Thursday, May 15, 2008

Mom, how'd you get so smart? Carnival of Genealogy


Mum with her degree, and dad, 1983, Simon Fraser University, Burnaby, B.C. Canada


The topic for this edition of the Carnival of Genealogy is: Mom, how'd you get so smart? We'll examine our mothers' education.

It’s true I don’t know much about my mother’s schooling in her hometown of Newdale, Manitoba. I heard about her friends, and the rides to school sometimes over the snow in a horsedrawn van, but I don’t remember her saying much, if anything, about school itself, or about any teachers there.

For her last year of high school though, my mother moved in to Winnipeg, where she attended Riverbend School for Girls, then a United Church school. (Today known as Balmoral Hall.) I believe this was a formative time for her – I do remember her talking about her Riverbend teachers. She soon went on to business school, then worked at Eaton’s in Winnipeg (Canada’s grand old department and mail order store). She used her business skills all her life; she never got rid of her shorthand book and always knew where every penny was!

While working at Eaton’s, she took courses that Eaton’s offered their employees in sales and sewing and she joined Beta Sigma Phi, a non-academic sorority founded in 1931, as she said, for those women who weren’t able to go to University during the depression.

During World War II, she joined the Canadian Women’s Army Corps and took lots of training there. She married during the war and afterwards, came to live in Vancouver, B.C. She did return to school here for a time, to learn more dressmaking, which she loved, and she soon found Vancouver friends in Beta Sigma Phi.

I think she regretted not going on in school as a girl. A few other women in the family did go on a bit further– a great aunt was a teacher, one cousin became a nurse, for instance, and she had some other models, including Dr. Isabelle McTavish of Newdale, a medical missionary, but mum was not interested in medicine or teaching. She read a lot and was interested in anything to do with archaeology, among other topics. When I went to university, I tried to get her interested in going as an adult student, but she thought she was too old. Somehow though, years after I was gone, she took herself up the mountain here and registered at Simon Fraser University. She received her B.C. in 1983 and continued to attend for many years. She was very happy at S.F.U. and found going to university, even as a 'senior', rewarding.

Wednesday, May 14, 2008

Family History Catalogue To Be Enhanced - Sounds Like Good News for Genealogists

FamilySearch.org and FamilyLink.com have today announced a collaboration to enhance the Family History catalogue with 'Web 2.0' features.

Catalogue entries will become available to search engines and catalogue users will be able to annotate library listings and will be linked to on-line resources or even to publishers, for instance. This sounds like great news, especially if the many family history and genealogical societies are involved in this as publishers.

"FamilyLink.com will make searches more useful by allowing the user to browse, sort (by popularity, relevance, most used, etc.), and perform multiple searches. A new "probability engine" feature will calculate the likelihood that a particular source contains the desired item. It will also be able to search across someone's entire family tree to determine which ancestry lines have the highest likelihood of success based on known sources."

Paul Allen, CEO of FamilyLink.com, Inc. is quoted as saying:

"We will enhance the catalog by connecting it with new innovative tools, along with the best resources of our WorldVitalRecords.com databases, the FamilyLink.com social networking site, and our We're Related application in Facebook. Putting all of these resources together will dramatically change the meaning of 'search' in genealogy."

Maybe there will even be a Facebook application very soon for the FHL catalogue as there is for Douglas College's Library? I haven't always been happy with WorldVitalRecords.com as some will know, but I do love Facebook and think this kind of social networking is the way of the future.

See the news release on http://www.familysearch.org/:
http://www.familysearch.org/Eng/Home/News/frameset_news.asp?PAGE=Press/2008-5-14_Library_Catalog_Upgrade.asp

Wednesday, May 07, 2008

General Stores of Canada: Merchants and Memories by R.B. Fleming



Lavery & Scott General Merchants, Newdale, Manitoba, Canada, 1918-1919
That's grandpa, James Walter Scott, in the sweater & jacket, and my mum is the small child in the middle - all bundled up. On the back it reads, "This is the way we worked the morning peace was declared. Muriel is the littlest girl in the centre."


General Stores of Canada: Merchants and Memories by R.B. (Rae) Fleming (Toronto: Lynx Images, Inc., 2002)

Lots of stories about Canada's small town general stores here and great old photographs too. Rae Fleming's parents had a general store in Argyle, Ontario in Canada and before that they worked in Rae Fleming's grandfather's store at Eldon Station, Ontario, so he knows his subject.

There's good information here and although this is not a reference book but one you'll likely pick up and read with pleasure, there's a place index, some informative notes and a bibliography that's helpful.

Sunday, May 04, 2008

Upcoming Genealogy Events - Lower Mainland, British Columbia, Canada

I've missed blogging lately as have been busy at events, or getting ready for events, or recovering from events. Now I see Blogger is offering to let us 'post-date' entries - that's great!

This weekend, I was with other B.C. Genealogical Society members at the 5th Annual Burnaby Festival of Volunteers at Brentwood Mall. We talked to many, many people interested in tracing their family's roots.

Among the geographical areas we were asked about particularly were:

Burma, Switzerland, Canada (British Columbia, Alberta, Ontario, New Brunswick), China, Columbia, England, Ireland, Kenya, Scotland, Taiwan and the U.S.A.


Watch for B.C.G.S. members and displays at these upcoming events:

British Research Seminar with Chris Watts, Burnaby, B.C.
May 10, 2008 - all day

Details: www.bcgs.ca

Topics:
- Some Underused Sources for English Genealogy
- Tracing Birth, Deaths & Marriages at Sea
- World War I Army Service Records at The National Archives of the U.K. & Elsewhere

British Columbia Historical Federation conference, New Westminster, B.C.
May 8-11th, 2008

Details & registration: www.bchistory.ca


Historical tours & talks, meet some 'Royal Engineers', tour Fort Langley and New Westminster, Paddlewheeler and cemetery tours.

Book fair open to the public Friday 1-6 pm, at the Inn at Westminster Quay, New Westminster.


European Festival, Burnaby, B.C.
May 31, 2008 - all day - see schedule on-line

Details: www.eurofestbc.ca/index.html

Entertainment, food and more representing these countries: Austria, Belgium, Bosnia-Herzegovina, Croatia, Cyprus, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Italy, Latvia, Metis, Montenegro, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Serbia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey, and Ukraine.

'Beginning Your Family History’ with M. Diane Rogers, Burnaby, B.C.
June 19, 2008, 7-9 pm, Burnaby Village Museum

Info & Registration: www.burnabyvillagemuseum.ca

Learn how to get started and how to organize your family tree. Hear tips about connecting with long-lost relatives and about using on-line websites and databases, all without spending a fortune.


Scandinavian Midsummer Festival, Burnaby, B.C.
June 20-22, 2008

Details: http://www.scandinavianmidsummerfestival.org

Dancing, choirs, musicians, great food, even some Vikings to talk to!



B.C. Highland Games, Coquitlam, B.C.
June 28, 2008 - all day - watch for schedule on-line

Details: http://www.bchighlandgames.com

Bagpipers, fiddlers, dancers, drummers, athletes, and good food, the Scottish clans and societies - oh, and did I mention the pipe bands are parading, my favourites?


That's all for now!