31 December 2012

Happy New Year

I would like to wish all of you a Happy New Year.
Edward
Editor, The Ottawa Genealogist

30 December 2012

Timeline December 30 & 31

December 30
39      Titus, Roman Emperor was born.
1691  Robert Boyle, English scientist, died. (b. 1627)
1813  British soldiers burned Buffalo, NY, during the War of 1812.
1850  John Milne, English seismologist and geologist, inventor of the seismograph, was born.
1851  Asa Griggs Candler, American developer of Coca-Cola, was born.
1865  Rudyard Kipling, English writer, was born in Bombay, India.
1869  Stephen Leacock, English-born Canadian writer and economist, was born.
1922  Vladimir Lenin proclaimed the establishment of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics.
1967  Vincent Massey, Governor General of Canada, died. (b. 1887)

December 31
1491  Jacques Cartier, French explorer, was born.
1695  A window tax is imposed in England, causing many householders to brick up windows to avoid the tax.
1719  John Flamsteed, English astronomer, died. (b. 1646)
1738  Charles Cornwallis, English soldier and statesman, was born.
1775  The British repulsed an attack by Continental Army generals Richard Montgomery and Benedict Arnold at Quebec. Montgomery was killed.
1857  Britain's Queen Victoria decided to make Ottawa the capital of Canada.
1879  Thomas Edison first publicly demonstrated his electric incandescent light in Menlo Park, N.J.
1907  The first New Year's Eve celebration is held in Times Square (then known as Longacre Square) in New York.
1983  The AT&T Bell System is broken up by the United States Government.

27 December 2012

War of 1812

War of 1812

Display at the War Museum re war of 1812 will end 6 January 1813

104th Regiment of Foot.
 A re-enactment will be carried out by members of the Canadian Army duplicating the original march
[They left Fredericton for Quebec City on 16 Feb 1813. 6 Companies left a day apart reaching Quebec. They were eventually sent to Kingston and then to Niagara]

Other info

1921 Census   Will be released to the public during 2013. Should I not hold my breath??

2 Feb 2013  A Day at the Archives will be held at Ottawa City Archives many subjects will be  dealt  with. Look for a flier.

New project re the Irish      REF; Ottawa Citizen. Wed. 26 Dec 2012, pg D3
A group is reaching out to those of Irish descent using 'reverse genealogy'
  www.irelandxo.com/ 

Your Money
Anyone drawing CPP or a gov't pension will have their 29 Jan 2013 payment increased by 1.9%
OAS will increase by $1.09 also on 29 Jan.  Enjoy

Timeline December 27 to 29

December 27
1571  Johannes Kepler, German astronomer, was born.
1657  The Flushing Remonstrance was signed. [Several of my ancestors were involved in this.]
1822  Louis Pasteur, French biologist and chemist, who invented pasteurization process, was born in Dole, France.
1823  Mackenzie Bowell, fifth Prime Minister of Canada, was born. (d. 1917)
1831  British naturalist Charles Darwin set out on a voyage to the Pacific Ocean aboard the HMS Beagle. Darwin's discoveries during the nearly five-year journey helped form the basis of his theories on evolution.
1923  Gustave Eiffel, French engineer and architect, died. (b. 1832)
1945  The World Bank was created with an agreement signed by 29 nations.
1947  The children's TV program "Howdy Doody" debuted on NBC.

December 28
1065  Westminster Abbey was consecrated.
1612  Galileo Galilei became the first astronomer to observe the planet Neptune.
1763  John Molson, English-born Canadian brewer, was born. (d. 1836)
1842  Calixa Lavallée, French-Canadian composer (O Canada), was born. (d. 1891)
1895  Wilhelm Röntgen (nobel laureate), published a paper detailing his discovery of a new type of radiation, which later would be known as x-rays.

