Wednesday, August 21, 2013

Grace Adams - stray photo taken in Victoria, BC, Canada

Since I'm heading off to Victoria for some research time and a family wedding, I thought I'd post a favourite stray photograph taken there.

Grace Adams, Victoria, BC, Canada, street photo - Candid Photo Studio

What a happy smile she has! And look - either she's been to the library or she's found one of Victoria's many book shops. Wonder which book that was?

This photo is identified in writing on the back as Grace Adams, numbered '38438' and stamped as 'Candid Photo Studio 720 Yates St., Souvenir of Victoria, BC'. 

From what I can see in the window display behind Grace, I think the photo might have been taken just outside the Candid Photo Studio (or another camera related shop). I believe I see an ad or display for a Ful-Vue camera.  These were manufactured from the late 1930s to the 1950s. I love that you can see another lady's white shoes in the shop front facing. They don't look like nurses' shoes, so the photo must have been taken before Labour Day, but after Easter. Maybe it's very early in the season as Grace has a fur piece on, but has only her coat's top button done up. Of course, the weather is always that bit nicer on southern Vancouver Island,.

If you know Grace Adams, please be in touch. Since I did find this stray photo here in BC, it's tempting to think she's the Miss Grace A. Adams I see listed as living in Oak Bay in the 1940s voters' lists, but, of course, Victoria has always hosted visitors from around the world, so she may have been from much further away.

Friday, August 16, 2013

Archive CD Books Canada partners with FindMyPast.com

Over at the British Columbia Genealogical Society website, just posted is an announcement from Malcolm Moody of Archive CD Books Canada. The company is now in partnership with FindMyPast.com

Considering everything, I'm very optimistic that this will be a good relationship for the two companies and one that will benefit genealogists and family historians doing Canadian research. Many unique books are included in this collection.

Malcolm and his company have been good friends with Canadian genealogical societies, helping to promote genealogical collections and research projects and events across the country, for instance.

Archive CD Books specializes in providing high quality access on CD to searchable historical books and documents from private or small collections. Many of these would otherwise be either inaccessible or impossible or too expensive to purchase.

If you're on Facebook, do 'like' Archive CD Books Canada. You'll often see breaking news and very interesting commentary there on Canadian research and resources. I certainly recommend Archive CD Books Canada! (Just a friend - no commercial relationship.)

With this partnership, FindMyPast.com at last gains a significant and unique collection of Canadian genealogical data to share with its subscribers. I'm one and although I haven't been as excited as they thought I would be about their website (!), I was happy enough that I recently renewed. And generally I do believe that at least a bit of competition is a good thing for consumers. Too many commercial websites, in my opinion, offer data that's available at several other places, or, sometimes, is free elsewhere, or in a more accessible format elsewhere.

And FindMyPast has now Canadian newspapers as well, although these don't seem to have been listed yet with the years available. (Perhaps another announcement soon?) As many will know I do love newspapers, and I've been checking their Winnipeg and other Manitoba newspaper issues, but apparently searchable are:

    Alberta Golden Jubilee and Peace River Progress
    Baldur Gazette
    Baldur Gazette News
    Beausejour Brokenhead River Review
    Beausejour Clipper Weekly
    Beausejour Review
    Brandon Sun
    Brokenhead River Review
    Canwood Times
    Carillon News
    Chautauqua Talk
    Daily Free Press
    Dauphin Herald
    Erickson South Mountain Press
    Grandview Exponent
    Interlake Spectator
    Lac Du Bonnet Leader
    Lethbridge Daily Herald
    Lethbridge Herald
    Lethbridge Herlad
    Lethbridge Sun Times
    Manitoba Daily Free Press
    Manitoba Evening Free Press
    Manitoba Free Press
    Manitoba Morning Free Press
    Manitou Western Canadian
   Medicine Hat Daily News
   Medicine Hat Morning Times
   Medicine Hat News
   Medicine Hat Times
   Medicine Hat Weekly News
   Neepawa Banner
   Northern Gazette
   Pas Herald
   Pas Opasquia Times
   Peace River Hudson Bay Company
   Peace River Pilot
   Peace River Record
   Peace River Record Gazette
   Peace River Standard
   Portage La Prairie Central Plains Herald Leader
   Portage La Prairie Leader
   Portage La Prairie Plains Herald Leader
   Prairie Post
   Rivers Banner
   Rivers Gazette
   Rivers Gazette Reporter
   Roblin Review
  Roblin Review And Togo News
  Roblin Review And Western Weekly
  Russell Banner
 Selkirk Journal
 Shellbrook Chronicle
 Shoal Lake Crossroads
 Springfield Leader
 St Johns Daily Star BT
 St Johns Daily Star GS
 St Johns Evening Telegram BT
 St Johns Evening Telegram GS
 Steinbach Carillon
 Steinbach Carillon News
 Stonewall Argus
 Stonewall Argus And Teulon Times
 Stonewall Interlake Spectator
 Swan Valley Star and Times
Togo News
Winning Free Press
Winninpeg Free Press
Winnipeg Free Press
Winnipeg Manitoban

