From the Canadian Genealogy Centre’s website:
From 1840 to 1968, divorces in Canada were granted by private acts of the Parliament of Canada.Before 1867, only five divorce acts were passed and published either in the Statutes of the Province of Canada or in the Journals of the Legislative Assembly of the Province of Canada. The first divorce that occurred in Canada was between John Stuart and Elizabeth Van Reneselaer Powell in 1841.From 1867 to 1968, a person wishing to obtain a divorce was first required to place a notice of intent to petition the government for an Act of Divorce in the Canada Gazette and in two newspapers in the district or county where the petitioner resided. It was to appear for a six-month period.
CGC offers their database, Divorce in Canada, which covers those divorces in parliamentary publications from 1841-1968.
ANCESTORS ON BOARD
Passenger lists with over 24 million records from ships sailing to destinations worldwide.
Findmypast.com, in association with The National Archives, is proud to present ancestorsonboard, a new database featuring BT27 Outward Passenger Lists for long-distance voyages leaving the British Isles from 1960 right back to 1890.
With ancestorsonboard, you can search for passenger list records of individuals or groups of people leaving for destinations including Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa and USA featuring ports such as Boston, Philadelphia and New York. Passengers include not only immigrants and emigrants, but also businessmen, diplomats and tourists. Images (not free) of the passenger lists are available to download, view, save and print.
ROOTSWEB :
The primary purpose and function of RootsWeb.com is to connect people so that they can help each other and share genealogical research. Most resources on RootsWeb.com are designed to facilitate such connections.
Post a message to a message board. A message board is a computerized version of the old-fashioned bulletin board. There are more than 132,000 message boards on RootsWeb.com related to surnames, localities, and other topics. By posting a message to the appropriate message board, you create a record through which other researchers can find you. If you do not find a message board covering your topic of interest, start one.
Join a mailing list. A mailing list is simply an e-mail party line: every message that a list subscriber sends to the list is distributed to all other list subscribers. There are more than 31,554 genealogy-related mailing lists on RootsWeb covering surnames, U.S. counties and states, other countries and regions, ethnic groups, and other topics. Subscribing to a mailing list is one of the best ways of connecting to people who share your interests. If you do not find a mailing list covering your topic of interest, start one.
Post your family surnames on the RootsWeb Surname List (RSL). The RSL is a registry of more than 1,208,521 surname entries that have been submitted by more than 302,451 online genealogists. Associated with each surname are dates, locations, and information about how to contact the person who submitted the surname. The RSL is one of the primary tools on RootsWeb.com that online genealogists use to contact each other and share information. Note particularly that if you want to limit your surname by a location that there is a link to the abbreviations recognized by the search engine. For example, “County Cork Ireland” will not get results. “COR,IRL” is what needs to be entered. It is advisable to read the help screens before you begin to use RSL.
FreeUKGEN
Sponsored by Rootsweb, FreeUKGEN is an initiative to provide free primary UK records online, and includes:
FreeBMD : Free BMD is a volunteer effort to provide free access to the civil registration index for England and Wales, which has been in place since 1837.
FreeREG : The objective here is to provide free internet searches of baptism, marriage, and burial records, which have been transcribed from parish and non- conformist church registers in the UK. This is constantly being updated.
FreeCEN : These GEDCOM files are searchable by surname and given name. If you find an individual of interest to you, you will be able to manipulate the data in various ways. These include the ability to see descendancy charts, pedigree charts, download the entire file and attach “postems” with additions or corrections. You retain the copyright to your own information and WorldConnect does not sell your information to others. These are two important points to note if you are submitting to this site.
World’s Oldest Bible Going Online
The following information has been provided by Dick Eastman’s website :
File this under “history.” The British Museum has scanned and is placing online images of world’s oldest Bible. The Codex Sinaiticus is a manuscript of the Greek Bible, written between 330–350 A.D. It was discovered in the 19th century.
Very few people have seen this Bible due to its fragile condition. The British Museum keeps it under lock and key and and in the dark in a sealed container. It was removed from its storage case, carefully scanned and then replaced. The purpose of the scanning is to allow millions of people to view the important work without requiring any handling that would quickly ruin the remaining Bible.
Handwritten well over 1600 years ago, the manuscript contains the Christian Bible in Greek, including the oldest complete copy of the New Testament. The Bible obviously is not the King James version (started in 1604 and first published in 1611). This Bible is important to Christian scholars for many reasons. For one, it makes no mention of the resurrection.
The online site will contain images of the original Bible, along with modern-day translations in several languages as well as interpretations and supplemental information written by several of today’s leading Biblical scholars.
Part of the Codex Sinaiticus will go online on Thursday (July 24), including the Book of Psalms and the Gospel According to Mark. The plan is to have all of the Bible available online within a year.
The online images will be available on July 24 at http://www.codexsinaiticus.org.
1891 Canadian National Census Online at Ancestry.ca.
Ancestry.ca recently launched access to the 1891 Census of Canada, containing millions of names searchable in both English and French, plus original document images. It can be searched by name, province & district, etc., plus it also records the primary migrant communities originating from England, Ireland, Scotland, the U.S. & Germany.
Some negative comments on the translation job done by Ancestry include:
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Even when the religion is shown as “Presbyterian” on the image, the search result shows “Free Church” (which I had noticed as well – and there is no way to send a correction to Ancestry yet).
