Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada Archives

Archiving websites

We were very pleased to be accepted into the Internet Archives web archiving program, the Community Webs Program, this year. These days, so many organizations have websites, and these are sources of rich information about their organization, activities, and history. They are sources of multimedia including photographs, videos, and audio recordings. Websites are records just like physical materials, but they are different because they undergo constant change, and are subject to degradation and loss. In fact, according to Jill Lepore in her article in the New Yorker, “The Cobweb,” she states the lifespan of a webpage can be as little as 100 days! (see “The Cobweb,”)

So how do we preserve these fragile and ephemeral records? Thankfully, the vision of Brewster Kahle who founded the Internet Archive, has provided us with a tool, Archive-It, which can capture websites and replay them in their full functionality with another tool, the Wayback Machine.

As they explain it, the Community Webs Program provides participants with the opportunity to capture the stories of communities and diversify the historical record by preserving many voices. It provides the tools and skills to preserve the websites and social media platforms of local communities and their citizenry, attesting to their presence, visions, dreams, and hopes, so that future generations will know…we were here at this moment in time.

According to the Community Webs Program, there are now more than 150 members of this program. “These organizations have collectively archived over 100 terabytes of web-based community heritage materials, including more than 800 collections documenting the lives of local citizens, marginalized voices, and groups often absent from the historic record. The program and its participants have also created open educational resources relating to web archiving, digital preservation, community archiving, and collection development, explored new forms of local engagement and partnerships through public programming and crowdsourcing, and had their digital collections used by scholars and in computational research work.” (see About Community Webs)

We feel very fortunate to have been selected to participate in the Community Webs Program, and have been working to archive our own congregational website, and related websites of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada and the United States. It has been a learning curve, but we are so very grateful to the wonderful staff at Internet Archive who are so supportive, patient, and willing to guide us in this journey. While still a work in progress, you can see what we have accomplished so far by visiting our Community Webs site: Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada

The medical artifacts collection

Since 2016, the Congregation of the Sisters of St. Joseph in Canada Consolidated Archives has participated in the medical artifacts cataloguing project with St. Joseph’s Health Care in London, Ontario. As part of this project, 17 university students have acquired skills in museum registration, and many artifacts have been cleaned, labelled, photographed, and catalogued.

It’s been a fun project, as we’ve collaborated with the hospital staff, Noelle Tangredi, on two museum exhibits: one at the Provincial Legislature, and the other at Museum London. Noelle does a wonderful job of preparing medical artifact displays in the hospital exhibit space in Zone A, Level 1, off the main corridor closest to Richmond Street. We were so pleased that this space was officially opened by Sister Jane Marie Stock of our Congregation. Sister Jane Marie became the business manager and personnel director at St. Joseph’s Hospital in London, serving in this role from 1955-1966. From 1966-1979, she was the Assistant Executive Director of Financial and General Services at St. Joseph’s Hospital, and served as Superior at the hospital from 1975-1976. She also served as a member of many committees and boards including St. Joseph’s Health Centre, London and St. Joseph’s Health Centre Foundation of London.

Our Congregation donated powder coated steel shelving for artifacts storage, and our Congregational Archivist obtained funding from the Catholic Archives Group for a museum database so that catalogue records of artifacts are easily searchable. She also developed a manual for use in cataloguing the collection. In exchange for our support, the hospital has repatriated archival records from the period during which the Sisters administered the hospital, for safekeeping and long-term preservation in our archives. To us, this project has been a model of collaboration and love for the history of the Sisters.

Because of the pandemic, the medical artifacts cataloguing project has been on hiatus. We look forward to the day we can return to continue this important work.

Please enjoy this article from St. Joseph’s Health Care about this collection of intriguing medical implements and devices, which were used during the period that the Sisters ran the hospital. St. Joseph’s Hospital was founded by the Sisters on October 15, 1888 and administered by them until it became St. Joseph’s Health Centre in 1993.

