• How do YOU like our Museum?
    Change. For some people, change is exciting, for others, terrifying. In June, the Museum changed, the visitor experience changed and the reactions of visitors to our Museum changed. I love change, by the way – especially this kind. I have been working at the museum for over five years now, and I …
  • An Unexpected Treasure
    Just the other day, to my surprise, I learned that I have been wearing a treasure every time I do my gardening. My father came to Canada from France in the 70s for adventure and new opportunities. The eldest of three brothers, he was the first to leave home. My father tells me that my grandmother, …
  • Digital Preservation is for life, not just the holidays!
    Preserving your digital memories With the holidays fast-approaching, it’s the perfect time to reminisce about get-togethers and good times spent with family and friends. These memories are often captured in photographs; from the physical prints that you put in an album, to digital images captured …
  • The Children’s Trunks
    Since the Museum opened in 1999 we have been collecting stories, pictures, interviews and friends. Re-imagining the Pier 21 exhibit has given us a chance to bring some of the chapters in the site’s history to life by sharing our friends' stories. I get to do this by building five trunks based on …
  • If Luggage Could Talk…
    One of the greatest things about my job as a Visitor Experience Interpreter here at the Museum is helping people imagine the experience of being an immigrant during the time that Pier 21 was open as an immigration facility. Sometimes I even do this on my own. One of my favourite ways to imagine …
  • Reflections on a Green Door I: New Beginnings
    “I know this door”, the thought was almost overwhelming. Somehow I has been mentally catapulted back in time almost 47 years and my brain kept repeating: “I know this door. It belongs here, almost in this position, but not quite…” But, how does one ‘know’ a door? I was standing, somewhat …
  • First Families of Pier 21
    On February 28, 1928 the Holland America line steam ship Nieuw Amsterdam departed from Rotterdam, Netherlands and was the first ship to arrive at Pier 21 on March 8, 1928. There were only 54 people disembarking at Pier 21 on that day and included passengers from Holland, Lithuania, Germany, …
  • Pier 21 Person Search – Maja Monic
    Last places seen: Warsaw, Poland and Versailles, France Last known destination: Canada The Scotiabank Family History Centre needs the public’s help reuniting childhood friends. Irene and Maja, Holocaust survivors from the Warsaw ghetto, were separated in France in 1947 when Irene’s family left the …
  • After Almost 60 Years Apart, a Family Finds Each Other
    We get many research requests here at the Scotiabank Family History Centre and none more challenging than looking for living relatives. Most of the records that we would use to trace people, like birth, marriage and death records, are not available due to provincially or federally legislated …
  • A “Little” Coincidence
    Adventures in Genealogical Research at the Scotiabank Family History Centre On March 13, 2012, I received an email from Bonnie Pollock of Nova Scotia who wanted to find out more about her great-great-grandfather George Little. He arrived in Canada from Ireland before 1837 and settled in Prospect, …