When a massive wildfire started moving north toward the Town of Shelburne last week, Andrea Davis couldn't help but think back to another fire that had traumatized the community.

Davis, the executive director of the Black Loyalist Heritage Society, operates its museum in Birchtown, only a few kilometres southwest of Shelburne.

She said its predecessor, the society's old administration building, was the subject of arson in 2006.

The blaze destroyed "valuable, precious artifacts and documentation" of Black Loyalist history, she said.

"It was traumatic," Davis said Friday. "It still is traumatic and there's still this healing ... that is happening, especially with what's happening with the forest fires here in Shelburne County."

You can read the full story in an article by Cassidy Chisholm  published in the CBC News web site at: https://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/nova-scotia/black-loyalist-museum-wildfire-birchtown-1.6871134 

Canada is close to reaching 40 million people, and Statistics Canada has launched a new tool to watch that population growth in real time.

The Canada population clock keeps an ongoing tally of births, deaths, immigrants, emigrants, non-permanent residents and inter-provincial migrants. The tracker also keeps count of the population of every province and territory, as well as the population change since midnight.

As of this publication, Alberta currently sports a population of just over 4,730,000.

Canada reportedly added over one million new residents in a one-year span from January 2022 to January 2023, a year-over-year increase of 2.7 per cent compared to the year prior.

According to Statistics Canada, 2022 marked the highest annual population growth rate since 1957, which held a 3.3 per cent increase due to the post-war baby boom and refugees from the Hungarian Revolution.

The tracker can be found online at the Statistics Canada website at https://www150.statcan.gc.ca/n1/pub/71-607-x/71-607-x2018005-eng.htm.

The following is a press release written by the U.S. National Archives and Records Administration (NARA):

Thursday, June 15, 2023

Washington, DC

On Tuesday, July 4, 2023, the National Archives will celebrate the 247th anniversary of the adoption of the Declaration of Independence with its traditional in-person Fourth of July program featuring musical performances and family activities. Highlights include welcoming remarks by Archivist of the United States Dr. Colleen Shogan, a variety of educational and family-friendly interactive programs with historical figures and Archives educators, and a lively, patriotic reading ceremony emceed by WUSA9 News Anchor Allison Seymour. All July 4th activities are free and open to the public. Extended hours for the National Archives Museum during the July 4th weekend (July 1, 2, 3, and 4) are 10 a.m. until 7 p.m. Timed entry tickets to see the original Declaration of Independence in person are available, but not required.

July 4th at the National Archives is made possible in part by the National Archives Foundation through the generous support of John Hancock, AARP, and Dykema.

“As the keepers of our country's founding documents - the Declaration of Independence, the Constitution, and the Bill of Rights - we at the National Archives have a unique privilege and responsibility to ensure all citizens have access to these historical charters, and the knowledge and promise that come with them,” said Shogan. “We proudly welcome everyone to come celebrate the Fourth of July with us.”

PROGRAM INFORMATION:  July 4th at the National Archives 

WHEN: Tuesday, July 4, 2023

Ceremony: 10 a.m.–11 a.m.  

Family activities: 11 a.m.–4 p.m. 

Exhibits (including the original Declaration of Independence): 10 a.m.–7 p.m. 

WHERE: National Archives Building Constitution Avenue steps 

 Between 7th and 9th Streets, NW, Washington, DC

 A riser will be reserved for the press. 

Note: The 10 a.m. ceremony will be livestreamed on the National Archives YouTube channel and on the US National Archives Facebook page. 

This family event is free and open to the public. Seating on the Constitution Avenue steps is available on a first-come, first-seated basis. 

Patriotic Shopping at the National Archives Tent Store on Constitution Avenue 

8:30 a.m.–6:00 p.m.

Live Musical Performance by The Experience Band and Show

9 a.m.–9:45 a.m. 

Declaration of Independence Reading Ceremony 

10 a.m.–11 a.m.

* Continental Color Guard and Fife and Drum Corps provided by U.S. 3rd Infantry, the Old Guard. 

Live Musical Performance by The Experience Band and Show

11 a.m.–11:45 a.m.

Stay and enjoy front-row seats for the National Independence Day Parade at 11:45 a.m.

Family Activities

11 a.m.–4 p.m.

Inside the National Archives Museum, Boeing Learning Center

Participate in hands-on family activities:

Related Upcoming Virtual Programs

The Road to the Declaration of Independence: 1774

Join us the week of June 26–30 for our next installment of The Road to the Declaration. This year’s series focuses on the stories and events of 1774. Meet Thomas Jefferson, John and Abigail Adams, Thomas Gage, Samuel Adams, John Dickinson, and others as they discuss the rights of British America, the establishment of the first government of the 13 colonies—the Continental Congress—how to address the Intolerable Acts, and the adoption of the Articles of Association.  These programs can be found in the Road to the Declaration Playlist on the National Archives YouTube channel.

