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

Alberta Ancestors: Issues of University of Alberta's " The Gateway" Online

 Was your ancestor connected to the University of Alberta? Then you absolutely should be looking at the campus publication The Gateway. Still in publication, it was founded in 1910. Best of all, all issues have been digitized and are available online for free!

The publication focuses on issues relevant to students. According to their website, their objective is

• To sponsor advancement of education of University of Alberta students through the various practices of journalism and the publication of the Gateway.
• To provide a fair, reliable, and clear source of information, focused mainly, but not exclusively, on issues which directly affect students, whether they are local, national, or international.

The University of Alberta have digitized every available issue from 1910 to present day. You can find them online at two sites.

Peel's Prairie Provinces

This must see website for Western Canada research has all available issues from 1910 to 2008. These are available in PDF form. You can access the main browse page here

http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/newspapers/GAT/

Keyword searching can be done either on the main page to search all issues, or you can keyword search inside a particular issue. Just click on a year, and then a particular issue. The initial pages shown are quite small. However, if you click on the page image, it will reload to a much more readable size. Once you're into the larger size, there is an option to print. 

http://peel.library.ualberta.ca/newspapers/GAT/1910/11/21/6/Ar00600.html

Internet Archive

If you're looking for digitized items, you should always look to see if it's been uploaded to Internet Archive. A search on their site revealed they have over 3500 issues uploaded. They run from 1910 right up to 2020! The link from my search to access all issues is here.

https://archive.org/search.php?query=gateway%20alberta&and[]=mediatype%3A%22texts%22&and[]=subject%3A%22gateway%22

Just click on an issue and you can explore page by page. You can zoom in and out quite easily. Right click on an image to save the whole page and then print. Saving the image allows you to crop on a specific article if needed. Keyword searching can be done in a particular issue.

What's Inside 

So what information can you find? The issues contained news pertaining to the university, and university life. It also included articles on a local, national, and international scale. Pictures are included as well. Even if your ancestor didn't make the publication by name, you'll still get an insight into their academic life. 

Here's a short blurb about a new Science Professor, Dr. Ernest Sheldon, from 1910

Here's and article from 1934 about an upcoming night of boxing matches between the University's Varsity team and Camrose Normal.

Here's some letters to the editor from an issue in 1924

Here's the recipients of academic awards in 1943

Here's some members of the Archery Club in 1956

Here are some ads from 1969 aimed at recruiting upcoming graduates

Here is some club notices and classified ads from 1977

If your ancestor had a business that catered to the needs of students and faculty, then be sure to look at the ads throughout each issue. You might find an ad they placed. For the final example, here are some ads from 1918

I lost a couple of hours looking through the issues just for this post. Set aside some time when you research your ancestor. I can guarantee you'll get sidetracked.

Saskatchewan Ancestors: "Saskatchewan History" Magazine

 Once you delve into Canadian sources, you'll find that some provinces are absolute gold mines for online records. Saskatchewan is not one of those provinces. It's a combination of the Province's privacy laws and the youth of the Province compared to some others. Only becoming a province in 1905 means there isn't the long history that you see in Provinces like Ontario or British Columbia. Because those essential BMD records aren't as readily available as in a province like Nova Scotia or New Brunswick, those with Saskatchewan ancestry have to be a little more "out of the box" on resources.

This week I found a great resource on Internet Archive that will appeal to both genealogists and history lovers in general. Saskatchewan History is a magazine that was published by the Saskatchewan Archives Board. Internet Archive has issues from 1948 to 1957. It was published 3 times a year. History lovers and those wanting to know what their ancestor's life was like will find it a great read. 

Each issue has articles on different aspects of early pioneer life. The articles are well sourced, complete with citations.In the very first issue (Winter 1948) there is a small article highlighting a problem early settlers had that was unique to the Prairies: readily available water.

 There were also book reviews on the latest history books written about the province. This can give you new avenues of research to track down. Here's a review on Fifty Golden Years. A Brief History of the Order of St. Benedict in the Abbey Nullius of St. Peter, Muenster, Sask (Winter 1955 issue)

And here's a useful article on how Saskatchewan Places got their names (Winter 1950 issue). This section appeared regularly in the magazine

So what about the genealogy side of things? Well, there's plenty of articles focusing on specific people. One section to look at is the Notes and Correspondence section. Very much like today's "Letters to the Editor" section in newspapers and magazines. Here's a example from Winter 1949. Just look at the great extra information in these two letters:

Some issues had profiles on individuals. There's an in depth article on Philip Turner in the Spring 1950 issue. Philip was an inland surveyor.

