Monday, May 24, 2010

The Heartfelt - Graveyard Rabbits Carnival, June 2010



Vedder View Gardens Cemetery, Chilliwack, British Columbia, Canada

The topic for the June 2010 edition of the Graveyard Rabbits Carnival is: The Interesting, The Odd, The Beautiful. This topic was submitted by Gail Wall, who authors the blog, Digital Cemetery Walk.

One of the more unusual cemetery headstones I've seen in British Columbia, Canada is this very individual one which is in Vedder View Gardens Cemetery, a family owned cemetery in a beautiful setting in Chilliwack, BC.



With Memories in our Minds and Love in our Hearts.
Jason Michael FRAESS memorial, born 7 August, 1980; died 24 October, 1998. Vedder View Gardens Cemetery, Chilliwack, BC , Canada.

Snowboarding...


"My Prayer" handwritten on the back of the FRAESS memorial.

At the time these photographs were taken, in 2006, there were a couple of other very personal memorials at this cemetery, and, as you can see, many graves with more traditional markers had been decorated with various tokens and momentos, as well as flowers and plants.

This memorial, however, stood out.

The love that went into this marker was impossible to miss.

Recently I attended a seminar on 'The Final Disposition' at Mountain View Cemetery in Vancouver. Some of the discussion there centred on how families might mark the graves and the deaths of loved ones in more meaningful ways in the future.

Although it may not weather as well as a commercial one, and may mean the cemetery has to adapt its landscaping practice, this heartfelt, handmade memorial certainly shows a family commemorating a death in a cemetery in a very personal manner.

Now there are less tangible options too - on-line memorials which might even last much longer than a tombstone. And indeed there are now two digital memorials for Jason Fraess - one on a Facebook page with photographs and one at Making Everlasting Memories with photographs and many memories.

Many families I know are now participating in these kinds of on-line memorials. Cemeteries are often firm on their standards for permanent memorials. Could gravestones become almost a 'thing of the past' or might we see a trend towards more personal, artistic memorials in local cemeteries?

Note: The Abbotsford Genealogical Society has a listing of the burials at this cemetery on-line. (These are not listed in the British Columbia Cemetery Finding Aid.) Unfortunately, perhaps due to the condition of the writing on the memorial now, the dates on the Abbotsford listing are currently incorrect. These photographs were taken by M. Diane Rogers in July of 2006.

This post was written for the Graveyard Rabbits Carnival. To learn more about the Association of Graveyard Rabbits, please have a look at the Association's website.

Friday, May 07, 2010

British Columbia History Journal - Now On-line Free

Cover photograph showing the sternwheeler 'Nasookin' almost at the Gray Creek wharf in about 1942. Since I usually travel by bus, I love this quirky British Columbian image! Just imagine how exacting those bus drivers must have been to 'balance' the bus just right every time so it would fit. British Columbia History, published quarterly by the BC Historical Federation (BCHF), Spring 2010, Special Transportation issue, Volume 43, Number 1.

Here I am at the British Columbia Historical Federation's annual conference. And right now I'm at the Book Fair which is open to the public today.

Available here is British Columbia History, the BC Historical Federation's journal, which is available to individual subscribers, or on some newstands, and at events like the BCHF Book Fair. British Columbia History is an excellent journal - if you have an interest in British Columbia's history and/or British Columbia families, you should be reading this regularly and checking back issues for articles of interest.

One of the most exciting things to happen recently in BC history and genealogy is the announcement that earlier issues of British Columbia History are now available free on-line.

On-line now are:

Full BCHF publications from 1923-2007 - including the BC Historical Association Annual Reports 1923, 1924, 1929, the BC Historical Quarterly 1937--1958, and BC Historical News/BC History 1968—2007 , together with indexes for the years from 1968-2005, all hosted on the University of British Columbia (UBC) Library's website.

