CAN-NEWFOUNDLAND-L Archives

From: "Bill Taylor" <>
Subject: Busy Making History-- Volunteers from all over, who share Newfoundland connections, are preserving pieces of our past
Date: Fri, 30 Jun 2006 16:36:11 -0230

The following is the article that I had mentioned previously that had appeared in The Telegram on June 27...

The Telegram (St. John's)
News, Tuesday, June 27, 2006, p. A1

Busy Making History
Volunteers from all over, who share Newfoundland connections, are preserving
pieces of our past

BARB SWEET

THE TELEGRAM


Out there in cyberland exists a world inhabited by ancestors who left behind a paper trail being patched together by an army of farflung volunteers who share a connection to this province.

The website, Newfoundland's Grand Banks Genealogical and Historical Data (http://ngb.chebucto.org), started out as a private site and has mushroomed to contain thousands of documents, obituaries and photos.

More than 70,000 people click on it every day.

The site was started in 1998 by Bill Grant, whose family was from Ramea. He started transcribing the 1921 census and put together a group of volunteers to help.

There are now wills, vessel lists, vital statistics, photo directories, voter lists, business directories and gazettes, fishing rooms and planters' files and legal documents. There's also a section devoted to the Newfoundland Regiment and the First World War.

It's all managed by a core group of volunteers who lead a larger group.

Don Tate, co-webmaster, developed an interest in Newfoundland through his wife, whom he met while stationed at the radar site on Logy Bay Road. The couple moved back to the U.S. where Tate spent 30 years in the air force. They now live in Florida.

"She indoctrinated me well," Tate said. "Her family is still there in St. John's. We enjoy ourselves when we get back there."

It's typical for Tate and others to spend eight hours a day maintaining the site.

His co-webmaster is Craig Peterman, who lives in St. John's.

Peterman, who's retired from Aliant, first thought he'd work on his own genealogy. He contacted Tate and ended up putting an enormous amount of time into the website, but little on his own research.

"It's certainly the largest collection of free material available for Newfoundland on the Internet," Peterman said, pointing out that a lot of people doing research in Newfoundland are visitors who may only have a week or two to hunt for information.

"In archives it's hard to find stuff. You're looking at original material, handwritten in a lot of cases."

"Until somebody tells us to quit, there are no plans to discontinue," Tate said. "All of us are having a ball. All these people have family connections to Newfoundland. We do it out of enjoyment."

The website weaves together tales of tragedy, life and death, marriages, births and bequests.

Old newspaper accounts tell compelling stories, such as this one from October 1866:

"An inquest was held on Saturday evening on view of the body of Michael McGRATH, labourer at Messrs. Bowring's, who lost his life by having fallen into a boiler of boiling oil. He lingered for two days after the accident,
when death ended his sufferings. A verdict of accidental death was returned by the jury. It is rather singular that this poor fellow's wife and son were burned to death last winter in a house which was destroyed by fire at the South Side."

In 1861, Henry Earle, army and navy tailor and general clothier, was compelled to place an advertisement to clear his name and set the tone for a future business venture. That ad is among the thousands of files on the site:

"Begs to return his best thanks to his excellency the governor and predecessors, for the past 20 years; to the board of ordinance and the garrison in general, to clergymen of different denominations, and the public generally of this island, for their kind support; and would inform those who have sent on their orders this spring to be executed, that in consequence, principally from malicious slander and misrepresentation from whom better things are spoken but not practised, and tyranny and persecution from a private clique, his business is so injured that he is compelled to give up the same, and desires now to be intimate to his friends and the public in general, that he has opened a hotel, styled the Prince of Wales, which may be recognized by his royal highness' motto and plume. Refreshments can be had as customary. Brandy, gin, whiskey, Jamaica rum, port, sherry, ale, porter, etc., by the bottle, quart or gallon. Also, ginger beer, soda water, lemonade, ginger wine, etc. e!
tc. - terms, Cash on delivery. H. E. can accommodate a few gentlemen with board and lodging."

There's also a section devoted to explaining how communities have changed names. Tors Cove, for example, started out as Toad's Cove, from the old English word "tode" meaning fox. An island near the shoreline is known as Fox Island and "Tors Cove" came into being in January 1910.

A striking component of the site is its 5,000 photographs from all over the province. There's also a page of unidentified photos showing gatherings, soldiers, children, couples and others whose images ended up in collections
with no identity attached to them. Sometimes photos are identified by people who click on the site.

Documents are included verbatim and volunteers even take picture of gravesites to help users gain insight.

"There's well over 100 people that actually help with the transcribing," Tate said.

"Our emphasis is original source documents. We try to provide accurate material as possibly can be transcribed exactly as written. There are no changes.

"It's about the only actual way these people can get access to original documents without travelling to Newfoundland," he added.

Other key people managing the website include Ivy Benoit of Doyles, Dan Breen in Calgary, Mary Rawlinson in North Carolina and Evelyn Woudenburg of Long Pond.




Illustration(s):

A group skaters on the frozen Narrows in 1938 in St. John's. From left are:
Evelyn Wheeler Morry, Max Rabbitts, Roslyn Morris, Ralph Hanebury and Jessie
Calver, all co-workers in the Government Customs Office.
Newfoundland's Grand Banks website includes a section devoted to
unidentified photographs, such as those shown here, inviting visitors to
solve the mystery, if they can.
St. John's resident Craig Peterman stands among headstones at the older
section of the Anglican Cemetery on Forest Road.

Category: News
Uniform subject(s): Internet, information technologies and multimedia; High
winds and tornadoes
Length: Long, 805 words

© 2006 The Telegram (St. John's). All rights reserved.

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• Busy Making History-- Volunteers from all over, who share Newfoundland connections, are preserving pieces of our past by "Bill Taylor" <>