Hello, hello, we are here to talk about the very first challenge of 2023 the wiki tree challenge. So with me I have Catherine Hogan from Ontario on sets ancestors and we were really super excited to work with her group this week And she was saying we were talking before she came on about how she told everybody She wanted to be surprised but a couple of the comments kind of slipped out where Where she saw them, but I think we're still going to surprise her just fine and then Megan is also going to be joining us here. Oh, she doesn't have a camera on right now Hi Hello, I am attempting to fix my camera. I'm having a bit of an issue on this end, but I'm working on it Here and I put up a picture just in case Then we have Cheryl Hess and Cheryl was the captain this year So she got to have the first week where we try out all the new stuff we do And she did a fantastic job You know leading the team and keeping everybody on track and motivated and you know, it really was an exciting week. So Yeah, it was I'm going to Talk just a briefly about wiki tree here and then I'm going to show you some of the discoveries we found And then after that we'll talk a little bit more about the research and about how you know, kathryn and Megan Feel about our results and whatnot. So Before we get started, I do want to share a little bit about wiki tree for those of you that don't know We are the free family tree. It was founded in 2008 by chris witton The mission of wiki tree Excuse me community is to grow one accurate share tree that connects us all and is accessible to all for free forever So wiki tree provides a collaborative environment for Evaluating sources and incorporating dna and did I mention everything is free One of our goals is to have one profile for person that has lived For every person that has lived which is why collaboration is key to our success So if I have a great grandfather and then you are a descended off another branch of that same great grandfather He just has one profile and that gives us the chance to work together and gain information from each other And hopefully honor that ancestor the best we're able to I am very excited to say we just passed 33 million profiles And um almost 11 million of those have dna connections attached to them So if you have not tried out wiki tree yet, you need to go to wiki tree dot com and see what it's all about And then i'm going to go ahead and bring this up Hopefully um Megan will find her camera But at least you can listen. Megan you can see everything fine now, right? Oh, yeah, absolutely. Thank you. Okay I'm gonna put us. Let's see. Let's do it like that so you can see now Oh that got changed for that one. So excuse me She made those changes Here's Margaret Atwood's profile that we shared before you can see there's a section on profiles for a biography There's also a section for sources as you can see This is tom longboat's profile here And accuracy and sources are a key part of the wiki tree community as we mentioned You know with our honor code another aspect of wiki tree is to balance between Privacy and collaboration. So we want to connect everybody But we also want to protect the privacy of those close family members that we can and for living people And then you know as you go further back on your tree, the privacy controls are going to open up So collaboration on deep ancestors is between distant cousins who are serious about genealogical research research careful about sources and willing to see their research validated or invalidated with dna And as you can see here, there are seven different privacy options that are available for profiles So living individuals can be unlisted and not appear in searches or In search results while profiles of anybody born over 150 years ago Are viewable to anybody that sign the honor code and you know, once again, we all work together on these profiles So you may not be the only one that works on that that ancestor Yeah, once again, if you aren't a member yet, we invite you to come on over and join our dynamic community. Try it out It's free. All you have to do is go to wiki tree dot com and create an account And now for the challenge part of it We partner with ontario ancestors and this is canada's largest member supported genealogical organization and you know, we're just so excited to be Joining up with these groups that really have the same passions that we do You know, we want to make sure that these ancestors are honored and respected and you know, and our heritage and no matter where we come from is you know protected and documented and There for the future generations to see Now Catherine, I'm going to let you talk a little bit here though about why you chose the people that you did We started out with seven starting people. We had seven days to work on them But I know you had some kind of specific reasons about why you chose the seven Okay, um, so in collaboration with megan Um, these are the seven people we chose now Megan and I will also work on a committee. Um within ontario genealogical society And that is what we call the idea team and that's inclusion diversity equity and accessibility team and um We're we're in the midst of doing some planning and things like that And so we wanted to make sure that the seven people that we chose to be researched um Are across the diaspora of the population of ontario And we wanted to make sure that we weren't choosing just british people english people scottish From greek britain because even though a lot of our population Is um of that background. There's a lot of other people too from all over the world That have come to ontario. So the seven people, um, I chose. I hopefully did enough of um I guess um diversity and enough of A selection of people to give The researchers A good challenge. So I don't have the list in front of me But i'm hoping I can remember off the top of my head and if I miss somebody. Mindy Hopefully you can help me or share all you can help me um, so we chose um Alton c parker now I chose alton c parker because I know a little bit about him He's from the city where I live, which is Windsor, ontario And he is a he's a fairly big name in our community here in Windsor, Essex And he is famous because he is the first black Canadian. Um, who was a detective um, the second person I chose was meetress telman and she is um Well known in the black community in gray county um Oh and trying to get the I don't have the list in front. Can you help me out here? That's okay. Yeah, you don't have to list them all off. Okay. You might want to do just generally why you pick Okay, so we chose we chose um black canadians We chose somebody who was from the first nations We chose somebody from the asian community and I remember him with sam ching and he was the first asian to arrive To arrive in toronto And then we chose Okay, if it's one or two people from the jewish community Fanny, yeah, anyway and she um, she was an olympic athlete and um, And then we did and I did and I did choose somebody that what I thought I thought would be easy And we'll find out if he was easy to research or not. Um, and he was a bank robber Yes, I thought you know what let's go somebody Let's go somebody really fun into the mix and you know criminals are always interesting Of course to research and I've never heard of this guy before And he was a bank robber in the toronto area in the 1940s and the 1950s so that was kind of our mix of people and Then I just handed it all you know the list off to mendy and let the researchers Have at it And that we did and you know, yes, and we do appreciate you adding You know what you call fun? We think they're all fun But yes, there was a lot of fun with void and it drew some people in You know wanting to see more about his life You know and the and the odd thing is is you start reading about this stuff And you know, we always look to put things in historical context And you know kind of look at what's going on with their whole life overall And you kind of feel