Good afternoon! It has been a while since my last post and a lot has happened during that time. I retired after over 32 years of working for the government, we had a new house built, sold our old home, and moved to the Orlando area. We are now trying to get settled in our new environment and finding out what is here for us to get involved with. I am trying to get settled back into a regular routine and hope to be able to find more time to blog in the near future.
I have been busy trying to work on my genealogy classes with the International Institute of Genealogical Studies, becoming more active in the Southeast Chapter of the APG, continuing my duties as the Education Director for The Family History Guide, serving as the secretary for the Second Life Genealogical Society, and working on genealogical research projects for OurAncestories Genealogy. I also have a couple presentations coming up in the next two months including the following:
- Genealogical Society of South Brevard - September 10 - Finding Your Family in the Second Hand Store
- Lake Mary Family History Fair - September 13 - Unlocking the Past: How AI Transforms Genealogy
- Martin County Genealogy Fair - October 18 - Unlocking the Past: How AI Transforms Genealogy and Advanced AI Applications for Genealogy Research
- FamilySearch Wiki - This is always my go to site when I start researching a new area or want to see what resources are available for and area. The Canada Genealogy and Ontario, Canada Genealogy pages provide lists of resources, maps, and links to many helpful resources. If you are new to Canadian research you should try the Getting Started button. If you are experienced in Canadian research, the Online Genealogy Records button provides links to many online resources.
- Library and Archives Canada - As with many archives, this site has a collection of online digital content as well as physical records which are not available online. I found several record sets helpful in the project that I was working on. Record sets such as Land Petitions of Upper Canada, 1763-1865 were not available in digital format while the War of 1812 records provide digital copies of the microfilmed records. The Archives also has a searchable database of the Canadian census from 1825 to 1931. The census collection is a great tool but I have found a couple downsides while using it. First, it seems to only search for the spelling of the name as you entered it. It does not search for alternative spellings no matter how close they are. For example, I got 7,717 results when searching for Sloan and 1,211 results when searching for Sloane. Another problem is that not every part of the census is digitized. For example, the images of the 1851 census are only of the front page, leaving the information from the back page missing. The back page of this census provides important clues such as whether the person was a member of the family, was the person missing at the time of the census, were they married, single, widowed, etc. Also, not every census is fully digitized. I found myself going to Ancestry to find the missing pages.
- Trent University Archives - University archives often have valuable information, some of which may be in digital format. I was able to find a substantial amount of genealogical information including photograph collections, correspondence, legal papers, bills and receipts, newspaper clippings, and scrapbooks concerning the families I was researching. However, not all of it was available in digital format.
- The Canadian County Atlas Digital Project - This page is managed by McGill University's Rare Books and Special Collections Division. They recognize how important historical maps are to genealogical research and have completed a searchable database of property owners names for each township in forty-three county atlases. Many of the maps have been digitized and can be found on their site.
- The United Church of Canada Archives - This archive has nearly 2,700 record sets pertaining to The United Church of Canada including Methodist, Evangelical, United Brethren, Congregational Union, and much of the Presbyterian Church in Canada. I was most interested in their collection of the Christian Guardian which was a weekly paper covering the period of 1829-1925. Parts of this collection are searchable but it is important to review the pages of interest to find missed information.
- Ontario Land Registry (ONLAND) - This site provides information on land transfers in the various counties in Ontario. The site has a few quirks that you have to understand in order to use it effectively. First, you need to know the county for your land registry office before you begin searching. Second, the database has operating hours and cannot be used outside those hours. For example, on Saturdays it is only available between 9am and 6pm Eastern. You are not able to research in their databases outside the posted hours.
- Ontario Ancestors - Ontario Ancestors is managed by The Ontario Genealogical Society and has a variety of resources. One of the pages I used on their site is The Ontario Name Index (TONI). TONI provides information such as location, record type, and repository for names that the OGS has indexed. They also have a listing of nearly 6,400 cemeteries with locations, whether they have been transcribed, and the condition of each.