Part One: The Intolerable Acts! 

Monday, June 26, at noon ET

Watch the Virtual Premiere on the National Archives YouTube Channel

Lt. Gen. Thomas Gage, Commander-in-Chief of His Royal Majesty’s forces in North America, explains what the Intolerable Acts meant for the American colonies. Samuel Adams reads one of his many letters after the passage of the Boston Port Act, which became one of the catalysts for the First Continental Congress. This program is presented in partnership with the National Archives Foundation and American Historical Theatre. General Gage is portrayed by  Robert Gleason. Samuel Adams is portrayed by David Holland. 

Part Two: A Summary View of the Rights of British America in 1774

Tuesday, June 27, at noon ET

Watch the Virtual Premiere on the National Archives YouTube Channel

As 1774 brings many changes to the life of Thomas Jefferson, he shares his sentiments on the recent British Parliamentary (Intolerable) Act and outlines a path forward for colonists. This program is presented in partnership with the National Archives Foundation and American Historical Theatre. Thomas Jefferson is portrayed by Steven Edenbo.  

Part Three: The Road to the First Continental Congress

Wednesday, June 28, at noon ET

Watch the Virtual Premiere on the National Archives YouTube Channel

By the summer of 1774, John Adams was a delegate to the First Continental Congress for the state of Massachusetts. As John and Abigail Adams discuss preparations for his trip to Congress in Philadelphia, they share the hardships and events of their temporary separation and look to a future that will include many more years of struggle on the Road to Independence. This program is presented in partnership with the National Archives Foundation and American Historical Theatre. John Adams is portrayed by Peyton Dixon. Abigail Adams is portrayed by Kim Hanley.

Part Four: The Continental Association and the Resolves of the First Continental Congress

Thursday, June 29, at noon ET

Watch the Virtual Premiere on the National Archives YouTube Channel

John Dickinson details his Petition to the King asking Britain to repeal the Intolerable Acts. As a delegate to the First Continental Congress representing Pennsylvania, he further details the resolves made by the First Continental Congress, known as the Continental Association (Articles of Association), and how those resolutions will affect trade for both the colonists and the British.This program is presented in partnership with the National Archives Foundation and American Historical Theatre. John Dickinson is portrayed by Douglas Thomas.

Part Five: 1774: The Year in Acts and Petitions

Friday June 30, at Noon ET

Watch the Virtual Premiere on the National Archives YouTube Channel

The Boston Gazette Print Shop sets the stage for a discussion of recent news including the Quartering Act, Manumission Petitions, and the Suffolk Resolves when Abigail Adams and Jeffrey Brace stop in and talk with Mrs. Benjamin Edes.This program is presented in partnership with the National Archives Foundation and American Historical Theatre. Abigail Adams is portrayed by Kim Hanley, Mrs. Benjamin Edes is portrayed by Jill Lawrence, and  Jeffrey Brace is portrayed by Keith Henley.

Help transcribe military pension files from the Revolutionary War!

Launching on June 22: Revolutionary War Pension Files Transcription Mission

In celebration of the 250th anniversary of American independence, the National Archives and the National Park Service are collaborating on a special project to transcribe Case Files of Pension and Bounty-Land Warrant Applications Based on Revolutionary War Service, ca. 1800 - ca. 1912. These Revolutionary War Pension Files consist of applications and other records pertaining to claims for pensions and bounty land warrants.  

Related online exhibit highlight struggle for equal and civil rights 

Records of Rights permanent exhibit explores the ongoing struggle of Americans to define, attain, and protect the ideals of freedom enshrined in our nation’s founding documents. The “Bending Towards Justice” section showcases the drive for civil rights for African Americans. Online curators’ tour here.

The following note was written by Library and Archives Canada:

After the technical issues that affected the ability of users to access the 1931 Census database, we are pleased to announce that our system has stabilized. However, users may occasionally experience slow loading times. Our teams will continue to monitor the system’s performance and find solutions as the situation evolves.

We thank users for their patience and understanding. We hope that they will continue to pursue their searches, learn about their family stories, and uncover the history of Canadians.

The following announcement was written by the Board for Certification of Genealogists (BCG):

FREE BCG-SPONSORED WEBINAR

“Finding Your One Among Millions: Methods and Tips for Urban Research” 

by Amy Larner Giroux, PhD, CG, CGL

Tuesday, June 20, 2023, 8:00 p.m. (EDT)

Family history research in a large city can be richly rewarding as urban centers typically kept better records. However, when it is your ancestor who does not appear in the vital records, how do you find them? Searching among the plethora of people in a city such as New York can be challenging. This presentation will give attendees some ways to navigate research in urban areas using a case study in 19th-century New York City to illustrate the methods.

