Celebrating 11 Years of Olive Tree Genealogy Blog!

Happy belated 11th Birthday to Olive Tree Genealogy blog! I missed the actual birthday on February 9th but am pretty excited to announce that I've been publishing this blog for 11 years now! My first year (2003) I only write 12 posts, averaging one per month. That seems almost ludicrous to write one post a month now that I publish every day.

In fact I set a goal in 2010 to write a daily blog post. I didn't quite make it that year but am really happy to say that I've surpassed my goal for the last 3 years.

Every year I do a little better, write a little more. Here's the number of blog posts I've published for each year since 2003.

►  2013 (379)

►  2012 (407)

►  2011 (423)

►  2010 (316)

►  2009 (263)

►  2008 (192)

►  2007 (114)

►  2006 (17)

►  2005 (86)

►  2004 (26)

►  2003 (12)

My most popular blog post was about the release of the 1921 Canadian census with 4000 reads. Another popular one was the post I wrote about how to understand your DNA results. It had over 2000 reads! 

Sharing Memories is the most popular page on Olive Tree Genealogy blog with over 10,000 views of the prompts I post to encourage genealogist to record their own memories before they are gone forever. 

My readers come from all over the world which totally amazes and thrills me! Here's a list of the countries and the number of times someone in that country has read one of my blog posts. Pretty amazing and I am so grateful that you care enough to read this blog! 

United States	873587
Canada	178467
United Kingdom	63959
France	36491
Germany	27222
Russia	24916
Australia	18913
Ukraine	5784
China	4765
Netherlands	3948

Without my wonderful readers there would be no point to this blog. And so I thank you for allowing me to write and most of all for reading and commenting on my posts! Please join me while I blow out the 11 candles on my cake to celebrate another happy year of genealogy writing.

Black History Month: Canadian Jubilee Singer Fannie Stewart

Fannie Stewart was one of the female singers in the original group of Canadian Jubilee Singers.

According to a newspaper article in the Freeman (Indianapolis Indiana) in December 1896 Fannie was born in Windsor Ontario.

She was married to W. T. Cary, another member of the group but I have not been able to find a record of their marriage. Nor have I found Fannie after her marriage. 

I believe she is the Fannie Stewart age 8  found in Windsor Ontario in 1861 with parents David and Eliza Stewart, both born in the USA. In all the census records I found for Fannie she is recorded as born in USA but is in WIndsor from the 1861 to the 1891 census.

Census and death records reveal that the woman I believe is Fannie's grandmother was born in Virginia ca1802. Her name was Sarah Ann and she was the widow of Richard Stewart at her death in WIndsor in 1896. Her son David (Fannie's father) was the informant at her death. 

Her husband Richard died at the age of 77 in 1877, also in Windsor. Eliza Stewart (Fannie's mother) was the informant. From the marriage of David & Eliza's daughter we learn that Eliza's maiden name was Robinson. 

So far my research has turned up 3 children for Richard & Sarah Ann Stewart: David, born ca 1830 USA, Henry born ca 1834 and Sarah Ann born ca 1842 in Virginia. It is very likely that all 3  children were born in Virginia but so far I have not found them on the 1850 census. Perhaps they are on slave schedules. 

David & Eliza (Robinson) Stewart's son George died in WIndsor in 1886 at the age of 28. On his death record he is said to have been born in Virginia. Unfortunately that is where the trail ends for my research.

Sharing Memories Week 6: Games You Played

To encourage all genealogists (and myself!) to write our stories, Sharing Memories is a series of weekly prompts to help with writing up memories of our ancestors and our childhood. 

We all love to find a diary or letters written by great grandma or grandpa where they talk about their lives and share their memories. Think how excited one of your descendants will be to read about your memories and your stories! These stories will be lost unless we preserve them. And what better way than in a weekly themed post. 

Just think - at the end of the year you will have 52 stories written about your childhood, your parents, grandparents and who knows what else.

If you write your own blog please use the hashtag #52SharingMemories if you are posting on Twitter or Google+  You can also  post your stories as comments on this blog post or in a private journal. It's your choice! The important thing is to write those memories down now!

Week 6's prompt is to write about games you played as a kid. You could also talk about games your mom or dad played or your grandparents. Talk about the games, tell us the rules and who you played with. Was it fun? Were you good at a certain game? 

I didn't play many games as a kid, mainly because my sister and I were not allowed out after supper. So after 6 pm when other kids were outside having fun, we used to sit in the living room watching them. Even at age 10 and 11 I was still sitting, nose pressed to the glass, wishing I was out there too.

