Monday, January 10, 2011

Eaton's Women's Club - Winnipeg Manitoba 1940 - Amanuensis Monday



For 2011, I've decided to participate in Amanuensis Monday at least once a month. This is a blogging theme created by John Newmark at Transylvanian Dutch and it's meant to encourage the transcription on-line of family letters, journals, audiotapes, etc. I'll be interpreting this quite liberally as I have a number of projects on the go.

Today in the interests of family research, I'm sharing a 1940 article about the Eaton's Women's Club that I've transcribed from Contacts, an employee newsletter published by the T. Eaton Company. This includes some photographs and a number of names of
women who worked for Eaton's including my mother who worked at the store in Winnipeg before she joined the Canadian Women's Army Corps. She had saved a few issues.

When I first read this newsletter, I was interested to see on the front page a piece about the opening of Eaton's in Vancouver BC, where I live. In 1940, my mother wouldn't have had any idea that she would end up living here and shopping in that store. (But by 1940, my mother had been to the coast here several times and she had liked it.)


I had known she was active in the Eaton's Women's Club but she had never said much about it. She did mention the curling club though. The Women's Club's activities are sometimes mentioned in Winnipeg newspapers, although I haven't found an article relating to this event. (In case you are wondering, yes, there was an Eaton's Men's Club too.)

Of course, I was happy to see my mum's photos and to read about the club's activities. However, I was specially excited to see that this newsletter piece was initialled by my mum, JMS = J. Muriel Scott.


Hazel Bailey to Head Eaton Women's Club
Marjoria Moore Tells of Family Bureau's Activities

The Eaton Women's Club sat down to a gleaming flower-decked table to partake of a tempting and delicious turkey dinner in the Grill Room on Thursday, January 18th .This was the annual general meeting and despite the number of reports presented the atmosphere of enthusiasm was not dulled.

We were thrilled to have Mrs. Reid of the D.A. office, sing several numbers for us. She was ably accompanied by Miss Goodman of the Music department.

Miss Marjoria Moore, Executive Director of the Family Bureau, was our guest speaker. She gave us a very interesting account of what the Bureau is and what it does. She said that while they had no authority behind them they were backed by the Federated Budget, the Winnipeg Foundation and the Junior League. For this reason they could only help those who came to them or called them. Their work comes mainly under two headings:

1. To Cure Social Illness. She said social illness knows no favorites. Their work lies in helping people to help themselves and to help us and others to help people find themselves.
2. Preventative Work. They make every effort to make home life stable and avoid breaking up homes.

We were particularly interested in Miss Moore's talk because it was through the Bureau that we were able to do some welfare work through our club at Christmas. We were thrilled to hear a little about the distribution of our stockings and to know that it was really “Santa Claus” in several homes.

The New Slate of Officers Brought in for 1940

Hon. President ....................Miss K. M. Kerr
President..............................Miss Hazel Bailey (40)
First Vice-President.............Miss Hazel Scarle (236)
Second Vice-President.........Miss Norma Douglas (1203)
Secretary..............................Miss Muriel Scott (291)
Treasurer..............................Miss Eva Stewart (Life Assurance)

Convenor of the Membership Committee—Miss Sarah Bragg (205). Members—Miss M. Wylie (7), Miss G. Lyons (1203), Miss J. Marshall (206), Mrs. M. Stacey (2).
Convenor of the Entertainment Committee—Miss Elsie Linley (221). Members—Miss M. Barber (147), Miss M. Hoffman (1203), Miss S. Lay (206), Miss I. Sutton (161).

The retiring president expressed her thanks to the 1939 executive for their loyalty and co-operation, and particularly to Miss Kerr for her untiring effort and enthusiasm. Miss Kerr then voiced the sentiments of the members when she thanked Miss Morrison for all the work she had done in her quiet way during the two years she acted as president of our club.

We would like to express our thanks to Mr. Elders and his staff for the exceptionally fine dinner and service.
—J. M. S.

Photograph descriptions:

1. Left to right—Misses Muriel Scott, K. M. Kerr, Lillian Morrison, past president; Marjoria L. Moore, guest speaker; Ida Bailey.
2. Left to right—Misses Mary Otto, Eleanor Harvey, Jean Marshall, Helen Goodman, Mrs. Reid.
3. Muriel Scott takes over the secretaryship.
4. Misses K.M. Kerr, honorary president; Lillian Morrison, retiring president.
5. The new president, Miss Hazel Bailey (40).
6. Retiring president Lillian Morrison calls for suggestions to further 1940 activities.
7. Misses Margaret Kirkpatrick, Gladys Ham, Irene Sutton.
8. Wouldn't it be great if all vice-presidents had a smile like this! Miss Hazel Searle (236) first vice president.
9. Too bad the girls didn't turn round so we could see their faces, but in the back row, left to right facing camera, can be seen Misses Margaret Bowering, Sarah Bragg, Bessie Lucas. In the foreground, left to right, are the Misses Sigurdson, Thornton, Amison, Beavis.
10. Also smiling at you is Mabel Barber, entertainment.

