Word Struck!
Saturday, June 24, 2005
Went to the Media Club of Ottawa for an afternoon meeting called "An
Afternoon at the IMAX" at the Museum of Civilization in Gatineau,
Quebec.
We gathered at 11:30 in the lobby of the museum and from there went to
the theatre to see the film "Kilimanjaro: To The Roof of Africa", which
was spectular!
It was the first time that my husband and I were at the IMAX theatre, and we really enjoyed the movie.
Through the narrator of the film—who also happened to be a
guide—we learned a lot about the mountain. For instance, Kilimanjaro is
a volcano on an eastern rift in Africa (I did not know that there was a
rift in Africa), and on this particular trek up the mountain, they
passed from topical rainforest up to the 16,000 foot range, where there
was snow and glaciers.
We saw plants that exist nowhere else on earth, looked inside the
volcano, and saw the bones of an elephant who climbed halfway up the
mountainside.
We then went for lunch at the Cafe du Musée, and listened to Frank Corcoran, the IMAX Founding Director.
Called the Bob Hope of Canadian film, he told us how that IMAX is a
Canadian invention born about 35 years ago in Montreal. It is large-format
film which has turned into such a success that there are theatres in many countries today.
After the annual general meeting, in which my husband has taken on an
executive position, we then went outdoors and took a walk around the
most beautiful grounds in the city. The smell of wild roses was just
wonderful!
The museum is on the shores of the Ottawa River, with picnic tables and
benches to sit. We came across two gentlemen who had just cycled
across the river with ribs they had bought at the annual chicken and
rib show in Ottawa, and were having supper, with wine, when we came along.
We stopped and talked for a while and then continued on walking
completely around the museum. It was a nice walk - the weather was
just the right mixture of light wind and sunny skies, which made for a
very refreshing walk.
After that, we went for a drive to the Alymer sector to see if there was
anything going on for St. Jean Baptist Day (the patron saint of
Quebec), but there wasn't anything, so we came home.
A very nice and productive week.
Thursday, June 22, 2006
Answer e-mail today - all today. I try to keep my answering to once a
week, as well as my business reading and any writing business.
Got an e-mail today from the new president of the International Society
of Family Writers and Editors, Amy Johnson Crow, who took over from
George Morgan at the National Genealogical Conference in Chicago on
the weekend of June 10th.
I was elected as International Director/Director at Large for a 2 year
term at the same conference, and am very delighted to serve the term.
Wednesday, June 21, 2006
Doing some news stories for Genealogy Today website and approved a
3,000 word article for Internet Magazine. Have to send in a picture of
myself to go along with my bio. I am also working on another article
for Interent Magazine.
Tuesday, June 20, 2006
Worked a bit today and got ready to go to the AGM of the Ottawa
Genealogical Society meeting held at the Library and Archives Canada
(LAC) in Ottawa. Their website is <http://www.ogsottawa.on.ca>.
About 30 people were there, and it was a very lively meeting,
lasting about an hour. We heard a summary of the OGS 2006 from Heather
Oakley,
and heard of plans for the 2007 seminar to be held in Ottawa.
The meeting was conducted by the Chairman, Mike More.
After the meeting, I talked with Cathy Behan, who is busy planning the
2007 Seminar, and with Jim Robinson about my research in Loyalists of Nova
Scotia.
Monday, June 19, 2006
After a very warm day, there was a thunderstorm tonight, which cooled things down quite a bit.
Sunday, June 18, 2006
Went grocery shopping this morning, and what a fine Sunday morning it was! It really was ...
First, though we went to Mayo for a drive. Mayo is a settlement nine
kilometers from Buckingham, and the Irish who settled there in the
1840's came from County Mayo in Ireland. The Gatineau Hills looks like
the rolling, green hills in Ireland. There are still farms left in
Mayo, although many retired people live there now. It is right on the
edge of cabin country, so the demographic is changing.
It was so hot today, that this afternoon we watched the US Open - just sat here and watched.
In the evening, we went out to do laundry and then went down to the ferry on the Ottawa River, to see what was happening.