When I played on my own during the day, I mostly bounced my ball. I still remember bouncing my ball in time as I chanted "Bouncy bouncy ball-ee, I broke my sister's dolly, She gave me a whack, (I forget the next line -it  might have been "she broke my back"), bouncy bouncy ball-ee" 

I also bounced my ball to the chant of "1-2-3 oh larry, my name is Mary,  if you think it necessary, look it up in the dictionary" Of course you didn't just bounce your ball up and down, you did tricks  like swing your leg over it and continue bouncing, or spin around and keep bouncing. I loved this!

I do remember playing "Cops and Robbers" with the boy next door and a couple of his friends. That must have been during the day on a Saturday. But I got hurt the day he handcuffed us together, we climbed up on the porch roof to get away from the "cops" and he jumped off. I wasn't ready to jump and fell rather awkwardly. I sprained my wrist very badly and wouldn't play after that! 

Believe it or not I also loved my Slinky and would send it down our stairs (inside) for hours on end. Do you notice a theme here? I only played solitary games. Oh yeah I forgot, I also had a yo-yo which I played with some of the time. I didn't have a skipping rope and never learned how to skip. 

One time I did get to go outside with the other kids. It was the only weekend we ever had without my mother there. She and my dad had a big fight and she went away for the entire weekend. So dad let me go outside and play. I was so excited! The neighbourhood kids were very welcoming but I soon found out that since I didn't know how the games were played, I wasn't having much fun. 

One of the games was something to do with another kid tracing a circle on your back while chanting something along the lines of " ...... who pokes IN" With the words "who pokes IN!" you got a poke in your back. I don't remember what you were supposed to do once poked - chase the other kids? Look for them as they hid? 

They also invited me to play "Kick the Can" but I stood on the sidelines trying to figure out the rules! It was an odd moment - the event I'd been longing for (playing with other kids) wasn't as much fun as I thought. Of course I never got to play outside again. So I never learned group games. I think that affected me adversely because I still don't work well in groups and far prefer to be on my own!

Black History Month: Jubilee Singer Charlotte Bland-O'Banyon

It wasn't easy to find Charlotte. Her death record has proved elusive. What I did find after a great deal of research was an 1871 census record for Hamilton Ontario showing a Charlotte E. Bland age 33 married to John H. Bland, 49. Charlotte was born in Hudson New York.

She is also found in the 1861 census for Hamilton with husband John Bland, a barber born USA, and their son Charles age 8, born Canada. The 1881 Hamilton Census still finds the family of John 56, Charlotte, 37 and 3 other people, one being the widow Mary Young 70, born USA. 

I had a hunch that Mary Young was possibly Charlotte's mother because in her marriage to Josephus O'Banyon her parents are recorded as Randall and Mary. Although the surname was recorded as Bland I believe this was an assumption that she was a single woman on her marriage. But in reality she was a widow, her husband John Bland having died in Hamilton in December 1884. 

Sure enough a search of New York census records showed in 1850 and 1860 in Athens New York. The family group in 1850 consisted of Randall Young 53, his wife Polly (a common nickname for Mary) 49, and children James, 25, Thomas 23, Charlotte 15 and Jane 10. All were recorded as being born in New York.

In 1860 Randall was 57 born Maryland, a boatman. His wife Mary was 43 born Greene Co. New York and children were Charlotte 17 born Columbia Co., and Jane A. also born Columbia Co. Next door was son Thomas age 25 with a wife and 2 children.

By 1871 Randall and his wife were in Hamilton Ontario for they are found there in the 1871 census. Randall is recorded as 70 and born USA while his wife is listed as Polly age 58 born United States. A widow Jane Ann Hall is also with the family as are two of her children. I suggest this is their daughter born ca 1840.

Charlotte is found with Josephus in the Muncie, Indiana, City Directory for 1897 and it is very possible that she died there.

To date I have not found any further information on the family. It seems a shame to not know more about these Canadian Jubilee Singers! 

Credit:  Canadian Jubilee Singers songbook available at http://www.resourcebooks.net/?page=shop/flypage&product_id=174463

Black History Month: Canadian Jubilee Singer Josephus O'Banyon

Josephus O'Banyon was one of the singers in the Canadian Jubilee Singers. It is interesting to note that we also find the following names:

Mrs. Bland-O’Banyoun – mezzo soprano, married to Josephus

Ernest O’Banyoun  son of leader, Baritone

With 3 singers to research I had a lot of fun with this biography. As I searched census records and vital statistics, I discovered quite a bit of fascinating information about Josephus.

