March 2005 - Vol Five, No.4

History Helps, Volume Five, Number 4, March 2005
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March Was (And Still Is) Whale-Watching Month

“THE REPORTER’S DIARY”:

“Several whales were seen in the inlet last night. They were cavorting around in a manner that suggested that they looked upon Burrard Inlet as a jolly little puddle.”

Source: Vancouver Daily World, 04 March 1893, page eight.

More Smuggling

“OPIUM IN COFFINS

A novel discovery has been made on board the steamship City of Pekin at San Francisco.

The Pacific Mail company furnish [sic] coffins for all the Chinese who die in transit. These coffins are made of the butts of trees scooped out large enough to hold a body.

While looking among the coffins Customs Officer Holmes was struck with an idea, to make an examination of the receptacles. The examination divulged 319 pounds of crude opium, of the value of $1800. It was immediately confiscated.”

Source: Daily British Columbian, 14 August 1886, page four.

A New Database

Here's something new on the Library and Archives Canada site (which I still think of as the National Archives site): a database of theses and dissertations in the Library and Archives collection. Some theses, those from 1998 to mid 2002, are available electronically online. And the search function works very well, as I tested it with a search for my own thesis.

The site can be accessed at http://www.collectionscanada.ca/thesescanada/index-e.html.

British Military Records

Families of British and Commonwealth soldiers who fought in World War I can trace their relatives' war records through a website of the British National Archives.

The site lists the records of more than five million men and women of the Army and Royal Flying Corps who won service medals during the war. Members of the Royal Navy are not included in the register.

Medal records can be valuable to family histories. They often provide the only account of a soldier's wartime service since many other records were destroyed by bombing during World War II.

Searching the index is free, but there is a fee to download a document. http://www.documentsonline.nationalarchives.gov.uk/

British Newspapers On-line Archive

The British Library Online Newspaper Archive is a most interesting database. Not British Columbia history, of course, but I do wander off that path occasionally, mostly when I have time on my hands.
http://www.uk.olivesoftware.com/

A Sense of Humour in the Newspaper of the 19th Century

“Beats McGillivray’s Hair Restorer

The following conversation was heard the other day between two farmers living on the high ridge of land not twenty miles away from South Westminster.

‘Sure, Donald, it’s an awful thing that guano of Ladner’s. John McRae sowed it on his grass just yesterday an’ this morning’ it was up to his knees.’

‘Och, Sandy, that’s naething. Dae ye ken Jeems Nowle? Well, the ither day he wis sowin’ his taties wi’ it, and occasionally scratchin’ his bald head; and, wid ye believe it, the verra next day he had hair a’ doon over the lugs.”

Source: The Daily Columbian, 03 October 1892, page four.

Revealing Classified Advertising

Want Ads, or Classified Ads, as we now refer to them, can be revealing about a community, although I suspect most readers would find the following example more likely titillating:

“Miscellaneous”:

“Sunbathers. Young couple wish to contact others to organize group south of river. Box 250 The Optimist.”

Source: The Ladner Optimist, 25 September 1947, page eight.

Change in Service at B. C. Archives, Victoria

The following excerpt is quoted from the British Columbia Archives website for your information:

“Effective February 1, 2005 our remote reference inquiry service is suspended. We are unable to respond to written requests for general research received either by fax, mail or email. We will continue, however, to process reproduction orders, permission forms, FOI requests, requests for documents required for court/legal purposes and specific requests for copies of archival material.

BC Archives staff are being re-allocated so that they can review records required for litigation and other research, as required under the following statutory authorities:

This service suspension will be reviewed on March 31, 2005. Please check our website ‘Notices’ section after this date for an update.”

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Gwen Szychter, M.A.

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