bad for him at the start of it, you know when his criminal career first started So, um, we'll look a little bit more at him. I know you know who the seven starting people are But some of our viewers don't know so we're gonna touch on those plus talk about some of the new ones that we have So the one that you are saying one of the ones you started with was Beatrice Tillman And yeah, she was just a really fascinating lady Now she was the third youngest of 12 children and a very close knit family Her father died when she was 11, which you know kind of forced her to have to go work to help support the family She diligently worked to preserve and demonstrate the history ingenuity and the resilience of the local black community And much of the gray roots black history collection exists because of her tireless efforts To ensure that everybody knows the contribution of the black community in gray county And you know, so i'm sure she was missed by many when she was gone and her, you know legacy lives on Now one of the people off in her branches was turner lee tillman He was the husband of Beatrice His father rented a farm which he worked. So, you know, a nice quiet upbringing He worked for the new york central railroads commissary and then he died in front of city hall at the age of 78 So i'm not sure what what he was doing in front of the city hall But I guess he he wanted to go out with a bang really memorable But one of the things that we found really interesting, you know And these are those details that really help kind of bring somebody to life Is that he was a basin he was a mason for 48 years And for 30 years of that he was a 33rd degree mason. So, um, you know, that's like an incredible amount of commitment to that community And to those people and I just found that really fascinating. He had done that for so long Next we have raspberry hovel And he was born in 1793 in denver england. I like the name to begin with That's a fun name, you know, he gets to be raspberry and he was a first cousin to thomas hovel So in 1815 he was in prison for larceny In 1821 he was accused of larceny and found not guilty And then again in 1822 he was accused of larceny and found not guilty and sometimes these are You know, the only ways we see a lot about these ancestors is either they're really notable You know wealthier politicians or they kind of get into trouble a lot and you find all these notices and He was in raspberry. It was in that second column Now in 1828 he got together with his brother, william, and they were found guilty of robbery So john boy doesn't get to crowd the whole Stage for for the robbie robbery thing and in 1834 he was granted a certificate of freedom So he was freed Now the brother william was charged with breaking into a mr. Pike shop And they found part of the goods hidden in a haystack of all things and the rest of the stuff in his house So it kind of makes you wonder if somebody didn't you know kind of tell on him because otherwise Who would go search this haystack? You know and find that stuff But at any rate the only thing that raspberry had kept out of the deal was a watch And so there was a third man that was also taken into custody. He was charged But raspberry was sentenced to seven years for which he was transported to new south wales to serve And you know this comes up from time to time where You know countries have these these areas where they ship their convicts off to you hoping You know, they'll get them out of the general public and whatnot But seven years seems a little stiff for a watch So it kind of makes you wonder if it wasn't, you know Partially because of his past history Whether he had been convicted or not. He seemed to have been known for thievery. So And you know, he had to have been wondering later if it was really worth it You know thinking man if I just would have not kept that watch I don't know Now we also have uh, allen parker. He alton parker. Sorry. He was one of the the notables nominated And he was born in 1907 and wins around huck terrio He worked as a mechanic as a young adult And then he moved to being a foreman at a used car dealership Now during that time He was the president of the central citizens association which helped black people gain employment and public service jobs In 1942 he was hired as a constable in the windsor police service And like you said, he became the first black detective in canada So definitely, you know an admiral full person And he really did some great things for this community and I can see why he was nominated as one of the seven And you know instead of just going out out further onto the branches We also look sideways and we look down. So, you know, one of the things we looked at was freda And freda steel who was freda tilman um was one of alton's daughters And she attended nursing school at a time when black canadian women were barred from doing so And she actually was the third black canadian woman to officially graduate So, um, you know, she was later the director of patient registration So basically she was not going to be outdone by what her dad did And following in his, you know admirable example She attended that nursing school when she wasn't even supposed to be attending it And it wasn't until a discrimination case was filed in 1948 that that ban was lifted And so there were two other women that graduated right before her And um within several months freda graduated being that third black canadian woman to officially graduate And when she died it was said that she was raised in a home or she was taught to love god and reach up to others in her community Uh, you know, she led a life as a nurturer. She worked in the hospital in some capacity or another until 1992 She volunteered in many many activities to carry on, you know, her devout beliefs and her commitment to the community And historian iran morris davis said when an elder dies, it's like a library burning to the ground And we know that one of our mightiest trees has fallen And you know, I think that's just um an incredible statement that goes towards showing How much freda valued everyone and how much respect they had for Now this of course was another great one and this was one of the curb lake first nation people lc lc may tailor not And she worked to support a family also when she was newly married But it was because her husband Cecil was battling tuberculosis And so she became the first woman in canada to be elected as a chief of the first nation She was only 33 years old at the time She would go on to hold this position for 16 years She also held the position of senator of the union of ontario indians in 1976 And she was a fierce supporter of her native language a jibway. So, you know, that was really great Now she was the child of her father and his second wife ester Daniel wedding was related to his first wife Harriet. Now, Daniel was born in 1878 he served as a chief of the curb lake first nation He was a member of the mississauga nation He was part of several negotiations with the provincial and federal governments And you know, he died in 1948 and was mentioned on a memorial and curb lake cemetery and so Just really interesting really interesting people on her line We have another one here. Elijah marston was also canadian first peoples and a member of the mississauga nation He was born in 1881 in ontario to william marston and sarah goose marston And like his father he was a farmer and he attended a Methodist church His father later became a school teacher and elisha took up basket making and his Occupation working for himself And you know, he suffered a particularly tragic death after being swept up one day by a heavy wind The wind actually caught the baskets that he had Up on his shoulder and they flung him into a radial car And so the injuries from this incident were fatal within hours And you know, it's just crazy to imagine that such a freak accident like that Could happen That's terrible, right Now to go a little more on the fun side I think people were ready to adopt missus susan Howard as grandma, but She was also a first peoples And she was from alderville high watha And it says while walking along the track of the old railroad. She saw a bear emerge from a hole So she happened to have an ax on her and she killed the bear Well in a moment another bear appeared and she promptly dispatched of that one Still another a third bear came out She killed that one with her trusty axe So three grown bears killed by a woman after their winter sleep I guess they were coming out of hibernation. So a little bit slow The animals wore skin and the meat cut into strips and dried for summer meat She was elsie's grandaunt Oh my goodness. Well, I've just adopted her also because that's an incredible story Oh my goodness Can you imagine though?   