Z - Zed is for Time Zones - Blogging from A to Z April 2020 Challenge!

Today Z - Zed is for Time Zones

  Blogging about British Columbia Genealogy Resources

Standard Time map for Canada, National Research Council Canada. In British Columbia (and the Yukon), Daylight Saving Time mostly begins the second Sunday in March at 02:00 PST and ends the first Sunday in November, 02:00 PDT. Spring ahead; fall back - one hour. 

Except where time doesn't change or join the majority! If you follow the BC/Alberta border on the winter map and watch the colours, you will see where it's always summer time in BC - Charlie Lake, Chetwynd, Dawson Creek, Fort Nelson, Fort St. John, Hudson's Hope, Taylor and Tumbler Ridge: all Mountain Standard Time, never Daylight Saving. Then there's Cranbrook, Fernie, Golden, Invermere, and Sparwood: all Mountain Time but with Daylight Saving. Except for Creston: Mountain Standard Time, no Daylight Saving. Got it? 

This used to seem more important in the days not too long ago when a long distance call to family or friends was a treat, but you didn't want to wake people up. Now we text; we e-mail - conversations often have time gaps, no problem. 

But right now, this year, many of us are video chatting and attending online meetings and genealogy talks all across the world. As I was musing yesterday, time zones suddenly matter. Here's BC in Canada above; follow this link to a world map like I wanted for my fridge. Click on a country's link to learn about its time quirks.

Some families may have stories about time changes - funny or not, depending on if you missed a train or flight by not paying attention. 

I remember the first time I went to Ottawa - all by myself - on a plane. My mother, who I thought was sometimes a fussbudget, impressed on me that I must call her as soon as I got there to let them know I had safely arrived. And, good girl that I was, I went right to a pay phone, put all my change in and called her. Only to hear her say, "Diane, it's 1 am!!" Oh, well! Whose fault was that? I never forgot and I don't think she did either. 

The Honourable Donald A. Smith driving the last spike to complete the Canadian Pacific Railway. 7 Nov. 1885, B.C. B&W albumen print; Photographer: Alexander Ross, Best & Co., Winnipeg. Credit: Alexander Ross / Library and Archives Canada / C-003693.

Here's Sandford Fleming in his big beard and top hat watching the driving of the last spike on the Canadian Pacific Railway at Craigellachie, British Columbia, 7 November 1885, at 9:22. ¹ We owe our time zones to him. A Scottish emigrant to Canada, he was a renaissance man able and interested in many things, He had surveyed the CPR route through the Rockies and now was a CPR director.

He called his world time concept 'Cosmic Time', using Greenwich Time, a 24 hour clock, and allowing for local time zones. In an paper to the Smithsonian Museum in 1886, he wrote 

"At midsummer, 1886, the Canadian Pacific Railway was opened from the Atlantic to the Pacific [Port Moody, BC] and the 24-hour system went into force in "running" through trains. The example set by the railway has been followed in the towns and villages along the lines, and the inhabitants generally having experienced the advantages of the change, no desire is expressed in any quarter to return to the old usage." 

A little optimistic, he was. Train schedules might be in the 24-hour clock but few likely used it in in ordinary (non railway/non military) life. Fleming goes on to include a footnote ² reporting how easily an extra dial, even a paper one, can be added to a watch to show the 24 hour clock in Arabic and Roman numerals. I bet he'd done that. I wonder if there's a watch of his in a collection somewhere?

Other transportation systems didn't use the 24-hour system and, for that reason, and others, many times the 'Daylight Saving' question has come up. It was first imposed nationally in Canada during WW I and again provincially during WW II although so many objected it was lifted within a few months. The intention was supposed to save fuel and give more daylight hours for work, for example, at WW II shipyards, and time for recreation, including gardening. Many, especially in rural areas, have always opposed 'changing the clocks'.

In 1920, in Chilliwack, for example, a farmer interviewed had this to say about keeping Daylight Saving:

FARMER TALKS DAYLIGHT SAVINGS

Interviewed by a Coast newspaper representative upon the daylight saving question, Mr. A. Mercer is quoted as saying: “In 1918, the excuse for daylight saving was ‘gasoline’,  in 1919, the excuse was ‘war gardens’, and this year it is ‘lawn bowling’. ³

 Both the City of Chilliwack and the District of Chilliwhack had agreed to ask the British Columbia Electric Railway (BCER) to go on Standard Time, "normal time" as daylight saving schedules caused hardships for milk shippers and others. The Surrey Board of Trade had forwarded a resolution opposing the switch to Daylight Saving Time, pointing out the "dislocation" to business, farmers and others, including school children who might have to leave school early to catch the train.  The Chilliwack Retail Merchants Association, however, supported Daylight Saving. ⁴

At the 1920 BC Dairymen's Association Convention in Vancouver, no one spoke up for Daylight Saving. As one Washington breeder said,

...the farmers of the U.S. found the cows would not work with the new clock, that the dew appeared on the old schedule and the children would not go to bed with the new time. 