A Passion for Our Past – St. Joseph’s Health Care London

Nurses in training, 1905, St. Joseph's Hospital, London, Ontario — Nurses in training

St. Joseph's Training School and residence, London, Ontario — Nurses in training

Caring for your Family Bible

By Jennifer Robertson, Book and Paper Conservation Services

**19th century family Bibles (photo credit: Book and Paper Conservation Service**s)

If you are lucky enough to have a family Bible that belonged to your ancestors, you probably treasure it very much. Family Bibles are often kept and passed down through generations, perhaps with precious memories attached of reading passages together, a special place in your relatives’ home, or even with written records inside. They can be important sources of genealogical information if a family tree was kept, as many 19^th century Bibles included specially printed pages for recording births, marriages and deaths in the family. Whatever the significance they carry, it is important to keep the physical book safe from damage and deterioration, so that it can continue to be passed down to later generations.

There are three factors that should be considered when caring for your family Bible; Environment, Storage, and Handling. All have an impact on the condition of your Bible, and you can make adjustments in many ways to keep it in good condition.

Environment

A Bible, like any book or artifact, is affected by the environmental conditions in which it lives. This includes factors like temperature, relative humidity (RH) and light. High temperatures and humidity can cause damage to the paper, cloth or leather used to make the Bible. The higher the temperature, the more dry and brittle the paper and leather will become, and the more likely it is to crack. High humidity, and the change between high and low humidity that is natural as weather swings from summer to winter, causes expansion and contraction of materials, putting strain on weak areas like covers, spine and endpapers. This also makes them more likely to crack, break or peel. Light can damage materials with sensitive dyes or colourings, resulting in faded and discoloured leather, cloth or illustrations.

The ideal environment for a Bible is between 18-21°C and 45-55% RH. Too high a temperature and too low RH results in brittleness and cracking, but too high can cause the growth of mould. These mid-levels are just the right amount to keep paper, cloth and leather healthy and supple. To keep your Bible safe, avoid storing it in a damp basement or dry attic, or close to a radiator or hot air vent. If possible, run an air conditioner and dehumidifier in the summer or a humidifier in winter if your home is very dry.

A digital hygrometer with books behind it. — **An inexpensive digital hygrometer can help you keep an eye on the temperature and humidity levels in your home (photo credit: Book and Paper Conservation Services)**

Keep your Bible out of direct light to prevent fading of materials. Direct sunlight falling on a bookshelf or high ambient light in a room with many windows can do damage after only a few months. A darker, interior room is best, or else keep the Bible in a drawer or storage box when not in use.

Storage

Careful storage can help preserve your Bible by keeping it safe from light, dirt and pests. Dust or soot from a fireplace, cigarette smoke or air pollution can soil or discolour your Bible, and frequent cleaning to remove these can also cause damage. If the Bible is kept in a seldom-used drawer or box with other items, it may also be tempting to pests such as silverfish, who like to eat the starch-based materials in paper and glue. A clean, dry, protected storage location goes a long way towards preserving a Bible or any special artifact.

An archival storage box or a clean, dedicated drawer or cupboard can offer safety for a Bible, protecting it from light and dirt, as long as some precautions are taken. If the Bible is large and heavy, it is a good idea to store it laying flat, on the back cover; if it is smaller, it can be stored standing vertically on a shelf, as long as it is supported on either side by other books of a similar size.

If you choose to store it in a drawer or cupboard, make sure the space is clean and dry, and line it with acid-free tissue or mylar to prevent transfer of acidity from wood or cardboard. Make sure there are no other objects close to the Bible that might cause damage when shuffled or jostled around. Wrapping it in acid-free tissue can also help to keep it clean and safe within the storage area.

An archival box is an ideal storage solution for a Bible. These come in different sizes, and are available from Library and Archives suppliers like Carr McLean or Brodart in Canada. They are made of special cardboard material that is acid-free and won’t cause damage to books. Again, wrapping it in acid-free or buffered tissue within the box is a good idea, especially if the box is slightly larger than the book. A snug fit is best, so the book won’t slide around if it is being moved. If you want to protect it more elegantly, you can commission a custom clamshell box to fit your book exactly, and have the box decorated and labelled in any way you wish.