So And just what a woman's meat and skins that came back to them to her community is just Oh, incredible Right. Yeah Best man left her alone. Absolutely Yeah, don't make susan mad anybody Okay, and now here we have sam ching and I know, you know We were talking with catherine before we started about she's been trying so hard to stay away from everything And not hear anything that's going on But somebody did post something about sam that she saw Probably out on social media And then there was another incident That came up that somebody put into the general chat not realizing we were trying to hide everything from Catherine But I think Catherine's still going to be surprised So, uh, you know, we definitely do not have parents for sam He was the fourth person on the list and definitely the most difficult to research Now he migrated it says from china to ontario But there are beliefs that he went through the united states before he reached ontario He was the first documented businessman and resident of chinese origin in toronto He owned the sam ching and company chinese laundry on adelaide street east close to the railroad And an alternate name actually was found near the end For him as chang sen So it's kind of said Sun I think closer to sun if you listen to somebody say it out loud instead of sam But we had uh ellen boys was one of the researchers that spent a lot of time focusing on sam and you know his research was greatly appreciated And you know, we wound up with catherine though We had more than 10 people that worked on sam's profile. We're just incredible to watch, you know the collaboration and The communication that goes when you get that many people focusing on it And they were looking at everything down to I mean, they had the addresses memorized where he was on this census and You know, they were looking at every tiny detail trying to get clues um And you know, they say that by 1891 there were 33 men of chinese origin And very few occupations were allowed now This was interesting and I know a lot of us did some extra reading, you know, because we did have sam on the list but um Once again, they said his ties to the united states where he might have migrated From there, you know, china to the united states then here With his friends, which definitely came from the united states before they went to toronto Um were because he immediately opened that laundry shop now You know, one of the things that was said in the material that we read is that there were no such shops in china because The men did not do laundry So not here where, you know, some of the men don't do laundry or don't like to there the men absolutely did not do laundry That was a female's job And one of the things I found fascinating is, you know, a lot of these uh people from china migrated because of the gold rush And so these men would come with their however many sets of clothes And they would wear a set of clothes until it was like literally falling off of them Or, you know, if they did have the money um a little bit of money for it they would actually mail their clothes back to their wife in china And they would wait which would take months for it to come back to them She would wash the clothes and put them back in the mail And they would just have to wear what they had until The clothes returned which, you know, I mean to nowadays to us just seemed shocking because Um, you know, I know if my husband's clothes got dirty he would just throw them in the wash, but You know, it also was a Not as easy as we have it now. You didn't throw it in the washing machine You know, and those people that worked in the laundry shops worked really hard I mean it was physical labor and they they worked 12 14 hour days And it was all hand washing of that laundry and so Um, yeah, they think you know because he had the skills when he showed up in toronto He most likely learned them in the united states And you know, we know there's at least four of them That showed up at about the same time and you know So they may have all landed in the same place in the united states before they made it to Toronto And there is a ton ton ton of research you'll see on his profile And I know you'll want to look once we get done with all of this And you know, so we did not find any definite migration records And you know the premise that he went through the united states first could explain why because if you do look for that name going through the united states Um There are more than one. So, you know, still wasn't something we could narrow down and find anything definitive And you know, we also took a look at his friends such as all along and that was another thing we learned You know, not only did were the names often mistaken by people that were canadian or american because They don't say the chinese don't say their first name first They say their last name first And so a lot of times we would hear their name and we would write it down and we'd have it backwards And you know, one of the other things that um that we did not understanding was that ah So ah Is often a term of respect and affection or sometimes just means that person And so, you know for like his friend Who was all lung in all the records really was just like saying Buddy lung You know my friend lung His name was not ah at all. There there isn't a name.  Oh, well, that's you know, what it's going to be And he stayed that way in records. Um, you know, that's what his name remained as he stayed in canada But now we know that we don't know what his full name was because it definitely was not ah His first name was not ah, so that was just really super interesting Now chi hang they said probably came from guangdong in canton And he was possibly in the tai shan area within guangdong so a lung amp came from hong kong and possibly The additional friend and so we also had wali Who most likely came from guangdong as well? And so, you know, we're they're not all all four of the men weren't necessarily from the same area But once again, there's a good chance they met up in the united states and they all went to toronto together And you know, I don't know if those two that uh were from guangdong Knew each other before they moved or not, you know, I'm with any Any new population like this and and you have things especially in our history like the um the gold rush and You know, you always come across this where people are afraid of things that they don't understand or things that are new And so it's really really just heartbreaking to read about the open hostility And whatnot they had against these men that just came to you know, they just wanted to earn an honest living and Support their families and make something of themselves. And you know, they worked really hard Um, you know really long hours They worked six days a week the ones that did the laundry and there were several of them that did and Yeah, you know nowadays that doesn't happen like that but back then it just was a sign of the times But you know, you you don't think about it really specifically until you get into all the reading about this And you know, we even had to put warning on some of the articles We were like well this this was a good article, but please just