September Meeting Takes a New Look at Census Clues

Durham Region Branch's next meeting will be held in our NEW LOCATION!

Date: September 4th
Time: 7:30 p.m.
Place: Northminster United Church, 676 Simcoe St. N., Oshawa (NW corner of Simcoe & Rossland)
(see Parking Map here. The Church's parking lot is reserved for those with handicap permits.)

We will meet in the basement auditorium. Please enter by the side door facing Rossland Road. There is a lift for those with accessibility needs. This entrance is at the back of the church in the parking lot.


Using Census Clues to Build a Blended Family
by Cheryl Levy, PLCGS
    
Census records provide many clues to further our research. Each column contains valuable information. This is especially true when endeavouring to identify all of the members listed in a specific household on census night. Do all of the members actually belong to the same family? Are the recorded relationships accurate? Can we trust the surnames given for each person? Who are the additional people listed?

Using an interesting case study, we will learn to uncover the details needed for seeking additional documents to confirm their identities. Then follow the steps that were required to build these blended families by placing the household members in the correct family groups. By gleaning census clues, we begin to understand the story behind how they came to all be in the same households together on the census records.

Cheryl is a graduate of the National Institute for Genealogical Studies, with a focus on genealogical research and education. She is a member of Quinte Branch, OGS, where she holds the executive position of Social Media Coordinator.  

The Census War is now over!

Check out John D. Reid's information and comments at:

Canada's Anglo-Celtic Connections: The Census War is now over!

So relieved that future censuses will NOT have the dreadful question of whether to permit access after 92 years! Genealogists and historians must celebrate.

Free Access to FindMyPast's Military and Census Records This Week

On the 100th anniversary of the Battle of the Somme, Findmypast want to give you the chance to remember the military heroes in your family. This week, all of their world military records plus all their UK and Irish censuses are free to search, so you can track your ancestor's journey both before, and during the war.

Explore FREE military & census records

Census Reminder!

CENSUS REMINDER
You have only three days left to complete this year’s Census.  Its due on May 10^th.  Remember to check the “Opt in” box to allow your descendants access to this important genealogical information source.  And ask your relatives, friends and neighbours to do the same!

LostCousins is FREE next weekend

It's their 12th birthday, and next weekend the LostCousins site will be completely free - it's a great opportunity to contact the cousins you've already found, and to find new cousins. The offer runs from Friday 29th April to Monday 2nd May.

LostCousins identifies members who share the same ancestors by comparing the information each member has entered on their My Ancestors page. After all, if you and another member have both entered the same relative, the two of you must also be related to each other!

Once you've entered your information the rest is automatic - all you need to do is click the Search button whenever you want to search for new cousins! 

What makes all this possible? The fact that every LostCousins member is taking information from the same online censuses.

Where can you find the census data? Most of the censuses have been selected because they are available free online. Usually only the transcription is free, not the images of the handwritten census schedules - but where that's the case all the information you need will be available as part of the transcription.

There is a very good help page on the site.

ScotlandsPeople Credits

With special thanks to both the Scottish Special Interest Group & the Quinte Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society, whose e-mails pointed me to the following post at ScotlandNow:

SCOTLAND NOW, the website for Scots everywhere, has teamed up with ScotlandsPeople to give you the chance to help you trace your Scottish ancestry for free.

With this great offer you will receive 20 Free credits worth £4.50. It costs five credits to view an image, and one credit to view a page of search results so there will be plenty to search this offer.

With images of over 100 million indexed births, marriages, deaths, censuses, wills and other documents, including records of some of Scotland’s most famous figures such as Rob Roy, Robert Burns and Robert Louis Stevenson, www.ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk contains the most comprehensive official online set of family history information for any country in the world. As one of the largest single information resources online, ScotlandsPeople provides an easily accessible route to the unrivalled store of official Scottish records.

The ScotlandsPeople website is a partnership between the National Records of Scotland, a non-ministerial department of the Scottish Government, and the Lyon Office, enabled by Findmypast.

How to redeem the offer.

Register at www.ScotlandsPeople.gov.uk if you are new user, or log in using your username and password if you already have an account.

• New users will be required to complete a registration form.

• Once logged in, click on Buy more credits on the top right hand side of the page.

• You will be taken to a page where you should enter the promotion code. The promotional code is: scotlandnow. You will then be allocated 20 FREE credits worth £4.50

• It costs five credits to view an image, and one credit to view a page of search results.

• Your 20 FREE credits voucher must be redeemed by April 30, 2015. Your 20 FREE credits will then be valid for one year after you redeem the voucher.

For further help with redeeming a voucher code, please see the Voucher Help page.

Terms and conditions.

You must register at scotlandspeople.gov.uk in order to take up the offer and in so doing you agree to the terms and conditions of use for the ScotlandsPeople website. The free credit offer is restricted to one offer per individual. The offer codes must be validated at scotlandspeople.gov.uk before or on April 30, 2015. Your free credits will be added to your account, which will expire after one year or when they have been used up, whichever is the sooner. Credits are required to view the indexes and images on the website. The cost of viewing each different type of record can vary.

1871 Canada Census

LAC Press Release. 

Launch of "Census of Canada, 1871"

Ottawa, August 30, 2011— The 1871 census marked the first regularly scheduled collection of national statistics, and Library and Archives Canada is now pleased to make its results available online. Researchers can access digitized images of original census returns featuring the name, age, country or province of birth, nationality, religion, and occupation of Canada's residents at the time.

The information covers the four provinces that were part of the Dominion of Canada in 1871: New Brunswick, Nova Scotia, Ontario and Quebec.

Access to the digitized images of the 1871 census is available online in two different ways:

• Through a database that is searchable by nominal information such as Name, Given Name (s) and Age, and/or geographical information such as Province, District Name, District Number,and Sub-district Number. The database is available at:www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/census-1871/index-e.html

• Through the "microform digitization” research tool, you can browse the microfilm reels page by page. The tool is available at:www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/microform-digitization/006003-110.02-e.php?&q2=26&interval=30&sk=0&&PHPSESSID=f0v3thhcgqvau3vslaruumn2a7

For more information, please contact webservices@lac-bac.gc.ca.