**Family Bible in custom clamshell storage box (photo credit: Book and Paper Conservation Services)**

Handling and Use

Improper handling and use can cause a lot of damage to a delicate family Bible. Tears and breaks in the paper, detached covers, stains and spots all result from handling without proper precautions.

If you are going to take your Bible out to read or view, first make sure you have a clean, dry space to set it out and open it. Clear a table of other objects, and especially make sure there is no food or drink close by that could spill. Wash your hands with unscented soap and dry them thoroughly. Contrary to popular believe, clean dry hands are much better than white gloves for handling delicate books, as long as you are careful. Wearing gloves can dull your dexterity, and the cloth can catch on delicate pages causing them to break. The light oils on your hands can also help to keep the leather supple on the covers of a Bible.

If you are lifting it out of a box, go slowly and use both hands. If you are taking it off a bookshelf, be careful to grasp the book using your fingers and thumb on front and back covers, with your hand across the spine; never pull the book back with your finger hooked over the top and pulling on the spine, as this is likely to rip the endcap off and damage the binding.

Person removing book from shelf with hand across spine. — **The proper way to remove a book from a shelf, with hand across the spine, not pulling from the top (photo credit: Book and Paper Conservation Services)**

When paging through the book, set it on the table and support the cover as you hold it open, either with one hand or a book cradle or support. This will help keep the book open no further than a 90° angle, and avoid cracking the spine. Try to avoid opening the pages all the way to 180°, or letting the cover bend back even further.

Be sure to use a pencil and acid-free paper to make notes, or to leave a marker in the pages. Never leave a post-it note, newsprint or other scrap of unidentified paper within the Bible, as they can transfer colour or acidity to the pages, causing discolouration. It should also be said, never use paper clips, staples, rubber bands or other objects to mark a page!

Open book with newsclipping and acid burn on pages. — **Acid burn from newspaper clipping (photo credit: Book and Paper Conservation Services)**

If you want to consult a specific page frequently, say to show the genealogical entries to family or friends, you might consider taking a high quality photograph and printing out the image, so that you can pass around a facsimile rather than putting strain on the original material. The more frequently the book is opened the more likely the binding will suffer irreversible damage, and if you are simply referencing the information you don’t need to view the original page. However, avoid the use of a flat-bed scanner to reproduce a page in the Bible, as manipulating the book to lie open on a scanner bed is a risk to the binding. A digital photograph printed out is just as good, and can sometimes be enhanced to show text more legibly than the original.

In the past, collectors recommended applying oil-based leather dressing to bookbindings to keep the leather supple and soft; however, book conservators now advise against this, as excessive or inappropriate treatment can easily cause the opposite effect on leather. Keeping books clean and dry and away from extremes of humidity and temperature is a much safer way to preserve their bindings. If you have questions about repairs or rebinding options for your Bible, consult a professional conservator, bookbinder or archivist for more detailed information.

Following these guidelines will help preserve your family Bible for many years to come!

Resources

Resources:

Book and Paper Conservation Services – Conservation and repair, clamshell boxes etc.

Canadian Conservation Institute: Basic Care of Books

Library of Congress: Care, Handling, and Storage of Books

Brodart – Supplier of Library and Archives materials, such as archival storage boxes, acid-free tissue, book supports, etc.

Carr McLean – Supplier of Library and Archives materials, such as archival storage boxes, acid-free tissue, book supports, etc.

Researching your heritage home in Ontario

By Noelle Tangredi

There are many reasons to like old houses–the architecture, the decorative details and high ceilings. but many old home lovers feel a connection to the history of their old home. Every house has its story. Wouldn’t it be great to uncover those stories and learn about the families that lived there before you? It’s not that difficult to do—and believe me, it can become a little addicting!

Things you can often find out about your old home include: the year it was built, the first owners and or tenants, the original purchase price or historical assessments, information about historic land transactions and subdivision plans. You can also piece together stories of families that lived there and what their lives were like, if any of them went to war, what kind of jobs they may have had, when they were born, married and died and more. Nothing is a sure thing and sometimes information is limited, difficult to find or interpret, but once you find something, it’s hard not to keep going. Below are some tips on how and where to start.

