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December 30, 2020

Search for Ancestors in Daily British Whig Digitized and Online

The Daily British Whig is rapidly being digitized by Digital Kingston from 1850 to 1929.

I had fun searching and discovered that there are articles about people who lived outside of Kingston. 

I sure would love to know the story behind this dispute involving one of my Vollick (aka Van Valkenburg) families! 
 

Source: Daily British Whig (1850), 30 Jul 1903, p. 6

 


 

December 26, 2020

Updated! The Genealogy Spot Has a Facelift - Please Check it Out

 


Are you like me with a spare room where you just toss all your miscellaneous stuff in? You keep meaning to straighten it up, organize and sort it, maybe even throw some of the junk away, but you never find the time. 

Well, that was the case with one of my dozen websites, a little-known one called The Genealogy Spot

I originally set it up as an overflow site off Olive Tree Genealogy but it got away from me! I kept tossing miscellaneous things into it - obscure databases and links, some great, some not-so-great. 

Last year I decided it had to stop. So I made some hard decisions about what was worthwhile for genealogists and what wasn't, created a simply navigation system, and got to work. 

My first decision was to focus on immigration - with ships arrivals in USA and Canada but equally important, ship departures. It's pretty tough to find departures so I made it my mission to find as many obscure databases as I could that showed departures from North America in particular. The result is that I've got some unusual databases that aren't easily found. I hope visitors find an ancestor in them!

Next I switched hosts, the place where websites live. I opted for a different operating system and set about to learn it. Then I redesigned the entire site, and got busy transferring data over to the new one. I ended up with an entirely new site of 479 pages, smaller and more organized than the original site.

Once all that was done, I had to double and triple-check all the links, both internal and those link out to other sites of value. That took me two months of non-stop work. But today I completed it. I think I found and fixed them all.

I'd love it if you would take a few minutes to drop by and check out TheGenealogySpot.comto see if you can find an ancestor or two. And if you see any problems, please let me know so I can correct them.

 

December 22, 2020

Chasing Waterfalls, Another HIstorical Niagara Video WINS!

 

Peter Sacco's wonderful Historical Niagara videos that I've been fortunate to be a guest in, are winning awards! The Chasing Waterfalls episode was one I was honoured to be in, and it can be viewed on YouTube at the link above.

 
Quoting Peter 
 
"We Won in London England x2! Go...Chasing Waterfalls! A documentary I shot over a few years, and which was partially featured as an episode for Historical Niagara TV series was selected in the UK for BEST DOCUMENTARY featured the 150+ waterfalls/cascades between Niagara through Hamilton. I was pleased to be selected a semi-finalist for BEST DIRECTOR by Best Director Awards in London England.
Thank for to all my 'experts' who participated in this film--
Jim Diodati, Pat Darte, Jon Montgomery from #AmazingRaceCanada, Amanda Walton, Harry Houdini's nephew, George Hardeen Ontario Waterfall expert, Mark Harris, Jack Custers #yourtvniagara, Daniel Rodrique, Michael Clarkson, Ernesto Reinhart Retired University instructor Burt Murphy, #ballsfalls Conservation staff, #decewfalls staff, Lezlie Harper, Genealogist Lorine McGinnis Schulze, St. Catharines Mayor #waltersendzik, Hamilton Mayor #fredeisenberger #BestDirectorAward and thank you to all the folks over the last 3 + years who joined me on these fun, sometimes crazy, long hiking expeditions!"

December 21, 2020

Check out my NEW revised site for Naturalization Records!


I am excited to announce that I have finally completed my newly revised and re-designed site NaturalizationRecords.com

Naturalization is the process by which an alien from one country becomes a citizen of another country. The naturalization process did not have to happen in one court, or in one location. It was not mandatory and not all aliens became citizens, and not all completed the process once they started it. Naturalization Records are very important to your genealogical research but are often overlooked.

Declaration of Intent William Edmunds 1832
 

I created a simplified design and navigation system that will hopefully allow visitors to find their ancestors in these records much more quickly.  

I have links, original documents, and my transcribed indexes of names for Naturalization Records, Passports, Alien Registrations and much more. 

Here are a few links to get you started:

Naturalization & Citizenship Records & Examples

U.S.A. Naturalizations
Canada Naturalizations
American Passport Applications
American Alien Registrations
Canadian Passports
Canadian Oaths of Allegiance
Canadian Sessional Papers

I took me 6 months to redesign and move the site to it's new home, followed by a month of checking and double-checking for broken links. Fingers crossed, but I think I found and fixed them all. 

Please take a peek, and if you do find something wrong, I'd appreciate you dropping me a note at olivetreegenealogy@gmail.com so I can fix any problems I might have missed.

Enjoy your visit!