The numbers after some names are for the departments the women worked in.


From Contacts, Published weekly by The T. Eaton Co. Limited of Winnipeg, Manitoba. For distribution to the Co-workers of the Organization. Monday 29 January, 1940. Vol 11, No. 5, page 4.

Eaton's was a major department store in Canada from the 1880s to 1999 when the company went bankrupt. CBC Archives has more about its history, Eaton's, A Canadian Institution. Sears Canada bought the Eaton's assets and the Archives of Ontario now has some of the company's archival records ( T. Eaton Co. Fonds F-229). Some of the records relating to employees are restricted however. See the Fonds description for the full note on restrictions. There are other records at the Archives of Ontario relating to Eaton's as well.

Thursday, January 06, 2011

2011 Predictions for the Genealogy Industry

Posted by CanadaGenealogy's special guest, Wilhemina Catrina McQueen.

Genea Dixon at GeneaBloggers posted a long list of predictions for 2011. A few look very similar to things that happened (or were rumoured to have happened) in 2010 – eerie, eh?

Anyway, the amazing Thomas MacEntee then proposed this as a topic for Open Thread Thursday.

So CanadaGenealogy has conjured up the famous and somewhat opinionated Canadian psychic, Wilhemina Catrina McQueen, who has agreed to give just a few predictions of her own for 2011.

Her predictions seem a bit tongue in cheek (or wishful thinking?), but no disrespect is meant to any organizations, companies or bloggers or politicians, living or dead, and, no betting is allowed!

First off, some background predictions:

  1. Canadians will continue to be concerned about their own personal economies despite encouraging words from the Bank of Canada, etc. etc. This will affect at least some of the decisions Canadians make about their own genealogy research and their projects in 2011.
    Subscriptions to the more expensive databases and long distance travel may be replaced with trips to local genealogical libraries, archives and Family History Centers. Access to these will be enhanced by better hours and better on-line catalogues and ordering systems for films, etc. encouraging a significant number of genealogists to take advantage of these free or low cost facilities.
    FamilySearch, after a few fits and starts, will return to its former premier place in on-line genealogy.
    In turn, a small, but significant percentage of genealogists will volunteer at facilities near their home, or on-line, if opportunities are readily available.

  2. Immigration patterns to Canada have changed greatly over the last 144+ years. Immigrants are more likely now to be well educated, to settle in urban areas, to be from Asian countries, and, if of wage earning age, perhaps to be younger than in previous decades.

    These and other recent changes in Canada's demography may mean genealogical societies will be expected to widen their perspectives and to sharpen their genealogical skills and tools to assist newer Canadians to research more current Canadian records and records overseas.

    Ancestry will advertise its digitised Chinese jiapu collection widely in Canada in both English and Chinese and will propose other Asian record source projects late in 2011.

  3. Young Canadian families have apparently almost wholeheartedly taken to the Internet and to mobile phones to keep connected (according to an Ipsos Reid poll for Telus in 2009). Some 75% of women have Facebook accounts (61% for men) while in British Columbia, Canada, 65% of women used social networking sites to keep in touch with family (no matter what Canada's Privacy Commissioner thinks). A more recent survey in 2010 found Canadian women were among the most likely in the world to share their children's lives on-line, starting with sonograms before birth.

    In 2011 familiarity with social networking sites and with mobile phones will be expected by young and old Canadians in any group or organization they commit to.

  4. Canadians are crazy for Canada – no matter who they are and no matter what complaints they have about this and that. Witness all those official and un-official red mittens last February and March and ever since! These will continue to be seen at outdoor genealogy events in Canada when it's at all chilly.

    And by summer 2011, most Canadian genealogists will have caught a Canadian history fever – some will be cramming for the War of 1812 anniversary or the 95th anniversary of Vimy Ridge in 2012, others will be preparing for Canada's 150th anniversary in 2017.

And some Technological Predictions:

    1. Copyright,and digital rights, especially to do with digisation, will continue to be a thorny issue in Canada in 2011.

      A decision about the Google Book Settlement case will leave some genealogists unhappy – depending on whether they are authors, publishers, Canadian readers or Google share owners.