The BC Minister of Agriculture said it unlikely any such legislation would be heard at the coming session. ⁵

It wasn't till 1952 that a provincial plebiscite approved Daylight Saving for British Columbia, but rural areas were still against it.

REFERENCES

1. An article about this event and the photograph is on Canadian Pacific Railway Set-off Siding. 

2."Time Reckoning for the Twentieth Century", Annual report of the Board of Regents of the Smithsonian Institution, 1886, Washington [DC], 1889,  pages 345-366. "At midsummer...." quotation and dial footnotes, page 355.

3.  The Chilliwack Progress, Chilliwack, BC, 25 Mar 1920, Thursday, p. 1.

4. The Chilliwack Progress, Chilliwack, BC, 10 June 1920, page 1.

5. The Chilliwack Progress, Chilliwack, BC, 29 January 1920, page 7.

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Y is for Year? - Blogging from A to Z April 2020 Challenge!

Today Y is for The Year

  Blogging about British Columbia Genealogy Resources

©1905, J. S. Ogilvie Pub. Co. Unused comic postcard. Personal collection.

Well, Y was a hard one! I had planned to do the Yukon Territory but after the CO-VID 19 shutdown I decided that was a no go. I swapped out a number of the planned topics and resources for this A-Zed series. I'll get back to them - later. 

Talking about the Yukon always seems a pretty natural thing here even in southern BC. British Columbia and the Yukon have always had family, commercial and economic ties (as does Seattle, Washington State.) Of course, most of us think Gold! when they hear someone went there. Only a few made it big; some miners and entrepreneurs stayed; some returned home; some settled in parts of BC or in Alaska.

In fact, in the 1930s, it looked as if the Yukon would become part of British Columbia. That never happened. There certainly were political issues involved there but likely economics played a role. Then came WW II and both the Yukon Territory and British Columbia benefited from the construction of the Alaska Highway.

If you do want to learn more about the Yukon, I'm recommending some books and websites below. I hope you are able to get these through your library digitally now, otherwise make a date to read them in better times. I read them in my usual haphazard order, but - see the footnote - last winter I went back and read them this way.¹

Now about Y is for The Year. 

The United Nations designated 2020 as: International Year of Plant Health. I'm afraid that's mostly been forgotten now but the other designation for 2020 by the World Health Organization is: International Year of the Nurse and the Midwife. 

I hope that after 2020 is over, we'll be appreciating still the medical people, including nurses and midwives, who've been working even harder during this pandemic. Thank you all!

And I wonder how we will remember this. People will have different experiences, of course, but there should be common threads. I'm not keeping a journal unless you count my daily chats with the dear daughter. But I know many people, including genealogists, are.

Where I live in Greater Vancouver, BC, will we remember the jokes, the 7 pm noise making (including the 9 o'clock gun) to celebrate health care workers, the fruitless trips to the grocery store, the Zoom video chats and meetings. Or will we remember the individuals and companies and organizations that have stepped up to offer help to others, or in genealogy and education, good things for us to do and learn. Or all of it?

And what will we call it? The year of ... the Pandemic or Isolation or the year I got so much genealogy done!

Hard to say, isn't it? Something to think about while we are still in it.

Genealogically, so far I've mostly been blogging for the A-Z April 2020 Challenge and cleaning out and reorganizing my hard drives. Now that the Challenge is almost over, I was wondering what I'll do next.

When this year started, I had plans to revise some of my handouts and resources - most of that is done. And to produce 3 new ones for spring events. The events are all cancelled but I did work up the background resources, handouts and most of the slides.  (I want to present right up to date info so I always have a few last minute slides.)

Along with that, I've made a list of the other projects I'd like to finish this year - I do usually have a lot of small projects to work on. That keeps me sharper, I think. So I've picked two of those to have completed by June. Along with that, I'll still be working on those hard drives.

