith. 4) Sundance at File Hills, 5) "Pawness", Beardyman, and their following. 6) Refugee Crees leaving Bears Hill Reserve (7) Returning refugee Crees, accounts in connection with (8) Prospectors held up half-breeds & Indians near Jasper House (9) Indians shooting game during deer season.

Lastly, LAC has 1 database containing service files of Northwest Mounted Police. The collection, North West Mounted Police (NWMP) - Personnel Records, 1873-1904, also contains some Dominion Police files.

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/nwmp-personnel-records/Pages/north-west-mounted-police.aspx

In the service files, you will be able to find documents such as:

• Application for Engagement
• Medical Examination
• NWMP Description Summary
• Discharge Board Report
• Discharge Certificate 
• Re-engagement

To search for your ancestor, click on Search: Database. You can search by Surname, Given Name, and/or Regimental Number. I did a search using "Steele". Along with the legendary Sir Sam Steele, there were 8 other officer by the name of Steele. I clicked on the rather wonderfully named Godfrey MacNeil Steele. His service file is 34 pages long. Unlike the WWI service files you can get from the LAC, these can't be downloaded in bulk. You will have to download each page separately to your computer. But look at the amount of information on just the first page of his file:

On just the first page, you find out

• He served from 1873 to 1876, before deserting
• He died in May 1928.
• He is buried in Westbank Cemetery in Westbank, British Columbia
• His regimental number was 18A.

The second page has extracts from a correspondence log. It appears there was problems with his pay, and he made inquiries.

Some things to keep in mind when searching the database:

• A lot of times, only first initials were used. You might have better luck searching without given names
• It is unfortunately not a complete collection. Not all service records have survived.
• This collection, as the title suggests, only has files up to 1904. LAC holds all the files up to 1920. If your ancestor's service falls between 1904 and 1920, you will have to contact Library and Archives Canada. These are not digitized, but you can still do a search to see if there is a file.
  • Go to Archives Advanced Search
  • Enter Archival Ref No. 18
  • Enter the name of your ancestor

  
  

Next post, in Part 3, we will look at the records Family Search has.

52 Ancestors: Week 48 - Deportation Records at the LAC

The prompt for Week 48 of 52 ancestors if "thief". Not all of our ancestors were upstanding citizens. Genealogists and Family Historians tend to be thrilled finding these ancestors, because they make for interesting stories for others. Let's face it, our relatives who haven't been bit by the genealogy bug tend to get all glassy eyed when we talk about our passion. If we have an interesting ancestor though, they have more interest in what we're saying. This post I decided to look at records relating to the deportation records. Do you have an ancestor who came to Canada, but mysteriously vanished from records? Or maybe they somehow ended back in their country of birth and you can't figure out why. You might want to look at the deportation records through Library and Archives Canada then.

Library and Archives Canada has a great overview on what you can find on their web page Thematic Guide - Deportation from Canada, 1893-1977. What I'm going to focus on is the files belonging to the record group Records of the Immigration Branch (RG76). This group of records is by no means complete, as not all records have survived. They have three groupings of records:

• Files that relate to an individual deportee
• Files that include lists of names or correspondence about particular deportees
• Files that do not contain names of deportees

Before you get started, you'll want to open a new window on your computer and have Heritage open and ready to go. The microfilms have been digitized, but you can't view them on LAC's website. You can only view them on Heritage. What you're going to do is note the microfilm details and then put that microfilm number into Heritage's search box. 

Files on Individual Deportees

Click on the heading. This will reveal a list of names that do not appear to be in any particular order. Once you find a name that interests you, take note of the file information. I scrolled through and found this rather interesting entry

As you can see, this is for an entire family. So, we want to look at microfilm C-10430, file 774753. Next we'll go to Heritage and enter C-10430 in the search box.

http://heritage.canadiana.ca/?usrlang=en

In the results, the top result is the microfilm we want. Now we're going to click on that and find the file we need. Because there is not search capability, we're going to jump back and forth through the images until we find the file. This can be done by jumping head on images by using the image tab on the left

And then looking at the bottom of the digitized document for the file number. 

So I found the first page of the file. It is quite a few pages. Apparently it started with a letter from a local citizen complaining about the recent immigrants from England. 