you know, ignore that somebody Didn't realize at that time that those words were offensive And you know it for anybody sensitive. Just don't read it Now here was the one that you were talking about was jewish and I had hopes that fanny, uh rosenfeld That we would get a lot done on because we have handled a lot of jewish people within the challenge now And you know, we've done a lot of ukraine research and She was uh born in differo ukraine She was named canada's female athlete of the half century in 1950 She was inducted into the canadian olympic hall of fame in 1949 The canada sports hall of fame in 1955 and ontario sports hall of fame in 1996 so not an over achiever at all Um really fantastically gifted athlete now her father was a junk dealer. Her mother didn't work She early on worked in a chocolate factory and this was interesting. She entered the Sport after entering a hundred yard dash at a picnic on the dare of a friend a friend said i dare you And she was like, okay, I take that dare And that's actually how she got into the sport and found out that she was incredibly gifted at it So, you know within two years she broke records and she shared the world record at one point for the hundred yard dash At 11 seconds with rosa gross She beat rosa on two other occasions though Now and she went by bobby instead of fanny bobby continued to compete and was in the summer olympics in amsterdam in 1928 She contracted severe arthritis later which ended her career and led her to coaching And then she eventually became a sports journalist Now we look for records that pertain to her from dipro and we just didn't find anything once again. I was really, um You know Disappointed because we were really hoping to be able to get something definitive on her and if so her lines would have taken off You know, we have some really great researchers for that area, but unfortunately they just weren't having any luck with that And then because we're talking about sports I want to mention somebody that was on one of the other lines So on a taylor line, we had albert silvestre smoke and he was Fort 1894 now he was a canadian long-distance runner and he was only four feet Ten inches tall. That's it and he was a long-distance runner He competed in the marathon at the 1920 summer olympics And he was actually considered one of the best of his era. So You know, there's some fast genetics in those family lines Very definitely Now here we have edwin alonzo john boy and you know, this is who we were talking about He was a fascinating person And you know, he got more news time because he he definitely did get into some trouble He was born in toronto just four months before world war one broke out His father was an electrician and his mother took care of the home She contracted scarlet fever after two of his siblings had gotten it And she actually succumbed to it when he was only 15 years old So, you know, he was at that crucial Age going trying to go, you know out of the teenage years into adulthood And it just did not sit well with him now by the time he was 22 He was arrested for robbing a gas station Then as an adult he took on a job as a window cleaner and you know, he was staying out of trouble again Two years into world war two an air raid siren went off and the bombing that caught that followed caused the death of his child And so, um, you know, that had to have added further Tragedy to his life and trauma and he still continued on with his quiet life until about 1949 And i'm not sure what happened that year, but it all went downhill after that And you know, that was when he committed his first bank robbery. He was drunk and disguised He robbed a branch of the bank of montreal in toronto And you know, and then after that just continued on in his life at thievery He escaped several times from small jails In 1952 he received eight life sentences for his deeds. He had just gotten into trouble way too many times But then they turned around in 1966 and released him on parole So, you know, he took on an assumed identity at that time. He drove a bus for disabled persons Persons and he remarried and he devoted himself to the care of his disabled wife margery whom he had met on the bus And you know, his life of crime had come to an end So, you know, once again, he had that spur where he got just really once he turned into the dark side It looks like he had a hard time getting out of it But I think, you know, the tragedies that he had in his life most likely Had a lot to do with His acting out It's so important to learn those things about their history You know, like you hear the end result, but you don't hear about all of those stories that come before it So interesting Yeah And you know, and they really form who the people are and you know, that's why you really want to look at what their environment was And you know, I know on lucky tree we try and bring him bring him back to life by you know, showing kind of what they were dealing with at that time Because yeah, it's one thing to read an article and go. Oh, he was arrested, you know Four times for robbing.  It was fun researching just all over though Um, they were twin daughters of william makara and martha horse fall within a year of their birth their family migrated to gateshead england Both died within the third quarter of 1902 And they were second cousins of john boyd and you know, they didn't say the cause of death So I don't know if there, you know, could have been some type of a flu going through or what But um, so tragic to that family to go and make that big move and be excited and be in a new country and then lose both of the twins And you know, here you can see that relationship Between the twins and john boyd. They're maternal grandmothers or sisters And so these are just a few of the wiki tree family tree widgets that people can use on other websites to display updated information And it'll update itself from what you do with your tree You know, but just um fun to look at the cousins too and you know, I always say that Just like with us in modern times, you know, we have aunts and uncles and cousins that kind of affect sometimes how we look at the world Or the things we know You know, it's not your parents only that teach you everything And you know, hopefully you grow up around family And so I like to be able to see, you know, what kind of things were going on within these, uh, other branches of the families And then unfortunately the macaras though had their fair share of tragic young deaths now these weren't as young But we have ronald and james here born in gateshead england To william horseball macara and gertrude illingsworth macara Ronald was a rifleman in the queen zone rifles of canada first battalion. He died in 1945 at the age of 26 He was buried in the grows beat canadian war cemetery in netherland That year marked the end of world war two. So he almost made it through the war And then james was a flying officer in the 404 maritime reconnaissance squadron He enlisted in 1951 when the canadian forces were joining in the korean war So james died in 1952 at the age of 20 and he was laid to rest in the prospect cemetery in ontario And they were both the grandsons of william macara who was the father of the macara twins and so, you know, definitely some tragedy in those lines and um hardships Now here was another one that was nominated and this is barbara handling. She was born in 1882 in ryerson, ontario She was the daughter of henry smith and catherine mitchell smith and they were both carpenters by trade, which was interesting not a occupation you generally see for women during that time And barbara had trained as a teacher and by the age of 19. She was already employed as such in berks ball Now she organized the webwood dramatic society staging plays musicals and variety shows for the town She was elected to the webwood public school board in 1923 And she held that position for 12 years She was re-elected mayor seven times Serving eight terms in total Her