Genealogy Chat

I'm not sure what to do next. I'm trying to trace my gt grandma I know her name but I am not sure if she was Canadian or English. My gt grandad was born in England (warwks)in 1890 and their Son was born in Canada in 1911. I also know my gt grandad joined the Canadian overseas Expeditionary forces in 1916. My family think they married in Canada but not certain, can anyone help me

Jaqueline, Do you have any idea where your ggrandmother would have been born if she was born in Canada? You could try National Archives of Canada (www. archives.ca) The Canadian 1901 and 1871 censuses are online there, and it's free to search. Beware with the 1871 census however as the online version only shows the first person listed of any name (eg if John and Jane Smith are living with Tom and Ann Brown, only John and Tom will come up on a search). I can also recommend British Columbia archives (www.bcarchives.gov.bc.ca), you can do free searches for birth, marriage and death. The main library in Calgary (where I live) carries microfilm of all Canadian censuses from 1841 to 1901 and it's also possible to obtain other information through inter-library loan. If you are interested in any of this, let me know as I am more than happy to look stuff up for you. In fact I will be going to the library on Tuesday (Aug 19). You can e-mail me, patsy_maclean at hot mail. Good luck Patsy

Hi Patsy. Thanks for the reply, Although the censuses you mentioned arent much use at the moment I will hopefully be needing them when I Know more about my ggrandmother. I had a quick look on the other sites you gave, the British Columbia archives didn't come up with much (but it maybe me doing wrong) and the national archives of canada wasn't working so I'll try that one again. Will the Inter-library loan thingy have marriage info as I think thats what I need. If so I would like to take you up on your offer. Thanks jaki

Jaki Hope the Canadian archives site is working for you soon (I can't get in either)It's really good. I found a G G Uncle listed on the CEF pages and it actually allows you to see their 'attestation paper'for free, which has all the details they gave when they joined up. Much better info than the UK WW1 sites! You can even send off for a file showing a persons whole war record (for a price) . The attestation paper gives name and address of next of kin so should have some details of your Grandmother.

Hi Helen, Yes I did ordinary find his attestation papers from that site, but he was already married, I've since been given his discharge papers due to being seriously wounded in 1918 and his sons birth certificate which has the maiden name I needed so hopefully I should be able to find out more about her if I can find their marriage.. As I'm pretty much new to all this, the help i'm receiving is brill. thanks jaki

Hallo again Jaki, Yes you can get marriage records thru inter-library loan, but it may depend on which province you are looking at. Ontario is very good (www.archives.gov.on.ca). I haven't needed any other province, except for BC, which has them online anyway. You need to know that much of Western Canada was lumped under North West Territories until about 1903, when Alberta became a province in it's own right. The Genweb sites for each province may be of some help (I think there are links from the National Archives). They'll give you a potted history of Canada too, which will help in sorting out who lived where! I won't be leaving for the library until about 9am (my time) tomorrow..I think that's about 5pm in the UK? So should you see this message before then and want me to look something up, just e-mail. I'll check here before I leave. TTFN Patsy

Hi Patsy. I've sent you an email with some info on it. thanks for all you help jaki