Amy Larner Giroux, PhD, CG, CGL, is co-author of the Florida edition of the NGS Research in the States series and has published in the National Genealogical Society Quarterly, the New York Genealogical and Biographical Society Record, The Genealogist (American Society of Genealogists), and Florida Studies. Her research interests include New York, New England, Florida, military cemeteries, burial iconography, and ethnic studies. She has lectured nationally and has taught at the Institute of Genealogy and Historical Research.

BCG’s next free monthly webinar in conjunction with Legacy Family Tree Webinars is “Finding Your One Among Millions: Methods and Tips for Urban Research” by Amy Larner Giroux, PhD, CG, CGL. This webinar airs Tuesday, June 20, 2023, at 8:00 p.m. EDT. 

When you register before June 20 with our partner Legacy Family Tree Webinars (http://legacy.familytreewebinars.com/?aid=8103) you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the webinar. Anyone with schedule conflicts may access the webinar at no charge for one week after the broadcast on the Legacy Family Tree Webinarswebsite.

“We appreciate the opportunity to present these high-quality educational webinars,” said

President Faye Jenkins Stallings, CG. “At BCG, our purpose is to promote public confidence in genealogy by supporting uniform standards of competence. These webinars help to achieve that by providing educational opportunities to family historians of all levels of experience.”

Following the free period for this webinar, BCG receives a small commission if you view this or any BCG webinar by clicking our affiliate link: http://legacy.familytreewebinars.com/?aid=2619.

To see the full list of BCG-sponsored webinars for 2023, visit the BCG blog SpringBoard athttps://bcgcertification.org/bcg-2023-free-webinars/. For additional resources for genealogical education, please visit the BCG Learning Center (https://bcgcertification.org/learning).

The words Certified Genealogist and its acronym, CG, are a registered certification mark, and the designations Certified Genealogical Lecturer and its acronym, CGL, are service marks of the Board for Certification of Genealogists®, used under license by board certificants after periodic evaluation.

On June 15, 1904, (tomorrow is the anniversary of the event), the awful General Slocum steamboat disaster in New York City decimated the German-American community of Kleindeutschland: over a thousand women and children perished.

Geneanet, has honored the victims and survivors of the tragedy by documenting the lives of every known passenger. It’s a free and collaborative project, open to all. Over a thousand birth, marriage, and death certificates of the passengers' families, nearly all from the New York City Municipal Archives, have been digitized.

Geneanet also has over 100 photos of passengers; Geneanet volunteers searched through historical newspapers and the "instant books" of the era to find those.

The web site also has a scoop, not previously published: the handwritten telegram of condolences from the Kaiser who was attending the Gordon Bennett Cup road race in the Taunus mountains near Frankfurt. The Political Archive of the German Foreign Office in Berlin dug that out for Geneanet.

The article may be found at: https://en.geneanet.org/genealogyblog/post/2023/06/general-slocum-genealogies-a-thousand-source-documents-added

The collaborative family tree is available at:  https://gw.geneanet.org/generalslocum?lang=en

The following announcement was written by the Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG):

The Salt Lake Institute of Genealogy (SLIG) wishes to announce that registration for SLIG Fall Virtual 2023 began on Saturday, June 10, and is ongoing.

Limited seats remain in the following courses:

Courses will be held online via Zoom from September - November 2023.  Learn more by accessing detailed course schedules and course requirements here.

A registration guide is available and can be accessed here.

The following is a press release written by the Muscogee Nation:

The Muscogee (Creek) Nation National Library and Archives will go live with a new digital archive on June 14th, 2023. The digital archive will be available to Mvskoke citizens and the public and will feature a wide variety of historical documents and resources pertaining to Mvskoke history, culture, and language, and will include video and audio interviews from our recent oral history project titled, “A Twenty-First Century Pandemic in Indian Country: The Resilience of the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Against Covid-19.” In January 2021, the Andrew W. Mellon Foundation awarded the Muscogee (Creek) Nation Historic and Cultural Preservation Department a $100,000 community-based archives grant to fund the Covid-19 oral history project and the creation of a new digital archive.

Supported by Mukurtu (Mook-oo-too), meaning “dilly-bag” or “a place of safekeeping” in the Aboriginal Warumungu language, this Indigenous archival platform created in Australia was selected for its ability to provide a safe space to store and share heritage items, stories, and knowledge. Interactive features of the archive include a comment section to share information or ask questions. Visitors can also set up an account and create a personal “collection” from items found within the digital archive. The Muscogee (Creek) Nation National Library and Archives will continue to digitize archival collections and make them accessible on the digital archive.