And I'm taking advantage of some of the many great learning opportunities in genealogy these days. Today I attended a Findmypast session with Jan Baldwin on North American records; Friday, I'm attending the Scottish Indexes conference. Do check Conference Keeper and the Genealogy Calendar if you have spare time.

If you have Scottish families, you need to attend the Scottish Indexes conference too. I was at the first one - very good presentations and a nice variety of topics. And well organized. Each session is presented twice so that attendees can better fit the conference into their own time zones.

I've been saying I need a time zone map to put on the fridge with my calendar. (Yes, I still do have a paper one although I mostly use one online now.)  Webinars, meetings, conferences - everything's a different time zone. But I realized this morning that I can set several time zones up on my phone so I'm trying that out.

What about you? How are you doing? Relaxing? Reading? Baking? Indexing?

I do know that 2021 is already designated by the United Nations as the International Year of Peace and Trust! I'm certainly willing to do my bit with that one.

"Sour Doughs" on the trail.; Dawson, Y.T.; Landahl's Emporium Dawson. No date; unmailed. Image MSC130-13843, courtesy Philip Francis Postcard Collection, Simon Fraser University Library.

REFERENCES - for Yukon history and genealogy

Prelude to Bonanza: The Discovery and Exploration of the Yukon by Allen A. Wright, 1976.

The Nature of Gold: An Environmental History of the Klondike Gold Rush by Kathryn Morse, 2003.

Reading Voices: Dan Dha Ts’edenintth’e by Julie Cruikshank, 1991.

Life Lived Like a Story: Life Stories of Three Yukon Native Elders by Julie Cruikshank, 1990. 

Do Glaciers Listen? Local Knowledge, Colonial Encounters and Social Imagination, by Julie Cruikshank, 2005.

The Yukon Archives has a guide online, Genealogical Research at the Yukon Archives (.pdf).

There is a 'one-stop' Yukon Genealogy search site (although it didn't seem to be working lately). That includes names from the Yukon Archives and the Dawson Museum.  Right now you can search the Archives catalogue online and/or you can search and view many of the wonderful photographs in the Dawson Museum's collections. Here is a link to one of people on the boardwalk,
"Dominion Day, Bonanza YT, 1902".

Don't neglect the newspapers in Yukon, BC, Alaska and Washington State, for starters. I noticed a funny one while working on my W is for Winners. A bride to be from the Yukon, but born in Vancouver, BC, Nellie Earsman, was given a shower by her friends and aunt which featured a 'Klondike Pie' full of gifts. I think of a Klondike pie as a hearty, cheap 'stew' featuring mostly easy to store vegetables (some meat, carrots, lots of potatoes - lots!) all in a big pan. I wondered - for the shower did they use a gold pan? Or maybe a wash tub? Minus the veggies and meat, I'm sure. (And I wondered if her friends were from the Yukon too - surnames included Carmack, Black, Mowat... The Vancouver Sun, Friday, 4 June 1937, page 10. She married William Murray Taylor.)

Planning a trip to the Yukon? Don't miss any of the museums, like the Yukon Transportation Museum, MacBride Museum on the Copperbelt and the Yukon Beringia Interpretive Centre, and many more. Check the Yukon Museum Guide website which includes cultural and interpretive centres.  And try the Six Degrees of Beringia challenge right now. (There are publications there to download and read free too.)

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X is for X-ray - Blogging from A to Z April 2020 Challenge!

Today X is for X-ray Machine in Quesnel

  Blogging about British Columbia Genealogy Resources

The Cariboo Observer, Quesnel, BC, Saturday 27 December 1924, page 2.

In 1924 and '25, people in Quesnel were raising money to buy an x-ray machine for their hospital. The Quesnel newspaper, The Cariboo Observer, mentioned the X-Ray Fund in every issue and published the names of donors (and the amounts donated).

At that time, the hospital was run by the Quesnel Hospital Association. The government of BC was in favour of a "contributory health insurance scheme" ¹ to fund hospitals and other care, but nothing had changed yet.  As the Observer pointed out, the Hospital Association membership was $1. a year, if a citizen wanted a say in the hospital's affairs. Of course, there was also a Women's Auxiliary. 

Buying an X-ray machine was certainly a modern undertaking, but citizens must have been thinking about health issues beyond Quesnel which could affect them too.  Not only would most remember the recent influenza epidemic, but in December, just as the campaign started, there were chicken pox cases in Quesnel, soon quarantined.² And there was concern about a smallpox outbreak ³  in March; the US-Canada border was closed at Vancouver to those who weren't vaccinated.