Start with determining the build date

Check with your local architectural preservation society about your house first and see if there’s any information written on it already. If it’s a designated heritage home, there may be a report written on it. If you are interested in the architecture of your home, a good primer on architecture styles in Ontario can be found at this link: Index Page – Ontario Architecture.

The age of your house can be determined pretty closely by using several different resources:

Researching the building

Fire Insurance Plans

These are hand drawn maps that show what buildings were on a particular lot according to the date it was last revised. It provides a visual footprint of the building, what materials it was made from and if there are any outbuildings. These very helpful to pinpoint a timeframe for your house’s construction and even if there might have been another house on the lot that was replaced by the current one. The map provides clues to changes in the structure or house number or even street name changes over the years. These maps are often kept in City or County Archives or Libraries and are sometimes available online.

Fire insurance map (Detail from 1881 Revised 1888 Insurance Plan of the City of London, Ontario, Western University Archives)

City Directories

All cities had a directory that functioned as a phone book before there were telephones (and even afterwards). They have two sections. One is organized by street address (street names in alphabetical order, separated by odd and even numbers with cross streets shown). This section will show the name of the head of the household at each address. If you have an idea of when your house might have been built, start with that. If you find it, keep working backwards until you do. This will be the year it was finished and occupied. The previous year will likely be a more accurate build date based on when the information was gathered for the directory and when it was published. If you don’t find your address, keep going ahead until you do. Sometimes you’ll find it listed as “unfinished house” or “new”.

The second part of the directory is alphabetical by last name. Use this to find out the occupation of the head of the household and sometimes others living at the same residence (a wife’s name, for example). If the directory names the householder’s place of business, you can also consult the directory for more information on what kind of work was done there, the address and even sometimes an advertisement.

Directories are usually the easiest way to pin down information on your home’s history. These are usually located either in their original format or on microfiche in your local library or city and county archives. Some are even located online.

Tax assessment rolls, Registered Plans and Property Transactions

Although a little more complicated to get a hold of and understand, these documents can give you very interesting information about who built your house, when and for how much. What the land was assessed at for tax purposes over the years and even strange details like how many dogs, chickens or horses were on the property when it was assessed! It can also answer questions about whether the first occupants of the house were owners or tenants. These records could be located in your local city or county archives or possibly through your city hall.

Researching Occupants’ Lives

Canadian Censuses

Once you know the year of construction and the names of early occupants and possible occupations, you can start pulling out the stories of their lives. A good place to start is the censuses for your area. Library and Archives Canada has a searchable database here: Censuses – Library and Archives Canada. If you don’t come up with your people right away, try various family members and different years. Sometimes transcription or spelling errors happen in digitization. The census will reveal all of the people living in the house when the census taker visited the home. This is a good way to find out children’s names and the birthdates of family members to help with further research. You may also discover that others lived in the home, such as lodgers, other relatives or servants. Ancestry.ca also has census records and if you can’t find your people on the LAC site, you might have luck there.

Ancestry.ca

Armed with what you learned from the census will help you more accurately search in genealogy services such as: Ancestry.ca. Here you can find out birth, death and marriage dates and sometimes school info, photos and family trees. These details will help pull together various bits of information into stories, such as the lives of new immigrants, the birth of family businesses and the tragedies of early deaths due to local epidemics, war or accidents. Ancestry.ca is usually available for free through your local library.

Military Records

If you suspect that an occupant of your house may have served during wartime, you can search for and read personnel files on the Library and Archives Canada website. Ancestry.ca may have some documents but the LAC website has the complete files:
Library and Archives Canada.

Attestation paper (Library and Archives Canada)

Local Newspaper Articles

Your local library or archives may have local newspaper articles available but likely not searchable. The website Canadiana.ca houses many digital documents and has a section with local magazines and newspapers. I’ve found that newspaper articles from “back in the day” usually include a lot of personal information, including home addresses. If you search these papers for you address, you may find some pretty interesting stories! Visit: Serials: Periodicals, Annuals and Newspapers – Canadiana.

These are just a few places for you to start. Local librarians, archivists and historians will be able to point you in the direction of more information. Happy researching!