There is a ferry which goes across to the Ontario side ($7.00) one way
and it takes about 5 minutes to cross the river. There are a lot of
cottages along a road which goes along the shore of the river, and it
is one of the most beautiful spots on the river.
Saturday, June 17, 2006
Thursday and Friday were busy chasing down people for interviews and
other business to do with writing. It's been a busy time for me, with
lots of things on the go.
This weekend, I have to bring my e-mail up to date.
Mario is out cutting the grass on the "back forty", and he has discovered wild strawberries!
Wednesday, June 14, 2006
Just received news of the monthly meeting of the Media Club of Ottawa to be held June 24 at the Museum of Civilization in
Gatineau called "An Afternoon at the IMAX."
After a screening of the the film
"KILIMANJARO: TO THE ROOF OF AFRICA", we will hear a talk by Frank
Corcoran, IMAX Founding Director.
It is the Annual General Meeting, and I have put in for Membership
Committee, and Mario has put in for the "Call-up the Members for the
Meeting Every Month" position.
Monday, June 12, 2006
Mario started exercising this morning in Ottawa for his job. He has to
pass a physical fitness test sometime soon, so a little bit of supervised
exercise will do him a lot of good.
Got the obituary for Senator John Forrestall from Dartmouth who had
died last week. Besides putting bills about the military before the
Senate, he also pushed hard to get a bill passed over the 12 years or
so which would recognize lighthouses as heritage buildings in Canada.
He was unsuccessful, and hopefully someone else will take up this cause.
I particularly have an interest in this because my maternal great-great
grandmother was Mary Hichens, wife of Richard Hichens, who was a keeper of
the lighthouse at Seal Island off of the southwest coast of Nova
Scotia. She helped many shipwrecked sailors back to health, and she and
her husband served there from 1831 to 1855.
My relative, Walter Hichens, was successful in getting a replica of the
lighthouse at Seal Island to be built as a museum in Barrington, Nova
Scotia.
Also, I taught school for two years on Ironbound Island, and you can see the lighthouse there at <http://www.nslps.com>.
Sunday, June 11, 2006
Went grocery shopping this fine Sunday morning.
When we came back, Mario cut the grass on our rather large lot, and I
looked on the Internet at the British Isles Family History Society of
Greater Ottawa's seminar to be held this September 22 to 24th, 2006.
The keynote speaker will be David W. Webster, BSc, FIChemE, FSA Scot.
He has been a genealogist for 18 years in Scottish records and
emigrants to North America.
The pre-conference press release says that in addition to delivering
the Don Whiteside Memorial Lecture on Friday evening, "David will be
giving a presentations on electronic and Web access to Scottish
Genealogical Records; Scottish Statutory Birth, Marriage and Death
Records; Wildcards in Genealogical Research; and using emigration
records to bridge the gap to a Scottish ancestor and to search present
day relations in Scotland."
Visit their website at <http://www.bifhsgo.com>.
Saturday, June 10, 2006
We got ready today to go to Ottawa at 1 p.m. to be at the 2006 Ottawa
Stake Family History Fair hosted by the Church of Jesus Christ of
Latter-day Saints. And it is cold today. Windy, rainy, and COLD!!!!
However, it was warm and friendly inside so we all went into the chapel
to hear the opening remarks by Brian Freeze and Bill Pearson, Assistant
Family History Center Director, gave the invocation. Shirley-Ann
Pyefinch is the Family History Center Director.
We made it on time and joined about 150 other people at the chapel for
welcoming remarks and then moved on to the individual presentations
that we had signed for, and they were: 1) Michel Belland from the
Societe de Genealogie de l'Outaouais, 2) Wayne Walker of the Family
History Center, 3) Glen Wright of the British Isles Family History
Society of Greater Ottawa, 4) and Sylvie Tremblay of the Canadian
Genealogy Centre.
Michael Belland spoke on the "Genealogical Resources in the Outaouais"
and gave us an inventory of the sources they have and a look at the
facility itself.
If you have any relatives on the 'Quebec side' as we say, they can help you <http://www3.sympatico.ca/sgo>.
The second presentation we heard was from Wayne Walker, a seasoned
researcher at the FHL at the centre. I can remember a number of years
ago when I first started my genealogy on my maiden name BARCLAY that I
was talking to Wayne one night and found out that we had relatives in
common, the LeCain's from Annapolis Royal, Nova Scotia.