But the campaign began in 1924 as planned with the New Year's Dance. "As you know, the Hospital Board purposes soon to start a drive for the X-ray fund, and right here is where it starts, with a bang!" ⁴ Several businesses mentioned it in their Christmas ads, as they did for future events.

Contributions came in from men employed on the Pacific Great Eastern Railway, or working on road or bridge crews, from Barkerville and nearby mining areas. The Kersley Farmers' Institute sponsored a dance and donated the proceeds. By September 1925, the fund stood at $1029.01. More about this campaign later. 

The Cariboo Observer, Quesnel, BC, 31 January 1925, page 4. You can get an idea of local prices from this. I dearly need a new saucepan myself. The Observer was $2. a year; "strictly in advance", but just like now, there were special offers. See the ad below from the same newspaper issue.

Here are the names of some of the contributors. More later.

QUESNEL, BC - HOSPITAL X-RAY FUND CONTRIBUTORS, 1924-1925. (Partial list.)

ALCOCK E. H.

ARCHIBALD Archie

BOWERS G. --Curtis Road Camp

BOYD G. --Curtis Road Camp

BRIGHTBELL H.  --PGE

BROWN A. -- Curtis Road Camp

CAMPBELL D. E. --McKenzie's Bridge Crew

COCKIN W  --PGE

CURTIS A. F. --Curtis Road Camp

DANDERFIELD N. --Curtis Road Camp

DANIEL H. -- PGE

DAVIES J. D. -- PGE

DOWIE E. E.  --McKenzie's Bridge Crew

EAGELSON M. J. --PGE

EELESCO W --PGE

FOSTER Joe  --Curtis Road Camp

GRAY H.   --McKenzie's Bridge Crew

GUTHRIE H.  --McKenzie's Bridge Crew

HANSEN C  --PGE

HILBORN G. --Curtis Road Camp

HOUSTON J -- PGE

HUNGER P.  --McKenzie's Bridge Crew

IRWIN  J  --McKenzie's Bridge Crew

JOHNSON A.  --Curtis Road Camp

LAZAROFF P. --Curtis Road Camp

LINNER C  --PGE

LUST A  --PGE

MACALISTER J  --PGE

MACPHAIL A. --Curtis Road Camp

MCCLEARY J --Curtis Road Camp

MCGUIRE B  --Curtis Road Camp

MCKENZIE K.  --McKenzie's Bridge Crew

MCKINNON A. --McKenzie's Bridge Crew

MILLER J  --PGE

MILNE R.  --McKenzie's Bridge Crew

MOFFAT  J. --McKenzie's Bridge Crew

MORRIS M. --Curtis Road Camp

MORRIS J.  --PGE

MORRISON D. D.  --PGE

NADON J. A. --Curtis Road Camp

NICHOLS J. C. 

NORWOOD C.A.

ORMHEIM Olaf  --Curtis Road Camp

OSTRAND J.  --Curtis Road Camp

PAULSON C.  --Curtis Road Camp

PEDRO  H.  --Curtis Road Camp

PIERCE E.   --Curtis Road Camp

PINCHBECK Wm.

PRICE J.   --Curtis Road Camp

RATLEDGE J. --Curtis Road Camp

REID C.  -- PGE

SAFFIN J. --McKenzie's Bridge Crew

SHEPHERD F. --Curtis Road Camp

SMETANUK W. B. --PGE

THOMPSON D  --PGE

THOMPSON Jas.

WALLACE A.  --McKenzie's Bridge Crew

WESTBROOK S.  --PGE

ZSCHIEDRICH P.  ---McKenzie's Bridge Crew

Note: PGE - the Pacific Great Eastern Railway (the Please Go Easy, or, Prince George Eventually)

REFERENCES

1. Making Medicine: The History of Health Care in Canada, 1914-2007. Canadian Museum of History:https://www.historymuseum.ca/cmc/exhibitions/hist/medicare/medic00e.html

3. The Cariboo Observer, Quesnel, BC, Saturday, 27 December 1924, page 1. 

3. The Cariboo Observer, Quesnel, BC, Saturday, 25 April 1925, page 1. 

4.  The Cariboo Observer, Quesnel, BC, Saturday, 27 December 1924, page 1. 

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U is for Universities - Blogging from A to Z April 2020 Challenge!

Today U is for Universities

 

Blogging about British Columbia Genealogy Resources

If you had family members enrolled as students in one of the three British Columbia universities established before the 1970s, or a family member who worked for a university here, you may be able to find online information about their university days or even directly about their activities. Refer back to my A-Z article on L is for Libraries for information and links for some of the younger BC universities.

