Monday, April 1, 2013

New/Updated CANADIAN Websites, Blogs, Facebook, and Newspaper Articles - 01 April 2013


I have come across the following Canadian websites, blogs, Facebook, and newspaper articles this past week that were of interest to me, and I thought you might be interested in them, too –

Websites

There were no new/improved websites this past week.

Blogs

ActiveHistory.ca (History Matters) http://activehistory.ca This is a blog that has the latest news about people and places in Canadian history.

The Armchair Genealogist, Lynn Palermo, www.thearmchairgenealogist.com, has written an e-book called The Complete Guide to The Family History Interview, and she talks about it in a post entitled, “The Timid Family Historian”. This free e-book is available as a download on her site.

Facebook - Video – YouTube

Jill Ball, a genealogist from Australia, has over a dozen YouTube interviews with “the movers and shakers” at the RootsTech 2013 conference, including oneinterview with Dennis Brimhall, CEO of FamilySearch, at http://geniaus.blogspot.no/2013/03/what-opportunity.html

You can view my own blog posting of Jill’s interviews at http://genealogycanada.blogspot.com/2013/03/jill-ball-and-dennis-brimhall-of.html

Newspaper Articles

A $50,000 project would create a virtual museum to preserve Saskatchewan military history.

The Regina Leader Post reports that the Honourable Kevin Doherty, Saskatchewan’s Minister of Parks, Culture and Sport, wants to create a "virtual" museum that preserves oral history - specifically, the recollections of Saskatchewanians who have served in Canada's military.
www.leaderpost.com/news/military+history+project/8135684/story.html

Grand Pré Renovation Wins Award www.novanewsnow.com/Living/Community/2013-03-23/article-3205318/Grand-Pre-renovation-wins-award/1The owners of the Rayski House in Grand Pré were recently declared winners in preserving Nova Scotia’s built heritage by Heritage Trust of Nova Scotia.

Editorial: Ottawa's muzzling of librarians' free speech is intolerable www.calgaryherald.com/opinion/editorials/Editorial+Ottawa+muzzling+librarians+free+speech+intolerable/8146848/story.html

Ottawa's deliberate muzzling of federal librarians and archivists—a move which comes complete with a new code of conduct, jargon about "high-risk" activities, threats of discipline, and a hotline to rat out miscreants—is truly chilling.

AND

To go along with this is a post called “The Library and Archives Canada 2013-2014 Report on Plans and Priorities” on John D. Reid’s blog, Anglo–Celtic Connections, http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.com/2013/03/lac-rpp-2013-14.html.

Take note of his last sentence on the subject – “For the same period, they target 60% of clients being able to find what they are looking for online. As less than 1% of LAC material is online, that seems like a hugely ambitious target”.

Tracing your family tree: Websites open doors to the stories of our ancestors

Valerie Gibson of Ottawa tells of a story of how her direct ancestors – John and Jane German – died in a rowboat accident in the Hay Bay area near Napanee, Ontario, on their way to a Methodist revival meeting. www.ottawacitizen.com/life/Tracing+your+family+tree/8165562/story.html#ixzz2OvxGTKP7

On another similar note, I just finished editing a paper for the May 2013 edition of the Ontario Genealogical Society’s journal, Families, concerning the Bible Christian Connexion, which was founded in 1815 as an evangelical sect of the Methodist Church.

Pictures and Story of the Week

The Battle of Vimy Ridge

On April 9th, Canadians will commemorate the 96th anniversary of Vimy Ridge, one of the battles in which Canadians gave of their lives for their country.

There will be many ceremonies that will take place across the country, and overseas in France. Visit http://veterans.gc.ca/eng/feature/vimy-ridge to get a history of the battle, and what it meant to Canada.

Vimy Ridge wall carvings focus of presentation at Eldon House in London, Ontario on April 7th www.londoncommunitynews.com/whatson-story/2515373-vimy-ridge-wall-carvings-focus-of-presentation-at-eldon-house-april-7

Zenon Andrusyszyn, founder of the Canadian Historical Documentation & Imaging Group (CANADIGM), will provide digital documentation of WWI carvings near Vimy Ridge.

As of this posting, there were only 15 (free) tickets remaining. To register, go to http://vimytunnels.eventbrite.ca/#.

Look for more articles next Monday, April 8th.