Long story short, the Department of Immigration investigated, and decided to deport the family in 1908. John, his wife Eliza and five children were sent by train to Montreal, then to Maine. Once there they were boarded on a ship to Liverpool. They were deemed undesirable because "...Mortimer is a drunkard, abusive to his wife and family and the neighbours speak against him...". The file also includes

• Names and ages of each family member
• John's occupation and some work history
• Ship name and dates of immigration
• How they arrived in Chatham
• Ship name and date of departure back to England
• Residence of John Mortimer's mother in England
• Their trip to Canada was paid for by the Central (Unemployed) Body in England
• A letter from Eliza Mortimer's father inquiring as to why the family was deported, and the response from the Department of Immigration

A sad end to this file is a letter written by John's wife Eliza in 1923. Apparently John deserted the family and boarded ship under an assumed name back to Canada. She is writing in hopes the Immigration Department can find him. One of their children has died, and another has been hospitalized. The letter gives her address in London. The Department wrote back asking for information, but that's where the file ends.

Lists and Correspondence of Individual Deportees

You open the entries the same as for the group above. In this group I found this entry

When I switched over to Heritage, I looked at microfilm C-10634, and looked for file 805792. This huge file involves the following Scottish men"

• Ross Fraser
• Horatio Dunlop
• Donald Tough
• David Moffat
• William McBride
• David Anderson
• Robert Hill
• James Quinn
• Peter Tierney
• Charles Miller
• Donald/W McLean
• John Ferguson
• James Hughes
• James Hutchison

As the below states, these men were brought over from Glasgow as strike breakers, and then let go once the strike was over

This was the rail company's response

As with the previous section, you can find a ton of little details about the men. Within the first 25 or so pages I found:

• Immigration details
• Work history and pay
• Family and friends names back in Scotland, some with addresses
• Current address

There was also deportation details on some additional men in the same file:

• Alfred Black
• John Skinner
• Malcolm McLean
• Joseph Healey
• William Robertson
• John Phillips
• Patrick Rawdon

Files Not Containing Individual Names of Deportees

This section deals with documents generated within the Government and their agencies themselves. The only names mentioned are those employed within the Government, rail companies, and steam ship companies. It also includes some governmental policies and procedures. When I looked through the entries, I found this

Now when I looked at this file, part 7 has letters from various agencies asking for the Alien registration of 1917/18. Its the section two after that that is interesting

In this section is correspondence with various immigration agencies, providing samples of the Enemy Alien Registration Exeat form. These were used when the person wished to leave Canada. However, in this section are also completed forms. Here's one that even includes a picture

Now, for any of these sections, you can save the documents to your computer by right clicking on the image, and choosing save image. This will be better than just a screen shot, because as you can see above, it also includes the source information at the bottom.

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

52 Ancestors: Week 35 - Finding Occupational Records

Occupational records can give good insight on the working life of your ancestors. If your ancestor was in politics, the military, or in a position of power, chances are you can find detailed records on them. However, if your ancestor wasn't, you might have to be a little more creative in finding records. This post I'm going to steer you to some sources that go beyond looking at a business directory.

Family Search

What you want to do is search their catalog. By using the search word "Canada" I was able to bring up a list of their holdings both online and offline. If you go through the list, you'll notice subheadings such as Business Records and Commerce, and Occupations. Expand on these subheadings and you can get individual titles. For instance, here's some titles of books I found:

• Polk's dental register and directory of the United States and Canada, 1925 : complete index of dentists, alphabetically arranged
• Shipping literature of the Great Lakes : a catalog of company publications, 1852-1990, compiled by  Le Roy Barnett
• Ogilvie in Canada : pioneer millers, 1801-195, by G.R. Stevens
• Clock & watchmakers and allied workers in Canada, 1700 to 1900, by John E. Langdon

When you click on the title, It will give you the record information. It will also give either a link to view it online, if possible. If it is not digitized, then you can click on the link to WorldCat to see if there is a copy available at a library near you. These can be public libraries, university libraries, or other institutions across the world. For instance, I found 55 different places to find Clock & watchmakers and allied workers in Canada, 1700 to 1900. 

Library and Archives Canada
The LAC has records pertaining to employment in their holdings. You can access their information page here.

http://www.bac-lac.gc.ca/eng/discover/genealogy/topics/employment/Pages/introduction.aspx

As you can see above, they have a variety of occupational records listed. Just click on the type you're interested in, and it will give you some more detail on what they have, the access restrictions, and how to access.

