WATCH OUT MCDONALDS

Did you ever have an Auntie Mame? You know what I mean. The wild, madcap Aunt. The fun Aunt. 
I did. 
My darling Aunt Gertie. I hadn't seen her in many, many years but it seems like just last week she had me laughing my head off. 
She would make you put on wigs and act silly. She would drive like a maniac down the highway yelling at the top of her lungs "Watch out McDonalds" (taken from an old tv commercial) 
She would dress in the most....interesting ways and we always wondered what she would have on when she was coming over. 
Her sense of humour was quick and saucy. I can't even repeat here some of the stuff she said on here but I will tell those stories for years to come. 

So with a sad heart I say goodbye to my mother's sister more commonly known with love in our family as Dirty Gertie...rest in peace Widow Brown. 
Gertrude Champagne - March 24, 1928 to December 24, 2011  

THANKSGIVING WISHES FROM CANADA

A LIFELONG CAREER–VIC LEMIRE

My brother has been involved in hockey his whole life. He was a goaltender and has played for a couple of US universities as well as one here in Canada. He played on the Brandon Wheat Kings team and also for the Vancouver Junior Canucks team.

After leaving university he began running his own very successful hockey schools around the world even running them in Japan, Minnesota, & Florida.

He had a couple ground breaking creations he made for his hockey schools, using his background in mechanical engineering.

Here is a newspaper article about his reflex tunnel to measure the abilities and weak points of his goaltending students. They could improve their reaction times without fear of being hit by a real puck. Brilliant. Remember this was before computers were available to regular people.

You can click on the picture to read the article in a larger size.

How about you? Do you have any inventors in your family?

WE NEED YOUR VOTE

I need you to help out a local charity and it will cost you nothing but a few minutes of your time to vote online. 

This is one post I would like to see go viral amongst bloggers. I would love it if you would share it. If you do share it ask your readers to share it too. You can tweet it or Facebook it right from the web page. Please. Share. It costs nothing.
In the Vancouver East side there is a lot of poverty. Without getting into politics or discussions of parental responsibilities lets try to help this School win a large grant. How do you do that? Simply vote for their project to win. You do this online by signing in with an email address and then searching out their project by number. 11733…. you can vote for them everyday for 15 days straight. If they make it on to the next round we will hope for your support again.
Here is a link to their page http://www.avivacommunityfund.org/ideas/acf11733 
Here is a bit of their information taken from the voting site:
“Admiral Seymour Elementary School is located in Vancouver's Downtown East Side and is one of our city's needy inner city schools. Seymour's population is made up of 133 students enrolled in 7 divisions, including a district class for students with special needs. (Learning Disabilities + Behaviour Disorders) The demographics of our learning community are diverse; over 70% of our students speak another language at home other than English, which amounts to 42% of our population qualifying to receive ESL support, 32% of our students are aboriginal, and 25% of our students have been identified with having special learning challenges such as learning disabilities, behavioral challenges, medical diagnosis etc. Many of our students do not have designations that warrant ministry funding for support from counselors, art therapists or expressive art therapists. However, they are our most vulnerable children. The ones who are perpetually filled with sadness and anxiety. These are the children who seem to be falling through the cracks.”
I know how kind and generous all of you are. Please take a moment to vote for this project and remember to vote each day for 15 days or up to the cut off date. Please…….thank you.

DOMAIN NAME SCAM

I received a letter in the mail today from the Domain Registry of Canada,  advising me that my registration for familytreesmaycontainnuts.com will expire in February, 2012.
My domain names are not registered with this company. I use another company. I have no idea how they got my home address.
I did a search right away on this company and came across a good post at Six Pixels of Separation. I suggest you have a look at the post and make any decisions you have on the direct marketing scam for yourself with your own research.
The letter doesn’t say I am registered with Domain Registry of Canada it says this:
You must renew your domain name to retain exclusive rights to it on the Web, (Lori here: yes of course we do), and now is the time to transfer and renew your name from your current Registrar to the Domain Registry of Canada. Failure to renew your domain name by the expiration date may result in a loss of your online identity making it difficult for your customer and friends to located you on the Web. (Me again:well yes it will…but the expiration date is between me and Go Daddy and not this company)
Spread the word people. this company likely has a US version as well. This is a scam from Domain Registry of Canada. Scam, SCAM, can you say SCAM!!!!
And thanks again to Six Pixels of Separation for the information.

ZEPHIRIN CHAMPAGNE

My grandfather, Zephirin Champagne, Metis. I find this to be such an odd photo and I don’t know why.

It would have been taken in Manitoba most likely but they did spend time in North Dakota.

HOW WOULD YOU SOURCE THIS?

I have this newspaper clipping for my Grandmother’s obituary. I don’t know where it came from although I would imagine it was from Windsor, Ontario where she lived and died.

So how would you experienced genealogists site this source? I can say it is a newspaper clipping but what else?

Octavie Carriere Champagne was widowed 14 years before she died.

Here she is with her eldest daughter, Denise. Denise went on to marry Pierre Lavoie but they had no children. Denise was widowed in middle age and never remarried.

OUT OF THE BLUE

I came home from work yesterday to an email from a young woman asking for the password to access my online family tree.
I am always cautious with these requests as I don't want the tree thieves to swoop in and copy the tree in order to sell the information via CDs. I love to share the tree with family members though, no matter how far removed from my actual line.
Turns out her father is actually my first cousin. I have tried a few times through the years to locate him or his brother. All I knew was their names and where they lived as children. I had a copy of a newspaper clipping of a photograph of them with their father, my uncle, at a parade many years ago.
I have my email address out there in so many places and I am so glad I do. I have kept the same email address for years.
Have you ever tried to contact someone online only to find out that their email address is no longer in use.
Have you changed your email address? Did you update the message boards out there with your new one? What a shame it would have been had my email address been incorrect. This person would not have been able to contact me.
So go and check out what email address you have out there. You may be missing out on contact with a family member. 

RED RIVER SETTLEMENT MAP

 click on map to enlarge

This map of the Red River Settlement in Manitoba is from the Metis Resource Centre http://www.metisresourcecentre.mb.ca/ Most of my mother's family lived in the St. Boniface sections with some also in St. Norbert and St. Vital.