I came across this site quite by accident when reviewing my own genealogy one day last fall. Wanting to ensure that a number of cemeteries I had mentioned were the right ones in Kings County, Nova Scotia, I discovered "Places in Canada".
Quite by accident, John Cardinal had also been working on his genealogy in Kings County, Nova Scotia. He had a number of cemeteries that were transcribed, and he wanted to include map links so that they would be definite tie-ins between the places where the cemeteries were located, and the place on the map. He particularly wanted maps that would allow him to find the lesser-known places in Canada, such as small towns and villages, and especially unincorporated settlements.
From this desire, he created the website and named it "Places in Canada" because he wanted a resource that answered his own questions at the time, those of Nova Scotia. After using some tools to create the Nova Scotia site, he decided to expand it to cover all of Canada, and to make it more useful to anyone who was doing research in Canada. Today, he has created a website that has references to over 28,000 places in Canada.
He says that, "I limited my site to places of habitation (cities, towns, villages, hamlets, unincorporated places), whereas the full database includes mountains, lakes, rivers, streams, and other types of physical features."
To make his site "genealogy-friendly", he used popular mapping services, such as those found on websites Google, Mapquest, Live Local, and Yahoo. From those maps of Canada, you can now pick from his site the province, the county, and then the place as they are listed in the drop-down menu. Once there, you have the site of the cemetery, and you will know exactly where it is on the map.
Don't forget to check on his "Stories" and "Books" pages on the website, although the "Books" page hasn't be added to in a while.
Currently, he has six stories there, his latest being, "The Opposite House", which was added in July 2007.
One interesting story -- which has a very tenuous tie to genealogy, but is interesting nevertheless -- is the interview he did with John Lennon in 1981. He posted this in February of 2007.
Through these stories, you get to see a bit of the personality of John and his childhood. There are pictures of the house in which he grew up, which adds a personal touch to his stories. I hope that he adds more to the "Stories" page, for it gives colour to the site, especially when there are sections of the website that is full of "tech talk".
He says that he would like to add more stories, but he finds that time is the biggest constraint.
"I get a lot of grand ideas, but I am always at a loss for time, and I sometimes lack the discipline and/or the desire to carry them all to completion," he adds.
One bit of news I would like to add is that the Ontario Genealogy Society has recently posted its 2008 conference on their website www.ogs.on.ca/conference.
Nearly 700 people are expected to attend between May 30th to June 1st. Dick Eastman will be among the 45 presenters there, and will give the opening talk Friday evening.
So, you are all invited to come "Up North" and say, "Gidday!", to your Canadian cousins, eh?
We look forward to seeing you there!