Saskatchewan Virtual War Memorial Website

Given Remembrance Day is almost upon us, you may be interested in the Saskatchewan Virtual War Memorial website.

I think they have done a really good job.  One can search by surname or by advanced search (including rank, service number, conflict, etc to find a Sask soldier that died in active duty during war.

The address of the Saskatchewan Virtual War Memorial  is http://svwm.ca/

One of the ways I capture my family’s interest is by creating large scale Family Tree Banners.  Here is my 2011 version and there are more here.

This one featured my Mom’s WOODLAND side of the family. I created it in my genealogy software program and had my local print shop print it.

I created these banners on the occasion of my Mom’s 80th birthday and they got the family talking about their family history!

Listen to Geneabloggers BlogTalkRadio (embedded below) from Friday September 23rd, 2011 for this and MORE ways to capture your family’s interest in your favourite hobby!

Here are the links I mentioned in my interview on Geneabloggers Blog Talk Radio.

There are so many ways to engage the family and it really depends on the person, the age and their interests.

I have a 3 part approach to engaging family and friends – Visual, Audio and Social Media

Part 1. Visually

a. Family Tree Banners -

 You can easily do this from most genealogy software programs – I have used Family Tree Factory and Family Tree Maker.  I used Legacy for fan charts.  Other programs  will do it too.  You choose the branch of the family you wish  to highlight, create a pdf file and send it to the printers to be printed.

Banners engage the family – people look at dates, give you corrections, make comments about middle names, are surprised we know so much about their family.  It is a great jumping off point to discussing family history and an opportunity to collect more information.

TIP – let them write the corrections right on the banner or have family group sheets available.

Tip – people like to see themselves on the banner especially little kids so figure out all those little cousins and get them added into your family tree if you go with the banner approach.

 More examples of banners here.  I used a background picture on these earlier versions.

 If you don’t want to do it yourself, send your gedcom off to FamilyChart Masters.  They do a great job and will print it for you.

b. Self publishing

1) Create an  ebook from family tree program – create a pdf file from your family tree program such as Family Tree Maker and send to the printers

2) Create a narrative or descriptive book -  Inspiration for this is Lisa Alzo’s Ready, Set, Write! Share Your Family’s Story Webinar at Legacy Family Tree .   I highly recommend this webinar and the show notes.

 c.  Digital Scrapbooks 

Create a digital scrapbook with photos from a milestone birthday or family reunion.  Include historic photos from the person’s life.  I use Picaboo for my digital scrapbooks and I scan the old photos on my trusty Flip-Pal Scanner.

d. Other websites -

 1.  Kid’s Activities – Lorine Massey’s Olive Tree Genealogy has lots of ideas for engaging kids in family history.

 2.  Kerry Scott  over at Cluewagon blog  showed us “How to incorporate your family history into your home decor – She has framed maps related to her genealogy research located around her house which invites conversation about her family history

 3.  Amy Coffin  at the WeTree Genealogy Blog has created a wonderful little video entitled “Family History in 3 minutes.  This is another wonderful way to share family history with family.

Part 2.  Audio

 a. Digital recording - Play the Memories Game and engage your family.  My aunt kept grabbing the recorder and exclaiming “I have one more story, one more story!”

b.  LiveScribe Echo Smart Pen – a computer, digital recorder and pen combined.  A great way to engage the family.  Susan Kitchens  of Digital Oral History is my inspiration for this idea.

Part 3.  Social Media

 Blog, Blog, Blog your family history!   Tell the stories and share the links with your family by fanning it through the social media (Twitter, Facebook, Google Plus) using tools like Su.pr.  Don’t assume your family will visit your blog – people are busy.  Send them a notice by email or text.  Text messages still get opened!

Introduction

In the last ten years, genetic genealogy (DNA for genealogy) has provided the family historian and genealogist with another tool in which to find and make connections with previously unknown ‘cousins’.  This tool can help prove the paper trail and  lead one’s research off in directions not previously considered. The task of the genetic genealogist is to figure out where and when two individuals share a common ancestor.

This post begins a series of posts sharing our genetic genealogy process and findings to date.  I do this for three reasons – one, to bring all the information together in one place;  two to share with the world in the hope that others will find the process useful and finally to make more cousin connections.

Background

Members of our family have tested at two genetic genealogy companies located in the USA.  These are 23andme.com and Family Tree DNA.  Not surprisingly we’ve had the most success with my husband’s side of the family.

