Peristence Pays Off: My Finding Aid is linked to from Library and Archives Canada

Followers of Olive Tree Genealogy blog may recall that I have written several posts, beginning in August 2013, about the mis-labelled Heir and Devisee Commission Papers available on Canadiana.org

Example from HD 1144 Christian Bradt

While searching for my ancestors I discovered that of the 21 digitized microfilms, 10 are incorrectly identified as to volume numbers and content contained. To assist other genealogists and researchers, I am began methodically going through the images to identify what each film contained.

Thus I created a Finding Aid with correctly identified contents of each microfilm and published it on my website. I wrote to Canadiana.org many times over the course of 3 years offering the Finding Aid to them but when I finally got an answer my offer was refused.

This year I was able to speak directly to Mr. Guy Berthiaume the Librarian and Archivist of Canada, on the Dec. 4 Twitter chat: Ask the Librarian and Archivist of Canada your questions, 11:30AM-1PM (EST). AskTheLAC

My question was in four parts since Twitter only allows 480 character tweets. I explained what my Finding Aid was, and my last tweet had my question for Mr. Berthiaume:

"My Q is:Will you look at my Finding Aid for those 10 incorrect films & speak to me about correcting the online content descriptions?" 

He did. Then Library and Archives Canada contacted me, and today I am pleased to announce that a link to my Finding Aid for the Heir and Devisee Commission films H-1133 to H-1153 is linked to on Library and Archives Canada.

Huge thanks goes to Mr. Berthiaume for taking time to look into these issues! Now researchers will have updated and correct information on the content of each of these digitized films.

Index of Claimants Found in Commissioners Reports 1836-1845 Ontario

Canadiana.Org has digitized 21 films of the Heir & Devisee Commission Papers (Heir & Devisee Commission papers 1797-1854, found in their Heritage Collection), and that's a good thing for genealogists. These records have valuable and informative genealogical documents.

But as mentioned in a previous blog post I wrote called Heir & Devisee Commission 1797-1854 on Canadiana.org - Listing Errors and a Workaround, the index and description of what is in each film, as provided on Canadiana.org,  is incorrect.

I have been slowly going through each film and noting the correct contents in detail.  My first set of detailed listings of the contents of film H1133 can be viewed at No Response from Canadiana.org so here are the Heir & Devisee Commission Film Details 

A complete and correct list of contents of many of the films can be found on Olive Tree Genealogy website at Finding  Aid for Heir & Devisee Commission Online Films

As I continue in my corrections, I happened upon this wonderful index of names for Commissioners Reports 1836-1845 on film H1151.  The Canadiana.org description stating that H1151 contains V. 90-98 is incorrect. This film contains V. 86-89 Below is the index for Names A-C for Volume 86 of microfilm H1151 Heir & Devisee Commission. You may save these images to your computer then enlarge them in your graphic program to read. There are 32 pages of names total and I will continue publishing them here on Olive Tree Genealogy blog. 

Volume 86 consists of Commissioners Reports 1836-1845 on images 49-319. Using the index below, you see that Robert Brown is indexed as page 168. We can then go directly to the Heir & Devisee Commission online microfilm and hunt for this page in order to view Robert's claim.

Robert Brown's name mentioned on page 168

....to be continued

Is NewspaperArchive DOT com in Trouble?

As reported in The Gazette in the article Cedar Rapids company under state review after complaints, Heritage Microfilm and NewspaperArchive.com are being investigated by the Iowa Attorney General’s Office.

Numerous complaints from across the country about practices that include charging subscribers for involuntary donations to a charity run by the company’s founder prompted this investigation.

The Better Business Bureau has given the company an “F” based on 135 complaints in the past three years. For more details about this please see Kerry Scott's blog post of May 2, 2014 and The Gazette's article linked to in my first paragraph.

Credit: "Alert Button Shows Warning Hazard Or Notice" by Stuart Miles on FreeDigitalPhotos.net