What do you know about your ancestors?

By Colleen Callahan Gilbert

Recently there has been an explosion of interest in the field of family history research (otherwise known as genealogy). One reason could be the uncertainty of tomorrow’s future, economically and metaphysically. We are not alone in these unsettling times. Throughout history, our ancestors encountered great depressions and extreme poverty worse than we can imagine. The events and patterns of our present day take on a new appreciation for our family’s past. For some, the study of your family’s history can bring about a feeling of stability in our ever-changing world. For others, genealogy is looked upon as an adventure. It is exciting and challenging. Regardless of whatever piqued your interest in your past, now is the time to take advantage of all the wonderful genealogical resources we have at our disposal.

Sister Veronica Brophy and Sister Immaculata Brophy

Where to begin? A good place would be in your own home where you will find evidence of your family history all around you. Begin with yourself. Start by writing down your full name, and then your father’s and mother’s full names working as far back as you are able. Always work from the known to the unknown. Remember to base your calculations on facts, which in turn will help resolve the unknown. Complete as much as possible including the vital statistics of you and your parents. You now have two generations. Now may be a good time to begin charting your new family information. Two simple genealogical charts: the pedigree chart and the family group chart could be used to start putting your genealogy into perspective. Blank charts can be found for free on Cyndi’s List – United States. As your tree expands, you may want to use a genealogical software program to aid in your organization.

Next, check for primary records at home. Primary records are any records created at the time of the event. These would include birth, marriage, and death certificates. Family letters, journals, and diaries could be primary sources if they are recording a particular occasion such as soldier writing home describing his war experiences or a midwife documenting the birth of a child. A death record is a primary source, but also a secondary source for the birth of the deceased. After learning all you can at home, the next step would be contacting and interviewing older relatives who could add not only more pertinent family information, but wonderful stories of the past. With their permission, an audio or video recording would be an excellent way to help document your research. Older relatives’ narratives are a great way to jump start your investigation. They can offer limitless clues for moving backward into new undiscovered territory. But remember—not all stories told are 100% factual. Your Aunt Sally or Grandma Smith may be convinced the family legend is true, but until proven, they are just clues to help you move on.

Bible records are another excellent source of family information. In the past, documenting birth, marriage, and death records were frequently done by writing in the family Bible. Before vital records were required by the county or state, our ancestors often kept their own family records. The value of the Bible records depends greatly on who wrote the records. Was he or she a witness to a birth or death? Or was this secondhand information which was later added to the Bible? Whatever may be the case, Bible records are truly an invaluable research source to the genealogist.

After gleaning as much information from home and family you are probably ready to explore outside sources such as the Internet, library, and the Family History Center. The Internet contains a huge treasure trove of information. Websites such as Ancestry and FamilySearch have literally millions of records at your disposal; in addition, they offer guidance in the way of classes and online seminars. While Ancestry.com is a subscriber-only site, FamilySearch is free to the public. Keep in mind, as you venture into online genealogy that you will not find everything you are seeking to complete your genealogical history. Many records are simply not online. Remember also that just because it is online does not make it true. Many genealogies posted are filled with inaccuracies. You should always do your own research and use the information posted only as a guide.

Most libraries are genealogy friendly. The main headquarters in London, Ontario has a wonderful genealogy area where library patrons can utilize the Internet just for their research. It also subscribes to Ancestry.com for in library use only, although during the pandemic, it is available by logging in from home with your library card. In addition, the library houses an extensive collection of genealogical books and old newspapers.

You’ve been warned: this is a very addicting hobby! Once you begin and find out the real story behind the disappearance of great Uncle Joe or why your great, great grandfather left Ireland in such great hurry, you will be hooked. Like a detective you may travel to archives, county court houses, and cemeteries trying to find that distant cousin who keeps evading you at every turn. If you are seeking only perfect ancestors, then genealogy is probably not for you. Like it or not, there will no doubt be a black sheep or two in your family if you look long enough.

Genealogy is for everyone: young, old, rich or poor. We all have a past which is begging to be discovered. What do you know about your ancestors?