Simon Peter O'Banyon

Census records revealed Josephus as a 14 year old in 1851 in Brantford Ontario with his parents Simon Peter O'Banyon and Sophia. 1881 found him in Hamilton Ontario and by 1891 he was in Chatham Ontario with his widowed mother Sophia. It was quite a surprise to find him in Indiana in 1900 with wife Maud.

It is interesting to note that in the 1891 census, Sophia O'Banyon is recorded as being born in Ontario, with a father born in Ireland and a mother born in Canada. 

Early marriage records show that Simon O'Banyon married Sophia Wright in July 1832 in Brantford, Ontario. I have been unable to discover her parents. The following anecdote about the O'Banyons is found in Samuel Ringgold Ward's 1855 book Autobiography of a Fugitive Negro.  The anecdote concerns Peter O'Banyoun, at a time when the O'Banyons were living in Brant County. 

"A gentleman of my acquaintance (Peter O'Banyoun), driving a good pair of horses, and traveling at leisure, with his ladylike wife, was one night, in the winter of 1851-52, denied admittance at some dozen public taverns. His lady, being of lighter complexion than himself, on one or two occasions was admitted, and was comfortably seated by the fire, and politely treated - until her darker-skinned husband came in, and then, there was no room for either. It was a bitterly cold night; and being treated - maltreated - after this manner until nearly midnight, they were at length obliged to accept of a room in which they could sit up all night." 

So far I have found 5 marriages for Josephus, four of them to very young women. Here is the list of his marriages:

1. Nancy Butler before 1864. They had 2 sons, one being Ernest (baritone in the Canadian Jubilee Singers) who died at the age of 29 in 1893.  Nothing further is known of Nancy.
2. Mary Elizabeth Goosely, age 19 in 1871 in Nova Scotia. She died in 1884 in Essex Co. Ontario. Josephus was 33 years old.
3. Cassimar Elizabeth Johnson, age 21 in 1884 a few months after Mary's death. She died in 1890. He was 46 years old.
4. In 1891 he married Charlotte E. Bland (also a singer in the Canadian Jubilee Singers). I have not found a death record for Charlotte.
5. In 1898 he married Maud Garrison, age 18, in Indiana. Josephus was now 61 years old.

As a minister, Josephus moved around frequently and can be found ministering in various churches in different countries.


A very intriguing man! And I must admit I am curious about the deaths of 4 of his wives. Such bad luck for him.

RootsTech Live Broadcasts for Tomorrow

Following are the live broadcasts from RootsTech scheduled for tomorrow. The live broadcasts will give those unable to attend in-person worldwide a sample of this year's conference content. Interested viewers can watch the live presentations at RootsTech.org. The fourth-year conference has attracted over 10,000 registered attendees in-person, and leaders expect over 20,000 additional viewers online.
 
The streamed sessions include a sampling of technology and family history presentations. Following are the broadcasted sessions and speakers. All times are in mountain standard time (MST):

Saturday, February 8
10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Become an iPad Power User by Lisa Louise Cooke
1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., Information Overload: Managing Online Searches and Their Results by Josh Taylor
2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., A Beginner's Guide to Going Paperless by Randy Whited
4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., How to Interview Yourself for a Personal History by Tom Taylor
5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Five Ways to Do Genealogy in Your Sleep by Deborah Gamble

RootsTech Live Broadcasts Tomorrow

The following are the live broadcasts scheduled for tomorrow at RootsTech. The live broadcasts will give those unable to attend in-person worldwide a sample of this year's conference content. Interested viewers can watch the live presentations at RootsTech.org. The fourth-year conference has attracted over 10,000 registered attendees in-person, and leaders expect over 20,000 additional viewers online.
 
The streamed sessions include a sampling of technology and family history presentations. Following are the broadcasted sessions and speakers. All times are in mountain standard time (MST):

Friday, February 7
10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Storytelling Super Powers: How to Come Off as Your Family's Genealogy Hero by David Adelman
1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., Tweets, Links, Pins, and Posts: Break Down Genealogical Brick Walls with Social Media by Lisa Alzo
2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Getting the Most Out of Ancestry.com by Crista Cowen
4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Finding Family and Ancestors Outside the USA with New Technologies by Daniel Horowitz
5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Do It Yourself Photo Restoration by Ancestry Insider
 

RootsTech Live Broadcasts Tomorrow

RootsTech list of live broadcasts tomorrow. The live broadcasts will give those unable to attend in-person worldwide a sample of this year's conference content. Interested viewers can watch the live presentations at RootsTech.org. The fourth-year conference has attracted over 10,000 registered attendees in-person, and leaders expect over 20,000 additional viewers online.
 
