Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta

The Most Important Genealogical Secret

Shh... don't look away now.  I'm about to tell you the very best genealogical secret for those who live in Calgary, Alberta.*

You - if you have a Calgary Public Library Card - have access to an amazing resource in their e-Catalogue, the Ancestry.com subscription-based database!

Once you're "in", you can start searching immediately, or go to their listing of databases**.  As I write today, they indicate there are 3,306 (139 of which are focussed on immigration, for instance) different databases available for your use!

Or, look for Canadian records specifically, by going to their Search Tab** and scrolling to select Canada and the province of interest.

When you get your first hits, why not brag on the MHSA discussion list, at the next MHSA Genealogy Special Interest Group meeting, or send me a comment if you're not part of either of those.

To access the e-Catalogue, go to: http://www.calgarypubliclibrary.com/:

1. Click on e-Catalogue
2. Enter your library card number (imprinted on the back of your card)
3. Enter the last four digits of your phone number (this is your "password")
4. Scroll down about 2/3 of the webpage and you'll see a History section
5. Click on the first link after that - to go to Ancestry.com

* If you don't have a Calgary Library card, why not check the public library near you - and let us know what it has to offer members?  I'm betting the libraries in other larger centres (e.g., Edmonton, Kelowna, Vancouver, Saskatoon, Winnipeg) will also provide these kinds of services.

** These links will ONLY work if you've already been validated as an authorized user by having signed in through the Calgary Public Library.

In Kinship,
Judii

Keeping Your Eye on GRANDMA

Bob Walde keeps his family history right up front when he's around other Mennonites.  Doing so, he learned that GRANDMA isn't always accurate (nor are her sources).  As he shows, there is something we can do about it if we keep our wits about us.

"Oh, I got quite a laugh the other day, went up and slaughtered a buffalo at Lester Thiessen's farm, for fun I printed his genealogy from GRANDMA 5 but there was not any history on his wife, Ruth Penner. While we were outside she phoned her parents in Alabama and got a few names and dates for me, started looking for her but found Ralph Aeleh Penner #624616 with the same birthdate as hers but not her so called her to see if she was a twin, she laughed and said that mistake was from an old PENNER book and she always got teased about being Ralph in school.

"... sent the info to Kevin Enns-Rempel he also had a chuckle."

Kevin Enns-Rempel, if you don't all know, is the point person in California where GRANDMA corrections should go.  Check the your GRANDMA manual and you'll find instructions on how to update the GRANDMA database on p. 10.

In kinship,
Judii

Cite Your Sources

When you keep family information from a website, book, e-mail, or newsletter - do you document the source as well? 

If not - you really should - and not just to be nice.

There are three important reasons, in my view by doing so, you:

1. Recognize that people before you have worked on the family history before you (and deserve credit for their work/analytic contributions)
2. Provide for the possibility of followup on a source/person
3. Eliminate the need for re-investigating a fact in your database (unless of course you have reason to doubt the accuracy of data extraction -- that's where (b) comes in.

Some folks will roll their eyes here - or look frightened because they think citing a source is a bit or daunting effort.  Really, it's not hard and there are several critical elements:

1. Author - generally put it in surname first order (e.g. Rempel, Judith) so that it is easy to find in an alphabetical list
   
   

   When the source is an e-mail message, I generally add the e-mail address right into the Author portion of the citation, e.g. Martens, Frank (abc@sommerland.ca).

2. Title - of the work (e.g. e-mail message from Frank Martens to Judith Rempel, or The Old Colony (Chortitza) of Russia).  If the work is part of a larger work (e.g., an essay by one author in a compiled work like "Worship and Teaching in the Sommerfeld Church" in Church, Family and Village).
3. Place where Published: generally a city (e.g. Winnipeg or Altona, MB).
   
   

   When the place of publication is large (i.e. a city), usually the province is not identified.  Where ambiguous or its a small place, province is identified.  Countries are generally not identified.  So, use Morris, MB; or Clearbrook, BC; or Hague, SK; but Vancouver, Calgary, and Winnipeg.

4. Publisher - The body (person or organization or company) that sook on the expense of publishing the book (e.g. Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society or University of Alberta Press).
   
   Frequently, Mennonite family histories are SELF-PUBLISHED, in which case the Place where Published and Publisher portion looks like:  Calgary: Author.  If they are not published (not available for sale), no publisher/place of publisher is generally documented.

Some sample citations:

1. e-mail: 
   Martens, Frank (abc@sommerland.ca).  2006.  e-mail message to Judith Rempel.
2. Book:
   Enss, Adolf; Jacob E. Peters & Otto Hamm (2001).  Church Family and Village: Essays on Mennonite Life on the West Reserve.  Winnipeg:  Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society.
3. Article in Book:
   Schroeder, David. "Worship and Teaching in the Sommerfeld Church" in Church Family and Village: Essays on Mennonite Life on the West Reserve.  Winnipeg:  Manitoba Mennonite Historical Society.
4. Unpublished manuscript:
   Loeppky, Barb.  (1999).  "The Family Tree of Heinrick (sic) J. Wall and Maria Peters".  Unpublished manuscript available from barbdennis@sk.sympatico.ca.
5. Nonbook, non-manuscript document:
   Canadian Mennonite Board of Colonization (1924). Family record photocopy #1196 received from Mennonite Historical Society of Alberta, Calgary.

