Finding Mr. Wong

Finding Mr. Wong
Author: Susan Crean
Publisher:
Total Pages: 272
Release: 2018-06-15
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 9781772011944

Susan Crean's memoir Finding Mr. Wong chronicles her effort to piece together the life of the man she knew as Mr. Wong, cook and housekeeper to her Irish Canadian family for two generations. Reminiscing, Crean writes, "I grew up in Mr. Wong's kitchen ..." A Chinese Head Tax payer hired by Crean's grandfather in 1928, Wong Dong Wong remained on the job following Gordon Crean's death in 1947. Mr. Wong eventually retired in 1965 and moved to Chinatown. Crean's homage weaves the various strands of her memories of and discoveries about Mr. Wong during the last 25 years of his life; she travels the streets and histories of Chinatowns in Vancouver and Toronto, Canada, and twice she visits Guangdong, China, where she located his home village, found descendants of his father's brother, and learned the beginning of his story: orphaned as a newborn, then brought to Canada by his uncle, Wong YeeWoen. At the core of the narrative are Crean's observations of the blurred lines between numerous socio-cultural dynamics (worker/employer, family/servant, child/adult). She particularly considers relationships that cross race as well as class. Beginning with the partnership formed by Crean's grandfather and Mr. Wong - a partnership whose long alliance and evident mutual regard guaranteed Wong's presence in Crean's own story - she relates her own experience grappling with racism as a small child in the Vancouver of the 1950s and 1960s. Crean's exploration also considers memory and its role in the writing and researching of a book such as this. She meditates on the ways socio-cultural issues are represented (or not) in film and literature, ultimately combining fiction with historical recreations and memoir. Finding Mr. Wong is an important contribution to a growing body of writings that illuminate the lives of people silenced or otherwise negated by myopic history.

Old Square-Toes and His Lady

Old Square-Toes and His Lady
Author: John David Adams
Publisher: TouchWood Editions
Total Pages: 258
Release: 2011
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 192697171X

August 12, 2003, marks the 200th anniversary of the birth of Sir James Douglas. Although he played an integral role in British Columbia's history, in many ways Douglas remains misunderstood and an enigma. He is known for his contradictory qualities -- he was self-serving, racist, a military hawk, sometimes violent and arrogant. Yet he was also extremely community oriented, a humanitarian, brave and a devoted family member. John Adam's bestseller Old Square-Toes and His Lady: The Life of James and Amelia Douglas serves as an important source of information regarding Douglas's public and private lives. As Adams writes, [the term] old square-toes characterizes him as an unbending, stodgy, boring individual, but nothing could be further from the truth. At the pinnacle of his career, Douglas was knighted by order of Queen Victoria. Considering his modest, mixed-race beginnings in South America, his lofty status is, indeed, remarkable. Equally so is the life of his wife, Amelia. She was also of mixed blood, her mother being Cree and her father Irish. But unlike Douglas, who was educated in Scotland, she never left the northern forests until they married. Their ending up as a knight and lady of the British Empire was an unusual achievement. Old Square-Toes discusses the Douglases' diverse experiences of astonishing contrasts, from crossing North America by canoe to touring Europe by train, from Native uprisings to the frantic gold rush. Besides finding glory, they also faced grief in losing seven of their beloved children. This is a story of the adventure, heartbreak, and devotion that lies at the roots of western Canada.

A Sourcebook for Genealogical Research

A Sourcebook for Genealogical Research
Author: Foster Stockwell
Publisher: McFarland
Total Pages: 337
Release: 2015-09-18
Genre: Social Science
ISBN: 0786484381

Genealogists can sometimes require obscure resources when in search of information about ancestors. Tracking down records to complete a family tree can become laborious when the researcher doesn't know where to begin looking. Many of the best resources are maintained regionally or even locally, and aren’t widely known. This reference work serves as a guide to both beginning and experienced genealogy researchers. The sourcebook is easily accessible and usable, featuring approximately 270 entries on all aspects of genealogical research and family history compilation. The entries are listed alphabetically and cross-referenced so any researcher can quickly find the information he or she is seeking. Each state and each of the provinces of Canada has its own entry; other countries are listed under appropriate headings. The author also provides more than 700 addresses from all over the world so that the genealogist or general researcher may contact any one of these organizations to obtain specific information about particular births, deaths, marriages, or other life events in order to complete a family tree.

