Discovering My Roots

27 June 2009

The following was written by The Generations Network, parent company of www.Ancestry.ca:

Canada Day is not only a great day to spend with family – it’s the perfect time to get together and learn more about how your family came to be Canadian.  To celebrate our 142nd birthday, for the first time Ancestry.ca is making available the Canadian Passenger Lists free to access  from June 29 through July 3, 2009.

The Canadian Passenger Lists, 1865-1935 captures 70 years of immigration to this country and includes the names of more than 5.6 million individuals who travelled from around the world to start a new life in Canada.

It is estimated that 11.6 million Canadians, or 37 per cent of the population today, are direct descendants of those in this collection.

Canada Day is a great time for us to reflect on our roots and to look at the ancestors who helped build this great country. This is a rare opportunity to delve into the records and discover the story of how one’s ancestors arrived in this country, who they came with, where they arrived and where they settled.  They help paint a picture of a family’s journey and of a new beginning in a land of promise.

The collection is fully indexed, meaning the records can be searched quickly and easily online by name, month or year of arrival or ship and port of origin. Read more »

27 June 2009

By Jim Onyschuk

When planning your genealogical vacation, some advance preparation is essential. First, you have to know exactly where your ancestor lived. For example, if your grand-father was Ivan Ivanovich Ivanchuk and was from Zeleny, you wouldn’t want to visit the village of Zeleny near Zapporiziya, when he actually came from Zeleny near Zhytomyr. In fact, there are at least ten villages spelt Zeleny and six spelt Zelenyy in Ukraine. So, if you weren’t careful, you could end up researching the wrong village. You would end up spending your time and money “barking up the wrong tree.” 

So, how do you locate the exact village if you weren’t exactly sure and you didn’t have any documents from Ukraine, such as Ivan’s birth certificate?

A)  Asking Around

Did he have any siblings living in Canada? Are any still alive? If so, they would know. If they are not alive, then perhaps their off-spring (your aunts and uncles or their children) might know. A simple phone-call might give you the answer.

Was your grandfather active in a church? Then there may be records indicating the village of his birth. A small donation to the church building fund might yield the information you are seeking.

B)  Paper Trail—Death Records

If your grandfather lived a number of years in Canada he would have left a paper trail, which could pin-point his birth-place in Ukraine. A starting point could be by obtaining information surrounding his death. In addition to the Death Registration, other records, such as found in the funeral home files might indicate a birth-place. Perhaps his gravestone reveals this information? How about an obituary notice? If not, then possibly his siblings may have this information in their funeral records or obituaries. Read more »

8 June 2009

In the past few weeks, I have received dozens of messages many different people claiming that they “sent you photos on Tagged” or that they “sent you a private message on Tagged.” Then these e-mail messages ask, “Want to see the photos?” or “Want to read the message?” or “Is John your friend?” I now receive four or five of these messages a day.

In most cases, I have never heard of these people and I certainly could care less about their pictures or their private messages. A quick search on Google produces the answers, however. It seems that Tagged is a questionable business that surreptitiously steals address books from people and sends e-mail messages to everyone in that address book. Someone apparently had my e-mail address in their address book when they visited Tagged.com and my e-mail address was stolen and then used without the knowledge of the hapless Read more »

Do you find that you have to constantly scroll left and right to view a page or that your printer cuts off much of a page’s right side? If you find that nearly everything appears too wide on your monitor, the most likely culprit is its screen resolution. 

Windows XP users can right-click their Desktop and choose Properties>Settings to find an adjustable knob marked Screen Resolution. Sliding the knob to the right increases the resolution, which makes text and images smaller so that more information can fit on the monitor. Sliding it to the left does the opposite. 

Vista users can find these options by right-clicking their Desktop and choosing Personalize>Display Settings. 

Lower resolutions (such as 640×480) are often preferred by persons with vision limitations. Well, changing these settings works well on CRT (cathode ray tube) monitors, but LCD (liquid crystal display) flat screens are designed to use a specific resolution; and changing it can reduce the sharpness of text and images. (One way to resolve the issue, of course, is to buy a larger monitor.)  Read more »

13 May 2009

At our last Toronto Ukrainian Genealogy Group (TUGG) meeting an issue was raised about genealogy and identity theft. For most identity thieves, the easiest way to steal your identity numbers is either physically obtaining your credit card information and working from that point or to get you to supply sensitive identification information through what is called “Phishing.

Phishing scams are now a part of everyday life and the easiest way to get your personal information and ID numbers . It’s important that you know how to spot one and avoid becoming a victim.

Overview of Phishing Scams

Phishing scams are just another attempt to get valuable information. Scammers send a mass email to every address they can find. Typically the message will appear to come from a bank or financial institution. The email states that you should update your information for one reason or another, and they usually provide a link that you can click to do so.

This all sounds reasonable and it may look legitimate, but phishing scams are anything but legitimate. The link provided does not  take you to the financial institution’s website. Instead, you’ll be submitting your information to a website run by the scammers. Read more »

10 April 2009

By Jim Onyschuk

Byki is a powerful and personalized language-learning system, where you learn at your own pace. I personally found that the term “Learning is fun,” applies to this system. It locks foreign language words and phrases into your memory so that you can recall them perfectly in your short-term memory and lock them into your long-term memory.

The Ukrainian program comes with 97 lists of phrases and words. For example, among the 97 lists, there are lists on: Adjectives, Adverbs, Animals, Asking Directions, Asking the time, At the restaurant, Buying tickets, Communication facilitation, Family, etc.

The program uses an electronic flash card method, where you Read more »

31 March 2009

The Archives of Ontario is opening its new, purpose-built facility in north Toronto on April 2nd at 8:30am. The old building at 77 Grenville St., in downtown Toronto will close for its final time at 5:00pm on Thursday, March 26th.

The new address for the Archives of Ontario is:

Posted: March 31st, 2009 under Archives.
Tags: Archives, Ontario
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