In Prize-making in the War of 1812, Relatively Speaking, Faye Kert presents a written version of her memorable monthly meeting presentation last November in which she makes us aware of the overlooked Vice-Admirality Court records. As she comments "The staff cutbacks and reductions in service at LAC are making access to research materials quite problematic, especially when researchers are required to have an LAC staff member watching them at all times"
A follow-on article The Search for James Lightbody and the Magnet's Passenger List by Amanda Lightbody explains how finding the Kaye Kert's lecture advertised on the BIFHSGO website provided important 1812 evidence she needed at LAC, that's despite having previously been informed they had nothing. That's what happens when fonds are inadequately documented and there are no-longer specialist archivists.
Another article worth highlighting is Genealogy: the Motivations, the Investments, the Rewards by Leighann Neilson and D. A. Muise. This is a second article building on results for the Carleton University of over 2,000 Canadian residents who responded to a family history survey who they characterize as a rapidly growing "extraordinary group of historical activists", "largely middle-aged or more and somewhat better educated than the general population." They report the top two reason respondents gave for researching their family history were "to learn about my family, my ancestors, myself" and "because of a family member's influence." It showed that some of the reasons scholars think motivate family historians,"to qualify for ancestral society membership", "to find medical information" and "to find links to rich or famous people" are of little significance. There's much more.
This has to be one of the best of the recent issues of BIFHSGO's all interesting quarterly chronicle, another reason for the Society success.
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