politics focused on improving the community and providing for relief Besides being mayor. She also served on her local ration committee during the second world war She died in 1959 at the age of 76. Her husband joseph died two years later So definitely i can see catherine while you guys nominated this one too. I mean that woman is just incredible Now here we have uh gene pogo and she was born in 1924 in ottawa canada She worked at her father's bakery after a year of college She married the assistant that she had hired which was an accountant named arthur pogo They cut the cake at their wedding with a night given to her father by king george the sixth That's really cool. Oh, that's a story right And yeah, I wouldn't let anybody else touch it except for the wedding. Okay, put it back up now Put it back up. It's got yeah, it had had the king's fingerprints on it She became a member of parliament with a progressive conservative party in 1976 And in 1984 she was appointed chairwoman of the national capital commission by prime minister brian molroni and then As you can see here gene is related to barbara via her husband's family and barbara's sister-in-law So, you know related by marriage, but still in the sphere of each other's world not that far apart And the women and gene's family were equally as committed to helping their communities So, you know where gene was the first woman Chair chairperson of ontario hydro. She received the order of canada in 1995 Her sister margaret and morrison hail Also received the order of canada in 2006 She was the governor of the university of ottawa president of the beachwood national cemetery And honorary colonel of the governor general's foot guards the first woman to ever do so They had a third sister who I don't have the name of That was equally incredible and they called them ottawa's Legendary the three sisters So my god, I had no idea about this That's incredible. Yeah, it was really great I just love all the stuff everybody finds these researchers always, you know our wiki-triers do such a great job And I try and participate when I can but there's some of them that just plug away at this all week And you know, they just really dig in there and help bring these people back And you know, they made a lot of connections While they were doing so they found a lot of these little stories And you know just always amazes me really impressive work And then, you know, one of the things too I found interesting is, you know, they were saying the margaret was known for doing all of those things that she did She also oversaw the production of the centennial cake. Now this cake stood 20 feet tall It was covered in 700 pounds of icing And it fed the 40 000 canadiens who came to pearl of it hill for the country's birthday back That is the most canadian thing I've ever heard in my life Everybody who shows up biggest Yeah Who else would you ask to oversee something like that? But somebody like that, you know They're like they we can do anything. Just tell me what it is. You know, we can do it Now here we had another set of twins and John and Lewis Landon they were twins born in 1853 in Fitzroy They were sons of a farmer Now John married in 1873 Lewis married in 1878 They lived in Aberneth the Saskatchewan in 1921 Lewis saved a child's life in 1888 when a huge prairie fire arose And you know, he actually risked his own life to go get this child out and he was badly burned during the rescue And you know, amazingly enough both men died in 1938 in Regina Saskatchewan You know, and they talk about the bond between, you know, say couples that have been married for 50 60 years How a lot of times they'll pass together You know, these men it's not like they were young and it was an accident. They died they both died in 1938 in Regina And so it just really You know emphasizes that strong bond that those brothers had to have Now here was another interesting one we have George Souch who was born in 1916 in York His father was a telegraph operator in Toronto He joined the royal canadian air force during world war two And he was he was flying in teneja as an officer bomb aimer when he was killed during operations in 1943 So he had been awarded this distinguished flying cross He was only 26 years old and had never married Same Yeah, and those are always so sad and you know here we had some other military members There was a lot more than this we always try and you know, we list these on the space page and and kathryn I'll give you the link to that You know, if you don't have it already Because it is one thing we try and do is make sure these are listed and these are just some of the ones that were in the military We have sergeant edwin lever boy who was ninth canadian forces artillery in world war one We have private alfred cop away who was 93rd battalion 57th regiment John robert gordon mcallum who was the uncle of jong boyd in world war one royal air force John william harding was a gunner in canadian field artillery. He died in 1916 in france And actually we had mary baird Who during world war two served as a wren wren in the canadian naval Navy which was the woman's royal canadian naval service So, you know, that was just really cool that we were able to add a female during that time Yeah, definitely that's That's amazing and just to see how like Just the diversity of stories is just incredible. I'm like kind of speechless here the diversity of stories is really incredible Even with the same family Yeah, there's there's just so many and you know, we can only like fit so many into this time Yeah, I know it's like, what do I pick though? Who do I pick out of this because they did just find so many incredible people You know and here on wiki tree. We're showing we're all cousins by blood or marriage And you know right now well when this started being put together, we were at 28 million 146 480 people you know connected and One of the things that is a great feature on wiki tree is our connection finder And so once you're connected to the global tree as we call it You can see how you're connected to anybody else that is out there in that global tree also And so, you know, you can go to george washington and say what is he you know to me and it will show you the relationship Whether it is by blood or marriage and how far away And so, you know, one of the things that we did is we checked our seven individuals to see Which of the other seven they were the closest to And it turns out that out of the four the closest connection Um Four of the seven sorry have the closest connection with barbara. So That was interesting. So lc is 17 degrees from barbara. Edwin is 19 Beatrice is 20 and fanny is 24 degrees Interesting. Wow Yeah, and these are the four charts and that's just what you can see is it'll Walk you along that path and show you who all the people are in between them And here once again 17 degrees apart lc and barbara were the closest connection of any of our seven individuals And we did kind of wonder if they would wind up Any blood lines direct blood lines overlapping, but we did not uh, we did not have that And so um, that was something that we looked for though And here we have edwin and lc connect through his mother And elinor void on her side of the family And that shows the connection 19 degrees from lc knot. So it swaps uh over Where you see the color changes from yellow to green and then back to yellow. That's where a marriage occurred and so I don't know why this one is stuck We also checked the relationship and connection finders to see who the seven might be related to the canadian prime ministers So there is one one of the closest relationship was with prime minister trudeau and they are 15th cousins And that would be lc. So lc and justin trudeau are actually 15th cousins uh related by blood And their Yeah, their common ancestor is helen douglas oval v Who was born about 1435 in scotland And she was the daughter of william douglas second earl of angus Um, there were a couple others who had some