      Faced with unhappy genealogists when a commercial database listing Canadian voters from 1935 to the 1980s is released, Library and Archives Canada (LAC) will post copies of its agreements with all commercial and non-profit groups and individuals.
      A 1916 Prairie Census index will be made available free on-line at LAC, but not till late in 2011.
      And public consultations and the Services Advisory Board will be revived. Genealogists from across Canada, as the major users of LAC, will be proportionately the largest group involved.

    2. (This one is for Diane R – WCMcQ)

      Real books will NOT die in 2011 or anytime thereafter.

      But as Canadian universities and school move more and more into e-books and open access publications to avoid Access Copyright fees, the use and acceptance of e-book formats for manuals, guides, current newsletters, and for airplane reading while on research trips will increase exponentially as will digital archivists' headaches. (Does loving paper books make Diane R a bookie? Oops, no, that would be to do with betting.)

    3. As Canadian universities and governments move towards using and developing more open source software, so will home and other users test it out. One USian genealogist will move straight from using ancient transparencies to using Open Office's Impress.

    4. The price of projectors, tablets and digital frames will continue to drop. These will become a popular means of displaying photographs temporarily to family just before or after the December holidays in 2011.

    5. As CanadaGenealogy predicted long ago, mobile phones will become increasingly more and more useful to genealogists who will be looking first for reliable basic information on current genealogical events and activities (genealogical societies and speakers, take note) and for better and better programmes for their family files, but soon, the cry will be for 'more apps, please. More apps!'
      And, by the close of 2011, only a tiny percentage of Canadians (none under 25) will remember PDAs, once the 'bee's knees' of portable devices, and Canadians will still be divided about the usefulness of netbooks versus tablets.

    6. A significant proportion of Canadian scrapbookers who travel less in 2011, will also decide to spend less on embellishments and will happily turn to family history to fill their pages. Genealogical societies and on-line genealogy communities should both take note.

    7. Genealogists will continue to embrace on-line and off-line opportunities for learning whether in formal courses, netcasts or seminars and the like. Since many newer genealogists will be working and juggling young families, or working part-time to pad their pensions, the intensive short term and non-credit courses at the National Institute for Genealogical Studies will be very successful. And several well known Canadian geneabloggers will offer classes in community educational facilities. Genealogical societies take note.

    8. Genealogical DNA test prices will be lower again by the end of 2011, but the value of DNA testing, including autosomal DNA, will continue to be debated by many until the price is greatly reduced (under $50US) and the raw results available to individuals, and there are free comparative databases on-line open to all. Then genealogists will make the leap to have themselves and any appropriate (and willing) relatives tested and their results compared with others. This is unlikely to happen in 2011.


    9. Geneablogging, geneabloggers and the GeneaBloggers site will thrive in 2011. Although a few, of course, will see ups and downs, the geneablogger community will continue to support its members as always. Thousands of ancestors will be found, cited and filed; thousands of photographs and documents will be scanned, cited and filed, and with a few small exceptions, all the genealogy research/writing plans made and posted for 2011 will be fulfilled.

All the best for 2011,

WCMcQ


Saturday, January 01, 2011

My genealogy research/writing plan for 2011 - Carnival of Genealogy #101

Carnival of Genealogy #101. Carnival Poster by the always amazing FootnoteMaven.


The topic for the 101st edition of the Carnival of Genealogy hosted by Carnival Founder and Host Jasia at Creative Gene is:
My genealogy research/writing plan for 2011
.

As I mentioned in my post about my New Year's Genea-Resolutions 2011, I have one important-to-me writing project I want to finish in 2011. (Well, really two, but the other is an on-going one.)

First project:

On my research shelf already bundled together is material, mainly from newspapers and government reports, relating to a family death in the 1920s, along with some books for background information. I did have a plan for this project, however, as there was no deadline, I've never written much of this up. (I'm usually very good with deadlines!)

* This year, I'll make finishing this research project and writing it up with my conclusions a goal.

Again this year, I'm setting aside some 'Anti Procrastination' personal time once a month for genealogy. Last year, this was usually a Thursday evening once a month, but this project still needs some more research time at local and provincial archives, so I will set aside one day a month when I will devote a set number of hours to it, depending on what I need to do.

I need one day at least to review this material, go over my notes and write up an outline.

Then I feel I will need about 2-4 days more in local archives in Vancouver and Victoria, and as a bonus, I'd like at least 4-5 days reading more newspapers from the period. I may be able to fit this in around doing lookups, etc. (I love old newspapers. This will keep me enthusiastic, I'm sure.)