But I digress ... he talked about the resources available at
FamilySearch.org which are considerable. The site is the largest in
genealogy. The one thing he emphasized it that people should do
individual searches rather than all at once. In that way you can really
search the complete family name. I tried it when I got home - and yes,
I would follow his instructions, Although I didn't find any new
information, I did find who were the neighbors of the BARCLAY's in the
1881 Canadian Census. Very interesting!
The next lecture that we went to was given by Glen Wright and his talk
on "Exploring Canadian Military Records for Family History and
Genealogy."
This was of interest to me because I have an ancestor who was a
Canadian but served with the British in the South African (Boer War)
War. His name was Lt. Levert Beverley Webster, son of Judge
Barclay Webster, and was killed as a result of war (22 March, 1902).
His body was returned to, and buried in, Kentville, Nova Scotia.
An interesting thing, though. He received South African War Scrip, as it says on the LAC website,
Glen also gave a general overview of the military records held at the
Library and Archives Canada and they are many resources. More military
records are soon being added to the databases at the Canadian Genealogy
Centre's site, so watch for it.
The last lecture we attended was given by Sylvie Tremblay, Project
Officer of the Canadian Genealogy Center at the Library and Archives
Canada <http://www.collectionscanada.ca>.
The title of her talk was "The New Physical Canadian Genealogy Centre
(CGC) and Other Changed at Library and Archives Canada". She brought us
up to date on the changes to the CGC.
As we know, immigration is the latest program to be put on the CGC site and on the LAC site under "Moving Here, Staying Here"
Sylvie has done quite a bit since joining the CGC group, and the immigration databases is the proof.
There are more databases coming - probably in October - and some of
them are Upper Canada Land Petitions, RG 8 C series (military records),
and more military records from World War II.
The LAC building is in an upheaval at the moment because the archives
and library are being combined. The second and third floors are being
revamped, and are expected to be done by September.
However, if you are expected to visit over the summer, please check the website first to see if the floors are open.
Since we attended all of the presentations, we didn't have time to
adequately scan the displays in the Cultural Hall. However, we
understand that it was worth the visit.
After the afternoon was over, we went to the Merivale Fish Market for
supper. I had the fish and chips (with haddock), while Mario had
calamari. We also shared a big bowl of delicious clam chowder. The rest
of the supper was also delicious.
The day never got warm - so I went straight to bed once I got home. It
went down to 8 degrees overnight, which wasn't that much colder than
the rest of the day.
Thursday, June 8, 2006
Looks like it is going to rain today.
Monday, June 5, 2006
Another beautiful day!
Working on news stories today in order to send them off by Friday.
Sunday, June 4, 2006
Today, I am making up my schedule for the coming week, and it will
include a column and six news stories. Recycle is on the to-do
calendar,m as is some cleaning.
But right now, I am going downtown because it is just beautiful outside
- sunny, warm and a bit breezy. Need to go and do loads of laundry and
some shopping. We went to the grocery store and saw another girl there
who was also in a wheelchair - so I'm not alone.
Saturday, June 3, 2006
Went to Carlingwood Mall this morning. It is the most manageable for
someone in a wheelchair, and I like the place and the people.
Friday, June 2, 2006
Finished putting the June meetings on the Internet site at GenealogyCanada.com.
Thursday, June 1, 2006
Checked the meetings sector of the June newsletter, and filled in the missing parts.
Wednesday, May 31, 2006
Once again, it is hot today and the humanity is off the wall, with the
temperature rising to over 40 degrees (Celsius) again. I had the fan going, but it
just got too hot to do any work in the afternoon, so I read a bit and
fell asleep.
This afternoon, we called and made reservations for Saturday afternoon,
June 10th, 2006 for the "Preserving Your Family History" family history
fair at the local Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints, Ottawa
Stake Family History Centre, on Prince of Wales Drive in Ottawa.
