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

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

“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.

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

Lizzie’s parents were Martin Watson Wilson (1857 – 1942) and Margaret Metcalf Robertson (1854 -1936)

Siblings were Alexander, Mary and Martin.  All of the children immigrated to Saskatchewan Canada.  Other names married into this family are Freethy, West, Whyte.

I heard from a descendant of Lizzie’s brother’s (Martin) family this week.  Like me, she grew up in Saskatchewan and now lives in Montana.  We share great grandparents.

I’m looking forward to comparing our research!

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Related posts:

My Grandmother was a Blue Tooner!

“Half of Ireland must have left.  Everyone we meet seems to have Irish ancestors!”  exclaimed our new Irish friends, Eric and Sylvia.

I had mentioned my grandfather had been from the Belfast area.  They too, were from near Belfast, only 80 or so miles away.

We were having this conversation in New Zealand, half a world away from both Ireland where Eric and Sylvia were from, and Canada where we live.

Indeed this conversation took place not far from where my Irish grandfather’s sister Sadie had settled in New Zealand.

The Irish left the country in droves in the 1840s fleeing the Great Famine and they settled all over the world.  Later generations followed in their search of homesteads or jobs and a better life.  My grandfather settled in Canada, two of his sisters and one brother went to the USA and his youngest sister Sadie migrated to New Zealand.

No wonder our new Irish friends were convinced everyone they met abroad had Irish ancestors.

We certainly weren’t the first!

Thousands headed for Canada, often on ‘fever ships’ rampant with typhus.  According to Sharon Doyle Driedger, in her new book “An Irish Heart“, many thousands settled in Montreal.

The Irish built a working-class enclave marked by strong religious faith and an indifference to the political authority that endured for over a century.

This story of Irish Montreal may contain genealogy gems for those with Irish ancestors.  Even if your immediate ancestor didn’t settle in Canada, their brother or sister may have.

As Eric and Sylvia said “Everyone we meet seems to have Irish ancestors!”

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An Irish Heart is available at HarperCollins. Used copies are starting to appear on Amazon.

A blog features upcoming genealogical events for around the country.

Various projects include cemeteries, family bible transcription, immigrants to Canada, digitization projects and more.

Canada GenWeb is considered to be a must-visit site for Canadian genealogy research.

With all the chatter about the upcoming and newly released Genealogy/History television shows, I thought I’d mention a long time running Canadian favourite “Ancestors in the Attic”.

I share with you below a short blurb from the show.

Hosted by Jeff Douglas, Ancestors in the Attic is a Gemini-nominated documentary series about ordinary people and their extraordinary stories.Produced by Toronto-based Primitive Entertainment for History Television it takes Canadians on a road trip across Canada and on a worldwide search for their ancestors. The series uncovers the personal dramas that lay in everyone’s family tree, from a woman’s search for her birth parents in Switzerland, to the discovery of long-lost family in Belarus, to a journey through the battlefields of Italy. Ancestors in the Attic provides unexpected, emotional and often life-changing answers to the genealogical questions that haunt many Canadians.

History.ca does a good job of sharing their research process and creates a fine story of the individuals featured and their search for their ancestors. See the History.ca webpage for show times.

It IS a good year for Genealogy TV.  Check out ALL of the family history shows and support them by watching.  The buzz is good for everyone and will generate more excitement about genealogy and family history.  More interest equals more family connections for us all.

2010 Genealogy/History TV shows:

Ancestors in the Attic on History Television (Update – this show has been discontinued)

Faces of America on PBS

The Generations Network by BYU Television

Who Do You Think You Are on NBC  (premiering March 2010)

It looks like a great line up of speakers who will be teaching everything from Inferential Genealogy (click to find out what that is!), to dealing with record shortages, case studies, Ontario Crown Land Records, How to avoid being duped on the internet, Beginning Genealogy, Genealogy Podcasts and more.

Below is the list of speakers (from the webpage) as of February 17.  What an opportunity to hear experts speak on their favourite topic – genealogy!

• Lesley Anderson of Ancestry.ca

• William (Bill) Bienia

• Ruth Blair

• Ruth Burkholder

• John Philip Colletta

• Lisa Louise Cooke

• Rick Crume

• Susanna De Groot

• Melissa Ellis

• Amy Wachs Fellner

• Karolyn Smardz Frost

• John A Geck

• Alison Hare

• Thomas W. Jones

• Elayne Lockhart

• Mary Nash

• Janice Nickerson

• Dave Obee

• James Onyschuk

• Marian Press

• Linda L. Reid

• Rick Roberts

• Gary Schroder

• Fawne Stratford-Devai

• Marueen A. Taylor

• James F. S. Thomas

• Glenn Wright

It is a large conference and lots of genealogy learning involved.  There are pre-conference archives tours and Toronto’s Irish Heritage Bus tour.  Dutch and Italian ancestry will be featured along with a session that would definitely interest me:  Quebec Church Records.  I’m still working out our KERR story in Quebec.

And more.  Lots more.

If you live anywhere close, consider going to Toronto in May for this conference.  Registration is on OGS conference website.

Anyone can participate as a proofreader, transcriber, or by submitting corrections as they use the site.  There is a link to the LAC image of the original census page at the top of each transcribed census page.

Canadian Census Projects include:

• 1901 Census

• 1911 Census

• 1906 Census

• 1851 Census (or sometimes called 1852 Census)

There are also Linking projects which have the ability to link various records associated with one person together.

To access the Automated Genealogy Census Indices site go here.

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Related Posts:

Ages on Canadian Census Reports

Find your Canadian ancestors

A list of the Canadian Genealogy Societies:

(click on the names for more information)

Alberta Family Histories Society

British Columbia Genealogical Society

Manitoba Genealogical Society

New Brunswick Genealogical Society

Family History Society of Newfoundland and Labrador

Nova Scotia Genealogical Network Association – list of several societies

Ontario Genealogical Society

Prince Edward Island Genealogical Society

Quebec Family History Society

Saskatchewan Genealogical Society

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Additions, changes?  Please add your comments and links below.

….We Remember and Honour our Canadian Soldiers who valiantly fought for us so that we can live in freedom.