Depending on the years and types of records involved, many university records of individuals will be restricted. However, there are many kinds of records and publications that may be available. Examples of these would be student newspapers, administration newsletters, yearbooks, scrapbooks, directories and calendars.

In researching anyone attending or working at one of these universities, I suggest searching local newspapers for graduations, special or newsworthy events, retirements and the like.

And keep an eye out for additions to genealogical collections, for instance, Ancestry does have a couple of UBC yearbooks. And Theses Canada provides free access to Canada wide digital theses and dissertations or facilitates access. Many universities are now offering free access to some of these through their own digital collections.

Do not neglect searching MemoryBC. Photographs, documents and more may have been deposited with archives further away from the institutions concerned: https://www.memorybc.ca/ For the earliest years, some information may be available at McGill University:
https://www.mcgill.ca/library/branches/mua

A Very Brief Timeline

1899 -  Vancouver College, affiliated with Montreal’s McGill University, offers programmes in part of the Vancouver High School. In 1906 McGill takes it over as McGill University College of British Columbia and offers 2 year programmes in Arts and Science. and later 3rd year in Arts. Closed 1915 when UBC opened. See more about Vancouver College-McGill here.  If you had family members attending Vancouver College, they may have gone on afterwards, either to UBC, or further away. Check the local papers - many times students are mentioned as visiting family at home between terms, or as graduated and returning or working elsewhere. 

1903 - The University of Victoria, Victoria, UVic, began as Victoria College, an affiliate of McGill with 2 year Arts and Science programmes; suspended from 1915. Opened again in 1920 as an affiliate of the University of British Columbia, still 2 year only. In the 1950s, courses gradually expanded to full 4 years for Arts and Science and the first degree was granted in 1961 - as a UBC degree. In 1963, UVic became independent. The Provincial Normal School (for BC, not including Vancouver area) opened in 1915. After WW II, Normal School and Victoria College shared space, and in 1955 united as Victoria College (later the University of Victoria). 

1915 - The University of British Columbia, UBC, after quite a lot of political wrangling, foot dragging, and legislation opened temporarily in the McGill campus in Vancouver's Fairview area. According to the University Act, UBC was non-sectarian and co-educational. Students numbered 379 when UBC opened and the faculty, full and part-time, 34. Due to the war, construction and opening of the permanent site at Point Grey was delayed till 1925. See more about UBC's history here.  The Vancouver Normal School opened in the old Vancouver High School in 1901, then in Lord Roberts School the next year, and to King Edward School in 1904 and in its own building in 1909. In 1956, UBC took over teacher training. 

1965 - Simon Fraser University, SFU, opens on Burnaby Mountain - an 'instant university' with 2500 students. Read more about SFU's history here.


SELECTED SOURCES AT UBC, UVIC AND SFU

Researching students and staff at the University of British Columbia

View of Main Library (now the Irving K. Barber Learning Centre) on University of British Columbia campus, Vancouver. Photographer Rosemary Gilliat, August 20, 1954.  Library and Archives Canada, Flickr, CC BY-NC-ND 2.0.  Rosemary Gilliat. Rosemary Gilliat Eaton Fonds. Library and Archives Canada, e011161180.

CC BY-NC-ND 2.0

UBC Archives  and Library - 

UBC Archives Blog - "UBC and the last great pandemic, 1918-19" by ewodar [Trang Dang] on April 6, 2020: https://archives.library.ubc.ca/2020/04/06/ubc-and-the-last-great-pandemic-1918-19/

UBC Archives Photograph Collections, over 40,000 images. Includes “UBC Student Yearbook Photograph Collection” (51.1/) images scanned from the published yearbooks:
https://archives.library.ubc.ca/ubc-archives-photograph-collections/

Faculty and Department Histories: https://archives.library.ubc.ca/faculty-department-histories/

"Lists", UBC people, including Presidents, Registrars, Faculty Deans, Rhodes Scholarship Awards, and more: https://archives.library.ubc.ca/lists/

UBC histories, including UBC Scrapbooks: 1890-1941; and the Record of Service in the Second World War (.pdf): https://archives.library.ubc.ca/general-history/

Virtual Displays including: UBC's First 100 Theses; Remembering the Great Trek, Stories from the University’s past, and The Evolving Campus 1914-1973: https://archives.library.ubc.ca/virtual-displays/

