Five Years of Blogging

It is my Fifth Anniversary of Blogging!

I appreciate all of you who have been following, commenting, encouraging and sharing.

Five years ago I was inspired and encouraged by Gail Dever at Genealogy à la Carte to write a blog. I had many lists of resources from doing research into my family and friends' families and I wanted to share it all with others. I wavered between making a website, of which there were many, or writing a blog, of which there were not many like mine. The reason I went with the blog was because it gave me a chance to tell family stories related to the information I was passing on.

I sometimes like to challenge myself and do a series or participate in a challenge. This past year I attempted the "Twelve Days of Ancestors", related to the "Twelve Days of Christmas" series I did the year before. That was quite challenging but fun to do.

Thanks to all of you who follow on the Blog, Facebook, Twitter and Pinterest, and for sharing. I look forward to seeing what the coming year will bring!

Anniversary Number Four

It is my Fourth Anniversary of blog posting today!   

Thank you readers for following, commenting and encouraging me.

I started this blog on 30 April 2014 to help people find resources to go beyond the birth, marriage and death records in learning about their ancestors. I always tried to do it with a story of one of my ancestors. I hope I have attained that goal and that some of my posts have helped you in your research. 

This past year I did Patricia Greber's  Military Ancestor Challenge in November, and  I completed my Canada 150 posts in December . Since then I slowed down and now I just finished the 2018 Blogging A to Z Challenge. Of all the  genealogy bloggers out there, there were only a handful of us that did the challenge in the genealogy category. 

Let's see what the next year will bring!!

D

Anniversary Number Three!

Tomorrow it will be three years since I wrote my first post. For those of you with farming ancestors, there are now a few posts that may be of interest to you.

The most viewed post for this year was -

History of PEI and Censuses 

...followed closely by -

What is in the Provincial/State Sessional Papers? 

The most viewed post of all time is holding it's top position -

"It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World"

The post All Aboard is now in third place, having lost its second place position to History of PEI and Censuses, this year's most viewed post.

The Resource page is also very popular and I hope everyone is downloading and sharing.

I found that doing a series of posts was fun to write and well received. The first one I did was the War Series in June 2014 during the week leading up to D-Day. The series for this past year are - 

Cigar Box - revealing the contents of my Dad's cigar box of WWII items. 

12 Days of Christmas - a fun take on the original song 

Canada 150 - ongoing for Canada's 150th anniversary of confederation 

High Fives - other blogs I read during the week that get a High Five from me.

Thank you all for stopping by ... what will the next year bring?

Canada 150 and Other Celebrations

By now most people know that Canada is celebrating 150 years since confederation in 1867. Special Canada 150 tulips were developed by Holland for our sesquicentennial and were available for purchase in the fall in time for planting. I can't wait to see mine bloom in the spring! Parks Canada is giving away free park passes for the year 2017 to anyone who wants one, not only Canadians, to encourage visitors to our beautiful parks and heritage sites. There are special events being held all year long all across the country.

I was 17 years old when Canada had their 100th anniversary celebration and Montreal hosted the World's Fair titled Expo '67. I was just at the right age that I could make tons of money babysitting for neighbours who wanted to spend whole days at the fair, and I was old enough to spend days there with just my friends.

Throughout Canada there have been other celebrations over the years that our ancestors may have attended, a few of which I have listed below.

What local celebrations might your ancestor have attended or perhaps worked on the committee? In your search also try keywords "sesquicentennial", "bicentennial" etc.

Click on the Canada 150 label on the right or at the bottom to see all the articles posted about Canada during this 150th year.


Relevant Links


Foundation of Montreal 250th anniversary celebration 1892

Historical souvenir and book of pageants of the 300th anniversary of the founding of Quebec City, the ancient capital of Canada - 1908

Troisième centenaire de la fondation de Québec, berceau du Canada 1908 

Toronto old and New: memorial volume to mark 100th anniversary of the Constitutional Act of 1791, creating Upper Canada and Lower Canada.

Souvenir of the 150th Anniversary of the City of Halifax, 1899

Memorial of the 121st and 122nd anniversary of the settlement of Truro, 1882

Newfoundland in 1897; being Queen Victoria's diamond jubilee year and the 400th Anniversary of the discovery of the Island by John Cabot.

