Research Help - New York 1900's / Canada - Current

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bcomet
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Research Help - New York 1900's / Canada - Current

Post by bcomet » April 30th, 2010, 11:47 am

I have several long term projects and am looking for the following research help.
If you have a source or knowledge, I would appreciate hearing from you or getting a contact.


-New York City, 1900's, life and daily life, hotels, churches, areas, work, especially for Romanian immigrants.

-Quebec Canada, Quebec City, area.

-Travel in Canada: from Sault Sainte Marie to Banff, Canada by auto. Where would you stop if you were sight seeing along this route–or on detours along this route–in the summer with two weeks?

Any help would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks!!
Last edited by bcomet on May 2nd, 2010, 2:39 pm, edited 1 time in total.

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Robin
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Re: Research Help - New York 1900's / Canada - Current

Post by Robin » April 30th, 2010, 11:55 am

You may want to post on this site http://www.helpareporterout.com
Its called Help a Reporter Out and its a matchmaking type service for sources. You can request info as a researcher for a book. Its an amazing service (free).
Robin
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treeoflife
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Re: Research Help - New York 1900's / Canada - Current

Post by treeoflife » May 1st, 2010, 3:34 pm

Travelling from Sault Sainte Marie to Banff? I'll tell you what you'll see... a whole lot of nothing :P

Basically flat prairies for thousands of miles. If you point the car straight enough, you could sleep most of the way.

I'm only half joking... there are a few cities along the way. Winnipeg, Regina, Calgary. Outside of these cities, there are honestly no major tourist attractions between those two places.

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Bryan Russell/Ink
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Re: Research Help - New York 1900's / Canada - Current

Post by Bryan Russell/Ink » May 1st, 2010, 3:42 pm

Ha!

Are wheat and corn considered tourist attractions? You will see a lot of that.
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Holly
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Re: Research Help - New York 1900's / Canada - Current

Post by Holly » May 1st, 2010, 5:00 pm

bcomet wrote:I have several long term projects and am looking for the following research help.
If you have a source or knowledge, I would appreciate hearing from you or getting a contact.

-New York City, 1900's, life and daily life, hotels, churches, areas, work, especially for Romanian immigrants.

Thanks!!

http://www.newspaperarchive.com/ This is an interesting site. Just pick a time frame, New York newspapers, and run your topics (Romanian immigrants, for example) through the search feature. It requires a subscription.

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FK7
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Re: Research Help - New York 1900's / Canada - Current

Post by FK7 » May 1st, 2010, 7:35 pm

Well, I'm French Canadian, born in Montréal, still live here. I've been to Quebec City countless times too. I lived in Europe for three years, but otherwise spent all my life in Qc.

What exactly is it you need or want to know?

Your first fact: Many French Canadian men, including myself, know how to cook really well. :D

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ocelott
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Re: Research Help - New York 1900's / Canada - Current

Post by ocelott » May 2nd, 2010, 6:47 am

Ink wrote:Ha!

Are wheat and corn considered tourist attractions? You will see a lot of that.
There's also rocks and trees and trees and rocks and rocks and trees and...

Serzen
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Re: Research Help - New York 1900's / Canada - Current

Post by Serzen » May 2nd, 2010, 10:31 am

ocelott wrote:
Ink wrote:Ha!

Are wheat and corn considered tourist attractions? You will see a lot of that.
There's also rocks and trees and trees and rocks and rocks and trees and...
Hey! He said Canada (and NYC), not Upstate New York!
Il en est des livres comme du feu de nos foyers; on va prendre ce feu chez son voisin, on l’allume chez soi, on le communique à d’autres, et il appartient à tous. --Voltaire

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Quill
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Re: Research Help - New York 1900's / Canada - Current

Post by Quill » May 2nd, 2010, 10:51 am

Serzen, in what part of Upstate NY are you located. My old stomping grounds, the Finger Lakes area, is loaded with tourist attractions: wineries, waterfalls, antiques shops...

I just finished research world building the 1940s and the 1770s in Upstate NY and let me tell you, Google is my friend. So is my local Public Library. I had to piece it from a hundred sites and books; the clothing, speech, vehicles, history, etc.

Read books written in your era. Google for photos taken then and study them. Search for films set then (where production designers have done research ahead of you). I don't think there's any one place to find it all, but it's out there.

bcomet
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Re: Research Help - New York 1900's / Canada - Current

Post by bcomet » May 2nd, 2010, 2:35 pm

Ha! You have some funny comments here. And some helpful ones too. Thanks.
Thanks for the links Robin and Holly!

So I personally wasn't finding much tourism info on that stretch of Canada myself (Sault Sainte Marie to Banff), but I thought, maybe there are wonderful side trips along the Lake Superior southern border or other places along the way, something that might be a cool adventure if you had time to take the side trips.
I haven't found much in googling Canadian tourism in that stretch.
So I'm kind of staying open.
There is also the possibility of going on another route that might be more interesting, but I would like to explore if there is anything through that stretch first.

Hey FK7, very good to know. Mmmmm. What are some of your favorite dishes to cook?

Regarding Quebec, I am interested in legends like the Tre Pistoles legend, churches where there are healing legends, unique festivals or customs, or any things about the area that are especially unique or interesting that you would like to point out. What is life like in Quebec City? Where would the university area be there?
Or articles that would be rich in such things.

I like to do much more research than I need for the writing, but enough to weave an area in.

Eventually, I will take a research trip to Quebec, so places I should visit, or good restaurants, cheap hotels, etc. or anything along those lines is greatly interesting to me and much appreciated.