I was there a lot during the formative years of my genealogy, and there
were two major finds. They were: 1) a series of old(er) Genealogist
of Nova Scotia newsletters in which I made a find of a great-aunt
who was married to a Haley from Yarmouth, Nova Scotia, and had subsequently gone to
California with her husband when he went there to search for gold, and
ended up farming; and 2) meeting Wayne Walker and hearing him tell the
story of the LeCains in Annapolis Valley and realizing that I had a
direct relative marry one in the 1800's.
Saturday, I plan to attend a number of lectures, but I especially want
to see Sylvie Tremblay of the Canadian Genealogy Centre of the Library
and Archives Canada to see the changes made to the centre since I was
there.
Tuesday, May 30, 2006
Today, I am catching up on work such as writing on Scriptorium.ca and answering my e-mail.
It is hot today, and the humidity is very high. The heat index went
up to over 45 degrees Celsius (or making it feel like 113 degrees
Fahrenheit).
Monday, May 29, 2006
I am tired today, but there is work to do and I have to send in my bio to a
publisher and finish writing something for Columns, a newsletter published
by the International Society of Family History Writers and Editors (ISFHWE).
Read the piece today that John W. MacDonald <http://www.johnwmacdonald.com/blog/blog.html> wrote in his "Blog About Town" article in the Sunday edition (Sunday, May 28, 2006) of The Ottawa Citizen.
In it, he gave me honourable mention as Ottawa Chapter President of the
Professional Writers of Canada (PWAC), and he mentioned the gala dinner
we had as part of the 30th annual conference and AGM in Ottawa, from
May 11-14 this year.
Minister of Heritage, the Honourable Bev Oda, spoke at the dinner, as did Ken Alexander, publisher of The Walrus, Canada's "thinking man's magazine."
In the evening, we went into Ottawa to attend the Media Club of
Canada's monthly dinner meeting, and just made it in time for a beautiful
salmon supper.
We met Shannon Lee Mannion—local Land Rover enthusiast (she writes a car column for the Ottawa Citizen,
our daily newspaper, among other things) and fellow conspirator (but
that's another story)—and other people that we knew, and we had a great
time. We
were there to hear Dr. Hedy Fry (leadership candidate for the Liberal Party of
Canada, and former cabinet minister), Diane
Holmes (Ottawa city councillor), and Shari Graydon (writer and media
activist, and former press secretary to former BC premier, Ujjal
Dosanjh).
After the meeting, we went for a walk along Ottawa's famous Sparks
Street Mall, and
there were lots of people out, so after doing some window shopping, we wrapped around on Elgin Street
and went down Queen Street, and then over to the World Exchange Plaza, and down to its indoor
parking lot.
We returned home at about 10:30, and watched the heat lightening - it was
beautiful! (Heat lightening is that yellowish lightening, and has no thunder. It makes the sky glow.)
Sunday, 28 May, 2006
Got
back late tonight from Oshawa - it being just before midnight! Friday's
drive
down was a bit scary since there was off-and-on rain, and everybody was
going to their cottage - the road was full. We stopped in for a rest
stop at Peterborough, gassed up, and then continued on our way. A
special thanks to the Shell station on one of the main streets, for
having a very clean and hospitable (accessible) washroom. It even had
woven reed baskets of potpourri on the counter!
We got to Oshawa around supper time, around 5:30, and went to the University of Ontario Institute of
Technology (UOIT) at the Durham College Campus, where we picked up our registration
papers, and went to our room.
The room was great! It had very wide doors, good non-slip flooring, and easy access to
the bed and bathroom. Since I am disabled (in a wheelchair), I really
appreciated the quietness and layout of the room.
We got changed and went over to the gym for the Houston Lecture given
by George Morgan, President of ISFHWE. I am the International
Director/Director at Large of the organization.
His lecture was very interesting, and it was a good way to start
the conference. In a humorous and entertaining fashion, he gave us the strong idea that since we weren't
supposed
to be shy, we should go and get out there, and exchange information
with others.
Saturday, the next day, we were up early and off to the Ancestry.ca
research room on our way to the first lecture, which was given by George and called
"Bits From Obits: Reading Between the Lines."
He showed us the way to get bits of information out of a standard obituary published in a newspaper.