Depending on what new information I turn up at the archives or in the papers, I may need to review other sources again. And as I go I need to review my notes and my outline continually.

Then I need to set aside the time to review and write! I found it helpful last year to take myself and my research notes off to a genealogical library to do this. Likely I will do this again - fewer distractions. Depending on how the writing goes, I may need more than one day per month for this, but I will schedule my time for it.

Second Project:

I've been very slowly scanning or photographing my treasures, and writing up a story about each one. I mentioned this recently in a comment on Jasia's post at her blog, Creative Gene, about downsizing. I feel my children are unlikely to keep all these bits and pieces, but they would (I hope) keep a book or binder with my stories. (Reading the stories might even get them to keep a few treasures. Who knows?)

Sometimes I've been sharing family treasures on my blog but this is another personal genealogical project without a deadline, so I've decided to make myself one.

* I'll do one Family Treasure writeup by the end of each month in 2011.

That way I will feel I'm getting somewhere with this project, and I'll even have something to show for it.

And a really personal Third Project:

Last year I typed up some of my maternal grandfather's diary notes - mostly they were about the weather and crops, or visitors. How I wish I had them all, and that the rest of the family had done the same. I once kept journals, but haven't done so for years.

Then I noticed that Kevin Savetz, of FreePrintable.net has a 10 year journal with 4 lines for each day. Seems a very nice idea, and very doable, which is important to me now. (And there's a free version if you want to write by hand, or for $4.US a version which you can type in on your computer.)

* So for 2011, I'll do a brief journal entry every day - by hand as I hope someone else may want to read them someday and even if they have to work at it, they'll likely appreciate that it's my handwriting. And I'm printing pages out on archival paper.

Likely it will get to be a habit again. (Thanks, Kevin.)





Genea-Resolutions 2011

Resolve - a poem by Charlotte Perkins Stetson (also known as Charlotte Perkins Gilman).
Postcard, unused. Private collection. Her 1898 book,Women and Economics: A Study of the Economic Relation Between Men and Women as a Factor in Social Evolution, republished in the 1960s, was the first feminist text I ever read. Although I didn't agree with her entirely, it's one of the books I consider shaped my life.


It's a New Year again - 2011, already!

Time to write out the New Year's Genealogical Resolutions and to begin make monthly and weekly plans to follow them up.

Last year, my personal genealogical goals in brief were:

1. to finish scanning my photos
2. to have local research plans ready for each month, and for long distance trips
3. to continue blogging, and host one Carnival, if possible
4. to get Newdale, Manitoba information on-line
5. to continue working on organization and energy saving

Although I didn't do as well as I hoped - 2010 turned out to be a very busy year for me - I certainly kept going with these goals all year, and I expect to continue with these in 2011. And I met new friends and new-to-me cousins on-line - that's always rewarding.

Someday, I will finish the photograph scanning, identifying and tagging and I do now have a Newdale website up. I got in a very respectable amount of research time in at local archives and libraries, although I wasn't able to get to Ontario last year as I had planned.

One of the best things I did for myself last year after I reviewed my progress in the summer was to institute an 'Anti-Procrastination Evening' once a month in the fall. I took myself to a genealogical library and worked on one particular personal writing project for a number of hours at a stretch. That's finished thanks to that dedicated work time, and I intend to do the same this year with another project, although I'll start earlier this year. (I'll write a bit more about this later.)

Organization must surely be almost every genealogist's (and historian's) bugbear. I did make filing a priority last year, but when we tidied up for holiday visitors, the number of boxes that ended up in my Library made me realize how much there is still.

Several boxes are full of magazines. I find it hard to give them up, but this year I'll make certain to pass most on to new readers. (I already have a group in mind to give them to.)

Then there are two boxes of papers I was pretty sure must be duplicates and should be disposed of. Checking and removing those I will make a priority early in the new year when I'm still energised!

Backing up my computer data is something I try to take seriously. Wednesday each week is still my backup day and in 2010 I began using Carbonite on two of my computers as an on-line 'cloud' backup. Although my idea of organizing the computers last year was to put personal genealogical and other info on one, and 'work' on the other, this didn't always pan out. So in 2011, I will work on synchronizing my computers instead, perhaps using Dropbox. I'll be looking at alternatives for this in January.

I attended a number of genealogical and historical events last year, and am looking forward to doing that this year. Being with like-minded people always promotes enthusiasm and ideas. And I'll be participating and hosting Carnivals again this year. That's always fun.