December 29
1170  Archbishop Thomas Becket was murdered in Canterbury Cathedral in England.
1800  Charles Goodyear, American inventor, who pioneered commercial use of rubber, was born.
1851  The first American Young Men's Christian Association was organized, in Boston.
1936  Mary Tyler Moore, American actress, was born.

25 December 2012

Timeline December 25 & 26

December 25
800   Coronation of Charlemagne as Holy Roman Emperor, in Rome.
1066  William the Conqueror was crowned king of England, at Westminster Abbey, London.
1635  Samuel de Champlain, French explorer, died. (b. 1567)
1642  Isaac Newton, English scientist and mathematician, was born. (d. 1727)
1766  Gen. George Washington and his troops crossed the Delaware River for a surprise attack against Hessian forces at Trenton, N.J.
1904  Gerhard Herzberg, physicist, physical chemist and Nobel laureate, was born. (d. 1999)
1990  The first successful trial run of the system which would become the World Wide Web.
1878  Louis Chevrolet, French born American automobile designer, was born.
1899  Humphrey Bogart, American actor, was born.
1995  Singer Dean Martin died at age 78.

December 26
1791  Charles Babbage, English mathematician and inventor, was born.
1909  Frederic Remington, American artist, died. (b. 1861)
1931  Melville Louis Kossuth (Melvil) Dewey, inventor of the Dewey decimal classification, died. (b. 1851)
1941  Winston Churchill became the first British prime minister to address a joint meeting of the United States Congress.
1974  Comedian Jack Benny died at age 80.

24 December 2012

23 December 2012

Timeline December 23 & 24

December 23
1648  Robert Barclay, English born American Quaker leader, was born.
1732  Richard Arkwright, English industrialist and inventor, was born.
1771  Marie-Marguerite d'Youville, Canadian saint died. (b. 1701)
1795  Sir Henry Clinton, British general died. (b. 1730)
1805  Joseph Smith, American founder of the Mormon Church, was born.
1823  The poem "A Visit from St. Nicholas" by Clement C. Moore was first published, in the Troy (NY) Sentinel.
1938  The coelacanth was discovered in South Africa.

December 24
1166  King John of England was born. (d. 1216)
1524  Portuguese navigator Vasco da Gama, who had found the sea route around Africa to India, died in India.
1809  Kit Carson, American frontiersman and folk hero, was born.
1814  The War of 1812 officially ended as the United States and Britain signed the Treaty of Ghent in Belgium.
1818  "Silent Night" was performed for the first time, at the Church of St. Nikolaus in Oberndorf, Austria.
1871  Giuseppe Verdi's opera "Aida" had its world premiere in Cairo, Egypt, to celebrate the opening of the Suez Canal.
1900  Joey Smallwood, Canadian politician, Premier of Newfoundland, was born. (d. 1991)
1906  Canadian physicist Reginald A. Fessenden became the first person to broadcast a music program over radio, from Brant Rock, Mass.

20 December 2012

Timeline December 20 to 22

December 20
1192  Richard the Lion-Heart is captured and imprisoned by Leopold V of Austria on his way home to England after signing a treaty with Saladin ending the Third crusade.
1522  Siege of Rhodes: Suleiman the Magnificent accepts the surrender of the surviving Knights of Rhodes, who are allowed to evacuate. They eventually settle on Malta and become known as the Knights of Malta.
1695  John Bowne, English-born American pioneer of religious liberty, died. (b. 1627) [My 8th Great Grandfather]
1803  The Louisiana Purchase was completed as the territory was formally transferred from France to the United States during ceremonies in New Orleans.
1868  Harvey Firestone, American industrialist, was born.
1879  Thomas Edison privately demonstrated his incandescent light at Menlo Park, N.J.
1901  Robert Van de Graaff, American physicist and inventor, was born.
1946  The Frank Capra film "It's A Wonderful Life" had a preview showing for charity at New York City's Globe Theatre, a day before its official premiere.

December 21
1603  Roger Williams, English theologian and founder of the American colony Providence Plantations (d. 1684) [My 10th Great Grandfather]
1620  Pilgrims aboard the Mayflower went ashore for the first time at present-day Plymouth, Mass.
1898  Scientists Pierre and Marie Curie discovered the radioactive element radium.
1913  The first crossword puzzle was published, in the New York World.
1968  Apollo 8 was launched on a mission to orbit the moon.

December 22
1858  Opera composer Giacomo Puccini was born in Lucca, Italy.
1989  Berlin's Brandenburg Gate re-opens after nearly 30 years, effectively ending the division of East and West Germany.

18 December 2012

Timeline December 18 & 19

December 18
1642  Abel Tasman becomes first European to land in New Zealand.
1707  Charles Wesley, English Methodist hymnist was born.
1856  Sir J. J. Thomson, English physicist and Nobel laureate, was born.
1863  Francis Ferdinand, Austrian archduke, was born. Died June 28, 1914.
1865  Slavery ended in the United States as the 13th Amendment to the U.S. Constitution was declared in effect.
1888  Robert Moses, the American public servant who supervised the construction of many New York landmarks, including the Lincoln Center for the Performing Arts and Shea Stadium , was born.
1958  The world's first communications satellite was launched by the United States aboard an Atlas rocket.
1969  Britain's Parliament abolished the death penalty for murder.

December 19
1732  Benjamin Franklin began publishing "Poor Richard's Almanac."
1776  Thomas Paine published his first "American Crisis" essay, writing: "These are the times that try men's souls."
1777  Gen. George Washington led his army of about 11,000 men to Valley Forge, Pa., to camp for the winter.
1843  Charles Dickens' Yuletide tale, "A Christmas Carol," was first published in England.
1852  Albert Abraham Michelson, Prussian-born American physicist, Nobel laureate, was born.
1944  Richard E Leakey, palaeontologist, was born.
1972  Apollo 17 splashed down in the Pacific, ending the Apollo program of manned lunar landings.

16 December 2012

Timeline December 16 & 17

December 16
1497  Vasco da Gama rounds the Cape of Good Hope, the point where Bartolomeu Dias had previously turned back to Portugal.
1653  Oliver Cromwell became lord protector of England, Scotland and Ireland.
1770  Ludwig van Beethoven, German composer and pianist, was born.
1773  Boston Tea Party – Members of the Sons of Liberty disguised as Mohawks dump crates of tea into Boston harbor as a protest against the Tea Act.
1775  Jane Austen, English novelist, was born. [We visited Winchester Cathedral and her memorial on our first trip to England in 2008.]
1916  Grigori Yefimovich Rasputin, the monk who had wielded powerful influence over the Russian court, was murdered by a group of noblemen.
1907  The Great White Fleet began its circumnavigation of the world
1917  Science fiction writer Sir Arthur C. Clarke was born in Minehead, England.
1947  William Shockley, John Bardeen and Walter Brattain built the first practical point-contact transistor.

December 17
1538  Pope Paul III excommunicates Henry VIII of England.
1577  Francis Drake sailed from Plymouth, England, on a secret mission to explore the Pacific Coast of the Americas for English Queen Elizabeth I.
1600  Marriage of Henry IV of France and Marie de Medici.
1797  Joseph Henry, American scientist, was born. [There is a historic marker and a statue located in Academy Park, Albany, New York.]
1874  Mackenzie King, Canadian Prime Minister 1921-26, 1926-30, 1935-48, was born.
1894  Arthur Fiedler, the American conductor who conducted the Boston Pops Orchestra, was born.
1903  Orville and Wilbur Wright made the first successful man-powered airplane flight, near Kitty Hawk, N.C.
1938  Otto Hahn discovered the nuclear fission of the heavy element uranium, the scientific and technological basis of nuclear energy - thus opening the "Atomic Age" in the history of mankind.
1957  The United States successfully test-fired the Atlas intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time.

14 December 2012

Timeline December 13 to 15

December 13
1577  Sir Francis Drake of England set out with five ships on a nearly three-year journey that would take him around the world.
1642  Dutch navigator Abel Janszoon Tasman reached New Zealand.
1721  Alexander Selkirk, Scottish sailor and castaway, died. (b. 1676)
1804  Joseph Howe, Canadian statesman and publisher, was born.
1871  Emily Carr, Canadian painter and writer, was born.
1925  Dick Van Dyke, American actor and comedian, was born.
1929  Christopher Plummer, Canadian actor, was born.
2000  Al Gore concedes the U.S. presidential election to George W. Bush.

December 14
1287  St. Lucia's flood: The Zuider Zee sea wall in the Netherlands collapses, killing over 50,000 people.
1503  Nostradamus, French astrologer and physician, was born.
1542  Princess Mary Stuart becomes Mary, Queen of Scots.
1546  Tycho Brahe, Danish astronomer and alchemist, was born.
1782  The Montgolfier brothers' first balloon lifts off on its first test flight.
1799  George Washington, the first president of the United States, died at his Mount Vernon, Va., home at age 67.
1812  The French invasion of Russia comes to an end as the remnants of the Grande Armée are expelled from Russia.
1861  Prince Albert of Saxe-Coburg and Gotha, consort of Queen Victoria, died.
1903  The Wright brothers make their first attempt to fly with the Wright Flyer at Kitty Hawk, North Carolina.
1911  Norwegian explorer Roald Amundsen became the first man to reach the South Pole.

December 15
1832  Gustave Eiffel, French civil engineer and designer of the Eiffel Tower, was born.
1852  Henri Becquerel, French physicist, Nobel laureate, was born.
1899  Harold Abrahams, English athlete and Olympic gold medalist, was born.
1944  Bandleader Glenn Miller was killed when his U.S. Army plane disappeared over the English Channel.
2001  The Leaning Tower of Pisa reopens after 11 years and $27,000,000 to fortify it, without fixing its famous lean.

13 December 2012

OGS Ottawa Branch December Meeting - Dec. 15th

Date       Saturday,  Dec. 15, 2012; 1:00 – 4:00 PM
Location  City of Ottawa Archives, 100 Tallwood Drive, Room 115
Speaker   Kurt Johnson   
Topic        Perils and Petticoats: Exceptional Women of the War of 1812

Few women’s stories appear in Canadian history books as their contributions to the War of 1812 are overlooked. Canada’s bicentennial commemoration is the perfect time to tell about six real women whose husbands marched off to war to defend the British colonies. These women’s stories are about bravery, devotion and perseverance. This talk will be presented by historical researcher, and Board Member of the Goulbourn Museum, Kurt Johnson.

Everyone is welcome.
Please arrive by 1:00 p.m. for free refreshments and a chat time (networking).

This meeting may be simulcast for members who can’t join us in person. We will be using Live Meeting 2007 which is compatible with Windows PCs. Connect to the meeting room itself at: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/genealogicalstudies/join?id=OttawaOGSMeeting&role=attend&pw=MembersDec2011

11 December 2012

Timeline December 11 & 12

December 11
1803  Hector Berlioz, French composer and conductor, was born.
1882  Max Born, German physicist and Nobel laureate, was born.
1931  The British Parliament enacts the Statute of Westminster 1931, establishing legislative equality between the self-governing dominions of the Commonwealth of Australia, the Dominion of Canada, the Irish Free State, Dominion of Newfoundland, the Dominion of New Zealand, and the Union of South Africa.
1936  Britain's King Edward VIII abdicated the throne in order to marry American divorcee Wallis Warfield Simpson.
1946  UNICEF (the United Nations International Children's Emergency Fund) was established.
1972  Man landed on the moon for the last time during the Apollo 17 mission.
2008  Bernard Madoff is arrested and charged with securities fraud in a $50 billion Ponzi scheme.