Alternatively, you can also use the Archives Search. Try typing in an occupation, and see what comes up. I used the search term "salesmen". and got 71 hits. Among the results were:

• "Volume 2 / Alberta Brotherhood of Dairy Employees & Driver Salesmen, Alberta.". 
• Nasmith, Fennell & Porter - Toronto, Ontario - Fraudulent operations of certain stock salesmen re Manufacturers Finance Corporation Ltd. 
• Bond Salesmen's Ordinance - NWT.

Internet Archive

This site can be a goldmine of information, but it takes some work to find things. Because they have digitized items from all over the world, you will really have to play with the search terms. I used "inspector Canada" just to see what would come up. There were over 300 hits, but many of them were only loosely connected to the search term I used. It will take some targeted searching. One interesting thing I found was a publication titled Transactions of the Engineering Institute of Canada from 1919. On page 34 an obituary section starts. Some obituaries are quite detailed in the work history of the engineer.

Provincial and Local Archives
If your ancestor worked for a company that had ties to the local history of the area, check the local or provincial archive. For instance, when I looked at the Provincial Archives of Alberta's website, I used the search term "butcher". Among their holdings are several photographs of butcher shops from the 1920s and 1930s. These butcher shops are from around the province. While it may not give you specific details of your ancestor, how great would it be to have a picture of where they worked?

I looked at the Halifax Municipal Archives' website and searched using "transit". Among their holdings are the Dartmouth Ferry Commission Records. I saw among the collection staff reports and engineer log books.



Contact the Company
If the company your ancestor worked for is still in existence, why not contact the company? Even if they don't have a company archive, they might steer you toward where historical records might be kept.



Have you come across a source for looking at employment records? let us know what it is in te comments below.

52 Ancestors: Week 33 - Finding Ancestors in the Theatre

Week 33's 52 Ancestors prompt is "Comedy". I though it would be interesting to steer people towards information for ancestors who were employed in the performing arts. Because of the nature of their work, sometimes it would be hard to find them in one spot for very long. Immediately you would think of actors and actresses when you think of theatre,. But there was a whole host of people behind the scenes. And don't forget their predecessors, the variety and vaudeville performers.


Canadian Theatre Encyclopedia
One of the first places you should look for your ancestor is the Canadian Theatre Encylopedia. This great website has an alphabetized list of mini bios. Among the list are those connected with the theatre both on and off stage. It also includes theatre companies, plays, and theatres themselves. Run by Athabasca University, it is constantly adding to their list. I saw Dan Akroyd, Mary Pickford, and The Edmonton Actors Theatre. If your ancestor isn't listed, there are instructions on how to submit their name and mini bio.


Library and Archives Canada
I did an Archives search on the LAC's website using the word "theatre". I got over 15,000 results! Most of what they have is offline, but there are over 1000 items online. Among that are over 700 photographs you can access from home. Here's one from 1937 during the Dominion Drama festival. It shows actors from the play Heaven on Earth, performed by the Medicine Hat Little Theatre.

University Archives
There are performing arts departments at many post secondary schools. Many of these would have an archives. You may get lucky and find that they may have archived not only materials from the school, but from local troupes as well. Here are a list of some Universities with theatre archive collections

• Dalhousie University
• University of Guelph
• York University
• Simon Fraser University
• University of Toronto
• University of British Columbia

Provincial and Municipal Archives

As keepers of provincial and local history, these places tend to have more eclectic collections. I did a quick search of each provincial archive and I found theatre collections in

• Provincial Archives of Alberta
• Archives of Manitoba
• Newfoundland's The Rooms
• Nova Scotia Archives
• Archives of Ontario
• Public Archives and Record Office of Prince Edward Island
• BAnQ (Quebec)
• Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan
• Yukon Archives

Don't forget to check municipal archives as well, especially if your ancestor performed in a city., 

Individual Theatre Archives

If your ancestor performed in a theatre or theatre company that is still in existence today, chances are they will have their own archive. In researching for this blog post, I did find some websites for theatres and companies. Contacting them directly might lead you to where and how they preserve their history.

• Neptune Theatre - Nova Scotia
• Kittiwake Dance Theatre - Newfoundland
• Capital Theatre - British Columbia
• Rosebud Theatre - Alberta

Peel's Prairie Provinces

As usual, this great website has a ton of images relating to performing arts in Western Canada. A quick search resulted in 1955 hits. Here's a poster advertising Lena Duthie's performance for a Burns Night in Calgary in 1909

Canadiana

Of course you can't complete the list without looking at what Canadian has to offer. A search there resulted in over 30,000 periodicals, serials and newspapers, over 16,000 monographs, and over 500 government publications. Here's a picture of O.B. Sheppard. He was manager of the Princess Theatre in Toronto during the 1904-1905 theatre season.