So - there are three more additional principles illustrated above.

1. Enough detail is provided so that the person reading the account (and noting the source) can themselves figure out how to locate the original document.
2. If a work is published, it is to be italicized (if italics are impossible, underlying is used).  If it is not and is part of a larger work, the title is to be encased in quotation marks and the larger work also identified.  Sometimes unpublished work titles are encased in quotation marks as well.
3. If it's not possible to identify the title of a work - it's acceptable to describe it.

In kinship,
Judii

(Southern Manitoba) Pioneer Portraits

Al Rempel just tipped me to the fact that the full (over 100) collection of Pioneer Portraits Published in the Red River Valley Echo (Altona, Manitoba) 1974-1980 have been indexed with links to the images and narrative online.  Check it out!

Does anyone else have knowledge of new Mennonite history information placed online or recently published?

In Kinship,
Judii

FindMyPast Updates Immigration Record Collection

I reported on FindMyPast's passenger list resources (fee-based) about a month ago.  Already, they've extended the timeframe by 10 years!  FindMyPast now includes immigration records from 1890-1909.  See: http://www.ancestorsonboard.com/:

"AncestorsOnBoard [is] a new database featuring BT27 Outward Passenger Lists for long-distance voyages leaving the British Isles from 1960 right back to 1890.

"With AncestorsOnBoard, you can search for records of individuals or groups of people leaving for destinations including Australia, Canada, India, New Zealand, South Africa and USA featuring ports such as Boston, Philadelphia and New York. Passengers include not only immigrants and emigrants, but also businessmen, diplomats and tourists. Images of the passenger lists are available to download, view, save and print. "

In Kinship,
Judii

Untangling the Knots

Trying to sort out which source is THE one you should use and cite in your family history work?  Don't forget to consider which was documented at the time of the event, which has no vested interest, which has been double-checked....  I'm sure you all have a lot of things to add to the list.

Click on the picture (and choose 14 Feb 2007) to enjoy the 'toon.

In kinship,
Judii

Old Newspapers

The MHSA has a really fine collection of old periodicals (means academic journals, magazines, and newspapers).  We have a virtually complete set of MB Heralds and Gospel Heralds - important to the Mennonite Brethren and "Old Mennonites". 

We have a lot issues for Der Bote, The Mennonite, The Canadian Mennonite and others as well.  But what we really would like to have are really old copies of Der Bote (pre 1980s) and ANY issues of Mennonitische Rundschau (we have almost none of these). 

Do you (or someone you know) have some old Mennonite periodicals around?  You could send us a note and confirm whether or not we have the issues in question .. and boy we would be pleased to receive them!

Current issues and obituary indexes of many of these are online:

• Canadian Mennonite - Obituary Index (1953-1971 and 1997-2002; 1972-1996 it was published under the name Mennonite Reporter)
• Christlicher Familienfreund - Obituary Index (1935-1984)
• Der Bote - to cease publication in 2008 - Obituary Index (1950-2004)
• EMC Messenger
• EMMC Recorder
• Gospel Herald - Obituary Index
• MB Herald - Obituary Index (1961-2004)
• Mennonitische Rundschau - Obituary Index (1930-2001)

Even if you don't have back issues - why not send us a comment regarding other online Mennonite periodical resources that you know about.

In Kinship,
Judii Rempel for MHSA

Other Mennonite Blogs

Just a list this time:

• This Mennonite has a blog
• GSB Mennonite
• Leaving Muenster

Not many Mennonite blogs out there ... likely will be many more before long.

In Kinship,
Judii

Postcards from the Past

If you're reading this blog, it's because you've got an interest in Mennonite history - and that likely means that you also have Mennonite roots, and likely papers, diaries, record books, letters, and cards from the past.

Me too.  In my personal collection I have a small set of postcards from my paternal grandparents.  One or two are from the times when my grandfather took the train between Winnipeg and BC; others are from family members who emigrated from Russia to Germany.  All are precious and tell the tale of what was considered suitable or attractive at the time.

The travel ones are of the Rocky Mountains and the Banff train station.  The European ones are for holidays like Easter or Christmas and so include German icons of the time:  easter eggs, rabbits, angels, red candles with yellow haloes and fir bows.

Apart from those, even more precious are the New Year's cards that were from my paternal grandmother to her mother.  They're dated about 1899-1902 and are printed on shiny, embossed paper with a liner.  And, the liner has handwritten poetry or "wishes" from my grandmother.

All of course deserve to be properly preserved; some are already in archives and the others are on the way.  In exchange for the donating of them to the MHSA, I'll get high quality coloured scans of each of the items -- perfect for duplicating and sharing with the rest of the family.

What about you - do you have some interesting ones to preserve.  Do you have some with interesting stories/pictures?

In kinship,
Judii

New Book: Hard Passage

Now out!  Arthur Kroeger's new book, Hard Passage was launched in Calgary when the Mennonite Historical Society of Canada met here.

You can find the University of Alberta (publisher) summary of the book online.  And, it's available for  purchase from MHSA for $37 plus $8 s/h (no GST or PST).  It and other books that we offer for sale can be found on our Publications page (see also order form).

In Kinship,
Judii