closer connections with other prime ministers So we have Beatrice Tillman was 16 degrees from charles tougher Who is of course the seventh prime minister of canada? um alton parker and robert lair borden We have uh our 19 degrees apart and then we have barbra handley who's 17 degrees from the current prime minister justin trudeau And you know while we were doing those countries we researched where canada china england ireland russian empire scotland ukraine and the united states So it's really fun that we were you know, you guys gave us a lot of diversity and we were really able to branch out And for anybody that's watching with questions about this You'll be able to go to wikitree.com for any questions And you know just while the credits plan before I go ahead and let uh megan and catherine get some talk time too And charlain here I do want to thank all of the incredible wikitriers that help with this research They found just an incredible amount of discoveries and it really a fun uh group to work with and so You know that was really wonderful Wow, i'm incredible The amount of detail surprised you after all you did you did with the amount of detail some of the stories Um and things that you found on some of the extended Lines of the families were really incredible. Um, so like Thank you. Yeah, thanks to all the research the hard work. They're dead And finding all that detail. So now what i'm going to be doing as soon as we're done here I'm hopping on over to wikitree and i'm going to be looking at all I want to look at the profiles Like I want to go back and look at the profiles of those seven individuals Because what I did when I chose those seven individuals Is I actually went to wikitree to see if They even had a profile to begin with and I know some of them did and some of them didn't And the ones that did there still wasn't even very much information On wikitree about them when we began this challenge And just even the ones that you were showing mendee The profiles of you know a couple of the people you were showing I could just see how much more Information was added to that person's profile You know all the information about siblings and children and things like that That were found for these individuals. It's it's really incredible. So thank you. I think you're going to be very surprised kathryn I think so too. I think so too. I can go back now and look at all the stories You know that people were alluding to And get the details About them, you know, because just for people who don't know There's a channel on discord For the current challenge and so I had to say I I was really good. I did not peek I did not go on the current challenge channel on discord to look and see what was going on And so I wanted to be surprised and I was I was very much surprised and I know It's a big kudos to the people who volunteer their time on wikitree and how much love and Passion they have for family history and you know, they really you know delve into The details and you know just some of the other challenges that I've participated in I can see people And the collaboration and the time they spanned and you know, I would say if if you ever get stuck on a brick wall And you know, you've run out of options I'd say post it on wikitree and see what happens because the people out there are amazing Absolutely amazing. So thank you So just one more thing mendee you have to explain the train Oh, and you know and this is not um, yeah Catherine was wondering why somebody made a one of you researchers weren't supposed to comment in general chat and you did You're supposed to keep it in current challenge, but you didn't know that so that's okay. I still love you Um, you know and not to make light of anybody's tragic tragedy certainly But I have to say that I never in my life would have guessed there were so many deaths to trains You know in the mid 19th century that there were I just never would have guessed and that's one thing that we've consistently found with the challenge Is you know, we had times where we went months and every challenge week We found somebody that died from a train that was hit by a train Every challenge week we had somebody and you know, and so then the one week we didn't we'd all be It's like you're waiting for the shoe to drop, you know, you're like, okay Who found the train story now because uh somebody and somebody in chat pops in with one And they're like, oh, yeah, that'd be you know, john smith over off this line Yeah, he was hit by a train because this happened and I just a crazy amount of them, you know And that's another thing of course. That's why they're safety Roles and whatnot that there are nowadays You know even for any of the railroad tracks let alone at a train station You know so that those things don't happen But just really amazing the amount of people we found and yeah, we find one almost every time So, um, yeah, somebody was making a comment the other day that that was so 2022 So we need to find some better news to focus on This year and hopefully not continue to find Horrible tragic, you know trained us. I mean, it's just crazy. Yeah, and we did find one this week Yeah Yeah, unfortunately we did The uh, I'm excited. I think one of the first things I'm going to go do is figure out where Sam's shop was on Adelaide So I can go down and visit Because I would love to see what it looks like now. So Yeah, and I was going to say Catherine Catherine and Megan either of you that are looking at it You'll want to go get a snack first and then set at your computer And get ready to read the notes on sam because what you don't find are new parents But what you will find is that we are very vocal with our research notes and Putting down negative evidence and there is a ton of information there You know, once again, we only have seven days to work on this and so You know, you could only do so much in seven days But there's all kinds of hints for future researchers And I know there's a few that just didn't want to give it up So they've continued to add things or posting message boards You know about sam and there's just an incredible amount of research posted on his profile So I mean, you'll definitely want to take a look at that Cool Good stuff. Lots of good stuff. Lots of good stuff to follow up on Yeah, definitely, you know And it's funny because I looked it up. I looked it up because you know when you're saying the first uh person of chinese uh Chinese origin in toronto. So I went and I looked it up and according to the 2021 census. There's now almost 700 thousand Chinese uh Chinese People of chinese origin in toronto So gosh, that's hugely Imagine being the only one or or among such a small group Yeah, yeah, what like yeah, I know they said it was like four men that were there Yeah The the four that came in initially and I can't even imagine You know going into a new country and you know, everybody dresses different and talks different and You know, I just really incredibly brave of them to even venture out like that And they weren't treated very well No for the other people They were not no that I didn't know I know a little bit about the history of The chinese the asian population in canna and the treatment that they received and it was horrible Part of the reason I think that they opened a laundry it was going to be uh was a pure necessity because We had um the chinese head tax in canada, which really limited the chinese population coming into canada So there was quotas put on them.  