The streamed sessions include a sampling of technology and family history presentations. Following are the broadcasted sessions and speakers. All times are in mountain standard time (MST):
 
The streamed sessions include a sampling of technology and family history presentations. Following are the broadcasted sessions and speakers. All times are in mountain standard time (MST): 
 
Thursday, February 6
10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Top 10 Things I Learned About My Family from My Couch by Tammy Hepps
1 p.m. to 2 p.m., FamilySearch Family Tree: What's New and What's Next by Ron Tanner

2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Intro to DNA for Genealogists by James Rader

4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Genealogy in the Cloud by Randy Hoffman
5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Sharing Your Family with Multimedia by Michael LeClerc
 

FamilySearch Works to Put the World’s Historical Records Online in One Generation

FamilySearch Works to Put the World’s Historical Records Online in One Generation

See Related Infographic

SALT LAKE CITY, UTAH—FamilySearch International (online at FamilySearch.org) is leading the way in digitizing and providing access to billions of historical genealogical records by collaborating with commercial family history companies and the online community. This collaboration will carve centuries off the time needed to increase access to the world’s historical records, enabling millions more people to quickly discover, share, and preserve family memories for generations.

Recent announcements of agreements with commercial family history companies are some of the first installments in fulfilling FamilySearch’s desire to remove the traditional barriers to genealogical research. FamilySearch CEO, Dennis Brimhall, explains that joining forces with other organizations, where possible, brings significantly more financial investment and technological resources to the family history industry than the nonprofit community could provide on its own.

FamilySearch plans to collaborate on digitization projects with commercial family history companies to publish new historical records collections on FamilySearch.org that have never seen the light of the Internet. Working with individual industry leaders such as Ancestry.com , Archives.com, findmypast, Fold3, and MyHeritage will also increase and broaden access to the records FamilySearch has already published online. FamilySearch plans to involve many other interested organizations that will provide records, tools, and other resources to allow more people to build, preserve, and share their family trees online.

In a keynote address at the RootsTech 2013 conference, Brimhall shared FamilySearch’s vision to empower people globally to share their family memories and save them for future generations. “Imagine if your ancestors had easy access to computers, digital cameras, and family history websites that allowed them to upload, preserve, and share important family memories through photos, stories, and vital names, dates, and places? How amazing would that be?” Brimhall said.

FamilySearch and its predecessors have been preserving and providing access to the world’s family history records for over 100 years. FamilySearch volunteers have indexed just over three billion records in extraction and online indexing projects, but they have only scratched the surface.
“For the top countries with the highest online research demand, using our existing resources and volunteers, it will take up to 300 years to index the 5.3 billion records that we already have,” Brimhall noted. “That means you and me and the next 10 generations of our posterity would not live to personally benefit from them. And there are another 60 billion records that still need to be digitally preserved. We can do significantly better by working together with other organizations and as a community.”

As new historical record collections are published under the latest agreements with FamilySearch’s affiliates, they will be available on FamilySearch.org and for free on Ancestry.com, findmypast.com, or MyHeritage.com to members of The Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints. FamilySearch offers free public access to Ancestry.com and findmypast.com through 4,715 local FamilySearch-owned family history centers worldwide. Additional details regarding expanded records access will be announced sometime in 2014, when they are available.

Infographic: Putting the World’s Historical Records Online in One Generation

Black History Month: Canadian Jubilee Singer Nathan Warner

1896 Freeman newspaper Indiana

Nathan Warner was one of the musicians in the Canadian Jubilee Singers. 

Research in American newspapers revealed a few tidbits of information about Nathan. In 1896 it was said that he had been with the Jubilee Singers for 4 seasons. 

He was also listed as being with the group in 1898 along with Daisy Underwood aka Black Melba and James E. Lightfoot.

The 1881 census for Hamilton Ontario shows Nathan as a 15 year old "African" living with his widowed mother Mary Jane Warner. Mary Jane was born in the USA ca 1832 and supported the family by taking in laundry. 

Also with the family was the widowed Margaret Felson, age 68 born USA. I suspected she was Mary Jane's mother and Nathan's grandmother.

