Every conference and institute I attend is memorable for different reasons. With the in person events, it's about the networks, people, and travel. And now with the East Coast Genetic Genealogy Conference, where I'll be madly applying new techniques and taking notes until they close the site and lock me out.
Category: Genealogy How Tos
How to Access Chinese Case Files at LAC (2025)
The process for finding Chinese Case Files at Library and Archives Canada has changed considerably since I first wrote about the finding aids in 2020. Some individual Chinese Case file information is now findable through Collection Search. Use Advanced Search for searching by numbers.
WWII: what is a genealogy pack?
In Canada, most Second World War military files are only available on request. In this blog, I'll explore the difference between ordering a complete file and a genealogy pack by looking at two requests for the same records for the same person. If you're new to Canadian military files, see my posts Exploring First World… Continue reading WWII: what is a genealogy pack?
Canada Day reflections: on accrediting, Western Canadian genealogy, and diverse ideas for celebrating
In the past four years, the accrediting process has challenged me to the limits. My questions - where are our records, who or what created them, and how can they be used for genealogy - are the foundations of my work. Digital records are fabulous. More is coming online every day. All that is true, and yet I'd estimate for every record online, there are nine that are not. With the greatest respect, I'd say Canada funds its archives minimally. We in Western Canada, with our challenges of privacy and recency, need to understand our archives, because not every archive can afford subject matter experts. To answer the question of where are the records, I have made visiting archives a priority.
How to navigate Order-in-Council records part 3: online at Ancestry
As Joanna said, Ancestry's "Canada, Immigrants Approved in Orders in Council, 1929-1960" collection contains the names of twenty thousand sponsors and sixty thousand immigrants 1930-1960. It's a rich source of genealogical information for this period, and unusual for Canada, relatively recent information. If your family sponsored a family to come to Canada, you too might find their records here.
How to navigate Order-in-Council records part 2: online at LAC
It's surprising to see how much hand's on work the Privy Council did with regards the lives of ordinary Canadians. Exploring OIC records has given me insights into the thinking of the men at the centre of power: how laws are formulated and how they are managed. It's the paperwork that creates unintended genealogical records. I have a passion for exploring Chinese Canadian history but OIC records included a wide swath of the population, from Armenians to Yugoslavians.
How to navigate Order-in-Council records, part 1: real life at LAC
In the next posts I will explain Order-in-Council records: what they are and how to find them. This post explains researching at the national archives in Ottawa, Ontario. If you'd like to start with the first one, see "Rev. Chan (陳) Sing Kai’s entry to Canada - a rare head tax refund tale using OIC… Continue reading How to navigate Order-in-Council records, part 1: real life at LAC
Rev. Chan (陳) Sing Kai’s entry to Canada – a rare head tax refund tale using OIC records
The paying of head taxes was front page news but the refunding of head taxes was shrouded in murk. Even today, finding the supporting documentation at the national archives with the friendly assistance of reference archivists and librarians was barely doable.
The startling details of a Chinese Case File, pt. 4 – How to get your ancestor’s file
This is the follow up post to "Chinese Immigration Act Case Files: Finding aids at LAC," written exactly three years ago. In that post, I'd hoped to one day acquire a Canadian Chinese Case file. Now I have seen four and they are everything I'd hoped - and feared - they would be. For my community, simultaneously ignored by some systems while being overdocumented in others, it feels right that we reacquire the information collected about us.
[updated] My Chinese family in Vancouver was [not] overlooked by the 1931 Census of Canada -a guest post by Carol F. Lee
In this update to a Jul 2023 post, Carol finally finds her family on the 1931 census. This two-part post shows how truly difficult it can be to find your family, even when you are a careful, skilled, and thorough researcher.