So, it looks like we are one step closer to having relevant results returned when we are looking for ancestors in CANADA.
Give it a try: Findmypast
Showing posts with label canadian genealogy. Show all posts
Showing posts with label canadian genealogy. Show all posts
Wednesday, 24 May 2017
Canada Gets Separate Search Facility on Findmypast!
There was a lot of complaining last year when Canadian documents were lumped in with American documents leading the search results to return documents that weren't relevant to the search for Canadian records. The good news is that this has changed! You can now search Canadian and US records separately. However, not all results are strictly Canadian.
So, it looks like we are one step closer to having relevant results returned when we are looking for ancestors in CANADA.
Give it a try: Findmypast
So, it looks like we are one step closer to having relevant results returned when we are looking for ancestors in CANADA.
Give it a try: Findmypast
Thursday, 17 March 2016
The Great Canadian Genealogy Summit CONTEST
It is contest time once again. Everyone registered for the Summit by March 27 has the chance to win back their registration!
The refund is eligible on either your Full Weekend registration of $159 or on your Single Day registration of $119.
Your full weekend registration includes:
MEALS are also included:
Breakfast on Saturday and Sunday and lunch on Saturday. No extra costs incurred.
Your Single Day registration includes:
The refund is eligible on either your Full Weekend registration of $159 or on your Single Day registration of $119.
Your full weekend registration includes:
- Friday night Keynote
- Saturday Workshops (5)
- Sunday Plenary on Methodolgy
- Sunday Keynote
- Access to the Exhibition Hall
- Free Access to Find My Past for the entire weekend
All this for just $159 cdn
MEALS are also included:
Breakfast on Saturday and Sunday and lunch on Saturday. No extra costs incurred.
Your Single Day registration includes:
- Five workshops on Saturday
- Breakfast
- Lunch
- Access to the Exhibition Hall
- Free Access to Find My Past for the day
All for just $119 cdn
Register NOW for the Great Canadian Genealogy Summit to be eligible to win back your registration fees!
Sunday, 28 February 2016
Find My Past Sponsors the Great Canadian Genealogy Summit
Find My Past is sponsoring the Marketplace at the Great Canadian Genealogy Summit. In addition, they are providing free access to their databases for everyone who attends the conference.
Monday, 1 February 2016
CANGEN SUMMIT CONTEST WINNER!!
The Gypsy Genealogist, Karen Graf of Kingston Ontario has won a free registration to the CANGEN SUMMIT in October.
Karen, who had registered to attend the Summit, was automatically entered into the draw to have her registration fees reimbursed.
YOU CAN BE NEXT!
All you have to do to enter the contest is to register for the Summit. Another registrant will be chosen near Easter to have their fees reimbursed.
Register now at: http://www.cangensummit.ca/
For those of you outside Canada, the registration fees of $159 give you the full conference for $113 usd!!
Monday, 23 November 2015
Registration Opens TODAY!!
Registration for the Great Canadian Genealogy Summit is now OPEN!!
Full registration includes the Opening Keynote on Friday night, a full day of workshops on Saturday, the closing Plenary on Sunday. Also included are your breakfast and lunch on Saturday, coffee and pastries Sunday morning, free access to FindMyPast for the weekend, a free course registration to NIGS, access to the marketplace and loads of time to network and share with others.
Program choices include:
- French Canadian research
- Canadian Research
- Irish Research
- English Research
- Scottish Research
Options to add-on are:
- Bus between the hotel and the Ontario Archives for a full day of research.
- A hands on workshop with the Dominion Genealogist for those looking to work on their UEL application.
For those coming from a distance and looking to stay at the hotel, the Summit has secured a reduced rate for the newly renovated rooms. The rate is $135 per room per night. You can register directly from the Great Canadian Genealogy Summit website.
http://www.cangensummit.ca/
http://www.cangensummit.ca/
Friday, 23 October 2015
IT'S TIME!!
A small group of Canadian genealogists have been busy behind the scenes. We gathered for a casual lunch and before we left, The Great Canadian Genealogy Summit had been born!
Our creative minds came together to provide a way for Canadian grown genealogists to be able to showcase their dedication and expertise. I have, for the past two years, put together the Scotttish SIG Symposium. All of the speakers have been Canadian. We have been incredibly successful and have had amazing reviews about our Canadian speakers.
Kathryn Lake Hogan, Mike Quackenbush and I recognize the talents of our colleagues and wanted to give them a way to show their stuff. To allow this to happen, we are providing them the platform: The Great Canadian Genealogy Summit.
The Summit will be held at the Courtyard Marriott, Brampton from Oct 21-23 2016. MARK YOUR CALENDARS!!