They were only allowed to do certain professions So, you know, they were like well because you're chinese you can pick one of these things and that's it You know, you can't take these other jobs at all And you know so to limit them on where they may have had some amazing skills elsewhere You know, maybe they were good at carpentry or something back home. You don't really know Unfortunately, you know that that was stifled and they were put in a very very narrow lane on what they can do Right Which just makes it all the more impressive though that they thrived Exactly. Exactly. Yeah Um The think I thank you again Yeah, thank you to the volunteers Um for all the information they found out about the seven people I'm going to go find out how I'm all related to them Because I heard there's somebody scottish. So I that's the only thing I know Family history for sure. So that's what I'm going to go Cool And I know this week too. There was the Ontario profiles. Well have fun The the Ontario profiles are being Kind of showcased this week on wikichu as well because you were right up Our prime minister justin chudeau and margaret atwood the author. Yeah So I was filling around with some of those today to see um What degree of you know separation or connectedness? So the closest one out of those people that were posted today for me was margaret atwood To 16 degrees between the two of us. Oh, that's good Yeah, so now I'll go back through these seven and see if there's any connections at all Yeah, just to see just to see you never know Uh Your team is incredible your team of volunteers are phenomenal.  Thank you so much for allowing us to be part of this Thank you for giving us some great name. Well, it was our pleasure and Um, so it was our pleasure and you know, we certainly had a lot of fun It was really great You know working with you guys and being able to put this stuff together and you definitely have a lot to look through If you guys have any questions, you can reach out to me or sheryl and you know, we can hopefully answer them for you and um, I think we will go ahead and wrap this up for the night though Uh, thank you everybody that came and watched it was really a great week If you were one of the researchers a double. Thank you to you And we'll see you for the next one


So I was a moderator for Children, Youth, Digital Media, Health and Well-Being, which is a really big topic, but we were talking generally about technology and how it relates to and can be used for the health and well-being of youth. We talked about three different ways that we can think about technology in youth and kids, and one is technology, the issues that we worry about with technology, like, you know, distraction and things like that. We also talked about technology as tool as a way to reach kids and apps and those sort of things, and we talked about technology as a setting, and that I think is what's really fascinating to me. We know, especially when it comes to mental health, that there are kids who really need services who aren't getting them, and by reaching them through social media and through technology, it allows us to rethink so much of what we do for kids and youth. We also acknowledge that there's a lot of risks out there. We talked about video games and violent video games, and we talked about predation on kids, and I think that, as with everything, it's all a risk-benefit ratio and the double-edged sword, and the real challenge for us as people who work in technology and work with youth is to find the way to move it towards good and away from bad and to educate and find the right funders and sponsors and thinkers to make this work for our youth. We talked a lot about how to spin this for funders, how to get the support that we need. We talked about ways that we can collaborate and bring together research and policy makers and practitioners like me, and I think that's what's so great about this conference is that we're getting all in the same room and we can share our ideas and find ways to work together.


Good morning and welcome to the 13th annual Big Talk from Small Libraries online conference. We reached our teens. Yay. Happy birthday to us. I am Krista Porter. I am the Library Development Director at the Nebraska Library Commission. And along with the Association for Rural and Small Libraries, we host this annual online conference, Big Talk from Small Libraries. Over the years, before we started doing the conference in 2012, we've heard a lot from small rural libraries that the conferences are great, conferences they attend are great, but they would love something really, really focused for them and from them. And so we decided to create this conference where all of our presenters are from libraries who have either a population served or an FTE of 10,000 less is our goal. Every now and then, there's a few that break that, but that's what we try to keep to. So welcome everybody to today's conference. We have a full day of sessions coming up. If you have any questions, comments, thoughts throughout the show, you can type into the questions section of your GoToWebinar interface. It is showing slides earlier about that and in between sessions, I will be re-showing those slides as well. We are recording almost the entire day today as well, so if you do miss any of the sessions, you can pop in and out as you like with the same login link that you used, and it's also posted here on our conference page. Come and go as you like. We will watch recordings later. If you are interested in earning continuing education credits for attending today's conference, for libraries here in Nebraska, we have a special CE reporting form that was sent out and it's available on the website. Anyone else, you will receive an email after the conference is over that it confirms that you attended today, and you can use that and print that to whoever it grants your CE credits in your area. All right, so as I said, Association for Real and Small Libraries is our co-sponsor for this, and with us today, we have their current president, Patrick. Good morning, Patrick. Morning, everyone. Yes, of joining us very early from Oregon. Thank you so much for being here.  You should see that little pop up. I think I got it. There we go. Looks good. Perfect. I'm going to actually get the start button then. There you go. Yes. Loading, loading. Welcome. Perfect. Hello. Welcome. Awesome. So I'm happy to be here. This is my first time not just as an attendee. I actually get to say something, and that's a little nerve wracking, but big talk from small libraries has been super fun attended over the past few years. As Krista said, my name is Patrick Bodley. I am currently the president of the Association for Real and Small Libraries, and I am the library director in Independence, Oregon, which is just across the Willamette River from Salem. Our legal service area is so rural. We just crossed 10,000 at the last census, and we have a staff of 3.7 so that means me and I have 3 other people that I work with. But yeah, so that's a little bit about me, and I'm excited to be here and kick us all off. I was hoping or planning on giving just a brief spill about what ARSL is, and for those that don't know, I know we have members that are presenting today of ARSL. I know that we have members that are attending, but that's part of the deal is we get the ARSL spill since we're co-sponsoring. ARSL was first founded in 1984, which means that yes, this is our 40th anniversary this year. We currently have members in every state in the union as well as we've started expanding into provinces in Canada, which is really exciting, and we like the big talk from smart libraries continue to grow. Our conference in 2023 was in Wichita. That was our largest in-person gathering yet. I didn't know that, that's amazing, awesome. Yeah, part of that is because as we were starting out, the venues that we found had cap attendance, we could only go to so many people in one location, and so we've made a commitment as a board and as an organization to no longer use places where we have to cap attendance. We want to make everyone that can come available to come to our conferences. But in addition to that, as of this month, as of February 2024, we've also provided more than a million dollars in grant funding and conference scholarships to librarians and library professionals nationwide. So that is exciting because, you know, there's never enough money to go around and if we can help and pass some along, that