The 1871 census of Hamilton shows Nathan (recorded as Nathaniel) as a 4 year old living with none other than Margaret Felson and Jane Warner (his mother)

1861 finds Margaret Felson, 49 married to Alfred, 59. Alfred's occupation is given as porter. With the family are 3 Felson children as well as Frank (age 29 born Upper Canada) & Jane Warner and two of their children. I have no doubt that Alfred and Margaret Felson were Nathan Warner's maternal grandparents. Frank and Jane were Nathan's parents.

Further research turned up Margaret's death record in 1895 stating she was born in Washington but no further genealogical information. However court records for Washington, District of Columbia revealed an 1831 marriage record for Alfred Felson and Margaret Jenkins on the 13th of April that year. 

I have not been able to find more on Nathan. 

Sharing Memories Week 5: Naughty Things You Did as a Kid

Sharing Memories and Photo Books I have created

To encourage all genealogists (and myself!) to write our stories, Sharing Memories is a series of weekly prompts to help with writing up memories of our ancestors and our childhood. 

We all love to find a diary or letters written by great grandma or grandpa where they talk about their lives and share their memories. Think how excited one of your descendants will be to read about your memories and your stories! These stories will be lost unless we preserve them. And what better way than in a weekly themed post. 

Just think - at the end of the year you will have 52 stories written about your childhood, your parents, grandparents and who knows what else. I've been writing my stories and memories down for 3 years now. At the end of each year I create a book of those stories (plus photos) and give one to each of my children. What a treasure you can create for your children and grandchildren.

If you write your own blog please use the hashtag #52SharingMemories if you are posting on Twitter or Google+  That way I can provide links to your blog posts at the end of the week. You can also  post your stories as comments on this blog post or in a private journal. It's your choice! The important thing is to write those memories down now! 

This week's prompt is about any naughty or devilish things you did as a kid. I already talked about playing hooky in Grade 2 or 3 and locking the school bathroom doors. But I did a couple of other bad things too at home. We were rather poor and didn't have much - no carpets on the floors or paintings on the walls and no television or radio. But when I was about 10 years old they bought a stereo. The stereo was one of those big ones that housed a radio and a record player. 

It was my dad's pride and joy. It was so beautiful! We didn't have pretty things in our house and I thought that huge gleaming brown cabinet was gorgeous. I cannot explain why I did what I did. But one day I took a tiny screwdriver out of my mom's sewing kit and scratched my initials on the hinged lid of the record player.  

                           L. M. 

As soon as I finished the wavy lettering I wanted to remove it! I thought of how angry my parents would be. I felt sick at what I'd done but it was too late for remorse. The odd things is that I was not angry when I did it. I just thought it was such a beautiful finish that I wanted to carve something on it. I'd actually wanted to create a picture but hadn't realized how difficult it would be to carve in nice neat lines. So I settled for my initials. 

To make things worse, when my parents got home and saw it I lied and said it must have been my brother. His initials were the same as mine. But since he was 10 years older than me my parents knew it wasn't him. I wasn't punished as far as I remember although they sent me to my room to do some serious thinking. They talked to me about it because all in all I was a very quiet obedient kid and honestly I rarely did anything bad!

I seem to recall they bought me some paper and pencils after that so I could draw as much as I wanted. I still have some of my first drawings. And I've never carved my initials on anything since!

Black History Month: Who Were the Jubilee Singers

February is Black History Month so I am going to talk about the Canadian Jubilee Singers and the Fisk Jubilee Singers. I'd never heard of either group until I saw a Murdoch Mysteries episode in January. It featured the Canadian Jubilee Singers as the historical aspect of that episode. I became interested and decided to do some research.

The Canadian Jubilee Singers were a group of black African-American singers and musicians. The group was based on the successful Fisk Jubilee Singers from Fisk University in Tennessee, but the singers in the Canadian group were almost all from the Hamilton area of Ontario Canada. 

The Canadian Jubilee singers made their appearance in 1878 when William and Sadie Carter organized the group.It became very successful and toured Great Britain for 5 years and United States for 3. 

Researching the original members was not an easy task but as near as I can determine from various online resources the original group consisted of the following members:

• Prof. Cockbin of Hamilton – bass
• Maud Young – soprano from Hamilton
• Alice Dowden - Soprano from Hamilton
• Mrs. Bland-O’Banyoun – mezzo soprano married to Josephus O'Banyon
• Ernest O’Banyoun son of Josephus, Baritone
• Minnie Parker from Chatham
• Mrs. Cockbin, Hamilton, accompanist wife of Professor Cockbin
• James Escort (Jimmie) Lightfoot
• Nathan Warner, trombone
• Hattie Butler
• James Thomas
• W. T. Cary and his wife Fannie Stewart 

It took me some time to cobble together the list above from various sources. Many had only initials and no full names. I was able to find more about each member, including their full names and I will share that information in future blog posts.

