From time to time, we get a few researchers who come in to the Prairie History Room to find genealogical resources for Quebec. Sometimes we will refer them to the Bibliothéque et Archives nationales du Quebec's website, but unless your French is up to par, BANQ can be slightly overwhelming.

One website to check out is the Quebec Family History Society (QFHS)'s newly improved website www.qfhs.ca. QFHS is the largest English-language genealogical society in Quebec. Their website offers the usual (e.g. branch information, resources available in their research library,upcoming events, etc.) as well as new sections, including a news bulletin board, surname interests, and research tips. An added bonus for QFHS members is access to the Jacques Gagné Church Compilations. Jacques Gagné compiled historical information and the location of records for more than 1,000 English and French Protestant churches across the province, from 1759 to 1899.

Library and Archives Canada recently launched a new database for those who may have had relatives that served in the Canadian Royal Navy or Naval Reserve from 1910-1918 or enlisted between 1919-1941.

The database will give researchers the following information: Name of Individual; Service Number; Port; Date of Birth; Occupation; Volume; and Reference. With this information, users should be able to request copies of the individual's service file.

Between 1869 and the early 1930s, over 100,000 children were sent to Canada from Great Britain during the child emigration movement. Library and Archives Canada holds multiple records in different series regarding the Home Children. In the latest update, more than 20,000 names of children, who came to Canada between 1925 and 1932, were added to the extended version. The names were extracted from passengers lists held at Library and Archives Canada.

You can find the Home Children Database (1869-1930) at http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/home-children/index-e.html

The Prairie History Room has just received the following new index reels for Ontario's Births, Marriages and Deaths:

- 1914 Indexes to Birth and Stillbirths (MS 931, reel # 28)
- 1929 Indexes to Marriages (MS 934, reel # 27)
- 1939 Indexes to Deaths (MS 937, reels # 28)

These indexes are now available and are located in the microfilm cabinets. Please ask staff for assistance.

To see what these indexes are all about, check out the Archives of Ontario website under Start Your Research: Vital Statistics.

The Saskatchewan Virtual War Memorial website officially launched yesterday, featuring a searchable database of 11,000 Saskatchewan war dead. Entries include casualties not only from the World Wars, but also from the Boer War, peacekeeping missions, and armed conflicts in Korea and Afghanistan.

The website also offers two very interesting features--a wiki enabling users to the site to develop a knowledge base that celebrates and honors Saskatchewan veterans and a self-directed online educational course to help students and adults alike in learning about war casualties and the lives of soldiers. While some of the site's components still need content (e.g. wiki), this looks to be an exciting virtual project and well worth keeping an eye on.

Congratulations to Bill Barry and his team for all of their efforts in getting this project off the ground!

- May P. Chan, Prairie History Librarian
Regina Public Library

From those of who you were unable to join us for last week's co-sponsored presentation with the Regina branch of the Saskatchewan Genealogical Society on British Home Children, here is the presentation handout by Holly Schick.

Last month, Library and Archives Canada (LAC) started to add digitized copies of the service files to the Soldiers of the First World War - CEF database to make them more accessible, to help preserve the originals and to avoid copying the same file more than once.

For files that have not yet been digitized, clients can order photocopies or scanned images. The cost is the same. When a photocopy or digital copy is requested, the complete file will be scanned and the digital images will be added to the database the next time it is reloaded.

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has added or updated the following databases:

Canadian Naturalization 1915-1932

The Canadian Naturalization database contains references to about 200,000 people who applied for and received status as naturalized Canadians from 1915 to 1932. During that period, the Government of Canada published the lists of names of those naturalized subjects in the annual reports of the Secretary of State (Sessional Papers) and in the Canada Gazette. This database, which covers people who came to Canada from such countries as Russia, Italy, Austria, and the United States, was produced by the Jewish Genealogical Societies of Montreal and Ottawa.

Ship Registration Index

Ship Registration is a title system for the ownership of vessels. The Ship Registration Index Database (SRI) contains more than 78,000 entries of ships registered in ports of Canada between 1787 and 1966. Through this research tool, you can obtain information about a ship such as its name, its type, its official number, the year and port of registration, where it was built, its date of construction and, in some cases, what happened to it. The database also allows you to find references for the physical registers or microfilm reels.

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Note: LAC has also updated the following pages on its Canadian Genealogy Centre (CGC) website:

* updated bibliography and topical guides including Irish & Jewish resources
* updated contact information for provincial & territorial Archives as well as genealogical societies
* First World War and Canadian Forces after 1918 pages now include contact information for armed forces of other countries
* revised guide of "Researching Your Aboriginal Ancestry at Library and Archives Canada"

An additional 27,987 'new' historical vital statistics are now waiting for researchers on www.novascotiagenealogy.com. New content includes births (1908), marriages (1933) and deaths (1958), plus 'delayed' registrations for individuals born in 1908 or earlier but not registered at the time of birth. The delayed registrations are especially interesting as the earliest dates back to someone born in 1830.

Library and Archives Canada (LAC) has announced a new version of the Canadian Naturalization 1915–1932 online database. It now includes an index to the names of 206,731 individuals who applied for and received status as naturalized Canadians from 1915 to 1932.

The project was carried out by the Jewish Genealogical Society of Montreal volunteers, initially making available a finding aid to the 2000+ pages of naturalization index pages and now the full name index. Jewish Genealogical Society of Ottawa funded the original digitization of the images. The database is available at: http://www.collectionscanada.gc.ca/databases/naturalization-1915-1932/index-e.html.

The Montreal Society is now leading a new project to create indices to the 1932–1951 Canadian Naturalizations. All 4,000 pages have been scanned and will be available shortly online as a first step to data entry. Due to the different nature of the published lists, a finding aid is not possible, and data entry of the approximately 400,000 names will be required to make the data readily searchable.