A Second Way to Search for Canadian Burials and Cemeteries on Find-A-Grave!

Olive Tree Genealogy received this note yesterday:

Lorine, I've created a front-end for Canadians to use to search for cemeteries either by province or county using clickable maps. This is useful for either finding a cemetery to browse or to ensure a cemetery does not exist under a different name when creating monuments.  Regards, Bruce Gordon

I checked it out and it's terrific! The first page you see is this map of Canada. I chose ON (Ontario) which is clickable on Bruce's website Stalking the Dead.

 Clicking on ON took me to this page which has a search box and a list of clickable counties in Ontario:

 I typed in VOLLICK into the search box and the results showed all VOLLICK burials in Ontario on Find-A-Grave. What a time-saver this is!

You also have the option of clicking on the county in Ontario (or any other province) and seeing the complete list of cemeteries in that county that are on Find-A-Grave. Choosing Wellington County brought up this:

If you have Canadian ancestors, you will want to try this.  Search Canadian Cemeteries & Burials on Find-A-Grave

Image Credits: Screenshots from Bruce Gordon's website and Find-A-Grave search results

UPDATE: New Way to Search Canadian Burials on Find-A-Grave

This is a really great thing to know if you are looking for a cemetery burial of an ancestor in Canada on the popular Find-A-Grave website. Thanks to Gail Dever for talking about this on her Genealogy à la carte blog

Gail tells us that "Designed by Ken Lange, the Canadian search page allows you to narrow down your search by name and province, or cemetery and province, and this certainly simplifies the research." 

Continue reading  New Canadian way to search Find a Grave  

UPDATE January 24/17: Thanks to Bruce Gordon who writes to me to say: Ken's site was hosted on DropBox which, a few months ago, stopped allowing HTML on their site. So with Ken's permission I moved the page to my site and modified it to permit searching by County or Division within a Province or Territory. My old site and Ken's will remain available for those that prefer them.

Join the Find A Grave Community Day

On Saturday 17^th October, Ancestry.com is hosting their global ‘Find A Grave Community Day’.

"Essentially, this is an annual day taking place across the world whereby we encourage people to visit their local cemeteries to take photos and videos of headstones, explore the grounds and share stories – to preserve the history of all our ancestors buried in cemeteries across the world."

Find A Grave Community Day - Mark Your Calendars!

The following announcement was sent to Olive Tree Genealogy:

Find A Grave is an incredible resource offered for free. All of the information on the site is pulled together by an extraordinary group of volunteers around the world. With Find A Grave recently surpassing 100,000,000 photos on the site we are reminded of the dedication of the volunteers. But even with their strong determination, they can’t do it alone.

 

100 million photos is amazing, but it also reminds us that we have some work left to do. On October 18^th we are organizing a Community Day. A day to pull together people from all walks of life to a common purpose of helping the gravesites of our fellow brethren be remembered. We all have gravesite stories that touch us deeply. The internet has allowed us all to have those moments without having to leaves our homes.

For more information on how to participate in the Find A Grave Community Day, visit http://blogs.ancestry.com/ancestry/2014/09/22/find-a-grave-community-day-october-18th/

 

The Poignant Story of a Lost Child on the Titantic

RMS Titantic List of 1st Class Passengers Who Drowned - Allison Family
Ancestry.com. UK, RMS Titanic, Deaths at Sea, 1912

A 2 year old child, thought to be lost when the Titanic sank, is at the crux of this story. Lorraine Allison and her parents were all reported as dead but only her father's body was ever recovered.

Years later a woman  named Helen Kramer came forward claiming to be Lorraine and stating she had been rescued but no one knew who she was. The Allisons were a wealthy Canadian family and refused to accept that Helen was Lorraine, believing it was a hoax to obtain money.

Helen  and her family waged a long war to be accepted by the Allison family. In the end DNA evidence revealed the truth - that she was not Lorraine. However the years of insisting she was indeed Lorraine resulted in a great deal of drama including restraining orders imposed by the Allison family.

The very intriguing and you can read more about it at Lost child of the Titanic and the fraud that haunted her family

This story intrigued me so I did a little research on the family. Hudson Allison, Lorraine's father is found in the 1901 census living in Chesterville Ontario, which happens to be where the Allison family burial ground is located. Hudson was born in 1881 in Winchester Township, Dundas County Ontario. His birth registration found on Ancestry.com shows him given the name Hudson Joshua Creighton Allison by his parents  Jessie R. Allison and Phebe [sic] Johnston.

October 1909 saw the family of Hudson, wife Bessie and daughter Helen Lorraine sail from Montreal to England on board The Megantic. Hudson appears to have been a frequent traveler, no doubt for his business as he also appears on the passenger list for the Campania sailing from Liverpool England to New York in April 1911.
In fact the 1911 census for England shows him staying at the Carlton Hotel in London. He is listed as a 30 year old Financial Broker.

He also appears in the 1911 Census for Canada with his wife Bessie, 24, born in Wisconsin and his two children Lorraine 2 and baby Hudson 5 months old. Further research shows that his wife Bessie was born in Wisconsin to Arville and Sarah Daniels.

The Allison family memorial is found in Chesterille Ontario and shows that baby Hudson was rescued but died at the age of 18.

The Portland Press Herald printed a death notice for Hudson Trevor Allison on Friday August 9th 1929. It read:

"Ocean Park, Aug 8 -- Hudson Trevor Ellison [sic] age 18, of Westmount, P.Q, who had been passing a vacation with his aunt and uncle, Mr. and Mrs. Hudson Ellsion[sic] on Seaside Avenue, died Thursday after a short illness as the result of ptomaine poisoning. The body was taken during the day to Chesterville, P.Q for burial."

Photo of Allison Family Memorial by Shirley Hacket on Find-A-Grave published as permitted by photographer

Uh-Oh I Hear Cries of "The Sky is Falling!"

Here we go again. Yesterday the big news came out that Ancestry.com has purchased Find A Grave. And so it began... the nay-sayers jumped in immediately with cries of Ancestry Is An Evil Beast and Now The Site Will Not be Free.

But did those who were bemoaning this news read the Press Release from Ancestry.com? It clearly states they will keep the site free (just as they did for Rootsweb)

Jim Tipton, founder and owner of Find A Grave, had his own words of reassurance regarding the buyout.

Let's look at a couple of good things from this buyout:

1. Ancestry has much more money and resources to put into the site to expand it even more. This is a GOOD THING for genealogists

2. Jim Tipton is the founder and leader behind Find A Grave. Unless he left specific instructions and he knew someone who had the programming skills to continue with it if anything happened to him, the site could easily disappear. Now it has a more permanent home

3. The site was growing rapidly and becoming difficult to maintain. Now it has a huge team of skilled individuals ready and willing to tackle various technical aspects of running such a large site. 

We won't know how the buyout will affect Find A Grave until some time has passed. So let's just be patient, think positively, and wait to see. Oh yeah - and read the announcements from those involved!

Let's not all run around screaming "Run Chicken Little, the sky is falling!"