On October 21, we have arranged a day at the Ontario Archives. And better still, for those with UEL ancestors who are mind boggled with the documentation required for your UEL application, Kathryn will be offering a workshop with the Dominion Genealogist at the Archives. She will share her expertise on what documentation is required and how to access the documents at the Archives.
From the Archives, it is a short bus ride back to the hotel for our Opening Plenary with author Jennifer Debruin who will share with us some of the struggles of our Canadian ancestors. This energetic talk will be followed by a social time. A time to get to know fellow Canadian genealogists, to get to know the speakers better, or to browse in the marketplace.
We have a full day of programming on Saturday, but we get you off to a good start with a complimentary continental breakfast.
We have five streams for you to choose from (yes! You can mix and match). On offer:
Ruth Blair - who will talk on researching Irish ancestors
Mike Quackenbush - who will talk on researching English ancestors
Louise St Denis - who will talk on researching French Canadian ancestors
Kathryn Lake Hogan - who will talk on researching Canadian ancestors
Christine Woodcock who will talk on researching Scottish ancestors
Lunch is provided to keep you sustained. Coffee will be replenished throughout the day. And the marketplace will be alive and well.
The evening is free for you to relax, network or put your new learning to practice. The hotel has free WiFi and Find My Past is providing FREE access for all registrants for the entire weekend!!
Sunday starts with Louise St Denis sharing her extensive knowledge on Methodology. THEN she is providing each registrant with a certificate for a FREE course at the NIGS.
And we wrap up an intense weekend with Lynn Palermo who will help us to get a better handle on writing our family stories so that our work can be preserved for future generations.
We have dynamite program. We want YOU to be a part of it. Spaces are limited. Registration opens on November 23. The hotel will be providing a discounted rate from Thursday to Sunday for anyone attending the Summit.
We have dynamite program. We want YOU to be a part of it. Spaces are limited. Registration opens on November 23. The hotel will be providing a discounted rate from Thursday to Sunday for anyone attending the Summit.
Stay tuned to our blogs to win a FREE registration.
Looking4ancestors: http://www.looking4ancestors.com/
Mike Quackenbush: http://mikequack.com/
And of course, this blog!
Join us to help promote #canadiangenealogy at the #cangensummit
Wednesday, 16 September 2015
Top Ten Canadian Genealogists Are .....Well.... NOT CANADIAN
This has been a week of celebration in the Genea-World. The annual Rock Star Genealogy Awards have been announced. This is a "People's Choice" of Genealogy awards, thanks to John Reid of Anglo Celtic Connections (http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.ca/). John has rounded up nominations across the genealogy globe, has hosted online voting, and most importantly, has tallied the results.
Some genies don't like the awards. They find them frivolous, not adding value to the profession, perhaps even 'tacky', But those of us who were nominated have been delighted. We have unabashedly engaged in self-promotion, have crossed our fingers, toes, eyes and waited with baited breath for the winners to be announced. What we also understand is that this "People's Choice" award, whether a nomination, a top 10 placement, or a win, adds credence to our genealogy repertoire in terms of getting speaking engagements. Attendees at such talks have spoken by their vote and have let the planning committees of the genealogy and local history societies know who is popular, who will draw a crowd to their event and who will be engaging enough to hold the audience's attention. So, thank you John, for allowing all of us this opportunity.
The categories are International, US, Canada, UK (Scotland, England, Wales), Ireland, Australia/New Zealand and DNA. The winners in each category are announced according to where their voters reside. Not where the genealogist resides or where the area of specialty for the genealogist is.
The Bronze and Silver winners were announced on Monday. Results can be found here:
http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.ca/2015/09/rockstar-genealogists-2015-silver-and_14.html
Gold winners in each category were announced on Tuesday. The results of the Genealogy Super Stars can be found here:
http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.ca/2015/09/superstar-rockstar-genealogists-2015.html
The genealogy world has been a buzz of congratulatory messages, accolades and thinly veiled humility from the winners ("oh my, I never thought...." "Really? Me?" "Oh gosh, thank you") Of course in reality we were all screaming "WE ROCK!!!" WE. ROCK!!
Over the rest of this week, John will share the "top ten" in each of the categories outlined above. Those nominated, but not awarded the top three coveted awards, are all hoping they placed in the top five but will take anywhere in the top 10. The placement on these lists adds a boost to their marketability.