If you know of any other sources for ancestors in the performing arts, feel free to tell me in the comments below.

52 Ancestors: Week 29 - Finding 20th Century Ancestors

https://www.picxclicx.com/free-stock-photos-library-book-shelves-1/

I'm a little behind on my 52 Ancestors prompts. I took a bit of a vacation going back to Ontario to visit family. Of course I also took the opportunity to some research on my Ontario lines. As a result I've fallen behind, so I'll be doing some catching up over the next few weeks.

The week 29 prompt for 52 Ancestors is "Challenge". The biggest challenge for Canadian researchers is trying to research 20th century ancestors. Because of privacy constrictions, post 1921 research can be challenging. The 1921 National Census is the most recent census available, and we won't see the 1931 until at least 2023. If you have ancestors in the Prairie provinces, then you can access the 1926 Census done for that part of Canada. The valuable BMD records are scarce. No province that I know of offers access post 1921 for births. Some marriage and death certificates are available after 1921, but it depends on the province you are searching in. So how do you find those living in the 20th century?

City Directories
These are an often overlooked and useful resource. Through City Directories, I was able to find the names of my great grandparents. The only information I had to go by was the name of my paternal grandmother Madelynn Douglas, and two of her siblings, Marshall and Irene. By looking at Toronto city directories I was able to find them with their parents, James Henry Douglas and Mary Douglas. It gave me a jumping off point to take them back to the 1921 Census, and then back to Glasgow, Scotland. I wrote a blog post about City Directories when I first found them, which you can read here. The post gives links to find directories across the country.


Voter's Lists
Another great way to find those 20th century ancestors. With Voter's Lists, you can find eligible adults of legal voting age. If you have an Ancestry subscription, you're in luck because they have the federal voting lists from 1935- 1980. I used the Voter's Lists to take my Douglas great grandparents back to 1935. Using them and the help of a Douglas cousin who saw my post on city directories, I was able to find them in the 1921 Census. As a follow up to the City Directories post, I wrote a post on Voter's Lists, which you can access here.


Tax Assessment Records
While I was in Toronto, I stopped by the City of Toronto Archives. My great grandfather James Douglas ran the incinerator on Roselawn Avenue until he retired in the 1950's. I was hoping to find a picture, as the house my great grandparents lived in was very close to it. While looking at their record sets, I saw they had tax assessment records in their collection. Before I ran out of research time, I was able to find my Douglas great grandparents in the records for 1925, 1926, 1927, and 1928. At the time they were living on Spadina Road.

You are probably not going to be able to access these kinds of records online. It will require doing things "old school". Cities will more than likely have dedicated archives. If your ancestor lived in a more rural community, then look to see if there are County or Township archives. Also look at the Provincial and Territorial Archives, especially for areas of Canada that have smaller populations. If you can't visit in person, then try emailing or calling the Archive in question. My experience with the staff at the City of Toronto Archives was a very pleasant one. They were very helpful. Keep in mind though that the services at these types of Archives will most likely not be free if you're researching from a distance. However, in my experience I have found most Archives to be reasonable with their fee structure.


The 1940 National Registration File
Between 1940 and 1946, every person over the age of 16 had to be registered as part of the National Resources Mobilization Act and the War Measures Act. The only exclusions to the compulsory registration were members of the armed forces, members of the clergy, and those institutionalized. Because of the circumstances and nature of the registration it is not held to the same privacy laws that Census records are held to. The rules for access are:

• The person must be deceased for at least 20 years
• Proof death is required, unless the birth date of the person is more than 110 years ago. A death certificate is preferable, but a published obituary is also accepted.

There is a $45 fee for any successful search. Taxes are extra. To find out what information is included in the questionnaire, you can look at Library and Archives Canada's blog post. To order a search from Statistics Canada, click here.

Newspapers

I could write a whole blog post about newspaper research. Most people forget to look beyond the Birth, Marriage and Death announcements in them. There's so much more to be found. As an example, I have found over the years in my research activities:

• An article describing the increase of house sales in the past 6 months. Among the buyers listed was my mother-in-law's grandfather. It also stated the purchase price of the house he bought.
• A friend's great great uncle was a prolific bootlegger. His activities and subsequent arrest made the news.
• I received a picture of an unknown couple. By finding an ad for the photographer, I was able to narrow down the location and time period of the picture, and figure out which family line these people belonged to
• A personal ad of a husband looking for his wife, who appears to have left him
• A person that I had lost track of showed up in a local gossip column. They had moved from the area, and the column noted that they had come back for a visit to their parents.

