"Canada" - April through August, 1916 (An illustrated weekly journal ....) (on CD)

$24.75

Cat No.:   CA0202: (See also product CA0202-DL for this "book" as a downloadable file and save the mailing cost.)

This is a magazine style news publication which styles itself as An illustrated weekly journal for all interested in the Dominion. As you might expect it contains articles about the events in the news both at a national and at a provincial level, including, for instance, the Investment Supplement.

What raises this bound set of issues out of the ordinary is that about half of the content is reporting on the progress of the Great War in Europe from a Canadian perspective. Usually the front page and the centre fold spread are completely devoted to pictures of serving Canadians while other pictures from the front and portraits of individuals mentioned, are scattered throughout the remainder of the issue. Articles report the progress of the various campaigns while others single out individual Canadian units for examination in detail. Serialized features include Letters from the Front, which gives us the individual perspective of a few of those intimately involved in the fighting, and A Company Officer's Experience, which is a personal account of one man's experiences.

From a purely genealogical perspective perhaps the most interesting portions of each issue are the lists of casualties and commissions. Of course the predominance of the reporting concerns Officers but most of the issues also devote space to NCO's and Men. Each issue also contains a section reporting births, marriages and deaths in Canada, and a Purely Personal section which is packed with snippets reporting the events in the lives of Canadians, both enlisted and civilian. Of course the exact content of each issue varies to accommodate the events to be reported, but for anyone interested in the Great War, or indeed in the events here in Canada during this particular period, here is a wonderful, contemporary, window on Canada's view of the events taking place during this critical period.

We have placed a sampler containing a few pages extracted from the book, for you to browse before you buy, on our web site's Downloads page.

The whole of the text of the book is computer searchable and we have enabled our FastFind technology to speed up your searches for individuals and events.

Like all newspapers this CD requires a thorough reading to extract all the morsels of information tucked away in its pages. Here are three examples of the little gems which can be found, (copied from the bottom right hand corner of page 1-19 - amongst the financial news):

Lieut.-Col. D. W. McPherson, C.A.M.C., of Toronto, O.C. the Canadian Convalescent Hospital at Woodcote Park, Epsom, and formerly at the front with No. 2 Field Ambulance, has been given the command of the Ontario Military Hospital at Orpington, Kent.

Roy Beavis, a Canadian private soldier, was sentenced to six months' imprisonment at Hythe on Monday for illegally wearing the uniform of a major and the ribbon decorations of the D.C.M. and the French Legion of Honour, and a month's imprisonment for fraudulently obtaining food and lodging.

Mr. Robert Lindsay, formerly of Montreal, is presenting a billiard table to the King George and Queen Mary Maple Leaf Club, 11, Charles Street, Berkeley Square, and Mrs. Shearwood Watson has sent an additional piano to the Club. The demand for residential accommodation in the Club by soldiers on leave is continuous.

Just think what it would be like to be researching the McPherson or Lindsay families and to find these snippets! The Beavis family? Well, it certainly sounds as if he had a good time, doesn't it!

You can also reach the Sampler by clicking on the following link Sampler

You can return to this page by closing the Sampler Page when you are ready to purchase.

No. of CDs is:  2 ;   Format is:  PDF ;   Searchable?:  YES;

FastFind:  Yes;  ISBN No.:   978-1-897405-02-4 ;