 As we launch the new digital archive, we want to highlight the forty Mvskoke citizens and community members who have shared their experiences with Covid-19 and the pandemic. Visitors can listen to amazing stories of Mvskoke sharing experiences of hardship, grief, resilience, and survival during the Covid-19 pandemic. The oral histories can also be accessed at the library’s new Oral History Research Station. According to MCN Oral Historian Midge Dellinger, “The digital archive is a game changer in how Mvskoke people can now access library resources online. I hope people engage with the archives as learners and teachers; it belongs to all of us, and we all have much knowledge to share.”

The digital archive is available at mvskokenationallibraryarchive.org.

For more information, please call the Muscogee (Creek) Nation National Library and Archives at 918-732-7733.

Here is an offer that is difficult to beat: FREE. From an article by Zaid Jilani published in the newsnationnow web site:

Equipment used in the Memory Lab in Johnson County, Kansas. Photo courtesy of Johnson County Government

A network of libraries and nonprofit organizations are establishing “memory labs,” where patrons bring in photos, VHS tapes and other old media formats, learn at no cost how to digitize them, and then do it themselves to preserve their family histories and their memories.

Millions of Americans have stored their memories on older forms of media, which are difficult to pass on to future generations because they can’t easily be shared over the Internet. Sometimes this older media can degrade, too, making digital preservation even more valuable.

Yet, Americans are arguably more interested in genealogy than ever, and physical media are often the key to learning about what life was like for a distant ancestor. The multibillion-dollar genealogy industry has boomed in recent years as people seek to learn more about their family history. 

Private companies can help digitize these old films and photos. But they are both expensive and anxiety-provoking. For example, companies like Legacybox or Digmypics will charge between $30 and $50 to convert a few film reels. Plus, people have to send their one-of-a-kind memories through the mail (allying this concern is at the top of the FAQ at ScanCafe).

One of the memory labs is in Johnson County, Kansas. There, the local genealogical society teamed up with the county library system to offer free digitization services to the local community. 

When organizers opened up slots in early April, they were overwhelmed with demand.

“By 8:30 in the morning, all the slots for two months were filled up,” said Marsha Bennett, the vice president of education and outreach at the Johnson County Genealogical Society.

The memory lab has equipment including a flatbed scanner and a Wolverine Movie Maker, which looks like an old 8mm film projector that passes old film over scanner glass, converting it to digital videos. 

Residents who want to take advantage of the service are able to go online and reserve 2 1/2-hour blocks of time for free. When they arrive, a volunteer teaches them how to digitize their records and then they get the rest of the time to use the equipment. They’re asked to bring a USB drive or hard drive to do the transfer.

You can read the full article at: https://tinyurl.com/mnu43p9c.

What do I use and recommend for storing all my genealogy notes?

Two words: “multiple means.”

I certainly hope that MyHeritage, FamilySearch, Ancestry, Findmypast, Archive.org, and all the other websites will last forever and will keep my information online and visible to the public forever. However, in this ever-changing world of high technology, I doubt that will happen.

Instead of expecting other organizations to preserve my data for me, I make multiple backup copies of my own data and store the copies in multiple places. I have written about this often in this newsletter, so I won’t repeat everything here. Making my own copies gives me confidence that my information will remain available to me FOR AS LONG AS I LIVE.

There is a bigger, long-time issue however: How do I make sure the information is available to other family members after my demise? I don’t have a single, simple answer, but I can describe what I do: I make sure that as many of my relatives as possible have copies.

I doubt if all my relatives will care about our family tree. Some of them undoubtedly will throw the information away. What I am betting, however, is that quite a few of my relatives will keep the information and preserve it. I suspect one or two or maybe more relatives will even copy it and make everything publicly available on whatever technology replaces the World Wide Web in the future. They may simply copy what I supplied, or (hopefully) they will copy it to newer and better formats and even update and improve the information and the source citations I offered. Then at least a few of these relatives will pass the updated information on to other relatives at that time.

Proof

Earlier this week, I discovered an online family tree that seemed to include all of my family tree, including both my father’s and my mother’s families. It was amazing: there was all the same information I had spent years collecting. Somebody else had collected the same information and all of it seemed to agree with mine!

Then I noticed the name of the person who uploaded it to the genealogy web site: it is the name of my grandniece. Apparently, she obtained the printed information I had given her mother many years ago and laboriously re-entered everything by hand into some genealogy program. Her information did not include my newer discoveries found in recent years, but that is easily resolved if I send updates to her and to her mother as well.

When reading my grandniece’s uploaded data, I smiled. It is a great example of how sharing information with multiple relatives allows the information to be handed down to later generations.

Is this guaranteed to preserve my information forever? No! Nothing is ever guaranteed. But I suspect this idea of sharing everything with everybody will greatly increase the odds of preservation.