One Tough Quizz

Today I found a history quiz on the “History Today” blog. I got 7 out of 10. Son of a gun ! Why don’t you give it a try ?

World War One German Trench Found Intact

Many thanks to Jeff Booth of the Elgin County Military Museum for e-mailing me this interesting article. Archeologists have found an intact German trench from 1918 in Eastern France.

7th. Fusiliers 1899

There is a wealth of information in a book by Col. Francis R Ware, “The Story of the Seventh Regiment, Fusiliers of London, Canada 1899 to 1914”, Hunter Printing Company, 1945. Below I have listed some members of the regiment listed in the book for 1899.

Fred St. Clair Fisher

George Alexander Macbeth
Served in South Africa as a member of the Royal Canadian Regiment.
George Hayman
Became Mayor of London, Ontario for the year of 1931. He died in London, Ontario, October 22, 1943.(1)

Earl Mark Insley
Transfered to the 26th. Middlesex Regiment, and then went oveseas to the 135th. Battalion as a Captain and Quartermaster.

Alexander George Fraser
Went overseas with the 142nd. Battalion (London's Own), and served with the 1st. Battalion until wounded.

Henry Linton Milligan
During World War One he was promoted to Lt. Colonel and was one of the commanders of the 18th. Battalion. He died in London on July 1, 1941.

From his obit. "The London Free Press", July 2, 1941..

Alexander Ralph Skelton

Harry Wooster
His son Harry Wellington Wooster served overseas wit the 116th. Battalion. Harry Jr. went on to become the leader of the Vimy Orchestra in the next war.

Guy (Gaeterio) Lombardo
Father of Guy Lombardo band leader of the Royal Canadians.

It's In The Shoebox

It's amazing what you can find when you open the old shoebox rather than throwing it out. In one I found a cloth map of France, Germany, and Poland. It seems to be made of linen or cotton. My guess would be linen. I do not know how Dad got the map or even if he used it. From the condition of the map I doubt if it was used. But it was carefully folded and put into a shoebox for storage. Parts of the map are shown below.

Front of map showing Northern France

Also the front.

Back of map showing Germany and Poland.

Researching The Oxford Rifles

Occasionally I receive requests for information such as the one below. I thought that I would outline how I would go about researching a military ancestor, or for that matter a military unit. I am a historian with a strong interest in genealogy, not the other way around, so my methods might well be a little different that that used by others.


“As I have been researching my great grandfather Vernon Graham I came across your site. He was in the Oxford Rifles abt 1865-66 and I think must have been part of the Fenian Raids. Could you please direct me as to where I would go to get records.? He is also listed as to being in the Woodstock Volunteer Rifles under Col Light. Your help would be much appreciated”

Oxford County volunteer militias date back to 1798. The Oxford Rifles were organized on 14 August 1863 by amalgamating the existing independent militia companies. The regiment did serve in the Niagara during the Fenian Raids, but arrived too late to participate in the Battle of Ridgeway.

I suspect from the little information I have that Vernon Graham was from Woodstock (I have been proven wrong before; however, most of the companies of any militia regiment are based on other towns or villages in the county). The first place that I would go to is the 1861 Canada Census to verify that Woodstock was indeed his home city. Here Ancestry.com is useful if you have access to the Library edition as it is free to use. If not the local library should have microfilm copies of the Canada Census’s.


The next step is to find copies of the pay books of the Oxford Rifles. For this period there is no equivalent of the World War One battalion diaries. Here a visit to the Woodstock City Museum might well pay off. They should have a copy of “Pay list of Oxford Rifles Militia 1865-1868: & record of officers 1907-1927”, Ontario Genealogical Society, Oxford County Branch, 1980. If you have no luck here then Library and Archives Canada have microfilmed “Nominal Rolls and paylists for the Volunteer Militia-22nd. Regiment, Oxford rifles”, Microfilm reel T-16577. I have not yet seen this microfilm so I can not attest as to what information is there. In any paylists the most you can expect is a list of names with pay and signatures. However, those who were involved in the Fenian Raids will be listed in a separate paylist. If you find his name and signature you can positively say that he was there.

Library and Archives Canada’s online medal registry rolls is a hit and miss affair for this period. The Fenian Raid medal was issued over 30 years after the event, and only sent if the veteran requested it. But you might get lucky !


Local newspapers are not online; however, most (if they survived) are on microfilm. The University of Western Ontario holds a wonderful collection of microfilmed newspapers. I have found that local libraries tend to have copies of the microfilms of their own local papers in house. The wonderful thing about the papers of that era is their rather gossipy way of listing every soldier who participated in any event in their community.

There have been some previous writing on the Oxford Rifles. Philip MacQuarrie, “For God and home: a history of the Oxford Rifles 1798-1954”, Woodstock Museum 1998. Herbert Miles, “A story of the Oxford Rifles, 1798-1954”, Oxford Museum 1974.One would assume that these booklets are in the Oxford Museum.

Some Christmas Posts From The Great War

Library and Archives Canada. A Christmas Card from the 4th. Division. The battles listed would put it in 1918 although Library and Archives Canada put it at 1917-1918.

Library and Archives Canada. This dates to 1926 but who can resist this recipe. This should do wonders for your cholesterol count. I wonder what the Temperance people thought of it? .

Library and Archives Canada. A Red Cross holiday card. Since Library and Archives Canada put it at 1914 to 1918 I assume that it was used every year (no proof of course). Of course, it could also mean that the good people at the Archives haven't a clue.

There are many more examples at both the Ontario Archives, and Library and Archives Canada. More than I could possibly put into a blog post.

Library and Archives Canada - New Records Online

Library and Archives Canada have put two new sets of records online for the First World War. These are “Commonwealth War Graves Registers, First World War”, and “Circumstances Of Death Registers, First World War”.

These are not databases so it is not possible to do a key word search. You need to use these links as you would use an actual microform reader. Supposedly this is to give us the experience of actually being in a reading room. Really !


If you are looking for a specific name there is a help page. Still it’s a hard slog. Reminds me of graduate school.