The top 10 for Canada were announced today and the results were nothing short of disappointing:
Don't get me wrong. These are among the top genealogists in the WORLD. Not just in Canada. The genealogy elite in many respects. Those we all rush to hear when they give talks, or host webinars. We devour their written advice on blogs, in magazines, quick guides, books. If my own sense of self-worth were not so incredibly (perhaps pathologically) intact, the fact that MY name is on this list should be incredibly surreal. Little old me. From Canada. And there's the kicker. Only 30% of this list of top 10 genealogists, held in such high esteem, are actually FROM Canada. And, if you take me out of the equation (my specialty is Scotland, after all), the showing for Canada is nothing short of shameful. TWO out of 10. TWO.
How does that work? Easy peasy when you look at the big picture, and when you contrast it with the other top 10 list announced today - that of Australia and New Zealand where 70% of the top ten are actually from the area.
Canadian genealogists are not well promoted in the genealogy world. Those of us who are promoted and well known, have engaged tirelessly in self-promotion. We have not been held in esteem by our own genealogy society. The Ontario Genealogical Society is the largest in Canada. They have an annual conference. The "headliners" are rarely ever Canadian. Ok, Dave Obee might be the exception to that statement. But give Dave his due, he has been in the biz for a very long time.
This past May, the headliners for the conference were from the U.K. and the U.S. The conference for 2016 has already been announced. The headliners are, again, U.S. Why? No, really, WHY?
No offence to my U.S. or U.K. colleagues. As I said, these are the genealogy elite. Some of them, I even consider to be my friends. (The ones I don't are because they have no clue that I even exist, and to consider them friends would be unfair to them).
Why is it that the OGS doesn't spend the effort in promoting their own? The handful that have been well promoted in the past are promoted because they already worked hard to make their mark. ONLY after they have tirelessly promoted themselves to make a mark in the genealogy community, will the OGS think, "oh, maybe we should give them a try. BUT not as a headliner. We need to hedge our bets, so let's import the main speakers and fill in with our own". Making us wonder if we are really just an after thought.
Contrast the OGS conference, with the BIFHSGO conference this coming weekend. Out of 11 speakers, 6 are local. LOCAL. Sure, none of us are headlining, but some of us get equal time to those who are headlining. BIFHSGO actively promotes and supports their members. They have their own members speak at their monthly meetings. This builds confidence, allows exposure and gives back to the members. The exposure to the talent that is among the membership really IS a benefit of membership.
OGS, take a page out of BIFHSGO's book. Look to your members. The people who PAY to be in your organization. Support them. Promote them. Let them shine. When you do, they will make you shine in return. It's a win-win.
The 2017 conference is in Ottawa, for the 150th birthday of Canada. The conference theme is: Our Canada - Your Family: Building a Nation. PLEASE OGS, don't insult the intelligence of the Canadian genealogists by importing speakers. Look locally to members who excel in their knowledge of:
The Loyalists
Acadians
French Canadian Research
Scots Immigration
Scots-Irish Immigration
British Home Children
Eastern European Immigration
The people who are the fabric of OUR country. The people who built OUR nation. The people we proudly call our ancestors.
Some genies don't like the awards. They find them frivolous, not adding value to the profession, perhaps even 'tacky', But those of us who were nominated have been delighted. We have unabashedly engaged in self-promotion, have crossed our fingers, toes, eyes and waited with baited breath for the winners to be announced. What we also understand is that this "People's Choice" award, whether a nomination, a top 10 placement, or a win, adds credence to our genealogy repertoire in terms of getting speaking engagements. Attendees at such talks have spoken by their vote and have let the planning committees of the genealogy and local history societies know who is popular, who will draw a crowd to their event and who will be engaging enough to hold the audience's attention. So, thank you John, for allowing all of us this opportunity.
The categories are International, US, Canada, UK (Scotland, England, Wales), Ireland, Australia/New Zealand and DNA. The winners in each category are announced according to where their voters reside. Not where the genealogist resides or where the area of specialty for the genealogist is.
The Bronze and Silver winners were announced on Monday. Results can be found here:
http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.ca/2015/09/rockstar-genealogists-2015-silver-and_14.html
Gold winners in each category were announced on Tuesday. The results of the Genealogy Super Stars can be found here:
http://anglo-celtic-connections.blogspot.ca/2015/09/superstar-rockstar-genealogists-2015.html
The genealogy world has been a buzz of congratulatory messages, accolades and thinly veiled humility from the winners ("oh my, I never thought...." "Really? Me?" "Oh gosh, thank you") Of course in reality we were all screaming "WE ROCK!!!" WE. ROCK!!
Over the rest of this week, John will share the "top ten" in each of the categories outlined above. Those nominated, but not awarded the top three coveted awards, are all hoping they placed in the top five but will take anywhere in the top 10. The placement on these lists adds a boost to their marketability.