Tuesday, August 13, 2013

1921 Canada Census - only at Ancestry, you say? And only in Canada?

Well, I've tried very hard to say little about this whole 1921 Canadian census disaster lately. (I'm sure my doctor is happy.) Instead I got myself pretty well prepared to search the unindexed pages for my families ahead of time, and I've been pretty successful so far. The bigger cities like Toronto and Montreal are challenging, but I had directory details handy so that's been a help.

Tomorrow night I'm doing a talk with Judith Ueland for the BC Genealogical Society's Canada/USA group about homesteading in Western Canada and I'll be using some 1921 census info for my Swedish relatives.  Nothing as exciting as that from the 1911 census, or even the 1916, but the more evidence the better, eh?

I have noticed that some in Central Canada and perhaps further afield are now concerned about Library and Archives Canada's exclusive deals with commercial (and other?) companies and institutions.  Goodness, I may no longer need to waste my breath as Canada's Cassandra genie - the one 'no one' listens to (or sometimes rails at). (I did see recently on LAC's website that a nice sum had been paid for, it sounded like, for advice on which bloggers could be helpful in promoting LAC's agendas. Wonder which lists we are all on.)

The Ontario Genealogical Society (OGS) asked Library and Archives Canada (LAC) some questions about the release and published the responses. You will notice, of course, that some questions aren't answered and other answers don't seem correct. At least the answers sound polite, unlike one or two of the LAC announcements. (And no, they didn't sound better in French.)

Ancestry province-wide licenses?  I'm sure these are available, but that doesn't mean every province has one, or was this an unmentioned feature of the exclusive deal? I must ask my local library which does not offer Proquest's Ancestry Library Edition.

And some of LAC's justification for this deal is apparently that it frees up time for other deals. Really?? (Oh, dear, I must breathe deeply. Aaah! )

Now this isn't Ancestry's fault - this is a commercial company and does what it needs to do. But today I asked Ancestry a few questions about access to the images. I've been following the release closely on social media but perhaps Ancestry's people haven't. (Likely they are all busy indexing.)

Here is the response which I do have Ancestry permission to share as it may help some.


Sent: Tuesday, 13 August, 2013 7:31:05 AM

Subject: RE: 1921 Canada census

Hello, Diane.

The 1921 Canada Census is still being indexed on Ancestry.com. Here is our official blog statement about it:

Breaking news! 1921 Census of Canada is finally here. Indexing all 8.8 million records is keeping us busy here at Ancestry.ca, but you won’t have to wait long to get a first look at the collection. You can browse approximately 200,000 images of the entire collection for FREE now via the link below! Be sure to return often for updates – the entire collection will be indexed and ready to search later this year. Get started here: www.ancestry.ca/1921


Note that the link at the end won’t work in a library environment but you can use this link instead:


We even have a landing page for it:


Currently this is an image-only collection since the indexing isn’t quite complete. This means that you can browse the images by using the drop-downs on the right of the page; however there will not be a search box that will let you search by name. We expect the indexing will be finished in the coming months but don’t have a firm date to give out just yet. Also, please note that since this database is not quite complete there may be issues with it including times where the images themselves are not available if we need to take them offline to update the collection.


Not sure what they think happens in a "library environment" but I suspect that just means it's not an Ancestry Library Edition link. If you have Internet access, surely it will work.

But I also asked about non-Canadian access: I see that someone has just posted these 1921 images are free for Canadians only? Is this so? And if so, why hasn't this been mentioned. (Do I need to carry my passport, I wonder?)  Diane Rogers

The answer: 

Yes, this is the case. You can only access the images for free if you’re using either Ancestry.com or the Ancestry Library Edition/Ancestry Institution. This was mentioned on our Ancestry.ca Facebook page where we first mentioned the collection. We have done virtually no marketing for the database outside of Canada. It’s also not listed on any of our standard census lists since the index is not finished. Due to those two items, it is highly unlikely that anyone who doesn’t use Ancestry.ca would even know the database exists in the first place.

OK - the images are only 'free' if someone is paying for your access? Confusing at best.  And I did just go to Facebook and don't see this explained.  

But Ancestry clearly is underestimating the power of social media here. And other things - although I live in Canada (and usually do carry my passport) I don't use Ancestry.ca.  But was this part of the deal? Yes, I still do want to see all the details of all of these LAC 'deals'.