Saturday, July 31, 2010

YOU HAVE TO GET SNOOPY

I recently found this photo of my grandparents, Rosana Pinard (1877-1946) and Joseph Omer Lemire (1867-1950). They lived in Trois Rivieres, Quebec. I never knew them as they died before I was born.
The photo was found while I was snooping through my sister's big box of photos. She had a bunch of interesting ones in there and I think we were both surprised that this one was in there.
My point is that if you don't get snoopy you may miss out on some great finds. Ask your relatives if you can see their photos. They may not know what they have or they may not even care.
I borrowed several to copy and I made sure I gave them back to her the very next time I saw her...today. You may even have to use a camera to photograph the pictures instead of taking them out of someones home. Not many people would let you I am sure.

Sunday, July 4, 2010

BLOOD RESERVE CENSUS 1901

The Blood Reserve was Canada's largest reserve at one time. The Blood were also known as the Kainai. 
This census from 1901 shows names that would not necessarily be accurate. Were these names given by the people themselves or were they written by a census taker using his own criteria for naming? Many were very insulting and I didn't use a photo of those pages. This is why I question how the names were arrived upon. You can click on the picture to make it bigger.

Some of the names are:
  • Long Time Pipe Woman
  • Crop Ear Wolf
  • Taking Gun in Night
  • Bruised Head
These are not insulting at all but I assure you on subsequent pages there were many that were. I could be wrong but I don't think they referred to themselves in some of those derogatory terms.
There is a beautiful book by George Webber about this reserve called People of the Blood.

ORGANIZATION IS KEY


 I used to have lots of time to work on family trees. Since going back to work full time however things have obviously changed. When I found a little extra time this weekend I started going back through the emails I had saved into my family tree folder. 
Over the last several months (and some longer) I have saved emails from distant relatives who have contacted me and are sharing pictures and pedigrees with me. I would have had the time to add them into my tree but first I will have to check out the information for myself and find some sources for each and every person. This will take a lot of time. 
I really appreciate the generosity of these people (keep it coming) but I feel badly that I haven't updated things with these new found family members. 
How about you? Do you have stacks of data just waiting to be proved before you add it to your tree? Have you ever added stuff in without checking and then found it all to be incorrect? YES!!!! Have you sent information to someone and then noticed they never added it to their trees?