If you're a descendant of Arthur Rowe Miller, how excited would you be to find his diary transcribed? Here's the first three pages. The article in the Spring 1957 issue is much longer.

In 1952 the Archives Board put out a Pioneer Questionnaire. In the Winter 1953 issue they featured snippets from some of the responses. Here's the page showing some memories of Mr. H. F. Copeland, who came from England in 1910.

Click here to access all the issues on Internet Archive.

As I was about to upload this post, I realized that the Provincial Archives of Saskatchewan has digitized the entire run of the magazine from 1948 to 2017. Each entire issue can be downloaded as PDFs. They also have a PDF list of all the featured articles. You can get the links for each on the Archives' website.

There are advantages and disadvantages to both sites. The Provincial Archives has the complete run. However, you will have to download the entire issue. With Internet Archive you can have the ability to download specific pages. You do this by right clicking on the page and saving as a jpeg. Either way, if you have Saskatchewan ancestors, you'll want to take a look at this resource.

Banking Ancestors and WWI on Canadiana

 Sometimes you find the most interesting things on Canadiana. I stumbled across a unique resource today that had to do with employees of what is now the CIBC during World War I. From 1915 to 1919, the Canadian Imperial Bank of Commerce published 11 pamphlets titled LETTERS FROM THE FRONT - Being a partial record of the part played by officers of the Bank in the Great War. Canadiana has all 11 volumes digitized. According to the pamphlets, by volume 11 in January 1919, a total of 1709 employees had served in the War, with 226 losing their lives. 

The pamphlets are a bonus to those with ancestors who worked with the Bank. Each issue listed every member serving. The information from the pamphlets were taken from letters by the soldiers to other employees. Family and friends of those serving also passed information along to the Bank to include in the series. 

Each issue listed all employees who have served as of publication. These were anyone from the lowest ranks to bank executives. Here's an example from Volume 2, showing name, rank, and CIBC branch

After the preface, the first section of each issue is the Honour Roll section, showing those who had died in the War up to that issue. By Volume 3 in late 1915, the Honour Roll was already growing. It lists name, rank, CIBC branch, date of death and cause of death.

The next section listed Casualties. This was further divided into subsections:

• Wounded
• Missing
• Prisoners of War
• Ill

Here's the some of the wounded as of Volume 4, which was published early 1916

Here's the Missing, POWs, and Ill soldiers from Volume 6, later in 1916

What I find are interesting is the extra information you can find here. In the Prisoners section, it tells you were they are being kept as a P.O.W. In the Ill section, you can in some cases see the cause of illness. As with other sections, you get name, rank, contingent/enlistment information, and the CIBC branch they belong to. Those researching Corp DA Wilson would find the fact that he enlisted in England a handy bit of information.

The best section though is the last section of the pamphlets, called Notes. Here they give specific information on soldiers. The information includes excerpts of letters written by soldiers, as well as Military dispatches. And what great information they have for those lucky enough to have an ancestor listed. I'm a little jealous, to be honest. 

Look at what was written about Mr. C S Cameron, who worked at the Fernie, British Columbia branch. This was from Volume 7 in July 1916

H.G. Murray was the lone survivor in a blast, from Volume 9 

The last section of the pamphlets are titled Letters from Bank Officers at the Front. This awesome section has whole excerpts of letters from the soldiers themselves. 

Here's an entry for nursing sister H V Petrie, who worked for the CIBC at the offices overseeing Western Canada

Here's an interesting one from Dr. Crozier, of Port Arthur. The letter was submitted by the brother of Dr. Crozier's partner in his medical practice. The brother was a Halifax branch manager

And here's one more example from V E McLeod, who worked at the Windsor, Nova Scotia branch

Remember that the CIBC had branches outside of Canada, and they made a point to include these employees as well in the publications. Here are the links to each individual volume on Canadiana:

• Volume 1 (1915) 

• Volume 2 (1915)

• Volume 3 (1915)

• Volume 4 (1916)

• Volume 5 (1916)

• Volume 6 (1916)

• Volume 7 (1917)

• Volume 8 (1917)

• Volume 9 (1918)

• Volume 10 (1918)

• Volume 11 (1919)
  

Examining Dentistry Records on Canadiana

courtesy of Pinterest https://www.pinterest.ca/pin/7740630580304819/

Health issues over the past weeks, and a mental health break from news and social media have kept me away from blogging. Thankfully, none of my health issues were COVID-19 related. One of them was some unexpected dental surgery. In the pre pandemic world, going to the dentist ranked very low on my list of fun things to do. Adding COVID-19 into the mix brought a whole new level of anxiety into the process. 