is always a good thing. So ARSL, just like every organization, we do have a mission and a vision. We strive to be a supportive and valuable resource for our members and not only just the members, but everyone who is a part of the small library community. Our organizational leadership is guided by this mission and vision, as well as our organizational values, which basically means that we recognize small and rural libraries are unique, both in the strengths that we share and the challenges that we face. It's really necessary that these libraries have an organization to turn to, and that's prepared to support their success in the ways that they need us to and always doing that with the uniqueness of small libraries in mind. That means that when we plan our events, our conferences, other things like that, we do that much like big top-frontal libraries in ways that we don't need to scale down to fit our attendees or fit our members focus on advocacy that highlights the ways that our member libraries are small, but also that they're mighty. We can do many great things and ARSL is there to brag about it when no one else has the time or effort or ability and availability to brag about themselves. We're here to do that. So, obviously, members are great, and you get some stuff when you become a member. My favorite thing is the E-List. I don't know how many friends I've made off of that.  I don't know. There's been so many questions even just this last month that have popped out on that that people have saved all of the answers to and then shared out with the rest of the group because it's a question that everyone is facing at that time or something like that. Also get access to the membership directory which, of course, if there are privacy concerns, you can pop out of that. We also provide Zoom rooms for our members if they need to do library programming and don't have that full access. I'm hoping the train behind me is not too very loud, but we're doing great. Oh, is that what I was trying to figure out, Wudu? We're right on the train tracks and it decided that now's the time to come through. Small libraries is great, right? Anyway, we also provide Zoom rooms if you need that Zoom license but can't afford it. Our members are able to use ours for library programming or staff activities, trainings, things like that. We also provide reduced cost of tenants at ARSL and free access to some specific members only round table and networking events, and obviously the opportunity to serve on one of our boards or one of our committees that we've got going forward. Membership starts at just $20 for individuals and $70 for organizations. At ARSL we have intentionally kept our membership costs low because we want to ensure that as many librarians, library professionals, libraries as possible can afford to take part in the association and can afford to get the help and the advocacy and the training that they feel they need. Mentioned our upcoming continuing education series. We call them train. It stands for training round tables and information networking. We have, as you can see on the slide, upcoming series on community mapping, managing staff relationships, grant funding, business support, and I'm really excited for the one in June on addressing food and security in small and rural communities. It's been a good partnership that we've had going on and we're finally presenting some things that we found on that. So that one is exciting for me. Also mentioned the professional networking groups. These are, these have just started up in the last year, year and a half, realize that sometimes it's good to get together and just vent. And so we provide a way so that people who have a different affinity, whether they're solo-ish librarians or directors or readers advisory, focus on that, as well as our LGBTQIA plus library workers, workers of color, neurodivergent library workers. We try to provide a space for folks to get together and just be with other like-minded individuals. That's one of the best parts about conferences. That's one of the best parts about when we get together as librarians is that we can find our people and we're trying to provide spaces for us to find our people. Also, I would get in trouble if I didn't mention our conferences in the fall. We're going to be in Springfield, Massachusetts this year. Last year, I mentioned we're in Wichita. We do try to rotate through each of the West, Midwest, South, Northeast regions of the country so that people from that region can come. But very excited. It is September 11th through 14th in Springfield, Massachusetts. And I hope to see you all there. With that in mind, like I said, my name is Patrick. On the screen, you'll see my contact information. Please reach out if you have any questions about ARSL. There's anything that I can help you with. If you have questions about sourdough bread baking, I'm happy to be here and chat. And of course, the ARSL office, they are open Monday through Friday, 7 AM to 5 Pacific time. They're located in Seattle. But that means that our Nebraska folks, I saw that map beforehand, we have folks from across the country today. And that is exciting. But that means that we try to be available to folks no matter where they're at. They're very, very responsive as well as follow them on social media and reach out to them that way. But that is, yeah, that's what we've got. Very excited. Leave that slide up. No, wait, I'm going to leave that slide up for a minute. We'll still be able to see your contact info there while we grab things up here. I saw you did have mentioned on the conference page about scholarships coming for attending. Yes. They'll open up late next week, I think it was. The 27th, so next Tuesday. Awesome. So definitely look for those if you need to funding to travel. And also check with your state library here in Nebraska. We hear through the Nebraska Library Commission and our regional library systems do offer continuing education grants that you can definitely use to help cover the cost of attending ARSL, both registration travel costs, all of that. So you're in Nebraska Library, look for our grants opening up in March, actually, I believe for the fall for continuing education grants. In 2012, that's how I attended my first ARSL conference as I got a grant from my state library. Yeah. There are lots, there's lots of money out there from your states. Yeah. And I will mention too. So thank you so much, Patrick. This is great. I'm going to see you again. You've been on other online things that we do together. So yeah. All right. I am going to pull presenter control to my screen now briefly. Get our schedule for the day going. And yeah, hello, Megan. Yeah. And I forgot, I realized I didn't mention the beginning. Patrick explained what ARSL is. For those of you not from Nebraska, what is the Nebraska Library Commission? What's that all about? The Nebraska Library Commission is the state agency for libraries here in Nebraska. So similar to your state library. We're just a commission. So we are just a state agency, just like your state library would be. And we provide resources and training and services and grants and databases, et cetera, et cetera, to all the libraries in the state. And we have this go-to webinar account. As Patrick said, we have over a thousand seats available in the conference today in our go-to webinar accounts. We have plenty of room for everyone. Today, we have pre-registered 426 people, which is awesome. That's a great number. But anyone who wants to can come in on the fly during the day. As you can see here, the login instructions are posted publicly now on our website. And they have been pushed out to our Facebook and Twitter accounts, the link as well. So if you know someone who would want to attend or you think should be attending today and they didn't get pre-registered, not a problem. Send them to our website and tell them to log in on the fly. Come join us. And see what's happening in our small libraries.