Athletics histories, including the UBC Sports Hall of Fame with lists of names: https://archives.library.ubc.ca/athletics/

"Woven into the stuff of other men’s lives” The UBC Faculty Book of Remembrance, 1935:
http://www.library.ubc.ca/archives/memorialbook/index.html

UBC publications - scanned, including The Ubyssey student newspaper; TREK Magazine (formerly Alumni Chronicle); The Annual/The Totem 1916-66; Touchpoints (School of Nursing): https://archives.library.ubc.ca/university-publications/

Textual records, search for finding aids. very few digitized: https://archives.library.ubc.ca/textual-records/

“We Learn to Teach the Teachers”, Vancouver Normal School, 25 January, 1936  Saturday, The Vancouver Province, Vancouver, BC,  Canada [page 49-5]. At Newspapers.com   

 Researching students and staff at the University of Victoria and Victoria College

Victoria College Ladies' Hockey Team, 1930/31. University of Victoria Archives, Reference code

009.0204. The ladies are identified as: "Front row: Helen Harris, Miss Nixon, Rosalind Watson Young, ?, Bessie Thorne, ? Back row: Daphne Allen (fourth from right) and Dallas Homer-Dixon (second from right)."

The University of Victoria Archives and the Library have a number of helpful online sources.

UVic Archives and Special Collections - 

Search the collections here: https://uvic2.coppul.archivematica.org/  AND/OR search at MemoryBC.

(Several times I've noticed more information here, for e.g. Victoria College Library fonds, Reference code CA UVICARCH AR230 - Inventory available "with file level control". The fonds consists of: Office files, 1952-1962; Account records, 1928-1956; Cataloging records, 1953; Circulation records, 1912-1963; and Collections records, 1952-1963.
Biographical history: An informal library was established in the early days of Victoria College, which was administered by staff. Individuals include, Margaret Ross 1934-1935, Staff Administrator; and Sydney G. Pettit 1937-1938, instructor of History. Beginning in 1946, formally trained librarians were appointed: Marjorie Griffin 1946-1947; Edith Stewart 1947-1948; Kathleen R. Matthews 1948-1951; Douglas G. Lochhead 1951-1952; Albert A. Spratt 1953-1960; and Dean W. Halliwell 1960-1963. Halliwell became the University Librarian at the University of Victoria in 1963.

Digital collections online at UVic include:

The Changing Face of University of Victoria Campus Lands, from the 1950s: http://archives.library.uvic.ca/featured_collections/changing_face_uvic_campus/default.html

Provincial Normal School Oral Histories. The Normal School in Victoria opened in 1915:
http://contentdm.library.uvic.ca/cdm/landingpage/collection/uvoh

UVic Historical Photograph Collection - related to the history of the University, and to both Victoria College and the Victoria Provincial Normal School: http://archives.library.uvic.ca/hpc/

University of Victoria newspapers. Only The Martlet is online but all are available at the Archives -later - including The Microscope, Victoria College, 1938-1940, 1946-1948; The Martlet, Victoria College, then UVic, 1948-1973; Gazette of the University of Victoria, 1963-1975, official news, including faculty and staff details; UVic Alumni Quarterly, 1965-1980.

Find a UVic Thesis:
https://www.uvic.ca/library/use/info/grads/thesis/finduvic.php

Tip:   The British Colonist, 1858-1980, Victoria, BC, newspapers, digitized and online free has many references to Victoria College and the Victoria Normal School in the early days and the University of Victoria later.

The Daily Colonist, Victoria, BC. Friday, 12 February, 1960, page 13.

Researching students and staff at Simon Fraser University

The Peak, SFU's student newspaper, front page, First Anniversary Issue, 5 October 1966.

The SFU Archives and the Library have many useful resources.

The SFU Archives has research guides to the evolution of women's rights at SFU, political action on campus, and to individuals and organizations who've contributed to SFU arts and culture.

Tip: Reading "SFU Campus Politics: Guide to Sources" even if you're not interested in those eras will give good ideas on archival and published sources about SFU and its students and staff: 

A 50th Anniversary series of Arts & Social Science faculty biographies - partially available via the Internet Archive: https://web.archive.org/web/20160301210036/http://www.sfu.ca:80/fass/fass-at-50/Faculty-Biographies.html 

The Peak, SFU's student newspaper has been digitized and is searchable.  Available in the SFU Digital Collections: https://digital.lib.sfu.ca/peak  Initially and only in 1965, there were 2 other publications, The Tartan and SF View.