The top 10 for Canada were announced today and the results were nothing short of disappointing:
1. Dave Obee
2. Christine Woodcock
3. Dick Eastman
4. Thomas MacEntee
5. Chris Paton
6. Lisa Louise Cooke
7. Judy G. Russell
8. Kirsty Gray
9. Gail Dever
10. Maurice GleesonDon't get me wrong. These are among the top genealogists in the WORLD. Not just in Canada. The genealogy elite in many respects. Those we all rush to hear when they give talks, or host webinars. We devour their written advice on blogs, in magazines, quick guides, books. If my own sense of self-worth were not so incredibly (perhaps pathologically) intact, the fact that MY name is on this list should be incredibly surreal. Little old me. From Canada. And there's the kicker. Only 30% of this list of top 10 genealogists, held in such high esteem, are actually FROM Canada. And, if you take me out of the equation (my specialty is Scotland, after all), the showing for Canada is nothing short of shameful. TWO out of 10. TWO.
How does that work? Easy peasy when you look at the big picture, and when you contrast it with the other top 10 list announced today - that of Australia and New Zealand where 70% of the top ten are actually from the area.
Canadian genealogists are not well promoted in the genealogy world. Those of us who are promoted and well known, have engaged tirelessly in self-promotion. We have not been held in esteem by our own genealogy society. The Ontario Genealogical Society is the largest in Canada. They have an annual conference. The "headliners" are rarely ever Canadian. Ok, Dave Obee might be the exception to that statement. But give Dave his due, he has been in the biz for a very long time.
This past May, the headliners for the conference were from the U.K. and the U.S. The conference for 2016 has already been announced. The headliners are, again, U.S. Why? No, really, WHY?
No offence to my U.S. or U.K. colleagues. As I said, these are the genealogy elite. Some of them, I even consider to be my friends. (The ones I don't are because they have no clue that I even exist, and to consider them friends would be unfair to them).
Why is it that the OGS doesn't spend the effort in promoting their own? The handful that have been well promoted in the past are promoted because they already worked hard to make their mark. ONLY after they have tirelessly promoted themselves to make a mark in the genealogy community, will the OGS think, "oh, maybe we should give them a try. BUT not as a headliner. We need to hedge our bets, so let's import the main speakers and fill in with our own". Making us wonder if we are really just an after thought.
Contrast the OGS conference, with the BIFHSGO conference this coming weekend. Out of 11 speakers, 6 are local. LOCAL. Sure, none of us are headlining, but some of us get equal time to those who are headlining. BIFHSGO actively promotes and supports their members. They have their own members speak at their monthly meetings. This builds confidence, allows exposure and gives back to the members. The exposure to the talent that is among the membership really IS a benefit of membership.
OGS, take a page out of BIFHSGO's book. Look to your members. The people who PAY to be in your organization. Support them. Promote them. Let them shine. When you do, they will make you shine in return. It's a win-win.
The 2017 conference is in Ottawa, for the 150th birthday of Canada. The conference theme is: Our Canada - Your Family: Building a Nation. PLEASE OGS, don't insult the intelligence of the Canadian genealogists by importing speakers. Look locally to members who excel in their knowledge of:
The Loyalists
Acadians
French Canadian Research
Scots Immigration
Scots-Irish Immigration
British Home Children
Eastern European Immigration
The people who are the fabric of OUR country. The people who built OUR nation. The people we proudly call our ancestors.
Saturday, 15 November 2014
First Ever National Genealogy Conference for Canada!
JULY 17—19, 2015
At historic Pier 21,
KEYNOTE SPEAKER: DAVE OBEE
Conference topics and activities will include:
DNA testing in Genealogy
History of immigration into Nova Scotia
Recording family history through photography, digital filing and citing sources
Best practices for beginner & intermediate genealogists
Tour of the Canadian Museum
Visit to the Titanic Graveyard
Come be a part of this inaugural event!
GREAT HOLIDAY GIFT FOR ANY GENEALOGIST!
For more information or to ask any questions:
Tuesday, 18 June 2013
Rallying the Troops Into Action
For the past couple of years, I have read in awe the postings from the American genealogy community as they have rallied for a cause: The SSDI, Georgia Archives, library closures, indexing the 1940 census.
For the most part, Canadians are far more complacent. It's an innate part of our nature. We don't get riled about much - except maybe changing the hockey night anthem or threatening to eliminate the small size of our beloved Horton's coffee cups. We all love a good rant, but we rarely make them.