December 12
1731  Erasmus Darwin, English physician, slave trade abolitionist, inventor and poet, was born.
1812  John Sandfield Macdonald, first premier of Ontario, was born.
1866  Alfred Werner, Swiss chemist, Nobel laureate, was born.
1901  Guglielmo Marconi receives the first transatlantic radio signal at Signal Hill in St John's, Newfoundland.
1914  The New York Stock Exchange re-opened for the first time since July 30. The market had shut down when World War I broke out.
1915  Frank Sinatra, American singer and actor, was born in Hoboken, N.J.
1985  Arrow Air Flight 1285 crashes after takeoff in Gander, Newfoundland, killing 256, including 236 members of the United States Army's 101st Airborne Division.

10 December 2012

Timeline December 9 & 10

December 9
1608  John Milton, English poet and scholar,  was born in London.
1748  Comte Claude-Louis Berthollet, French chemist, was born,
1854  The poem "The Charge of the Light Brigade" by Alfred, Lord Tennyson, was published in England.
1886  Clarence Birdseye, American businessman and pioneer of frozen foods, was born.
1906  Kirk Douglas, actor, was born.
1934  Judi Dench, actress, was born.
2004  Canada's Supreme Court ruled that gay marriage was constitutional.

December 10
1851  Melvil Dewey, the American librarian who created the Dewey Decimal Classification system, was born.
1906  President Theodore Roosevelt became the first American to be awarded the Nobel Peace Prize, for helping mediate an end to the Russo-Japanese War.
1948  The U.N. General Assembly adopted its Universal Declaration on Human Rights.
1964  The Rev. Martin Luther King Jr. received the Nobel Peace Prize during ceremonies in Oslo, Norway.
1984  South African Bishop Desmond Tutu received the Nobel Peace Prize.
2002  Former President Jimmy Carter accepted the Nobel Peace Prize for his diplomacy in the Middle East in the 1970s.
2007  Former Vice President Al Gore accepted the Nobel Peace Prize with a call for humanity to rise up against a looming climate crisis and stop waging war on the environment.

06 December 2012

New Genealogy Records for BC Now Online

The Royal BC Museum/Archives has uploaded historical records of births, marriages and deaths in British Columbia. 

In B.C, vital records can be released 20 years after a death, 75 years after a marriage and 120 years after a birth.

On the birth records you can find name, date, place of birth, parents’ names as well as mother’s maiden name. 

On marriage records you can find name, age, place of birth and marital status of each partner as well as date and location of the ceremony, names of the parents, names of witnesses and the person who performed the wedding ceremony.

Death records list name and date of birth of the deceased as well as the date, place and the cause of death.

Access is free.
Here's the link: http://search-collections.royalbcmuseum.bc.ca/Genealogy/BasicSearch

OGS Ottawa Branch December Meeting - Dec. 15th

Date       Saturday,  Dec. 15, 2012; 1:00 – 4:00 PM
Location  City of Ottawa Archives, 100 Tallwood Drive, Room 115
Speaker   Kurt Johnson   
Topic        Perils and Petticoats: Exceptional Women of the War of 1812
Contact   program@ogsottawa.on.ca

Few women’s stories appear in Canadian history books as their contributions to the War of 1812 are overlooked. Canada’s bicentennial commemoration is the perfect time to tell about six real women whose husbands marched off to war to defend the British colonies. These women’s stories are about bravery, devotion and perseverance. This talk will be presented by historical researcher, and Board Member of the Goulbourn Museum, Kurt Johnson.

Everyone is welcome.
Please arrive by 1:00 p.m. for free refreshments and a chat time (networking).