We had to miss the second one we had register for, "Ontario Estate
Files", but attended the other two lectures, "Family Reconstitution: A
Useful Procure for Problem Solving" and "The Black Swan: Major Changes
in the Practical Aspects of Genealogical Research in Quebec."
"Family Reconstitution: A Useful Procedure for Problem Solving", led by
Ken Aitken, gave the basics in solving problems. He gave concrete examples
of how to solve the "brick walls" and what research to use.
The last lecture we attended Saturday was "The Black Swan" and it was
very good, giving us the major changes in Quebec, such as the closing
of the Salle Gagnon of the Montreal Municipal Library and the material
has been taken over to a new library, "La Grande
Bibliotheque."
The Quebec Family History Society has a number of new resources and
they are an index to Protestant Marriages in Quebec, a new index to
Crown Land Grants and an Index of Monumental Inscriptions for selected
cemeteries in the province.
That day, we had lunch with George (Morgan).
Saturday evening, we went to the banquet supper at St. George the Great Martyr
Ukrainian Church Hall on LVIV Boulevard, and enjoyed ourselves with a
fine Ukrainian supper, and an evening full of Ukrainian dancers of all ages.
Sunday, we hit the lecture circuit again, and, once more, found it interesting.
We had to skip one of the lectures to make sure we went through the
Marketplace at a leisurely pace, and at the same time, met with a few friends to
talk about the latest news.
But we did attend two more lectures: "Hiring a
Professional" by Janice Nickerson, and "So a Seance is Out of the
Question: Other Methods of Circumventing Brickwalls in Genealogical
Research" by Alan Campbell.
"Hiring a Professional" was a very well-presented lecture given by
Janice Nickerson, in place of Sharon Murphy, who was ill and could not
attend. Janice answered a series of questions about hiring a
professional, e.g., When is it time to hire a professional? How do I find
them? What do I do if I am not satisfied?
The last lecture we attended was "So a Seance is Out of the Question"
in which whole family research was discussed, and we were told to think
of the research and to analyse it. He taught us that just when you think you know it all, there's more to learn!
We attended the closing ceremonies and heard about next year's conference in Ottawa. It sounds like a great time!
We took No. 2 Highway home, and it was great. There wasn't any traffic and, we
could, and did, explore the little villages along the way. We finally
got onto the 416 and ran into rain off and on. Got home at midnight, and
this week I will be busy writing.
Next year, in 2007, the conference theme will "The Peopling of Canada"
and it will be held in Ottawa, the nation's capital since 1867 (and named Ottawa 150 years ago by Queen Victoria), from
the 1st to the 3rd of June at Algonquin College. It will be
hosted by the Ottawa Genealogical Society and the website is
<http://www.ogsseminar.org>. The e-mail is <conference@ogsottawa.on.ca>, and the mailing address is: OGS Seminar 2007,
P.O. Box 96, Greely, ON K4P 1N4 .
Saturday, May 27, 2006
At the conference! See you Monday.
Friday, May 26, 2006
Left for Oshawa this morning to spend from this evening to Sunday at the Ontario Genealogical Society's annual seminar.
Thursday, May 24, 2006
Packed for the conference in Oshawa.
Wednesday, May 24, 2006
Wrote an article for the International Society of Family History
Writers and Editors today. They have a newsletter called Columns, available
to members of the society.
Tuesday, May 23, 2006
Aspired to, but did not, complete three news articles for GenealogyToday.com on Canadian genealogy.
Monday May 22, 2006
It was Victoria Day in Canada, a statutory holiday in which the Queen of England birthday is officially celebrated.
Made an application to a writing company today, and then went out to do laundry.
Sunday, 21 May, 2006
Rested today, and went for a short drive in the afternoon.
In the Ottawa Citizen today was a small, five line book review of Lyn Hancock's book in
the Hot Type section under the Young-readers Shelf, and the title is
spelled wrong - TOBASCO, THE SAUCY RACCOON instead of Tabasco!
It also said that she has spent the last 30 years grief-stricken over
its death, to which Lyn answered in an e-mail to me "Spelled the title
wrong and not true that I grieved for 28 years ..., still I am happy
that even those lines were written."
©2005, 2006 - Scriptorium.ca