You can browse by year and issue or search by keywords and date. Check the Help section for search operators you can use, like + or -. Note that the advanced search offers 'reversed stemming' searches, so, for example, you can enter the letters - wom - (the search is not case sensitive) and you will find results for passages with any words beginning with those letters - women woman women's, womanly, etc.

Since many of these are quite large files, you often will be prompted to choose the text version which is smaller and faster to load. You can then move back and forth in the text pages.

Also on-line are:

Covers and Tables of Contents for the most recent years - from 2008.

Indexes for Volumes 1-38 (2005).

For access to all these publications and indexes, go to the British Columbia History webpage.

This digitization project was done in partnership with the University of British Columbia Library as part of the BC History Digitization Program and it's intended that British Columbia History will continue to be digitized at five year intervals. The same UBC Library website also hosts British Columbia Reports, a law publication with the texts of legal decisions from 1884 to 1948, which will also be of great interest to genealogists and historians. For more about UBC's BC History Digitization Program, see the Program website.

The Editor of British Columbia History, Andrea Lister, is inviting submissions for future issues. Guidelines for authors are on the BCHF website. (Don't forget though if you are writing an article on British Columbia family history, you might like to submit that to The British Columbia Genealogist, the quarterly journal of the British Columbia Genealogical Society. Contact me for more information on that.)

The BC Historical Federation has been actively promoting interest in the history of British Columbia since 1922. Today the BCHF is the collective voice for over 177 member organizations, from local history groups and museums around the province like the Horsefly Historical Society, the Fort Nelson Historical Society and the Kitimat Museum and Archives to more specialized ones like the Historical Map Society of BC and the Women's History Network of BC. A list of all BCHF members is on the BC Historical Federation website: www.bchistory.ca

Wednesday, May 05, 2010

Vancouver Postcard Show - May 30, 2010

Natural Gallery, Nanaimo, BC. - 102,792 J.V. - Souvenir Post Card. The Valentine & Sons' Publishing Co., Ltd. Montreal and Toronto. Published in Great Britain.

Another event for a genealogist to look forward to!


Annual Postcard Show and Sale

Vancouver Postcard Club

Sunday, May 30, 2010

10 am - 4 pm


Hastings Community Centre,

3096 East Hastings St.,Vancouver, BC.



Vancouver Postcard Club website: www.vancouverpostcardclub.ca

For details, call 604 922 9688 or e-mail: dsteele1@shaw.ca



I'll be there. While I'm not expecting quite as many finds as last year - 1910s postcards of my mum's home town in Manitoba, including two from relatives - I'll still be happy to spend most of the day looking at postcards, and talking about postcards.

There'll be other postal history items and ephemera there too. And postcard displays. Always a great show. In fact, last year, attendance was so good, the refreshment stand ran out, so get there early!

Back of Nanaimo Natural Gallery postcard:

Dear Aggie, Just a line to say all G.K. Just had a tremendous rainstorm for 2 1/2 days. No trains in or out of Vancouver for 4 days as the tracks are washed away. E. Gelson leaves tomorrow I have asked him to come to see you. he promised to so look out for him. Please send by return Wellcomes Photographic Diary for 1910 as I keep an account of every days work in them. Don't forget. Best love to you Jess and all. Fred. XXX

Do these names - Fred, Aggie, and Jess - or E. Gelson - sound familiar to anyone?

And, there's some information here on the Photographic Memorabilia website about Wellcome's Photographic Diaries.

Tuesday, May 04, 2010

BC Historical Federation Book Fair - May 7, 2010 - Vancouver BC

Authors, heritage organizations and publishers will be on hand May 7th, 2010 to meet the public at the Plaza 500 Hotel in Vancouver at the British Columbia Historical Federation's Book Fair.

This event is a feature of the Federation's annual conference. Don't miss it!

Open to the public from 10am to 5 pm, Friday, May 7th, 2010 at the Plaza 500 Hotel & Convention Centre, 12th and Cambie, 500 West 12th Avenue, Vancouver, BC V5Z 1M2
Easy access by public transit; also parking available. See the Hotel link for a map.