Over the month of February I will be posting bios with the research I have done on several of the members of the group. Given how difficult it has been to find information on them, I think it even more important to publish on this blog what I have found. My hope is that they will not be forgotten or overlooked as an important part of Canadian history.

Credit: Image ID: 1240264. Famous Canadian Jubilee singers male quartette, plantation lullabies. ca 1890s. http://digitalgallery.nypl.org
Credit: Jubilee Singers Flyer Library and Archives Canada, Acc. No. R5500-22

52 Ancestors: Jacob Burkholder and the Haunted Family Cemetery

Amy Johnson Crow has a new challenge for geneabloggers called Challenge: 52 Ancestors in 52 Weeks. Amy challenges genealogists to write about one ancestor once a week. I'm having fun with this and I hope you are too!

Jacob Burkholder, my 5th great-grandfather, was born in Switzerland in 1747, but his father moved the family north to Mannheim, Germany on the lower Rhine River to escape persecution. Here, they joined other Palatines and Jacob learned weaving. 

Jacob and his two brothers John and Christian sailed for America in 1765 on the ship Myrtilla. They landed at Philadelphia, 21 September 1765.

Several French Huguenot refugees were among the Myrtilla's 81 passengers, including Abraham and Sophia De Roche. Sophia was a French girl, supposedly of Huguenot descent. Jacob married Sophia De Roche in 1765 in Lancaster Co., Pennsylvania. Their signatures may be seen in Pennsylvania, where they took the oath of allegiance to the British Crown in 1765. 

Following the American Revolution, Jacob Burkholder wished to remain under British rule. After his eldest sons made an exploratory trip to the head of Lake Ontario, Jacob, Sophia and family left Pennsylvania for Upper Canada (now the province of Ontario). With their son Christian as their guide, they came by Conestoga wagon drawn by oxen, crossing at Buffalo and arriving at Niagara in present day Ontario province, in October 1794. They obtained 800 acres on the Hamilton mountain and were the first family to settle east of the Caledonia highway. 

A family cemetery was established by 1800, the earliest interment being Jacob Burkholder's son Joseph, who died of a broken back after falling from a shed roof. This cemetery is said to be haunted with a spectral light that appears every time someone nearby dies. No one has ever figured out what the light is or why it appears every so often on top of the church.

The family gave its name to a small community, the Burkholder settlement, which developed at the intersection of what is now Mohawk Road and Sherman Avenue in Hamilton, Ontario. 

 In 1839, a small log building was erected to serve as both church and school. It was replaced by the Mountain Chapel in 1850. This was renamed Burkholder Methodist Church in 1886 and after 1925, became known as Burkholder United Church.  In 1947 a monument was erected to honour Jacob and his wife Sophia.

I have found Jacob recorded under many spellings, including Borghonder. My Burkholder name daughters out with Jacob's granddaughter Elizabeth (born ca 1816 in Hamilton to David Burkholder and Elizabeth Gingrich) who married Richard Vollick. It is kind of interesting to note that Elizabeth was one of 16 children and that 4 of the Burkholder siblings married Vollick siblings.

RootsTech Conference Announces Free Online Broadcast Schedule

Great news for those of us who will not be able to attend the RootsTech Conference this year from February 6 to 8.

RootsTech announced yesterday that they will live stream fifteen of the workshops for free. The live broadcasts will give those unable to attend in-person worldwide a sample of this year's conference content. Interested viewers can watch the live presentations at RootsTech.org. The fourth-year conference has attracted over 10,000 registered attendees in-person, and leaders expect over 20,000 additional viewers online.
 
The streamed sessions include a sampling of technology and family history presentations. Following are the broadcasted sessions and speakers. All times are in mountain standard time (MST): 
 
Thursday, February 6
10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Top 10 Things I Learned About My Family from My Couch by Tammy Hepps
1 p.m. to 2 p.m., FamilySearch Family Tree: What's New and What's Next by Ron Tanner

2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Intro to DNA for Genealogists by James Rader

4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Genealogy in the Cloud by Randy Hoffman
5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Sharing Your Family with Multimedia by Michael LeClerc
 
Friday, February 7
10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Storytelling Super Powers: How to Come Off as Your Family's Genealogy Hero by David Adelman
1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., Tweets, Links, Pins, and Posts: Break Down Genealogical Brick Walls with Social Media by Lisa Alzo
2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., Getting the Most Out of Ancestry.com by Crista Cowen
4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., Finding Family and Ancestors Outside the USA with New Technologies by Daniel Horowitz
5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Do It Yourself Photo Restoration by Ancestry Insider
 