However, one thing that has certainly united the Canadian Genealogy community is the farce of what the rest of the world knows as Library and Archives Canada. Funding cuts, service cuts, the muzzling of employees. On June 1, LAC took possession of the 1921 Canadian Census. It was handed over in microform (microfilm) since the original records were destroyed a number of years ago, and all that remains are the microfilm images. LAC is responsible for digitizing (pretty simple given it is already in microform), indexing and making the census available online to the public. For free - just like the other census records. In the past two days, it has come to the attention of the genealogy world that the digitizing is complete. A geographical index is complete. The 1911 census was actually released at this stage and then only searchable by name once other, pay-per-view, companies had done the leg work in that area. For some unknown reason (nothing from LAC seems transparent or reasonable anymore), LAC has decided to withold the release, mostly because they don't see its release as a priority. The latest comment from a senior official is that the release is only important to "three old ladies in Kingston who want it for their genealogy" - no doubt an off-the-cuff remark that will come back to bite someone in the tuchus. However, that non-Canadian attitude has certainly sparked a fire in the belly of Canadian genealogists. Today they have united for a common cause. News has spread through Facebook groups, across Facebook pages, on Twitter, throughout Google+ Circles and via e-mail. Canadian genealogists are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. A frenzy of e-mails and letters have been sent to the Heritage Minister, the Honourable James Moore. Copies have been sent to local MPs, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and in one instance, to CBC asking for a public enquiry into the delayed release.
Now its time to rally the rest of the troops. Everyone with an interest in Canadian genealogy records, whether they themselves are Canadian, their ancestors were in Canada or those who are just passionate about access to records or freedom of information is being called into action to assist in getting LAC to release these records to the public and to do so expeditiously even if it means outsourcing to the genealogy community.
Here are the e-mail addresses for:
The Honourable James Moore (Minister of Heritage and Official Languages):
james.moore@parl.gc.ca
Local Members of Parliament:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/MembersOfParliament/MainMPsCompleteList.aspx?TimePeriod=Current&Language=E
Prime Minister Stephen Harper:
stephen.harper@parl.gc.ca
and yes, CBC's Fifth Estate:
fifth@cbc.ca
Carry On!
For the most part, Canadians are far more complacent. It's an innate part of our nature. We don't get riled about much - except maybe changing the hockey night anthem or threatening to eliminate the small size of our beloved Horton's coffee cups. We all love a good rant, but we rarely make them.
However, one thing that has certainly united the Canadian Genealogy community is the farce of what the rest of the world knows as Library and Archives Canada. Funding cuts, service cuts, the muzzling of employees. On June 1, LAC took possession of the 1921 Canadian Census. It was handed over in microform (microfilm) since the original records were destroyed a number of years ago, and all that remains are the microfilm images. LAC is responsible for digitizing (pretty simple given it is already in microform), indexing and making the census available online to the public. For free - just like the other census records. In the past two days, it has come to the attention of the genealogy world that the digitizing is complete. A geographical index is complete. The 1911 census was actually released at this stage and then only searchable by name once other, pay-per-view, companies had done the leg work in that area. For some unknown reason (nothing from LAC seems transparent or reasonable anymore), LAC has decided to withold the release, mostly because they don't see its release as a priority. The latest comment from a senior official is that the release is only important to "three old ladies in Kingston who want it for their genealogy" - no doubt an off-the-cuff remark that will come back to bite someone in the tuchus. However, that non-Canadian attitude has certainly sparked a fire in the belly of Canadian genealogists. Today they have united for a common cause. News has spread through Facebook groups, across Facebook pages, on Twitter, throughout Google+ Circles and via e-mail. Canadian genealogists are mad as hell and not going to take it anymore. A frenzy of e-mails and letters have been sent to the Heritage Minister, the Honourable James Moore. Copies have been sent to local MPs, Prime Minister Stephen Harper, and in one instance, to CBC asking for a public enquiry into the delayed release.
Now its time to rally the rest of the troops. Everyone with an interest in Canadian genealogy records, whether they themselves are Canadian, their ancestors were in Canada or those who are just passionate about access to records or freedom of information is being called into action to assist in getting LAC to release these records to the public and to do so expeditiously even if it means outsourcing to the genealogy community.
Here are the e-mail addresses for:
The Honourable James Moore (Minister of Heritage and Official Languages):
james.moore@parl.gc.ca
Local Members of Parliament:
http://www.parl.gc.ca/MembersOfParliament/MainMPsCompleteList.aspx?TimePeriod=Current&Language=E
Prime Minister Stephen Harper:
stephen.harper@parl.gc.ca
and yes, CBC's Fifth Estate:
fifth@cbc.ca
Carry On!
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