Dissecting Ancestry : an Upcoming Presentation

Over the last year, I have worked off and on preparing a talk about Ancestry. Originally, I was going to give the talk in Meaford in December, 2014. Well, in November it snowed heavily and between the organizers and me, it was decided to give the talk in the spring because we, or perhaps, it was I, was worried the snow would hang around and travelling might be poor on the day of the talk. On the chosen spring date, the weather cooperated; it was great travelling weather for attendees and the speaker.

 When I was first working on my presentation, Ancestry was in the midst of making changes to the search page. So I decided I would let those changes happen and I would update what I had prepared closer to the talk. I did that. I gave the talk to an interested group of mainly people who were wondering how best to use it.

Anyone, who gives genealogical talks on any subject, realizes a talk takes quite a bit of time to prepare. It is therefore wonderful when you can give the talk more than once. You also realize you will want to update your talk before you give it again. It is a chance to make improvements.

Now, I am giving the presentation again. Once again, Ancestry is making more changes. So, I need to add information on the changes to the navigation tools within the document. Although, I use Ancestry.ca (world edition) regularly, I keep learning more about it. I hope the attendees will learn something new during the talk, too.

Bruce Grey Branch of the Ontario Genealogical Society - September 22, 2015 at Family History Library, Owen Sound at 7:30 p.m. All are welcome to attend.



© 2015 Janet Iles

Do you have a Canadian Doctor on your Family Tree?

I have been working on my Johnston family tree to send to a cousin. It will not be a polished work as there is so much to do to get all the necessary citations. Lots of derrivative sources that need to be verified but I don't want to wait until I get that done to share the information. I am sending only the first four generations. As I am going through, I can't help myself from trying to get as many births, marriages and deaths entered that I can easily find on Ancestry. I also found some citations that need to be cleaned up from when they were originally entered into my software.

Okay - now the topic at hand - A Canadian Doctor -

Ralph Ernest Johnston b. 4 January 1887 in Sandfield Township, Manitoulin Island, Ontario, d. 1 November 1958, occupation teacher / Doctor. On 17 April 1916, Ralph enlisted. He was living at 808 3rd Avenue West in Calgary. In 1928, Ralph was living in Edson, Alberta. He lived in Winnipeg, Manitoba. They had two children.


Ralph Ernest Johnston is my first cousin, twice removed on my mother's side. I knew very little about him before I began my research. My mother knew that he had gone west and my aunt told me, he had become a doctor. In his sister, Eleanor's obituary, he is listed as being in Edson, Alberta. His attestation papers say he was living in Calgary and that he was a teacher.


As I was cleaning up the information, I decided to follow through on a reference I had noted.

 Johnston   Ralph E.   CMAJ   1958   volume 79  page 1026 reference from obituary database for doctors

Canadian Health Obituaries Index File http://osler.library.mcgill.ca/cfstand/

Fortunately, I discovered this weekend that the issues are online for the time period I am interested in.
http://www.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/pmc/journals/188/  I couldn't find it on page 1026 as listed but it turned out that the obituaries continued on the next page in the issue that I wanted.

DR. RALPH E. JOHNSTON, 71, died on November 1. [1958] He was born in Ontario and went to Edmonton, Alta., in 1912. He graduated from the University of Alberta in 1924, later graduating in medicine from McGill University, Montreal. He served overseas with the 49th Battalion during the First Great War, returning to Edmonton in 1919. He began to practise in Sangudo, Alta., in 1925. Dr. Johnston is survived by his widow and two daughters.

This was found at the Archives Canadian Medical Association Journal. By looking at the appropriate issue, I located his obituary.

If you are searching for an obituary for a Canadian doctor, check out the index. You may be as lucky as I was to find some more information on my cousin.

© 2011 Janet Iles

Olive Tree Genealogy Blog: Ontario Canada Voter's Lists 1867-1900 ONLINE

Olive Tree Genealogy Blog: Ontario Canada Voter's Lists 1867-1900 ONLINE

I discovered this blog article this morning concerning the addition of the Ontario Canada Voter's Lists to Ancestry.com.

I am not seeing this database yet on Ancestry.ca but I can search it through the link provided to Ancestry.com with my Ancestry.ca subscription.

I am not sure yet if there are more voter's lists to be added to the collection. There are no lists for Manitoulin Island townships and only Osprey Township within the County of Grey is listed.

For Markham Township, there are none for the early years listed for the database. The first I find the family is in 1896 and the family had been in the Township since 1794.

This new database is great. I hope there are more townships and years to come.

When I have more time, I will do the necessary searches and make note of the information provided.