 Fiftieth anniversary of the selection of Ottawa as the capital of Canada 1907

The centennial of the settlement of Upper Canada by the United Empire Loyalists

Galt centennial and Old Home Week, Galt Ontario 1927

Hamilton Canada, it's history, commerce, industries, resources.  Issued under the auspices of the City council in the centennial year 1913

Red River, 1812-1912;  Lord Selkirk's centennial, Winnipeg

The fiftieth anniversary, 1858-1908; Nerlich & Co, Toronto

London Board of Trade; fiftieth anniversary, 1857-1907 (Ontario)

The 100th anniversary of T. Rankine & Sons Limited biscuit manufacturers, Saint John NB

Golden Jubilee 1869-1919; a book to commemorate the fiftieth anniversary of the T. Eaton Co Limited

Fiftieth anniversary of the Royal Bank of Canada, 1919

The High School Magazine, Montreal 1916 - the hundredth anniversary of the Royal Grammer School


OTHER 150th CELEBRATIONS

150 years in Australia  official souvenir for National Celebrations 1938

Celebration of the 150th anniversary of Gorham, Maine 1886

Celebration of the 150th anniversary of the town of Danvers, Mass, 1907

City of Tecumseh, Michigan sesquicentennial, 1824-1974   

Celebration proceedings of the 150th anniversary of New Ipswich, NH 1900

Celebration of the 150th anniversary of the settlement of Baltimore, 1880

Book of Words, the pageant of Thetford, VT, in celebration of the 150th anniversary, 1911

It's our First Anniversary!

 

On April 30, 2014 my dream of having a blog became reality when I wrote and uploaded my first post "My ancestor was just a farmer...". Many of us have farming ancestors and didn't realize much could be said about them and their lives. It was later followed up with the article "Farmer's Directories" .

In all the years doing research on my family, and those of a few friends, I came across mention of these ancestors on various websites, in newspaper articles and in       publications ...  censuses dating back to 1666 New France, city directories, the fur trade, court documents, school yearbooks, just to mention a few. Hmmmm... none of my ancestors are on the Social Register. But at least they are not on the list of people fined for drunkenness either.

My family research takes me not only to 1600's Canada, but also to the United States, Ireland, England, Scotland and Australia.  I realized I was gathering a long list of links and I was happy to share it with anyone looking for information on their ancestors. Then I wanted to reach a wider audience and thought that rather than just putting them up on a website, I could also satisfy my enjoyment of writing by creating a blog.

 

Besides giving you articles and links that suggest where you can look for your ancestors, I also give tips and tools to help in your own research.  Two of the most viewed are: 

"Help me Search my Google" and "Tools for Genealogy Research".

 

I have written about many diverse subjects over this past year, and following are the articles that people were most interested in:

 

It's a Mad, Mad, Mad, Mad World

 

More Than BMD

 

Location, location, location

 

Guilds and Apprenticeships

 

All Aboard!

 

Keep the Faith

 

Time Travel with Google Earth 

 

Burials 

 

I was only mildly surprised at the number of readers of my blog, but really astonished at where in the world they are!!  It is no wonder that most viewers are from the United States, considering there are more people living in just the state of California (38M+)  than in all of Canada (35M+), but it is exciting to me to see that there are readers from far away countries.

 

 

Big thank you to all those who follow on the Blog, FaceBook and Twitter, and thanks for sharing with others. I'm looking forward to another year of researching and writing!

 

 

  

Greetings to and from the Queen

Today is the (actual) 89th birthday of Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II.
Long live the Queen!

You can read all about her life at the Royal Website.

When my parents were celebrating their 60th wedding anniversary in November 2007 we applied to have a greeting card sent to them from the Queen. It was a nice surprise for them and they loved it!

If you know someone who is going to be 100 or 105 years old, or a couple celebrating their 60th, 65th or 70th wedding anniversary, and lives in a realm or territory of the UK, you can apply to have a greeting card sent to them from the Queen. 

In Canada you use this application found on the Governor General's website.  You may also ask for a congratulatory message from the Governor General.

You may request a greeting from the Prime Minister of Canada for 65th+ birthdays and 25th+ anniversaries. You will find that application form on the Prime Minister's Website.  My Mom received one such greeting for her 80th birthday.


Relevant Links

To apply for a greeting sent to Australia

To apply for a greeting sent to New Zealand

To apply for a greeting sent in the UK or to other commonwealth countries.

History of the Royal Greeting Card