Saturday, February 8
10:30 a.m. to 11:30 a.m., Become an iPad Power User by Lisa Louise Cooke
1:00 p.m. to 2:00 p.m., Information Overload: Managing Online Searches and Their Results by Josh Taylor
2:30 p.m. to 3:30 p.m., A Beginner's Guide to Going Paperless by Randy Whited
4:00 p.m. to 5:00 p.m., How to Interview Yourself for a Personal History by Tom Taylor
5:00 p.m. to 6:00 p.m., Five Ways to Do Genealogy in Your Sleep by Deborah Gamble

LAC to Digitize WW 1 Military Records But Is it All Good?

From personal collection of Lorine McGinnis Schulze

This year, 2014, is the commemorative 100 year anniversary of the start of World War 1. Library and Archives Canada recently announced it plans to digitize 640,000 First World War Service Files. These are the stored files for soldiers and nurses in the First World War’s Canadian Expeditionary Force (CEF)

This all sounds wonderful! And it is. It will be a tremendous boon to genealogists to have access to these military files. However there are a few drawbacks. LAC will temporarily close portions of the service files while they are being digitized. The first quarter, beginning with the letter A through D, will be closed as of March 2014 and will be available on-line as of Summer 2014.

Quoting from the Library and Archives Canada Blog 

"The files to be digitized will complement the approximately 13,500 service files and the more than 620,000 attestation papers already available on LAC’s website. At the end of the project, expected in 2015, Canadians will be able to research high-quality digital copies of the 640,000 newly digitized service files from the comfort of their own home and will no longer have to pay reprography fees."

From personal collection
Lorine McGinnis Schulze

Do you spot anything in this quote that doesn't seem quite right? It is the fact that the project is due for completion in 2015. This means that for much of 2014, the commemorative year, the service files of soldiers will not be accessible! Since 2014 is the 100 year commemorative year, it instantly leaps to mind to question as to why LAC did not start this project much sooner so it would be completed in time for the 100 year anniversary. 

It seems to me that 2014 is the year that many new genealogists, authors and historians will be wanting to access the records of their military ancestors and heroes. I am quite sure there will be a lot of publicity over this 100 year anniversary and can only imagine the disappointment that will arise with the record access restricted or curtailed. 

Read the full story at Library and Archives Canada to Digitize 640,000 First World War Service Files

The Great Famine - Emigration out of Ireland

Between 1845 and 1855 almost  2.1 million people fled Ireland. Most sailed across the Atlantic for North American on what came to be known as "coffin ships". It is estimated that over 80,000 Irish emigrants died en route to a new home in Canada and America.

Dr Ciarán Ó Murchadha writes about the Irish Famine and emigration in his book, Great Famine: Ireland's Agony 1845-1852 available in both Kindle and hardcover on Amazon.com

[Source: New facts about Great Famine emigration out of Ireland revealed]

Do you have Irish ancestors who left Ireland in this time period? I do. My 2nd great grandfather Joseph McGinnis left Co. Down with his wife Fanny Downey and their one year old daughter Bridget (aka Delia) in 1846. They arrived in Ontario Canada sometime that summer and joined a large McGinnis family who had left Ireland in the 1830s. 

It must have been an unbearably difficult journey for all the poor Irish families who left, and incredibly torturous for those left behind.  If you are looking for your Irish ancestors arriving in Canada, the following databases may be of some help.

Irish Canadian Emigration Records, 1823-1849 This database on Ancestry.com contains various records and reports of Canadian emigration agents James Allison and A.J. Buchanan. Among the various records are some emigration and orphan lists. These lists are searchable by name. The two collections in this database are: Neilson collection [Records of James Allison, Emigrant Agent at Montreal, 1823-1845 Vol. 21 and 1846-1849 Vol. 22] & Emigration Agent Returns of Emigrant Orphans, 1847  

You can also request a search for your ancestor in the following Books of Immigration and Ships Passenger Lists Records from the following books.

• [BOOK 1] Names of Emigrants 1845-1847. Records of James Allison, Emigrant Agent at Montreal (Quebec Canada)
• [BOOKS 2-4] Canada Company Remittance Books 1843-1847 in 3 Volumes.
• [BOOK 5] Index of Passengers Who Emigrated to Canada between 1817 and 1849.