SFU's Archive catalogue SFU AtoM: https://atom.archives.sfu.ca 

Finding SFU Theses and Projects: https://www.lib.sfu.ca/help/research-assistance/format-type/finding-sfu-theses

Tip:   Early local news coverage of SFU was extensive. The University Archives may have a clipping collection. Or search the Vancouver Sun and Province.

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F is for Francophones in British Columbia - Blogging from A to Z April 2020 Challenge!

Today - F is for Francophones in BC

Blogging about British Columbia Genealogy Resources

Maurice Guibord, Director of The Société historique francophone de la Colombie-Britannique, presents a history of Francophones in British Columbia from the 1700s when French Canadians first accompanied fur trade explorers to what is now British Columbia. 

Whether you have found French speaking family in British Columbia already or not, you will enjoy his video talk. 

Francophones in BC - English from Canadian Parents for French on Vimeo.
A French Edition of the talk is on the Canadian Parents for French website.


SELECTED RESEARCH WEBSITES

The Société historique francophone de la Colombie-Britannique offers a wealth of information free on or via its website - history articles, documents and images from the Society's own archives, and interviews and images from the Société francophone de Maillardville,  the digitized Soleil de Vancouver newspaper (at SFU), interviews and even quizzes. And my favourite, postcards of places and people relating to Francophone history in BC: http://www.shfcb.ca

Life In Maillardville, online exhibit, Coquitlam Public Library. Maillardville was settled in 1909 by French Canadian families brought by Fraser Mills to work in what was then the largest mill in the British Empire:
https://coquitlampubliclibrary.omeka.net/exhibits/show/history/maillardville/maillardville-landmarks

Coquitlam Archives, documents and images relating to Fraser Mills and to Maillardville: http://searcharchives.coquitlam.ca/index.php/fraser-mills

Mackin House Museum, Coquitlam, set in a 1909 house, once the home of a General Manager of Fraser Mills: https://www.coquitlamheritage.ca /

BC Archives, aural history interviews - Reynoldston Research and Studies oral history collection PR-1993, created 1972-1974 - 23 relating to Maillardville, BC. Other sound recordings for teaching, Provincial Educational Media Centre: school broadcasts GR-3378, file list online, e.g. French language Ecoutez" Une soiree a Maillardville en 1910; created 1958.

SELECTED READING

French Canadian Settlement in British Columbia, John Ray Stewart, UBC, M.A. Thesis, 1956. UBC Open Collections, Theses and Dissertations:
https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses

Gender and mission: the founding generations of the Sisters of Saint Ann and the Oblates of Mary Immaculate in British Columbia, 1858-1914. Jacqueline Gresko, UBC, Ph.D. Dissertation, 1999. UBC Open Collections, Theses and Dissertations:
https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses

From the mill to the hill: race, gender, and nation in the making of a French-Canadian community in Maillardville, BC, 1909-1939. Geneviève Lapointe, UBC, M. A. Thesis, 2007. UBC Open Collections, Theses and Dissertations: https://open.library.ubc.ca/cIRcle/collections/ubctheses

French Canadians, Furs, and Indigenous Women in the Making of the Pacific Northwest by Jean Barman, (UBC Press, 2014).
See also "Some Reflections on Jean Barman's French Canadians, Furs and Indigenous Women" by Bruce McIntyre Watson, Journal of the Canadian Historical Association, Volume 27, Number 2, 2016, p. 153–157. Online at:https://www.erudit.org/fr/revues/jcha/2016-v27-n2-jcha03136/1040570ar/

Le Calendrier francophone de la Colombie-Britannique / Francophone Calendar of British Columbia, Founder & Co-ordinator, Ashton Ramsay: https://www.calendriercb.com/


SELECTED GENEALOGY RESOURCES

Book Indexes - Maurice Guibord has published a number of his name indexes to books about Francophones in BC on the SHFCB website:  http://www.shfcb.ca/collections/documents-ressources

Lives Lived West of the Divide: A Biographical Dictionary of Fur Traders Working West of the Rockies, 1793-1858, by Bruce McIntyre Watson, 3 volumes. (Kelowna: Center for Social, Spatial, and Economic Justice, University of British Columbia. (Free with 30 day Scribd trial offer)

CANADIAN CENSUS - The 1901 Canadian census was the first to ask questions about 'mother tongues'. Once you find a family member, you should see if they said they spoke French, or both French and English, or other languages. See the reference notes below for more information. But note that some French speakers in BC, particularly those in First Nations or Metis families or communities, may have been missed. See the Library and Archives Canada's guides to Indigenous genealogy.