This meeting may be simulcast for members who can’t join us in person. We will be using Live Meeting 2007 which is compatible with Windows PCs. Connect to the meeting room itself at: https://www.livemeeting.com/cc/genealogicalstudies/join?id=OttawaOGSMeeting&role=attend&pw=MembersDec2011

Timeline December 6 to 8

December 6
343   Saint Nicholas died. (b. 270)
1876  Fred Duesenberg, German-born American automobile maker, was born.
1877  Thomas Edison, using his new phonograph, makes one of the earliest recordings of a human voice, reciting "Mary Had a Little Lamb".
1896  Ira Gershwin, American lyricist of Broadway musicals and films, was born.
1917  Halifax Explosion: In Canada, a munitions explosion kills more than 1,900 people and destroys part of the City of Halifax, Nova Scotia.
1957  America's first attempt at putting a satellite into orbit blew up on the launch pad at Cape Canaveral, Florida.
2001  The Canadian province of Newfoundland is renamed Newfoundland and Labrador.

December 7
1598  Gian Lorenzo Bernini, Italian sculptor, was born.
1836  Martin Van Buren was elected the eighth president of the United States.
1863  Richard W. Sears, American merchant and founder of Sears, Roebuck retail company, was born.
1941  Japanese warplanes attacked the home base of the U.S. Pacific fleet at Pearl Harbor in Hawaii, drawing the United States into World War II.

December 8
65 BC Horace, Roman poet was born. (d. 8 BC)
1542  Mary Queen of Scots, was born.
1765  Eli Whitney, American inventor of the cotton gin, was born.
1925  Sammy Davis Jr., the American performer (song, dance and comedy), was born.
1941  The United States entered World War II as Congress declared war against Japan one day after the attack on Pearl Harbor.

04 December 2012

Timeline December 4 & 5

December 4
1585  John Cotton, American Puritan leader, was born.
1619  38 colonists from Berkeley Parish in England disembarked in Virginia and gave thanks to God.
1674  Father Jacques Marquette founds a mission on the shores of Lake Michigan.
1783  Gen. George Washington said farewell to his officers at Fraunces Tavern in New York.
1909  The Montreal Canadiens ice hockey club, the oldest professional hockey franchise in the world, is founded as a charter member of the National Hockey Association.
1945  The US Senate approved U.S. participation in the United Nations.

December 5
771   Charlemagne becomes the sole King of the Franks,
1492  Christopher Columbus becomes the first European to set foot on the island of Hispaniola, now Haiti and the Dominican Republic.
1775  At Fort Ticonderoga, Henry Knox begins his historic transport of artillery to Cambridge, Massachusetts.
1782  Martin Van Buren, the eighth U.S. president 1837-41 and the first to be born after the country was formed, was born in Kinderhook, N.Y. [My 3rd cousin 6 times removed]
1791  Composer Wolfgang Amadeus Mozart died in Vienna at age 35.
1839  George Armstrong Custer, American cavalry officer was born.
1901  Werner Heisenberg, German physicist, philosopher and nobel laureate, was born.
1901  US national Prohibition came to an end as Utah became the 36th state to ratify the 21st Amendment to the Constitution, repealing the 18th Amendment.

02 December 2012

Timeline December 2 & 3

December 2
1594  Gerardus Mercator, Flemish cartographer, died.
1804  Napoleon was crowned emperor of France.
1863  Charles Ringling, American circus owner, was born.
1906  Peter Carl Goldmark, Hungarian-American engineer, who worked on long play phonographic discs and color television technology, was born.
1923  Maria Callas, the legendary American soprano opera singer, was born.
1942  A self-sustaining nuclear chain reaction was demonstrated for the first time at the University of Chicago.

December 3
1842  Charles Alfred Pillsbury, American flour miller and food products manufacturer, was born.
1910  Modern neon lighting was first demonstrated by Georges Claude at the Paris Motor Show.
1967  Surgeons in Cape Town, South Africa, led by Dr. Christiaan Barnard, performed the first human heart transplant. Louis Washkansky lived 18 days with the new heart.