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Some of the transcribed names are gibberish.
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The entire population of over 10,000 people of one of the counties in the province of New Brunswick is listed as belonging to the province of Manitoba.
Luckily, you can obtain microfilm of the 1891 census for free, (although only searchable by geographic location), from Library & Archives Canada.
August 19, 2008
1916 Census of Western Canadian
Provinces on Microfilm
The following announcement was written by Library and Archives Canada:
The 1916 Census of the Western Provinces (Manitoba, Saskatchewan and Alberta) is now available at Library and Archives Canada. The self-serve microfilm reels (reels T-21925 to T-21956) are in the Microfilm Consultation room. Copies are also available for interlibrary loan.
Copies of the microfilm reels shelf-list have been placed in the Microfilm Consultation Room and at the reference desk in the Canadian Genealogy Centre.
This census is only available on microfilm. It has not been digitized, so it is not available online on our website.
You will find more information about census records held at Library and Archives Canada on the Canadian Genealogy Centre webpages (http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/genealogy/022-911-e.html).
GEDCOM
What exactly is a GEDCOM, and why would you need one?
Well – to begin with – GEnealogy Data COMmunication was created by the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints to allow genealogy data to be exchanged between different types of software. So it doesn’t matter what genealogy program anyone is using as long as both programs support the import and export of data in GEDCOM format.
To generate a GEDCOM file, open the file which you wish to share, and use the ‘Save As’ command in order to export the data in GEDCOM format. The newly created GEDCOM file can then be saved to a disk or attached to an e-mail. Once the other person has received the GEDCOM, it can be imported into their genealogy program, where it can be incorporated into their own files, printed out, added to or subtracted from, without having to type the data in by hand. The new data will only need to be validated by the other person before it is accepted.
PUBLIC DOMAIN
If you do give your family information (GEDCOM) to other people without written restrictions about it’s use, or to an online database, you may discover your hard work published on the internet, with someone else taking the credit. You may find it there anyway, because all information provided about names and the dates and places of births, marriages, and deaths is public domain information in Canada and the United States, as well as real estate transactions and taxpayers’ records. The fact is that except for adoption cases and court cases involving minors, we have little privacy. Anyone is free to publish public domain information, no matter where it originated. You may be able to claim a compilation copyright or copyright on interpretation & analysis of the history surrounding your relative’s lives, but the bottom line is that if you don’t want anyone to publish your hard work, don’t give it away!
PAPER OF RECORD
About Paper of Record (from their site) :
Conceived by electronic publishing and web pioneer, R.J. (Bob) Huggins in a local Ottawa, Mexican restaurant in 1999, PaperofRecord.com® is a Global pioneer of searchable newspaper image documents presented in their original published form. The Toronto Star, (circulation 650,000) became the first newspaper in the world to have its entire history from 1892 to present, digitized for the world to see and search. This revolutionary process changed forever how large metropolitan newspapers conduct their research and became the genesis for PaperofRecord.com®.
Locally, Paper of Record gives access to the Perth Courier from 1834 to 1987. It’s easy to search for reference to your ancestors, once you register, and it’s all free!
DeadFred
“If you’re starting from a pile of old photos or looking for lost family pics, this photo reunion site is the place to click. DeadFred’s collection encompasses some 14,762 surnames and 78,590 records, and it’s reunited 1,278 old photos with families.”
www.rootsweb.com/~canmil/index.html
This site provides information on Canadian conflicts, timelines, statistics, battles, uniforms & equipment, muster rolls etc., as well as how-to information on finding your military ancestor.
Hosts Irish Origins, Scots Origins, English Origins, and Origin Search. You may do a simple surname search for free, but must pay for the detailed results.
Libraries on the Internet
British Library, National Library of Wales, National Library of Scotland, Family History Library, Familia : the UK and Ireland’s Guide to Genealogical Resources in Public Libraries, Library of Congress Online Catalogue.
Our Roots/Nos Racines
Includes digitized local histories from across Canada, which can be browsed by author, title or subject. Once you find the volume you are intersted in, you can search for ancestor’s names or other terms. Topics include everything from the Red River Rebellion to Dairying in Saskatchewan. In terms of Lanark County history, there is one book you can check out – “Pioneer Sketches in the District of Bathurst” by Andrew Haydon – http://www.ourroots.ca/e/toc.aspx?id=12343.
Live Roots is a specialized search engine that assists you with locating genealogical resources, regardless of where it may be stored. Genealogists use Live Roots to find vital records and original publications, share opinions about online repositories and learn more about tools available to simplify their research projects.
The concept behind Live Roots was to build a single resource that bridges the gaps between independent genealogy web sites, large commercial ancestry repositories and many other printed family history materials yet to be digitized and published on the World Wide Web.
Live Roots extends beyond the typical bounds of a traditional search engine or link directory by facilitating access to offline records and publications through partnerships with amateur and professional researchers who either own copies or are geographically closer to the libraries and archives that do.
Online Resources for Timelines:
- Chronology of Ontario for Family Historians:
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I found your blog on google and read a few of your other posts. I just added you to my Google News Reader. Keep up the good work. Look forward to reading more from you in the future.
Thank very much! Glad that you found us and I’ll do my best to keep you interested! Have a great day……