When thinking about what to write about on my return to blogging, I decided to look at dentists. I wondered what kind of information was available for those with ancestors involved in dentistry. As always, the first place I looked at was Canadiana. It did not disappoint. I found several publications relating to the dentistry profession.

• The family dentist : a treatise on the importance of the teeth, on their structure, disease and mode of cure, also managing and regulating of children's teeth, &c by J.A. Troutman, Dentist - an overview of dentistry from 1872. If Dr. Troutman was part of your family tree, the last page gives an account of his movements while researching the treatise

• Dominion Dental Journal - a periodical published by the Ontario Dental Association. There are 116 issues available, covering the years 1889 to 1900. It is filled mainly with "shop talk". If your ancestor was an author or contributor, then you'll have a nice addition to your collection. But it also has information on individual members. Here's an obituary for Dr. Chas A McNairn. At the bottom are deaths of other dentists belonging to the Association 

• The Canada journal of dental science - another periodical that ran from 1868 to 1879. There are 39 issues available. 

• The mercantile and legal record for British Columbia - 82 issues from 1902/1903. This is an "out of the box" source. This publication listed financial and legal transactions. While it won't give details on your ancestor's career per se, there are other little bits of their life. For instance, in this issue from Jan 23 1903 Dr. H.B. Findlay from Vancouver obtained a mortgage for $845 from A.R. Thomas

• Ontario Dental Society annual meeting, Dental College, Toronto, May 10-11-12, 1915 - the programme for the event. Among other things, it has a schedule of lectures. If your ancestor gave a lecture, you'll see them listed

Canadiana isn't the only place to find out about your dentistry ancestor. Other place to look are:

Universities

Institutional libraries are often overlooked as a resource. They can often be the recipients of records that Provincial and Municipal Archives decline. At the very least, if your ancestor was a student there, you can find out details of the academic life. You'll especially want to contact these Universities, as they have Schools of Dentistry:

• Dalhousie University
• Laval University
• McGill University
• University of Alberta
• University of British Columbia
• University of Manitoba
• University of Montreal
• University of Saskatchewan
• University of Toronto
• University of Western Ontario

 

Professional Associations

It never hurts to contact the professional associations. They might have small archives of their history that might have mention of your ancestor. Here's a list of some associations in Canada:

• Association of Canadian Faculties of Dentistry
• Association of Prosthodontists of Canada
• Canadian Academy of Endodontics
• Canadian Academy of Periodontology
• Canadian Academy of Restorative Dentistry and Prosthodontics
• Canadian Association of Oral and Maxillofacial Surgeons
• Canadian Association of Orthodontists
• Canadian Association of Public Health Dentistry
• Canadian Collaboration on Clinical Practice Guidelines in Dentistry
• Canadian Dental Assistants Association
• Canadian Dental Association
• Canadian Dental Hygienists Association
• Canadian Dental Service Plans Inc.
• Dental Industry Association of Canada
• National Dental Examining Board of Canada
• Royal College of Dentists of Canada (RCDC)

Don't forget to check out Provincial Societies as well;

• Alberta Dental Association and College
• Alberta Society of Dental Specialists
• Association of Dental Surgeons of British Columbia
• Certified Dental Assistants of British Columbia
• College of Dental Surgeons of British Columbia
• College of Dental Surgeons of Saskatchewan
• Dental Association of Prince Edward Island
• Federation of Dental Specialists of Quebec (FDSQ)
• New Brunswick Dental Society, The
• Nova Scotia Dental Association's Kid's Site
• Ontario Dental Association
• Ordre des dentistes du Quebec
• Ontario Society of Paediatric Dentists
• Royal College of Dental Surgeons of Ontario (RCDSO)

Government Gazettes

These publications of both the federal and provincial/territorial governments often contain notices regarding debt, incorporation, and applications that might pertain to your ancestor both personally and professionally. I've highlighted what a great resource the Canada Gazette is in a previous post. Occupations were almost always referred to, so you can stumble across extra information in these notices. For example, here's a bankruptcy notice from 1845

https://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/canada-gazette/001060-119.01-e.php?image_id_nbr=2382&document_id_nbr=1842&f=g&PHPSESSID=n2n8nrloqu49n5j7oo52lcb3s0uncva8a5o5mgb73h4f2nllat90