Why?  Because my husband’s ancestral background is predominately American and presumably more Americans have tested at these two American companies thus making it more likely we will find matches, which certainly seems to be the case.  Secondly, we have more family tree information on his side of the family and can more easily match the paper trail to sort out the DNA connections we receive.

Our HILLMAN DNA Match

One of the most exciting matches was found in June of this year through the RELATIVE FINDER autosomal DNA testing at 23andme.   Relative Finder identifies regions of DNA in common on the 22 pairs of autosomal chromosomes and the X chromosome.  One typically shares 50% DNA with each parent, 25% with each grandparent and 50% with siblings.  Cousins, depending on the degree of relationship share lesser amounts of DNA.

We received notification that my husband RWM matched at the second to third cousin level with a person with initials of CW.

The match was 1.80% shared DNA in 9 different segments and a total of 135 centiMorgans (cM)*. 

This is a significant match.

*A centiMorgan (cM) is a unit of genetic distance along a chromosome that takes into account how often recombination occurs in that region. A region with few cM undergoes relatively less recombination. Closer relationships tend to have longer segments because there have been fewer opportunities for recombination to occur.

Here is what I do STEP by STEP when we get a match at 23andme.com

1. I take a quick glance at the person’s profile to determine if we both share surnames and geographic interests in common.   Unfortunately not everyone will have this information in their profile. 

2.  I then send a message to the match with our surnames and geographic interests along with a request to share genomes at the BASIC LEVEL ONLY.  Basic level shares only genetic genealogy information and not health information. Messages can be sent via the internal message system in 23andme.  Email addresses are not shared unless you give your email to the other person in a message.

Some individuals will share basic genomes right away and others will want more information.  Messaging back and forth can establish a common bond to proceed to sharing at the basic level.  It helps to point out that no health information is shared at this level. 

Note – don’t be discouraged if the match never answers.  Many people test for health reasons only and are not interested in genealogy…Imagine!

I will also note the person’s haplogroup more for interest’s sake although this knowledge can be useful in some cases.  (More on this in another post).

3.  Once we are sharing genomes at the basic level I go to ANCESTRY LABS/FAMILY INHERITANCE ADVANCED in the 23andme dashboard and compare just where on the chromosomes we have a match.   There are drop down menus that allow you to choose the individuals you wish to compare, in this case CW vs RWM.

Screenshot of the Family Inheritance Tool (23andme.com)

The results appear in two forms – a schematic as below and  numerical values in a table which you can view or download as an excel spreadsheet.

Autosomal DNA match CW vs RWM 9 segments 135cM - Source 23andme.com

Reading the schematic

Take a look at the blue section shown on the chromosome 5 near the top of the picture.   The blue section is a DNA segment that both my husband and CW share in common.  This means they both have exactly the same DNA sequence in that region which indicates a DNA match.  Another example – A smaller blue piece is seen on chromosome 7 and  a slightly larger one on chromosome 8 and so on.  Every blue piece is another match between CW and RWM. 

NINE segments in all for a total of 135 cM!  This means CW and RWM share a common ancestor and this ancestor was probably in the not so distant past.  Our daughter HM also matched CW on a 16 cM segment located on chromosome 9.

Below is the table of the data which shows the numeric position of the matches on each chromosome, the start and end points, how large the segment is (genetic distance) and how many SNPs (single nucleotide polymorphisms).

Comparison Chromosome Start point End point Genetic distance # SNPs
CW vs. RWM 5 115000000 126000000 13.0 cM 2425
CW  vs. RWM 7 101000000 105000000 5.0 cM 932
CW vs. RWM 8 1 8000000 19.5 cM 3708
CW vs. RWM 9 70000000 81000000 14.0 cM 2573
CW vs. RWM 10 19000000 34000000 18.0 cM 3251
CW vs. RWM 13 72000000 99000000 25.5 cM 5535
CW vs. RWM 17 21000000 32000000 12.0 cM 1750
CW vs. RWM 18 13000000 36000000 20.0 cM 4080
CW vs. RWM 18 42000000 46000000 5.5 cM 1017

UPDATE – CW vs our daughter HM.