(Before I completed a novel in the Upper Peninsula, I put out area questions to writers and others–as well as took two research trips–and the responses brought unexpected and wonderful new food, people, customs, places, festivals, events, etc. my way. For example, did you know that there is a town in the UP that has a giant mushroom underneath the entire town? They have a mushroom festival annually to celebrate. It's called the HUMUNGOUS FUNGUS FEST!
Crystal Falls is "Home of the Humungous Fungus", perhaps the world's largest and oldest living organism. It covers 38 acres beneath an Iron County forest near the Wisconsin border. It is believed to be 1,500 to 10,000 years old and weigh about 100 tons - about the same as an adult blue whale.

-http://www.humungusfungusfest.com/Histo ... ungus.html



I didn't end up using it in my novel, but one thing led to another that I did. Research is so much fun.)

Anyway, all help is greatly appreciated and enjoyed.

Thanks!

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FK7
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Re: Research Help - New York 1900's / Canada - Current

Post by FK7 » May 2nd, 2010, 3:02 pm

bcomet wrote: Hey FK7, very good to know. Mmmmm. What are some of your favorite dishes to cook?

Regarding Quebec, I am interested in legends like the Tre Pistoles legend, churches where there are healing legends, unique festivals or customs, or any things about the area that are especially unique or interesting that you would like to point out. What is life like in Quebec City? Where would the university area be there?
Or articles that would be rich in such things.
Quebec City's own website is very rich with information. http://www.quebecregion.com/en The city just celebrated its 400th anniversary in 2008 (founded in 1608 by Champlain, if you don't like maths) so a lot of effort was made to promote the city. A huge concert was given on the Plaines d'Abraham, the legendary spot were French General Montcalm lost the battle to English General Wolfe, and when France yielded Quebec to England. The original citadel was preserved and rebuilt, and houses a military regiment today. It's also where Canada's Governor General Michaëlle Jean lives. Let's not forget the beautiful Château Frontenac (Frontenac's Castle), which is now a luxurious hotel.

Quebec's Winter Carnaval: http://www.carnaval.qc.ca/en
It's legendary here, probably one of the most popular real Québécois carnaval we have. It happens around Qc city, but a lot of tourists head there for those two weeks.

As far as Churches are concerned, St-Jospeh's Oratory can be seen from almost anywhere around Montréal hundreds of kilomoters away, when the weather allows for it. http://www.saint-joseph.org/en_1007_index.asp I'm an Agnostic and never had much interest in religious buildings, but I know it has quite a few stories and legends surrounding it.

Quebec is famous for its maple syrup (one of the biggest producer in Canada) and during the sugar season, as we call it, our sugar traditional sugar shacks: http://www.bonjourquebec.com/qc-en/erablieres0.html
The meal is generally the same everywhere, except some are of better quality or more refined than others. It's usually a wooden cabin that can seat anywhere from 40 to 300 guests. We all sit a long wooden tables and eat stuff like omelets in maple syrup, ham in maple syrup, maple syrup beans, cocktail sausages in maple syrup, deep fried pork fat (don't ask). It's accompanied by traditional music and dancing, and ends with a lot of desert soaked in... you guessed it, MAPLE SYRUP! People go once a year, usually because of the fun you get, more than for the food -- it's SO bad for your health that going once a year is MORE than enough... every journey ends outside with la piece de résistance, MAPLE TAFFY! Which is super yummy... http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Maple_taffy

The University close to Quebec City is Université Laval, http://www2.ulaval.ca/en/home.html . Renowned for its medical faculty, law, nursing, engineering, and many others. They have fantastic sports teams, especially in volleyball, soccer and hockey. McGill pretty much dominates football. I've seen some of their campus, and it is quite beautiful. You also need to realize that Québec only has about 8 million inhabitants overall, but we have six universities across the province (University of Montreal, University of Sherbrooke, University of Laval who all have leading Canadian medical faculties, McGill University, UQAM University & Concordia University). Education is obviously very much hailed here, and McGill University is among the top 3 universities of the country, and the only English speaking one of the entire province.

That's all I could come up with on the fly, if you need more, PM me.

bcomet
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Re: Research Help - New York 1900's / Canada - Current

Post by bcomet » May 2nd, 2010, 3:10 pm

Thank you so much FK7!

Now if only we can find something of interest between Sault Sainte Marie and Banff.

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Quill
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Re: Research Help - New York 1900's / Canada - Current

Post by Quill » May 2nd, 2010, 3:20 pm

It's fiction you're writing? Make something up!

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Laurie Lamb
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Re: Research Help - New York 1900's / Canada - Current

Post by Laurie Lamb » May 2nd, 2010, 3:55 pm

bcomet,

re: -Travel in Canada: from Sault Sainte Marie to Banff, Canada by auto. Where would you stop if you were sight seeing along this route–or on detours along this route–in the summer with two weeks?

http://www.transcanadahighway.com/index.htm is the website you need. Choose a province and then a city. Some cities have sight seeing suggestions, events, major attractions, etc. You can also scroll down the initial province page to "Our Pick of Useful Links" and choose "Large Roadside Attractions". Some of them are pretty funny.

My most memorable summer vacation, as a child, was my family's road trip across Canada from Lachute, Quebec to Victoria, British Columbia.

I hope this is helpful.

treeoflife
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Re: Research Help - New York 1900's / Canada - Current

Post by treeoflife » May 2nd, 2010, 6:12 pm

bcomet wrote:Thank you so much FK7!

Now if only we can find something of interest between Sault Sainte Marie and Banff.

There's lots of stuff in the cities... Calgary mostly, and less so Regina and Winnipeg. It's just between the cities is a big open nothin.

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