REFERENCES

Re the census language questions, 1901 Canadian census. From the 1901 Census Report, 1902.

"Under the head of education and language, persons were asked in 1891 if they could read and write; in 1901 there are additional questions as to time at school in the year and the language spoken. English and French being official languages of the country, a special record has been taken to show if the person speaks one or both of these, and also his mother tongue if spoken. In a country peopled with so many foreign elements as Canada, it is desirable to know if they are being absorbed and unified, as may appear by their acquirement of one or other of the official languages. And as English is now in a very large degree the language of commerce throughout the world, it is also desirable to ascertain to what extent citizens of French origin are able to speak it in addition to their own."

Fourth Census of Canada, 1901. Vol. I, Population; Quatrième recensement du Canada, 1901. Vol. I, Population. (Ottawa, Printed by S. E. Dawson, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty,
1902), Introduction, page viii.

For the 1901 census, the enumerator's instructions regarding language were:

65. Columns 28 to 33 relate to the education and language of each person named in the schedule, of the age of five years and over. Column 28 refers of course to persons of school age, being those over five and under twenty-one years. If the person has attended school during the census year the time will be indicated by the number of months, and if he or she has not attended school during the year it will be indicated by a horizontal dash ( —). 

66. Columns 29, 30, 31 and 32 will be answered by the figure 1 for "Yes " and by a dash (—) for "No," as the fact may be ; and account is not to be taken of the degree of proficiency as regards any one of the questions. English and French were made official languages by section 133 of the British North America Act, 1867, and therefore special provision is made in the schedule for a record of all persons five years of age and over who speak one or other of these languages. But the same person may speak both languages, and in every such case the answer (1) " Yes " should be entered in both columns. 

67. Mother tongue is one's native language, the language of his race; but not necessarily the language in which he thinks, or which he speaks most fluently, or uses chiefly in conversation. Whatever it may be, whether English, French, Gaelic, Irish, German, Swedish, Russian or any other, it should be entered by name in column 33 if the person speaks the language, but not otherwise.

Fourth Census of Canada, 1901. Vol. I, Population; Quatrième recensement du Canada, 1901. Vol. I, Population (Ottawa, Printed by S. E. Dawson, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty,
1902). Introduction, Instructions to Officers, page xx.

In addition,

The 1901 Census report shows that of the persons reported as born in France, now living in British Columbia, 255 were reported naturalized; 178 were listed as aliens.

Fourth Census of Canada, 1901. Vol. I, Population; Quatrième recensement du Canada, 1901. Vol. I, Population. (Ottawa, Printed by S. E. Dawson, Printer to the King's Most Excellent Majesty, 1902). Table XV, Birthplace and Citizenship of Immigrants by Provinces, page 448.

Quesnel, BC - Arrival of Cariboo Stage March 1910, Al. D. Young Driver.

The postcard is unused. AGFA-ANSCO stamp box [1930s-1940s]. I: Image MSC130-4250-01 courtesy of the British Columbia Postcards Collection, a digital initiative of Simon Fraser University Library. 

Quesnel, British Columbia was named for the fur trader Jules-Maurice Quesnel.

My Blogging for the A to Z April Challenge for 2020 - Blogging About British Columbia Genealogy Resources

It's already April, 2020! Below is a list of the A-Z (Zed!) posts I've written on my theme -

British Columbia Genealogy Resources

Follow me to get notices of new A-Z April Blogging Challenge blog posts.  I'm posting every day but Sundays this month.

A is for Archives - Online and In Person (later)

B is for Bees - and a Be Alert Tip about researching women 

C is for Christenings - with ships' bells

D is for Distancing - Long Distance, Please!

E is for Education - School Days

F is for Francophones in BC 

G is for Geography of BC - and a little about Ghost Towns

H is for a Hundred Years - Centennial Celebrations 

I is for Inmate - not always as bad as it sounds

J is for Journey - a cruise to Alaska in 1954

K is for Keen - Keen on Kin (and Kith too - remember the F A N Club)

L is for Libraries - Academic

M is for Miners

N is for Newspapers

O is for Oldest-Old

P is for Periodicals

Q is for Query

R is for Recipes 

S is for the Sea - and Lighthouses

T is for Telephones

U is for Universities

V is for Vehicles 

W is for Winners

X is for X-Ray

Y is for The Year

Z - Zed is for Time Zones