The Book Fair is organized by the British Columbia Genealogical Society (BCGS).

The British Columbia Historical Federation (BCHF), encourages interest in the history of British Columbia through research, presentation, and support and the Federation provides a collective voice for its 177 member societies, representing 23,316 individuals.

Saturday, May 01, 2010

How To Budget Your Genealogy $ - Part 3 - Carnival of Genealogy - 93rd Edition

By now you have a research plan (or plans), you know how much money overall you have to spend on genealogy, and, you've got recommendations from other genealogists or others about appropriate products or services for your planned research. For Part One and Part Two of this discussion, see here (Part 1) and here (Part 2).

Especially if it's a long term subscription to a genealogy website you're considering, here are even more questions to consider.

#4. For a genealogy or related site that’s recommended, or one you’re looking at:

First – does it really have the service, records, indexes, etc. that cover the area, types of records, and dates you need or want? What proportion of its collections do you think will be useful to you?

–are the collections or services growing, or are they static. (And, how long has it been since it’s been added to). Do the claims seem overdrawn? Or, is there specific information about future plans.

–are these collections or services unique or are they available elsewhere - on-line or off, at a library or Family History Center, for $ or free, on microfilm, or even in print?
Could you make a special trip to a library that has access to try the website out? If you feel the price is too high right now, can you tailor your research plans to make use of free access at a library or Family History Center for now or to use a published or filmed source for now? If your research is in a single area, many genealogical societies have developed indexes to local censuses, BMD and other records. Could you use these at a local library or genealogical library, or could you purchase microfiche or CD copies of indexes to use?

–are there special features or benefits associated with the website subscription or membership? Are there free features or is payment required for everything?

–will you need to download special software? How often is that updated? Is the site/service compatible with your technology?

–what kind of options for payment are there? For example, pay for view, credits to purchase (look for a chart to explain this), day pass, tiered memberships or subscriptions, deluxe versions, 3-6 month subscriptions, full year. Membership versus subscription? Does the company offer any 'loyalty' discounts or specials for members or previous subscribers?
What special offers or free trials are there? Might there be a regular month for trials or special offers so you can test the site out first? If not, I usually recommend a short term subscription or the purchase of a reasonable number of credits first.

–what do the Terms and Conditions say? What uses are allowed, special rules, can you share images freely, use them in your own family history publications, do lookups for others? Are you allowed to share a subscription?

–is there a secure payment system? Automatic renewals? What is the Privacy Policy? If you will be uploading data to a website or ‘cloud’, what protection is in place for your information and for your privacy?

–how long has the website/company/society been in business? Check domain name, ‘about us’, ‘our history’. Look for press releases as usually have this info. (But being brand new isn’t necessarily bad.) Who are the owners/investors/volunteers? Are they associated with other groups/companies? What’s their reputation? How ‘big’ is it? Where is it located? Contact information?

What kind of reputation does the company/individual have currently (again look at dated reviews and comments on-line or in genealogy magazines and journals.) Has the website won any awards?

–does it appear there’s good ‘Help’ on the website? Is there a users group on-line or do you already know a number of people using the website or service? Are there help videos available on CD/on-line?

All these questions may sound discouraging, but having these in mind may keep you from signing up for something you just don't need or won't use. Genealogy doesn't have to break the bank! And, if you manage your genealogy $ carefully, you may be able to afford that special genealogy trip you've been dreaming of. (Start a fund for that too.)

And once you do decide to join a website or purchase credits – keep copies of any e-mail or paper receipts, help information, user names, passwords, and ‘keys’ for software. As you research, keep track of credits used, subscription dates, and membership renewal dates. Just in case there is a problem, you'll have the information you need to deal with it quickly.

Happy genealogy shopping!

This was Part 3 of 3. I'm very interested in your comments and ideas about genealogy budgeting. I'll be writing more about this topic in the future.

This post was written for the 93rd Carnival of Genealogy! Hosted by Jasia at Creative Gene.