Also see the free Index of Names of Irish Emigrants from the 1845-1847 Records of James Allison, Emigrant Agent at Montreal 

Success! Grandson Found for Sam Gentile WW2 Letters

Readers may recall my previous post WW2 Soldier's Letters Found - Need Help Returning Them to Family about letters from Canadian soldier Sam Gentile to his family in 1945.

I was able to track down various obituaries for the family of Sam and Mary Gentile who came from Italy to Canada in the early 1900s. 

From these records as well as census records online on Ancestry.com , and burial records on FindAGrave, we could put together a family group for the children of Sam and Mary.

• Winnifred Gentile d. pre 2003 married Andy Venier
• Sam Gentile Jr. 1913-1983 married Margaret
• Josephine Gentile d. pre 2003 married Sam Peckett
• Rose Gentile d. pre 2003 married Harold Lott
• Vince Gentile1930-1984
• John Joseph Dominic Gentile 1925-2009 married Dorothy O'Keefe 1925-1993
• Peter C. Gentile 1919-2003

Jared and I determined that it was almost certainly Sam Jr who wrote the letters in 1945. And the hunt was on. Canada 411 provided us with contact names and addresses of some of the grandchildren of Sam and Mary Gentile.

On Sunday I received an email from Kevin Gentile, a firefighter living in Kitchener Ontario. Kevin informed me that his grandfather Salvatore (Sam) Gentile was the writer of the letters! It seems Sam sent them to his parents during his time stationed in England in WW2. 

Kevin graciously provided me with a detailed family outline from Sam down and gave me permission to post an update here on Olive Tree Genealogy blog. But for privacy reasons I will not divulge names of Kevin's siblings. Kevin has 3 young children and is excited to connect with his grandfather's letters. 

I have put Jared and Kevin in touch and am waiting to hear the result of their phone conversation! Thanks again to readers who jumped in to help reunite these WW2 letters with a descendant.

Sharing Memories: Playing Hooky in Grade 2 and 3

My personal journal

Here is a Challenge for all genealogy bloggers. Keep a weekly journal called Sharing Memories. Some of you may recall that in 2010, 2011 and 2012 I provided weekly prompts to help with writing up memories of ancestors and ourselves. 

Think how excited one of your descendants will be to read about YOU - your memories and your stories.

If you write your own blog and you are participating in this challenge, please use the hashtag #52SharingMemories if you are posting on Twitter or Google+  That way I can provide links to your blog posts at the end of the week. You can of course post your stories as comments on this blog post or in a private journal. It's your choice! The important thing is to WRITE! 

This week I'm writing about my experiences in Grades 2 and 3. I'm combining them because I have very mixed memories of those years and can't actually recall very much! But my descendants might chuckle to think of the entire class sitting in nice neat little rows, one wooden desk behind the other. We raised our hands to ask questions, did not speak unless given permission and politely stood at the side of our desks when talking.

 What I do remember vividly is that I was bored and decided to liven things up. First I locked all the stall doors in the girls' bathroom. It's easy to do - you lock them from the inside then crawl out underneath the doors. Yep. I thought it would be fun. Of course I was caught. Someone saw me and told my teacher. I decided to lie my way out of it with a "it's my word against hers" stance, but since I had convinced another student to help me lock the doors, and she caved when questioned, it became my word against two other kids. I lost. It makes me chuckle now to think how brazen I was! And honestly I didn't grow up to be a habitual liar.

But that didn't stop me. i was so bored that I decided I wasn't going to school anymore. I enlisted a friend's help in this caper too. I would head off to school every morning but take a detour to my friend's house. Her parents worked so no one was home. She'd let me in, then off she'd go to school. I would hide out in her bedroom reading comic books and eating chocolates! No wonder I detest chocolate now. 

I managed to play hooky for almost 2 weeks. Then the school phoned my parents to find out what illness I had and when I might be returning. Oops. I hadn't thought that far ahead! Believe it or not I didn't get into too much trouble. My parents were pretty good about sitting down and finding out WHY I played hooky at such a young age. When the truth came out - that I was bored silly - the school arranged for me to have my own reading program. I was so excited and happy, and after that I was a model student. 

Every day when the class took turns reading aloud from a very boring Dick and Jane reader, I was allowed to go to the back of the classroom and read stories from some reading series (wish I could remember what it was called), then answer questions about each story. My teacher would check to be sure I was understanding and remembering what I read, and I'd carry on. So I could read at my own speed and my own level. By the end of Grade 3 I was reading at a Grade 7 level.

My days of being bored in school were over!