CW vs. HM 9 70000000 81000000 15.5 cM 2648  (only one segment in common)

CW and I were excitedly messaging back and forth comparing family trees. We quickly found a name in common (HILLMAN) and noted that the geographical region matched my husband’s father’s side of the family  – New Brunswick.

My Family Tree database showed the following HILLMANS:

Edmond Hillman married to Jerusha Dow (my husband’s great grandparents).  Their children were:

• Mary Ann “Annie” Hillman
• Isabella Belle Hillman
• George Nelson Hillman
• Moses Hillman
• Horace Greeley Hillman
• Cora J Hillman married to Ward Beecher Miller of Royalton, New Brunswick (my husband’s grandparents)
• Elsie Hillman
• Jasper Hillman
• Judson Hillman
• Sylvia B Hillman

CW had a Thelma Hillman in her direct lineage.  No Thelma in our list, but as we discussed this further CW thought that the name “Judson” rang a bell.  She hurried off to consult with other family members. A day later we had our answer.

BINGO!

Judson Hillman is CW’s great grandfather!  Judson and his wife had a daughter Thelma who married Clarence Rideout (CW’s grandparents)

(RIDEOUT rings a bell for me.  My mother in law has letters in the old trunk from “Rideout cousins” of my father in law. Note to self – check out those letters! )

Summary

 Hubby’s grandmother Cora Hillman was the sister of CW’s great grandfather Judson Hillman.  RWM and CW’s most recent common ancestors (TMRCA) were Cora and Judson’s parents -  Edmond Hillman and Jerusha DOW.

From the paper trail we have this:

Jerusha Dow was born the 08 March 1843 in Dowville,York County, New Brunswick. She married Edmond HILLMAN on the 19 Jul 1863 in Southhampton, York County, New Brunswick. She died on the 21 April 1922. Her husband Edmond HILLMAN (1831 – 1914) was born on the 10 Nov 1831 in Canterbury, NB. He died the 30 March 1914** in Greenbush, NB  (Source – The Book of Dow, more information here.) 

[**UPDATE - Edmond HILLMAN died 23 March 1914 as noted on an online tombstone transcription - research of Calvin Miller.  Edmond Hillman was the son of George HILLMAN and Mary "Polly" MILLER.]

Degree of Relationship

The software at 23andme predicted my husband RWM and his DNA match CW were second to third cousins which indeed is the case.  According to my family tree program RWM and CW are second cousins twice removed.

[UPDATE - the relationship is second cousin once removed (not twice as my family tree program indicated).   The actual percentage 1.80% matches the predicted (1.563%) confirming that this match is probably second cousin once removed.  Thanks CeCe Moore for catching that.]

 Here is a picture of Cora Hillman Miller who was my husband’s grandmother and CW’s great grand-aunt. I’m on a mission to find photos of her parents Edmond Hillman and Jerusha DOW.   If you can help please leave a comment below.

Cora Hillman b. 1874 New Brunswick. This is my husband's grandmother. (Copy of a photo originally obtained by Crawford cousins from Dorothy Hillman. Received in 1992. Reference - Scan0231.jpg. )

So there you have it.   We determined our connection based on DNA evidence and the paper trail in only 2 days!

How’s that for a good Genealogy DNA match?

–

Connections, photos?  Please comment below.

Do you or family members have fond memories of fishing at Meeting Lake Saskatchewan?  Or perhaps swimming and playing in the water? Did your family rent a cabin there every summer?

My mother in law Yvonne Aumack Miller and I are compiling a history and photo collection of the Aumack Resort at Crescent Beach, Meeting Lake, Saskatchewan in order to preserve this information for posterity. 

“We are actively collecting photos, records and memories of Aumack Resort, Crescent Beach, Meeting Lake, Saskatchewan”

John and Verna Aumack along with Verna’s mother Minnie Moss homesteaded along Meeting Lake shortly after they arrived in Saskatchewan in 1917.   Meeting Lake is about 7 miles from Rabbit Lake and north of North Battleford, Sask.

The Aumack Resort was a booming place in its heydey.  There was a slide in the lake for the kids and a diving board.  Dances were held in the hall.  My mother in law remembers a band called the Half Moon.  The hall also served as a meeting place for church and a movie venue.

There were boat rentals, horseshoes, a golf course, cabin rentals and more.  The Aumack resort operated from the 1920s (or 1930s) to 1959 when it was sold.

WE NEED YOUR HELP - We are actively collecting photos, records and memories of Aumack Resort. 