A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your Irish Ancestors

A Genealogist's Guide to Discovering Your Irish Ancestors
Author: Dwight A. Radford
Publisher: Penguin
Total Pages: 372
Release: 2012-02-24
Genre: Reference
ISBN: 144032428X

Discover your roots! Everything you need to start your Irish ancestry is in this book. You'll learn how to investigate the various generation of your family, the events that shaped their lives, the details about how they lived, and the story of their emigration.Inside you'll find: • Guidelines for determining an Irish ancestor's place of origin • Advice for accessing Irish cemetery, land, church, estate, census, and military records • Civil registration of births, marriages and deaths as well as emigration lists • Sources and strategies for researching Irish ancestors that settled in Canada, Australia, New Zealand, England, Scotland, Wales, and the Caribbean Plus answers to common questions: How far back in time can you expect to trace your family; and how does Protestant Irish research differ from Catholic Irish research?

Journeys Home

Journeys Home
Author: Andrew McCarthy
Publisher: National Geographic Books
Total Pages: 292
Release: 2015
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1426213816

"Actor and award-winning travel writer Andrew McCarthy discovers his ancestry in a compelling narrative that combines 26 intriguing and heartfelt stories about discovering home and roots with tips and recommendations on how to begin your own explorations. Addressing the explosive growth in ancestral travel, actor and travel writer Andrew McCarthy recounts his own quest to uncover his family's Irish history, along with 25 other prominent writers whose stories span the globe. Each story offers a personal take on journeying home; actively seeking unknown relatives, meeting up with seldom-seen family members, or perhaps just visiting the old country to get a feel for one's roots. Sidebars and a hefty resource section provide tips and recommendations on how to go about your own research, and a foreword by the Genographic Project's Spencer Wells sets the scene. Stunning images, along with family heirlooms, old photos, recipes, and more, round out this unique take on the genealogical research craze"--Provided by publisher.

International Genealogy and Local History

International Genealogy and Local History
Author: Ruth Hedegaard
Publisher: Walter de Gruyter
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2008-08-27
Genre: Language Arts & Disciplines
ISBN: 3598440901

This book contains the papers delivered at sessions organised by the Genealogy and Local History Section at the annual conferences of the International Federation of Library Associations and Institutions (IFLA) between 2001 and 2005; many of these are updated versions of the original presentations. A wide range of significant issues and trends in historical and family research is covered. The authors, all experts in their own fields, address those engaged in delivering genealogy and local history services in libraries, archives and museums across the world. Moreover, they focus on the growing army of enthusiasts directly engaged in tracing their own ancestral and local history. Several papers give useful hints on how various resources can be used to further personal research. These include the exciting opportunities offered by the digitisation of primary resources and by the impact of the powerful new technology, among other things now on offer through DNA profiling.

Distorted Descent

Distorted Descent
Author: Darryl Leroux
Publisher: Univ. of Manitoba Press
Total Pages: 224
Release: 2019-09-20
Genre: History
ISBN: 0887555942

Distorted Descent examines a social phenomenon that has taken off in the twenty-first century: otherwise white, French descendant settlers in Canada shifting into a self-defined “Indigenous” identity. This study is not about individuals who have been dispossessed by colonial policies, or the multi-generational efforts to reconnect that occur in response. Rather, it is about white, French-descendant people discovering an Indigenous ancestor born 300 to 375 years ago through genealogy and using that ancestor as the sole basis for an eventual shift into an “Indigenous” identity today. After setting out the most common genealogical practices that facilitate race shifting, Leroux examines two of the most prominent self-identified “Indigenous” organizations currently operating in Quebec. Both organizations have their origins in committed opposition to Indigenous land and territorial negotiations, and both encourage the use of suspect genealogical practices. Distorted Descent brings to light to how these claims to an “Indigenous” identity are then used politically to oppose actual, living Indigenous peoples, exposing along the way the shifting politics of whiteness, white settler colonialism, and white supremacy.

Canadiana

Canadiana
Author:
Publisher:
Total Pages: 1600
Release: 1990-05
Genre: Canada
ISBN: