I just wanted to let my readers know what’s been going these past few weeks into Jan 2014.

Right now I’m backdating ‘Today in the Dauphin Herald’ for the 1910s for 2013. It seemed to make more sense if I did it that way than continue to update it into the new year just yet. I will post Nov articles and then move to Aug, Jul, Jun etc until I’ve completed the year.

I’ve got myself a day job so I haven’t been able to get to the Archives downtown to go through the microfilm rolls between 1924-1929 to get started on the 1920s. An annoyance I have is that the typeface has changed for the Herald making it difficult to spot communities names as they are now the same size as the regular text. This is compounded by the fact that I have to hold my head at a 90 degree angle to view the microfilm reel. This makes it difficult to get as much information as I can copied with any real speed. I don’t doubt that I’ve missed an interested related article or two simply because everything blends together unless I’m scanning the page inch by inch. After that I still have the 1930s and 1940s which I am really excited to post as it has more relation to my family history.

I’m also trying to post a few transcript copies of Mowat school attendance records from 1916-1944. I’ve been having some trouble find records past 1944 due to either them being lost or misplaced within the microfilm reel. Records from before 1916 seem to have also been lost or destroyed.

I’ve been trying to plan out future 52 Ancestors posts and there are a number of them I’ve written and are ready to go. There is going to be a heavy disproportion of paternal ancestors than maternal ones but I will get to the reason why in future writing.

Finally, a project that I’ve been working on for quite some time is a more flushed out version of Pioneers of the Mowat School District, No. 1232, 1904 – 1968. This booklet was published in 1988 by the Mowat School District Heritage Committee (Joe and Kay Robertson, Pauline Johnston, Earl and Ailie Gower, Mary Miller, Ernie and Viola Johnston, Beatrice Dewbury, John Zabiaka, and Laverne Carriere). In 1999 a large book, Memoirs “From the Past”: Rural Municipality of Mossey River, was published after the 1996 reunion. Using the Internet and better access to sources such as census records, land grants, newspapers and archives records I would like to create another Mowat centered booklet full of more information. I’ve already recreated a more accurate map of the Mowat district with a list of pioneers on the Mowat Pioneers page. I want to develop this more in the coming year.