If you can contribute - please send photos scanned at high resolution.  Please include information about where photo was found in order for us to credit the source and the contributor.

To contribute to the Aumack Resort project please email  Joan Miller  for more information.  Your help in saving this part of Saskatchewan history is greatly appreciated!

A good newspaper archive will yield lots of family history information.  My most recent success is an article about my husband’s gg-grandfather and the role he played as a conductor on the underground railroad moving run away slaves to safety in the north.  That article was in a Michigan newspaper archive accessed at one of the large paid databases online.

That had me thinking about newspaper archive resources for Canada.  What is available and what could I find?

Library and Archives Canada has a section on newspapers although many of the links are to newer content. Cyndislist has more links to newspaper archives.

The company “Newspaper Archive” has a small list of Canadian newspapers which may be helpful especially for those looking in the prairie provinces and Newfoundland.

Look for announcements of births, marriages and deaths (obituaries).  Also 50th anniversary notices can yield a lot of information.  Note Newspaper Archive is a paid source. Search here to access.

>>>Search for family history (BMD) in Newspaper Archive

—

©2011 Joan Miller.  Disclosure statement Luxegen Genealogy and Family History

Considering my last post was entitled the Confessions of a Genea-Conference Groupie it probably won’t surprise anyone that I like other types of conferences too…especially if they cross over well to non profit organizations and genealogy.

Social media is ‘one of my things.’  I manage the social media for the Alberta Family Histories Society.  I also have a great group of friends on Twitter, Facebook and Linkedin.  My Luxegen blog where you are now has been cooking along for almost 3 years now.  I’m engaged and active in social media every single day.

Why am I telling you all of this?

Because I was at yet another conference – this one on social media marketing.

But first some facts.

Did you know?

• Social Media is the #1 activity on the internet
• Facebook – 25 billion items viewed a month
• Twitter – 800,000,000 searches/day
• Blog – 200,000,000 blogs on Blogger
• 3.6 photos are shared on Flickr
• 1 billion views/day on YouTube
• Teenagers watch prime time TV but not on TV nor on prime time
• 65% Americans sleep with a mobile phone within 6 feet of bed

Marty Yaskowich, Managing directory of Tribal DDB Canada shared those stats in the opening address of Social Media Marketing Unplugged.

As I listened to all of the speakers, I was considering how we could translate this into positive things for our non profit genealogy society.  I’ll share several takeaways from this conference.  I won’t share any talks verbatim but here are my scribblings and points noted.

TAKE AWAY – from Marty Yaskowich -

Business  Strategy – Study – Listen – Publish – Engage – Influence – Activate

Have clear business goals.  Social media is the story telling platform.  The most successful business campaigns appeal to emotions.  Engagement, Influence, Activation.

A post by Dick Eastman and a recent email in my inbox from the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society reminds Canadians to CHECK YES on the May 2011 Census.

Why?  Check Yes on your census form so your descendants can find you in 92 years (2103).

I plan to Check Yes.  Will you?

—

Please spread the word.

Hatfield, Saskatchewan

I started school in a one room school in Hatfield, Saskatchewan.  One room. Eight grades. My class was the biggest grade.

There were three of us.

I grew up on a ‘ranch’,  three quarters of a mile from Hatfield.  Hatfield was a hamlet on the Canadian Pacific Railroad  (CPR) line about 80 miles north of Regina.

My earliest memories of Hatfield included the school, an elevator and a couple of houses.  Mom said the post office was still there when I started school.  I don’t remember but it isn’t the kind of thing that would likely be on my radar at that age.

Our school was Cuthbert School District.   Every little school in rural Saskatchewan was a school district.

I attended Cuthbert for three years (Grades 1,2 and 3) until they bussed us off to the nearby town of Nokomis, six miles north to continue our schooling. This would have been the fall of 1962.

View Map

Hatfield continued as a hamlet for a few years after the school closed, then the elevator was pulled down (Winter of 1967?) .  The elevator coming down often signals the death of these little hamlets or villages.

I guess that is when Hatfield became “a ghost town” or close to it.   There were only two families living there at the time, the Scott and the Lakness families.

I’ve looked for more information about Hatfield at the Saskatchewan Archives (Regina) and while I did find the school district records I couldn’t find information on when Hatfield came to be.