A future post will delve more into newspaper sources. Here's a few starting points to looking for newspapers:

• Public Libraries. Most libraries offer online access to larger newspapers through their websites, if you have a library card. Smaller papers can sometimes be found on microfilm.
• Local Genealogical and Historical Societies
• Provincial Archives
• Canadiana
• Google Newspaper Archive
• Library and Archives Canada
• Kenneth Mark's The Ancestor Hunt

This is just a sampling of 20th century records that can be found in fill in the gap. If you have other suggestions, feel free to comment below.

52 Ancestors: Week 25 - Indigenous Research at Library and Archives Canada

By Canada location map.svg:derivative work: Yug (talk)Canada (geolocalisation).svg: STyxderivative work: Themightyquill (talk) - Canada location map.svg, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=14706244

This week's 52 Ancestors prompt is "Earliest". The earliest people in Canada were the native tribes, so I thought I'd look at Indigenous Research at Library and Archives Canada.

The best place to look at what they have both offline and online is their page Indigenous heritage. On it are links to their databases, virtual exhibits, and research guides. It's a great information page to help you get started. They've also provided links to their pages on the First Nations, the Metis Nation, and the Inuit.

I've taken a look at their online databases, and given a brief outline of each one.

Indian Affairs Annual Reports, 1864-1990
The Department of Indian Affairs and Northern Development was created in 1966. Before then, various departments were responible for Indigenous Peoples and/or Canada's North. This database contains images of the the annual reports submitted to the government by the Department and it's earlier counterparts. If your ancestor was an Indian Agent, you might find mention of them. If your ancestor was part of the indigenous tribes, you probably won't find mention of them. However, you can still get some background on their life through the eyes of the government. This database can be searched by keyword or by year. Images can be downloaded to your computer.



Indian Reserves - Western Canada
This database contains maps and plans of the Indian Reserves in Western Canada. You can search by:

• Reserve Name
• Reserve Number
• Province
• Date
• Reprography Number
• Keyword

The results screen gives you the year of each result, and whether there is an online image. Click on a result, then "PDF" to obtain your image. You can then download the image as a PDF file.



Project Naming
This database is a collection of over 4,000 photographs of the Inuit people in Canada's far north. It is an ongoing collaboration to name the individuals photographed. You can search the collection by

• Community
• Photographer
• Year
• Keyword
• Reproduction Number

You can also further your search by whether or not the people in the photographs have been named. If there's an image you would like to keep, then right click your mouse. Click on Save image as... to save to your computer.

Royal Commission on Aboriginal People (RCAP)

This database contains the documentation looked at by the RCAP. In 1996 the Commission released an indepth report on the relationship between Canada and the indigenous people. Thedocuments include project submissions, research reports, transcripts, and publications. You can search by 

• Keyword
• Title
• Language
• Document Type

These documents can be downloaded to your computer as PDFs.

Treaties, Surrenders, and Agreements

This database contains the documents relating to the Treaties, Land Surrenders, and Agreements that are in LAC custody. This is not a complete collection of all documents, as some are in the custody of other government departments. You can search by

• Keyword
• GAD Reference Number
• Volume 
• Microfilm Reel Number

Click on your result, and you have the option of looking at the images by JPEG, PDF, or both. Here's an image of an 1846 map titled Indian Chart of Red river

There is also a digitized microfilm collection that could provide you documentation of your Indigenous ancestor in the Residential School system. The collection, called School Files Series - 1879-1953, contains digitized microfilms that deal with the administrative side of the residential school system. If you scroll to the bottom of the page in the link above, there is a chart.

Beside the microfilm number is the name of the agencies and schools on that particular reel. Pick the reel you'd like to look at, and then scroll page by page. These are not searchable. The nice thing is though, is that once you find an image you'd like to keep, you can download that particular image. Just click on View PDF just above the image to save to your computer. You can also right click and save as a JPEG. Here's a quarterly return for the Cecilia Jeffrey Residential School in Kenora:

Don't forget to also look at the census returns on the LAC website. Reserve lands were often included in the enumeration.