Imagine my delight,  when I recently discovered a book called “Saskatchewan Ghost Towns” by Frank Moore.  I came across this book in the Family History Library in Salt Lake City.

Published in 1982, this slim volume contained information about Hatfield.  It didn’t say much but it gave me more history than I had previously.

• Hatfield was founded in 1907 with the advent of the CPR.  At that time the nearby communities of Govan and Nokomis were fast-growing villages.

• The CPR section house was the first and only building in the community for the first five years.  The grain elevator was built in 1914 by Home Grain Co.

• In 1914, a man named Welch built his family a two story dwelling that served as a store and post office, as well as their home.

• It wasn’t until 1940 that a school, teacherage; community hall and a small residence were constructed.

• By 1950, the residents of Hatfield began moving away.   Eventually, even the community hall closed and the run-down grain elevator was demolished.

I still don’t know how Hatfield got its name.  I presume someone on the CPR railroad named the hamlet.  If anyone knows please comment below.

===> The book Ghost Towns of Saskatchewan is available on line.

There are more photos of the Elevator coming down – The photographer is believed to be Leland Greenfield.

If anyone has a picture of Cuthbert School please leave a comment below.  I’m looking for a photo of my first school.

UPDATE:  How Hatfield got its name:

Location: SE27-28-22-W2.

Hatfield  is a former CP Siding (PO 1914-62) just south of Nokomis close to the junction of highways #15 and #20 .  Named after Hatfield and Hatfield House, Hertfordshire, north of London, England.  The name is Old English for “open land where heather grows.”

Source: “People Places: The Dictionary of Saskatchewan Place Names” by Bill Barry

(Thanks to Xenia for the suggestion and thanks to my sis for the look up.  She collects books like this.)

“My uncle’s name was R. P. Du Paul Marcais, Oblat de Marie, born 1868 in Rennes, France. He was the son of Victor Marcais and Arseline D’Argentre. According to “Les Missionnaires Oblats de Marie Immaculee in Montreal, he was at the Saint Thomas Parish, Jersey Island, England until 1904, so had to have emigrated to Canada after that. They told me he pronounced his first vows on 8/15/1890 and was ordained to the priesthood in 1894 but said his name did not appear in the 1907 Directory and perhaps he came to Canada as a secular priest instead of an Oblate priest. I have not had any luck contacting the diocese’ in either England or France.

I had been told all my life that he lived in the Montreal area of Canada in the early > mid 1900′s, and frequently made pilgrimages to NY to the Auriesville Shrine.

I turned to the genealogy community on the Alberta Family Histories Society electronic news forum (dist-gen) for the answer and thought I would share the suggestions as others may be searching for similar information.

Possible sources for information about Jesuit priests in Canada.

1. Quebec Family Histories Society – http://www.qfhs.ca/ – volunteer look ups

2. Drouin Collection at Ancestry.ca for birth/baptism and death/burial

3. Jesuit website at: http://www.jesuits.ca/index.php

From the home page select “about us” and then click in the side bar “English Canada Brief History”. This brings up an extract from the book “Dictionary of Jesuit Biography” which contains a timeline of their activities in English Canada Selecting “contact us” from the home page brings up a form to send enquiries to
them.

Jesuit Archive in Canada
25 Jarry Street West
Montreal, Quebec, H2P 1S6

archives@jesuites.org
www.jesuites.org/archives.htm

4. Relevant diocese archives – Catholic diocese in Canada all maintain their own archives. Google for the address.

5. Dictionary of Jesuit Biography: Ministry to English Canada. University of Calgary call number BX3755 .D53 1991. Available for interlibrary loan.

—

[Editor - If can help my friend please email "rootsma AT cox.net"]

“I’m trying to locate my grandmother’s information.  She died in the 60′s.  My mother was born 1958 in Regina, SK, was orphaned and doesn’t know very much.  Can you please help?  Thank you.”

My reply:

Saskatchewan Vital Certificates is the official source of all vital records in Saskatchewan.  This includes birth, marriage, divorce and death certificates.   There is a fee for the use of their services.

Another suggestion is to try historic newspapers for Sask – look for either an obituary of your grandmother or perhaps a birth announcement of your mother.  Peel’s Prairie Provinces may have newspapers.  (or google for Sask newspapers or the Regina Leader Post).

Cyndislist also has links to many Sask resources. http://www.cyndislist.com/sask.htm